Prince Rama
from Boston, MA
formed
January 1, 2007 (age 17)
Biography
Brooklyn-based "now age" group Prince Rama (formerly known as Prince Rama of Ayodhya) formed in 2007 around the talents of Michael Collins and sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson. The trio members, who were raised in a Hare Krishna-centric Florida community, met in high school and began their musical journey as a straight-up punk-pop outfit, but a year in a Boston art school, as well as a steady diet of Amon Düül, Animal Collective, and Gang Gang Dance records, helped them make the transition from wannabe skatepunks to cosmic purveyors of tribal, mantra-heavy, lo-fi psychedelic pop. The group's debut collection, Threshold Dances, appeared in 2008 on the British-based Cosmos label. Zetland arrived in 2009, followed in 2010 by the limited vinyl EP Architecture of Utopia (Animal Image Search) and Shadow Temple, which was co-produced by Animal Collective's Deakin and Avey Tare and released on their Paw Tracks imprint. The Larson sisters, Taraka and Nimai, pared Prince Rama down to a duo for the group's fifth album, 2011's Trust Now. It was recorded in a church with producer Scott Colburn. The building provided the perfect environment for their new hybrid of pagan and new age sounds, witchy textures, and ambient spaces. In February of 2012, Not Not Fun issued the group's single "Utopia = No Person" b/w "Exorcise [Chopped N Skrewed R.E.M.I.X.]," followed in November by the full-length Top Ten Hits of the World, again on Paw Tracks. The extreme sports-inspired Xtreme Now, released by Carpark, followed in 2016. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi
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