Here's how to start a blindingly hip record label in three easy steps. One: Spend the better part of twelve years producing great records for independent music's most beloved acts. Two: Cash in that decade's worth of chips to make your first release a compilation filled with recognizable names. Three: Take advantage of the attention that brings to direct all eyes towards your cool as shit unknown signees. Simple, no? Well, no actually, but Nicolas Vernhes' method does seem rather fool proof. His Rare Book Room Studio has turned out discs from Cat Power, Fiery Furnaces, Ted Leo, and the like. Rare Book Room Records' debut release will feature tracks from Deerhunter, Avey Tare, and the Silver Jews, among others. And phase three? Meet Palm in the Claw.
PITC starts with a boy/girl, New York/Berlin dichotomy and only gets cooler from there, resembling a better produced gem from the German electro underground of the late seventies. Ryan Schafer's crisp drum pattern and undulating synth provide a steady counterpart to his accomplice Nadja Korinth's wavering Deutsch and English warbles. Haunted wails fill the background, weightlesss piano notes hover in the margins. The track is saturated by the sort of deadpan menace that has eluded so many of this decade's post punk revivalists. A fine beginning for band and label both.