Prince Rama

Brooklyn-based "now age" group Prince Rama (formerly known as <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Prince+Rama+of+Ayodhya%22">Prince Rama of Ayodhya</a>) 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 <a href="spotify:artist:1TUNPwZWJyhaNZpLZzhOUj">Amon Düül</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4kwxTgCKMipBKhSnEstNKj">Animal Collective</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6UU6YXQaFGQToWN6U28Dcb">Gang Gang Dance</a> 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 <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cosmos%22">Cosmos</a> 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 <a href="spotify:artist:4kwxTgCKMipBKhSnEstNKj">Animal Collective</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:6JSybS5o47NUTNFQauvxUY">Deakin</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0yJolfjqzHfNbr9IoBSndu">Avey Tare</a> and released on their <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Paw+Tracks%22">Paw Tracks</a> 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, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Not+Not+Fun%22">Not Not Fun</a> 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 <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Paw+Tracks%22">Paw Tracks</a>. The extreme sports-inspired Xtreme Now, released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Carpark%22">Carpark</a>, followed in 2016. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi