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Swampland Zine, April 2008
The April issue has interviews with Rykarda, Bellmer Dolls, and Jail Weddings. Rykarda's interview with Ashlee Elfman is posted here >

"Rykarda Parasol has the voice of a woman who knows the weight of a gun, and the weight of a heavy heart. Her rugged, romantic ballads draw frequent comparisons to the likes of Cash and Cave, and although these comparisons seem to be handed out too freely these days, Ms. Parasol has definitely earned her stripes with her last contribution, Our Hearts First Meet... Sometimes painful and impulsive, yet always beautiful, Ms. Parasol offers up an array of soul plunging songs for those that enjoy their music genuine and unafraid." - Ashlee Elfman

Rolling Stone Magazine Top Ten, April 2008
Rolling Stone Germany asked Rykarda Parasol to list her top ten records and songs. Read here >

Music in Belgium 4-1/2 stars
"Un titre comme "Hannah Leah" ne manquera pas de vous captiver. Le chant de Rykarda nous titille les tympans, l'ambiance est hypnotique, impossible de ne pas avoir envie de chanter avec elle tant le refrain nous capture dans ses filets. Dans la voix de la chanteuse, il y a un petit côté Marianne Faithfull mais aussi des empreintes bien PJ Harvey. Ainsi sur "Night on Red River", elle module, elle varie, et puis elle a toujours ce côté captivant dont on ne ressort pas vivant. Elle assure la guitare rythmique, Greg Benitz s'occupant des guitares d'habillement assurant de petites plaintes jouissives. Quelques vocalises transcendent le tout sur la fin." - read more here >

Undisputed Album of the Year, 2007 *****

The Walrus: Highly Recommended: Rykarda Parasol and the Tower Ravens

A sexy woman with an exotic name. Rykarda Parasol could've stopped right there and I would've been sold. But nooo, she had to throw in her amazing voice too. The sound of Rykarda Parasol and the Tower Ravens can be compared to Johnny Cash, Igmar Bergman and contemporaries like Cat Power and Bat For Lashes. It's Southern Gothic meets Southern Baptist with a stinging shot of Nick Cave for good measure. "Hannah Leah," from her 2006 album, Our Hearts First Meet, is a sweeping epic with dark lyrics and beautiful choral arrangements. Perfect music for the approaching winter. Rykarda is currently working on a new album with the producer of Spoon and Trail of the Dead.

Buy the full-length album, and wrap yourself in your Rykarda's warm voice, like a blanket. Oh so good.

Rolling Stone, Jan. 2008 Germany, 3.5 stars

DailyCandy.com: "Sweetest Things of 2008" Winners announced Feb 1, 2008

the Onion, Oct '07: "...local singer-songwriter Rykarda Parasol is such an intriguing anomaly, injecting her songs with just enough Siouxsie, Nick Cave, and old-school Johnette Napolitano to make them as spooky as she intended. Her debut full-length, Our Hearts First Meet, which was made with the assistance of people like Colleen Brown (Pale Saints) and Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu), came out last year."

MP3.com, Jan '08: San Francisco's Rykarda Parasol performs intimate versions of her vampish "rock noir" sound exclusively for MP3.com Live.

Rykarda Parasol, along with her band, The Tower Ravens, follows in the tradition of Nick Cave's deep-throated murder ballads. But Parasol's sound seems to have been perfected on the extradimensional stage of the David Lynch-created Black Lodge.

Raw, emotive, and visceral all aptly describe Parasol's captivating cigarette-and-gin-coated voice--a voice perfectly suited for songs of unrequited love, disappearance, and revenge. "

Regioactive, Germany , Jan '08: Längst sind die Tage vergangen, in denen Frauen nur von Friede, Freude und Eierkuchen singen konnten. Die Hoch-Zeiten von Genie in a Bottle, I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman – und wie sie alle hießen – sind längst vorbei. Und sowieso: es ist Winter. Draußen ist es kalt und schmuddelig, die Stimmung ist gedrückt. Höchste Zeit für Lynchjustiz, Untreue, Verrat und Heroin. Zeit für Rykarda Parasol! Die junge Singer-Songwriterin trifft mit ihrem Country-Noir perfekt die Jahreszeit. Und auch die zunächst ungewöhnlich anmutende Stimme Parasols, die man durchaus mit Nick Cave vergleichen kann (was hinsichtlich des Geschlechts zwar etwas grotesk wirken mag), spiegelt eine eisige Kälte wider. Die Besetzung ist ungewöhnlich und faszinierend. Mit Gitarre, Piano, Orgel, Akkordeon, Geige, Cello, Theremin und Schlagzeug versetzen Rykarda Parasol und ihre Tower Ravens en Hörer in eine schlechtere Welt, in der man sich verlieren möchte. Einzelne Lieder aus diesem Album herauszugreifen fällt extrem schwer, da alle durch ein hervorragendes Songwriting und Individualität glänzen. Dennoch sind die Ballade Janis, Don't Go Back mit der schönen Pianobegleitung, Cello und der Zweistimmigkeit, Hannah Leah mit dem eingängigen Refrain und Night on Red River mit seinen schreienden Gitarren zu nennen. Im Mai werden Rykarda Parasol & the Tower Ravens auch in Deutschland auf Tour sein. Also Augen aufhalten und hingehen.
Wertung: + + + + (Sarina Pfiffi)

Goth Americana badass Rykarda Parasol has a perfect flair for drama, which the Cafe du Nord counters perfectly with its speakeasy Old Hollywood vibe, glittering tabletop candles and deep red walls. She emerged around 11PM from behind curtains I had never seen shut at the venue, effectively posed to strike the most powerful and attractive presence possible.

Her voice is husky and imperfect, reminiscent of Nico's, but perfect just because of its ability to captivate. Parasol bites off snarls and screams, weaving each note with vividly dark images, some that you could foresee, because her tales of woe and bad deeds are as old as time itself. It's the playfulness in her tone is what makes Rykarda Parasol magnetic, as heard in "Candy Gold" or the wolfishly delivered high notes in "Texas Midnight Radio."

Parasol was a steady force amidst the Tower Ravens... Ryan Dylla, on drums, was vicious in his performance, lifting his hands high above his head, crashing down like some god of thunder. Bassist Zach Brewer matched her voice, his backing vocals seeming like Gregorian chants at times.

The band ended a mesmerizing and well-calculated set with Parasol's casual turn around and pose, HATE scrawled white across the back of her black tube dress. But as she told us during the set, Parasol's not known for making friends.

CRAWDADDY, June 2007:
Rykarda Parasol: The Underhanded Heroine
by Tony DuShane.

Some of her songs start slow and draw you in, swaying to her ballad, then break into driving rock rhythms where she calls the demons up from her kidneys and wails her confessions, and when she has you by the throat, everything drops back to the minimal ballad. She then gives you time to catch your breath with her slide guitar backed songs, reminiscent of a few tracks off of Mother Juno by Gun Club.

"If Nick Cave had a uterus and was impregnated by Johnny Cash, Rykarda Parasol would be their talented daughter with the low voice."

Full interview here >

Neue Scheiben, Germany, June 2007:
In einer Zeit, in der Frauen gehalten sind zu singen wie Engelchen und Männer wie Frauen, fällt di dunkle, kernige Stimme von Rykarda besonders auf und ruft einem Namen wie Siouxsie oder Patti Smith in Erinnerung. Als “Rock Noir” bezeichnet die in San Francisco lebende Sangerin mit schwedisch-israelischen Wurzeln ihren Stil. Rykarda Themen sind Zumeist eher dustere wie verhängnisvolles Leben, Isolation und Tod, was gut zu ihrem mit Folk und einer gehörigen Portion Blue gedopten Rocksound passt. “Our Hearts First Meet” strahlt viel Energie aus und eigniges an Potenzial. Das Songwriting wirkt über die gesamte Strecke etwas schablonenhaft, doch die intensive Interpretation kann das durchaus wettmachen.

OOR, Netherlands, 2007:
Our Hearts First Meet (THREE RING/IMPORT)
Positieve aandacht op diverse Amerikaanse muzieksites heeft nog niet tot een Nederlandse distributiedeal geleid, maar deze Our Hearts First Meet is een van de fraaiste platen uit de importbakken van de laatste tijd.

Mission Creek Music Festival Show Review, June '07: An appreciative Rykarda Parasol headlined the show, thanking the crowd for staying for her set. It was a thanks not needed, though, as Parasol, backed by her band The Tower Ravens, delivered a great, if abridged, set reminding me to go back and give Our Hearts First Meet yet another spin. My most recent experience seeing Rykarda live was her solo performance at a Bay Bridged Presents show. While that setting emphasized the more intimate elements in her songwriting, Thursday night’s set emphasized the rock side, delivering some great droning guitar work and emotive group vocals. SEE VIDEO HERE >

SF Bay Guardian Interview, Jan 4, 2007: I heart your dark side: Don't mix up the singer with her song, but do fall for Rykarda Parasol - by DS Davidson.

So yeah, I was intimidated a bit. Our Hearts First Meet feels like literature to me: it makes me think of William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and — I'm a little reticent to say it because I think she gets this a lot— Nick Cave ... Read it here >

LunaKafe, Norway, Jan 4, 2007: Rykarda Parasol, Our Hearts First Meet: A few years ago I reviewed Parasol's debut EP and predicted her album could be a classic. Here it is then. It expands on the EP and the sound is magnificent. Parasol has the delivery of a classic femme fatale and the musicians support her well.

"Hannah Leah" is like a lost PJ Harvey song, all bluesy mood and haunted atmospherics. "Lullaby for Blacktail" is sweetly despondent, echoing of lonely roads and strange meetings. Parasol sounds like a female Nick Cave here. "Candy Gold" is a little more upbeat but not necessarily happy. It's nonetheless catchy and pretty. "How Does a Woman Fall?" is plaintively sung and played like a modern torch song.

My question is answered. Parasol's album is a classic of its kind with only quality tracks on offer.

Nerds Attack, Music Rome. Interview Dec 2006

Intervista raccolta da: Marianna "Hag Of Death Valley" Notarangelo"Il viaggio fisico e interiore. Per me uno scotch, grazie. Tu che prendi, Rykarda?"

E' così che mi sarebbe piaciuto condurre questa intervista. Non bevo scotch ma avrei fatto finta di saperlo apprezzare accompagnata dall'espressione (altrettanto finta) di chi sa bere. Sedute a un tavolo di legno, in una locanda stile coloniale di San Francisco. Ma anche sorseggiando una birra a Golden Gate Park. Mi è toccato farlo via mail (sì, alla NerdsAirlines era tutto pieno). In un contesto sterile che dà sì la possibilità di creare connections e interagire con artisti ma che - ahimè - dà anche luogo ad equivoci e spiegazioni segmentate. A me ricostruire, a me chiarire, a me affrettarmi a segnalare un fraintendimento. E' stata la volta di Rykarda Parasol. Da San Francisco. Caschetto asimmetrico biondo platino e lineamenti vagamente orientaleggianti. Ma che importanza ha. Siamo in transizione, in viaggio. Non si è di nessun posto, non si viene da nessun luogo. "Our Hearts First Meet" (Three Ring Records) è il titolo del suo primo full length album. Un'ora di perdizione. Quindici tracce, un viaggio di etiliche ballate noir. Fatte di fumo e condensa, di polvere e veleno. Un cantato corposo, cinereo, sensuale si sprigiona da un cuore errante trafitto da rovi e rose. I grandi spazi del southwest (che tanto ricordo con affetto) e quel sorso di whisky a mandar giù spleen e spine nocive. Il resto è qui, tra le dettagliate, fiere e sicure risposte di Rykarda Parasol. Da San Francisco. O dal Texas. O da ogni altra parte. Our hearts first meet. E poi il resto. Read the interview here >

TwoWayMonologues.com, Dec. 2006: I love this album. Really, I don’t even want to write anymore than that – just leave you all hanging, so that you would always wonder and then make yourself go and listen to it. Rykarda Parasol (not the easiest name to remember) is the throaty singer-songwriter at the front of this folk/goth act... The stories that these songs tell take you into places and situations that you don’t want to be in, or would be uncomfortable in. “En Route” tells the story of a woman being the only one with dry eyes at her man’s funeral. “Night on Red River” really makes you think of walking down cold unfriendly streets – alone and nervous. “Lonesome Place” touches on race issues, telling the story of a Klansman’s attack and a lynching, the Klansman saying “nigger/look me in the face/tell me you believe in the great white race.”.... Dark, brooding, haunting, ambient and intelligent – that’s how I want to sum up this one. -M. Kara.

The Owl Mag, Aug. 31 2006: With vocals both unsettling and sublime, Rykarda Parasol beckons us to share her place overlooking the whistling, barren Texan plains at dusk in her promising debut release. Comparisons to PJ Harvey and Nick Cave are commonplace and inevitable, though Parasol lends a distinctly delicate quality to her weighty, blues-inspired compositions both lyrically and vocally. "Lullaby for Blacktail" and "How Does a Woman Fall?" showcase Parasol's mastery of combining whisky-tinged masculine vocals with those more distant, soothing and feminine. A highlight is the haunting "Hannah Leah", which serves as a creepy introduction to the album with swooning instrumentals as accompaniment. Perhaps the clearest example of Parasol's penchant for the blues, and certainly the sultriest vocals, can be found in the Langston Hughes-inspired "Lonesome Place", which chugs by as a ghost-train in the desert. If no other song induces chills, this will.

K-FUEL, Oct 2006: Découverte en 2003 par une reprise hantée et fascinante du "She's Like Heroin to Me" du Gun Club figurant sur son premier maxi, la ravissante Rykarda avait provoqué chez moi la montée d'un désir noir. Cet album comble toutes mes attentes. Pourtant le challenge était loin d'être aisé. L'univers de Rykarda Parasol est très connoté, profondément balisé par les Bad Seeds et porté par un accent proche de PJ Harvey. L'écriture aiguisée et un sens de la mélodie envoûtante emportent toutes ces références dans un torrent d'oubli . L'album navigue entre ballades orageuses et tableaux intimistes. A l'instar de Thalia Zedek, Rykarda nous conte des histoires sombres sur un mode mélancolique et onirique. Quand je pense qu'on fait tout un pataquès autour de Cat Power et que personne ne se penche sur ce disque, ça me donne des frissons. Aurait-elle la même poisse que Thalia ??? Ecoutez une fois "Weeding Time" et savourez cette idylle naissante avec Rykarda Parasol. Fait rare actuellement, l'album comporte 15 plages et aucun morceau superflu. Du swamp rock très très classe. En fait,.Rykarda réussit là ou Opal, et Mazzy Star ont échoué... A bon entendeur..

Delusions of Adeequacy, Aug. 18, 2006: Our Hearts First Meet is Rykarda Parasol’s first full length after the Ep Here She Comes, but it sounds as though it should be the soundtrack to a noir film. A gothic instrumental introduction makes way for the first vocal track, “Hannah Leah,” that opens with sparse acoustic guitars and Parasol’s smoky yet sensual voice. The song is soon transformed into a dark, cinematic tale when Parasol’s haunting vocals are joined by a piano and then layers of lush harmonies during the chorus. I got a chill when I heard the piano enter the scene for the first time during the lines “Toodle loo / They’ve all abandoned you.” The song not only has an amazing amount of depth and soul, but it sounds perfect with her deep voice...

...The dark and depressing material treats Parasol well. Her voice reaches out in a way that will send a chill up your spine. In “Night on Red River,” Parasol turns to anger as she grits her teeth and hisses her lines above the persistent guitars and banging piano keys. The chilling voices near the end of the track sound like the wind whistling through distant trees at night, like ghosts calling out to the living.
Setting the scene and building up a mood is Rykarda Parasol’s specialty. Her voice will wrap around you like a blanket of shadows and give you goose bumps as you proceed further into the depths of the album. So turn off the lights, turn up the volume, and get ready for a complete cinematic experience.

Performer Mag, Live Review. San Francisco, CA August 3, CD Release: The elfin chanteuse was in her element as evening’s hostess, having baked cupcakes with tiny umbrellas to celebrate the release of her first full-length, Our Hearts First Meet. She spent a little time adjusting her band’s equipment out of some very high heels before strapping on a black guitar and letting loose, transforming from fairy into fury. Their opener “Night on Red River” showcased the ferocious power and range of Parasol’s voice, now rising to a birdlike warble, now sinking to the warning growl of a wounded animal. As in the studio, her keen dynamic sense kept her piling on atmosphere until the storm clouds burst, releasing a downpour like the torrential chorus of “Hannah Leah.”

June 15, 2006: Rykarda is on the front page of the SF Chronicle newspaper and cover girl on 96Hours Bandwidth inside. see clippings here.

Sometimes you don't get to choose a band name because a band name has already chosen you. Such is the case with San Francisco's romantically moody rocker Rykarda Parasol... read more here >

Daily News Entertainment / Latest Discs: Rykarda Parasol, “Our Hearts First Meet” > San Francisco’s Parasol, backed by her excellent band, dazzles with this album Her musical tales, tinged with darkness, never fail to enthrall. With literate lyrics she calls to mind a female Nick Cave, though her voice is far more pleasing. Parasol’s remarkable, evocative vocals cut right to the heart. There’s not one weak track, but the haunting “Hannah Leah” and unnerving “Lonesome Place” stand out. An amazing work. - Paul Freeman, Sept. 2006

East Bay Express: Rykarda Parasol is well versed in tragedy. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a Swedish mother who obsesses about death, Parasol was practically born morbid. So on the San Francisco songwriter's debut album, Our Hearts First Meet — an extension of her 2003 EP Here She Comes — she can't help but lasso the listener into her haunted country theater. With inspiration from a brief time spent in Texas, the singer and her band build simple arrangements of piano and guitar to showcase her deep and affecting voice. No matter what comes out, there's an inclination to listen. She effortlessly harnesses the attitude of PJ Harvey, the magnetic power of Nico, and the whiskey-soaked swagger of Mark Lanegan in her lonesome tales of heartbreak. Yet it can seem a bit overwrought at times. In the best moments, like "Weeding Time," and "Texas Midnight Radio," Parasol's voice doesn't force emotion but moves with the same subtle ease of the music, while "Candy Gold," the most upbeat song on the album, induces uncontrollable swaying. She may be obsessed with the dark side, but on Our Hearts First Meet, that obsession makes everything seem more alive.

Warped Reality Magazine in-depth Interview, Aug '06: Our Hearts First Meet is a haunting but tenacious record, filled with American ghosts and old world wonders. Using the larger metaphor of personal journey to touch on universal themes of loss, dark secrets and discovery, this spare, deliberate record slowly gathers in power until it ends with a gentle but cathartic resolution: “Don’t cry.”... read more >

SF Bay Times: Forlorn twang and torch indie-rock with gloomy Goth-worthy boo hoo kitty ominous undertones marks the second release of San Francisco rock noir goddess Rykarda Parasol. With brooding dark undertones and a sultry, wanton swagger I wouldn’t turn my back if I were you.

Belly by the Bay #12: Click here to listen to the Tower Records podcast, Belly by the Bay, interview with Rykarda and Little Yellow Perfect.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian Picks: Ever since Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, I've been grieving over the loss of the old PJ Harvey, the one who screamed and slithered her way through song after song of raw, angsty passion, heart wound open and bleeding. My ears ache for the original deal, and while that erstwhile Harvey may never return, thankfully San Francisco dark chanteuse Rykarda Parasol has filled this niche for me. A genuine musical force in her own right with a Harvey-laced smokiness to her voice, Parasol weaves gothic, bluesy tales of desire and strength, compassion and solitude. She's just what I need. - Eliana Fiore

SF Weekly: (Rykarda Parasol) and her band appear totally comfortable with their love of darkness. Their songs will be about death, their instrumentation will be compare favorably to Nick Cave and the bad Seeds, and their vocalist will be compared against a wide range of influences, including Nico, Lauren Bacall, and PJ Harvey. (Ultimately, she sounds like Siouxsie Sioux.) The group’s latest album, Here She Comes, does gaze longingly out the window at country music, and its title obviously reference the velvet Underground, but make no mistake: It’s pure goth. Let the velvet out of your closet when the Dilettantes open at 9.30 at the Hemlock Tavern. – Hiya Swanhuyser

Austin Chronicle > SXSW Picks: In the lazy, hazy tradition of fellow salvation shucksters Nick Cave and Siouxie Sioux, singer Rykarda Parasol leads this fourpiece from Frisco, delivering a smoky, gin-tinged salve to soothe the souls of the wicked, like Opal, OP8, and opium combined. - Kate X Messer

Mesh Magazine > Cover & featured interview: Vol 2, Issue 5, Oct 2005.

Mesh Magazine > CD REviews: Here She Comes is the excellent debut EP from San Francisco's own Rykarda Parasol. It's hard to find comparisons to her powerful, self-described "gothic American rock" locally. For that we need to look thousands of miles to the east, to Siouxsie Sioux, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and to the Deep South of Faulkner's works. Her lyrics are drenched in the darker side of Americana. The album begins with Parasol singing, "Texarkana en route to New Orleans/My baby fell from his bike/And I was told he lay conscious/And he knew death would arrive" on "En Route" and she uses Langston Hughes as inspiration for the lyrics of "Lonesome Place." Parasol’s voice is undeniably powerful as she twists sounds.

Mesh Magazine Live Show Review > May 24, '05: If you missed this show last night, you completely blew it. Rykarda Parasol and Two Ton Boa were completely amazing. If you live in San Francisco, make sure you go out to see Rykarda and her band soon. - Brophy

Performer Mag, Live Review. The Make-Out Room, San Francisco, CA April 13: Though it seems like the headliner of this night would be best heard at the stroke of midnight, Rykarda Parasol took the stage an hour earlier, for this is how Thursday nights go. In this final round, the style was dark Americana, or, if you will, spooky country. her band supported her well in both image and sound, providing a perfect frame for Parasol's Southern Gothic portraits of night trains and vengeful belles. Extra texture came through in the bassist's anchoring harmonies, as well as the guitarist's application of bow to both his six-string and a fiddle every now and then. A dirgeful adaptation of the Gun Club's "She's Like Heroin to Me" at the end of the night.

 

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival: Rykarda Parasol and her band were up next, performing plugged-in gothic Americana tinged with accordion and keyboard. Parasol's vocals were reminiscent of Paula Frazer - low and melancholy one moment, high and crooning the next - as she sang moody ballads of love gone wrong. The murkiness of the band's music was matched by the weather, as San Francisco fog rolled in to temporarily cover the sun.

Exclaim! Canada's Music Authority > SXSW reviews: Rykarda Parasol is a striking woman; something of a less slutty Christina Aguilera, with a voice landing on the radar between PJ Harvey and Johnette Napolitano. The music played like a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie, equal parts sexy and creepy, with great harmonies from bassist Colleen Browne and the spook factor added by the busy Greg Benitz, with his bottleneck-slide guitar, keyboards and pedal manipulation. "En Route" provided one of the set's most uppity moments and the band's treatment of Gun Club's "She's Like Heroin" was heightened by Parasol's richly dark vocals. SK

Whisperin & Hollerin, UK > Oct 1, 2005: If Rykarda Parasol isn't hired by Tim Burton or David Lynch for soundtrack work soon, she should be. With her deep, husky voice, Parasol is almost the reincarnation of Nico, the late female vocalist who sang icy, gloomy chamber rock with the passion of a torch singer. While Parasol's music doesn't have the European flavors that Nico had a preference for, it's just as sultry and dark. "En Route" features creepy organs and pummeling drum sounds; however, it is Parasol's smoke-baked voice that makes the track boom through the speakers. If Siouxsie Sioux had stripped the Banshees of their synthesizers and appetite for danceable rhythms, she would've produced something like "En Route." This is American Gothic in its most compelling form. On "Lonesome Place," Parasol aims for the blues, and she nails it. 8 stars.

Ink 19 > Nov., 2005: There are some albums that can't be sliced into pieces, every cut put underneath a microscope. All of Radiohead's LPs after their "Creep"-dominated debut are like that. Pink Floyd, PJ Harvey and Nick Cave at their artistic highs can be classified in a similar fashion. There are records with songs on them and then there are albums with a capital A, which is where this haunting beauty from Rykarda Parasol comes in. This is one glum album, Gothic in its black-clad intensity but with an old-fashioned link to the blues.

Parasol has a wounded yet powerfully sensual and highly mysterious voice. She sounds like a character in a film-noir picture, one that would leave lipstick on a matchbook, walking away in street fog as unsolved deaths mount in the city. There is something about a voice this ominous that is irresistibly attractive. Not since Diamanda Galas have I heard a female singer that commands the dark clouds as well as Parasol does. Well, she's certainly not as confrontational as Galas, but she has the same weight in her vocals as if she's carrying hidden pain. She also recalls Kendra Smith of Opal, another band that took a distinctly American approach to their Gothic inspirations. -- Kyrby Raine

CDReviews.com >Nov., 2005: "Here she comes/You better watch your step," one can find themselves singing after reading the title of singer/songwriter Rykarda Parasol’s EP. The aforementioned lyrics are from the Velvet Underground’s 1967 classic "Femme Fatale," often covered in the ‘80s by alternative artists including R.E.M., Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl, and Propaganda. "Femme Fatale" actually appears nowhere on this CD, but the sullen beauty of the Velvets’ chanteuse Nico is certainly reflected in the red-wine moodiness of Parasol.

There is party music, and then there are records to brood by. Here She Comes is a record that should be put on while rain is splashing against the windows and charcoal clouds bruise the skies. Showing traces of the bleak modern-day blues of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, Parasol enters the forbidden corridors of the soul with her own distinctly ominous voice. "En Route" recalls Siouxsie & the Banshees except that the music doesn’t have any angular New Wave rhythms or synthetic backdrops. If Siouxsie Sioux had fronted the Doors, then "Spellbound" probably would’ve sounded like this – freak-show organ, cinematic atmospherics, and propulsive drums rocketed forward by Parasol’s sinister, powerhouse delivery.

The talk-singing in "Lonesome Place" reveals more of the Velvets influence that is hinted by they title while "Here Come Misery I" slows to a funereal crawl. The remake of the Gun Club’s "(She’s Like) Heroin to Me" is a bracing reminder that Americana was once not the safe Triple A fodder it largely is today.   

AquariusRecords.com > Reviews: The overall picture of Rykarda Parasol's music is one of somber, tarnished beauty with a smoky cabaret atmosphere. Ms Rykarda possesses a powerful voice resembling a melding of Siouxsie and P.J. Harvey -- slightly ashen and achingly empassioned. It's presented prominently amid the reeling piano, organ, violin and guitar. Hearts and wounds are laid bare in deeply wrought fashion. Includes a cover of The Gun Club's "She's Like Heroin".

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