“Prince Rama” (Used 4 times)

As Issue's 2011 artists-in-residence, Prince Rama have harnessed the materials of time, place, and persons to crystallize their new UTOPIA. This September they further initiated their audience by enablement, providing them a hodgepodge of unmanned instruments strewn across sacred sand (yes, they imported sand into Issue!) and primal rhythms to provoke the everyman's urge to make music… together. Regardless of skill level or experience, many participates - including myself - found themselves immersed in a pulsing six-hour jam session of uninterrupted musical "democracy", or Prince Rama's UTOPIA of NO PLACE. 

This 11/11/11, for the third and final installment, UTOPIA = NO TIME (FREE | RSVP), Prince Rama will herald in the end of the world by way of karaoke. Using the number one hit singles corresponding with the dates of eleven different predicted “apocalypses” such as Heavens Gate, Jonestown, and Y2K, they will “chop and screw” the songs to a point beyond recognition and invite anyone who wishes to participate to perform the resulting pieces.

Back in February, Prince Rama emerged from a haze of smoke and mylar mirrors to assume the guise of The Now Age, a pseudo-utopian cult eager to lead their followers through a transformative series of rituals and initiations. Having reincarnated ISSUE's loft space as a cosmic aerobic center, glittering and psychedelic, the Larson sisters woke the sleeping audience with generous sprinkles of perfume and chakra water to lead them through an 8-hour marathon of body- and mind-altering exorcise/exercise routines -- part Jane Fonda, part Jodorowsky. Below, view some highlights from the exhausting rituals that left me cleansed of demons and self-identity (and unable to walk the next day).

This Thursday (September 8), Prince Rama will return as The Now Age to guide us through the next cycle of transformation, taking the form of a free-for-all, 4-hour jam session. With the aid of roughly 400 pounds of soil, ISSUE will again metamorphose into a sacred space -- removed from time and space and yet inextricably connected to the present moment -- for housing advanced rituals in which the audience and their shamanic leaders engage in utopian musical creation as "a poetic reenactment and microcosmic creation of an ideal democratic society." All participants are encouraged to please bring along their instrument of choice. Read more about the free event and RSVP here.

To ready your mind and body for the next stage of the journey, Prince Rama have shared their new single "Rest In Peace," off their forthcoming LP Trust Now (dropping on Paw Tracks on October 4). If you find yourself in need of more preparation, you can revisit their fantastic in-studio from Brian Turner's show here.