Rameses III

U.K. trio Rameses III created slow-moving dronescapes utilizing acoustic and lap steel guitars, samples, and field recordings, blurring the lines between ambient, folk, and psychedelia. They released several acclaimed albums during the 2000s, including Night of the Ankou (with the North Sea, 2005) and I Could Not Love You More (2009), before the three members moved on to other projects. Daniel Thomas Freeman, Spencer Grady, and Stephen Lewis all played in the Croydon-based punk band Toast during the 1990s. They changed direction with the formation of Rameses III during the early 2000s, and their first releases were the EP Folk Hymns and a split 7" with the Epidemic (aka Secret Mommy), both in 2003. Jozepha was released as a CD-R by New Zealand's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon in 2004. The mini-album Parsimònia first appeared as a limited CD-R on Digitalis sublabel Foxglove in 2004, and they collaborated with label founder Brad Rose (aka the North Sea) on 2005's Night of the Ankou, which was given an expanded reissue on Type a year later. Music Fellowship released the band's album Matanuska in 2006. The 2007 EP Honey Rose and 2008 double-CD Basilica, containing live recordings and remixes, were both put out by Important Records. Returning to Type, the group released their last and most well-known album, I Could Not Love You More, in 2009. The EP For José María was released by Under the Spire in 2010, and Rameses III shared a split 7" EP with the reunited Comus and Simon Finn in 2010. The band became inactive that year, as Grady and Lewis continued working together as Padang Food Tigers, and Freeman focused on making films and solo recordings. He founded the digital label Blink in the Endless in 2016, and released deluxe reissues of several Rameses III recordings, as well as Across Wounded Galaxies, an EP of unreleased material from the sessions for I Could Not Love You More.
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