It’s no secret that I’m part of the extended Ranges family. Half of my wardrobe is Ranges/A Thousand Arms merch. I’ve tagged along on tours with them across America and the UK and Europe. I’ve written about them extensively, with album reviews, interviews, and tour blogs.
And they provide a lot to write about. Ranges lore runs deep. Every release contains multitudes. There will be secret hidden tracks, black market currency, intricate packaging, and wildly complex deluxe offerings. I’m privy to some of the secrets, and had some of it explained to me, but even so, a lot of it still goes over my head.
CJ on guitar. At Spacebar in Columbus, Ohio, 2025
Ranges has been largely run by CJ Blessum for quite a while now. It used to be more of a group effort, but the band splintered during the covid years. The band was formed in Bozeman, Montana. Jared (bass) moved to Ohio to get married. Joey (guitar) moved to Idaho to be closer to family. A few years later, Wilson (who ran a lot of the art direction and vision) decided to leave A Thousand Arms [a record label/distro/print workshop that CJ and Wilson co-founded, very much intertwined with Ranges] to do his own thing. So CJ was suddenly the sole songwriter. And Ranges became a studio-only band. Still putting out music, but not having the members to play live.
But dunk!records extended an invite for the band to play their 2024 festival. You don’t turn down the opportunity to play dunk!fest if you’re a post-rock band. So CJ and Mark (drums) needed to put together a live band to make it happen. They recruited Tim and Tom from Belgian band Astodan. They’d toured alongside Astodan in the past, so they knew the two Belgians had what it took. Tim and Tom had playing and touring experience, and were used to playing the same genre of music.
Ranges at dunk!fest 2024. Mark on drums, Tom on bass
I reunited with Ranges on that tour. And I can say with complete conviction that their set at dunk!festival 2024 was the best I’ve seen them play. I’d seen them play around 20 times at that point, so I knew something was special about that show. The energy in the room was palpable. Tim and Tom brought something new to the band that elevated Ranges as a live act. The duo were invited to officially join the band, not just as touring members. Ranges played in China later that year at Offside Festival as well.
2025 saw an invitation to play from Post. Festival in Indianapolis. CJ was run off his feet, trying to get all the merch ready for the festival on his own. A Thousand Arms made most of the official t-shirts, hats, posters etc for Post. Festival, as well as for many of the artists on the lineup. He had his hands full doing all that printing, as well as planning a tour, getting his head around sourcing a backline for the Belgians, and writing, recording, and releasing an album. There was no time to make this an international collaborative process. The resulting album, Sin, was still a belter, despite being made in a rush. The band got the opportunity to further gel on that US tour, and played China again at Can Festival early in 2026.
Writing
Which brings us to now. Tim and Tom have been part of Ranges for a few years, but this is the first time they’ve contributed to the Ranges writing and recording process. I can tell they’ve brought something new, and was actually surprised when I first listened to the album. The music feels more explosive and heavier (although the Ranges sound has been tracking that way for some time. I think they’ve transitioned from being more ambient and focusing on sync licensing, to writing rock songs that will go down a treat in a live setting).
Tim is both a guitarist and a drummer. He is also a key songwriter for Astodan. So he was happy to bring these skills to Ranges. He came up with the initial structures and layouts for the songs, and then they worked together as a group to flesh these ideas out.
I think Mark’s playing stands out more on this record. Mark came up in the NYC hardcore and punk scene, so certainly has what it takes to play heavy, but this hasn’t always shone through the music. Mark is tight – he plays time and he plays to a click, which are all very desirable traits in a drummer. But it’s a joy to hear him going a bit harder this time around. I’m guessing that Tim and Tom have brought new dynamics that have challenged Mark to push his playing, especially with Tim’s contribution as a songwriter, seeing how Tim is also a drummer.
Ranges aren’t afraid to build upon loops and backing tracks as a basis for their songs. “Called Not to a New Religion, but to Life” from The Ascensionist, and “The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune” from 33 are two such examples that work especially well. This album features a similar aspect in the song “You Can Talk With Crowds and Keep Your Virtue or Walk With Kings nor Lose the Common Touch”, a percussive track that I find difficult to describe. Is something being scratched? Or a drum track with odd effects and filters applied?
Tim (guitar) and Mark (drums) at Post. Fest 2025
Concept
Ranges have always been a band that makes concept albums. This is something that I found super compelling when I first reviewed them, with their 24 minute long song, “Night & Day”. I loved the spoken word segments at the start of releases like “If I Were the Devil”, The Gods of the Copybook Headings, and the live version of The Ascensionist – passages that gave the listener insights into what inspired the themes of the music.
The spoken word segments disappeared from their music for a while, and the themes became more obscure. Obviously I still enjoyed the music, but I missed being able to connect with the concepts that inspired the music when they weren’t as prominent. So I’m pleased to see this element returning.
I’ll need to touch on that deep Ranges lore now. Here is a link that could help you unpack some of it, but I’ll try to summarise the salient parts of this discussion here. Forgive me if some details aren’t accurate. Ranges output has eras called Octaves, each comprising of seven main releases. They are currently nearing the end of the second octave. Each album of this octave references or mirrors the corresponding release from the octave beneath.
dunk!festival 2024
CJ collated sermons to accompany tracks written as b-sides for the songs about the seven deadly sins on their last album cycle, which aligns with “If I Were The Devil” from the previous octave. The similarities are easily apparent – discussing the works of the devil, and sins.
Likewise, this album – If – aligns with The Gods of the Copybook Headings from their previous octave – both being centred around Rudyard Kipling poems. If mirrors the structure of Gods, commencing with a recording of a Kipling poem, and then following with songs inspired by respective stanzas of the poems.
Gods was about how society was ignoring old wisdoms, to its detriment. If compliments these themes, focusing on choices, and the consequences of those choices.
I asked CJ about the significance of the ouroboros on the cover art, the snake consuming its own tail. He shared “The ouroboros represents an eternal cycle and the idea of renewal through destruction and creation. Those ideas might seem somewhat at odds with If at face value, but we see choice as something constant. You don’t just choose once. You have to continue making the right choices over and over again, and in a lot of cases there is no real beginning or end to that process. Bettering oneself is a perpetual journey, and thus, the ouroboros.”
I like how the artwork has texture, staining and fading that gives it a vintage appearance, alluding to the ancient wisdoms contained within the poem that Kipling first published in 1910. Like The Gods of the Copybook Headings, these writings still carry true and relevant all these years later.
Something else I noticed from reading Kipling’s poem is that is references “Triumph and Disaster”, which possibly inspired the album by the same name from We Lost the Sea. I put this to CJ and he agreed that there’s a good chance that this is the case, and pointed out that Brand New’s “Sowing Season” also pulls an excerpt from the same poem.
Physical release
I’m unlikely to get my hands on a physical edition of the album for some time. The cost of shipping a record from America to New Zealand is prohibitively expensive – usually about three times the cost of the actual record. Not to mention the currency exchange rate on top of that. So these days I generally make do with digital releases. Which is a real shame, because I know that CJ puts a lot of effort into the merch and physical packaging that comes with each album, especially the deluxe editions. He has a good relationship with dunk!records, who are willing to accommodate the crazy requests he has for pressing records.
Seasoned Ranges fans will know what I’m talking about. Deluxe editions of previous Ranges albums have included ephemera such as chess sets, vodka, coffee beans, tea, ceramics, playing cards, flags, black market currency… even honey from CJ’s own beehives. Often items are hand crafted by the band, or in connection with local Montana businesses who do bespoke orders.
And then there is the vinyl. Sin was pressed in seven variants, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. The deluxe version came with seven 7″ singles. Or how about Babel? Ranges dropped the album, and later on sent out three 12″ singles, months apart. Three extra/hidden tracks they called Confusion of Tongues to complete the album, with screenprinted b-sides.
And of course then there are the cassette tapes and the secret marketplace releases and a whole nother level that I haven’t even scratched the surface of. Ranges are a band that pays special attention to presentation and packaging and ensure that physical releases are part of the experience.
So how is the album?
I like it. Obviously lots of familiar Ranges elements are at play here. It’s atmospheric, moody. I recognise a lot of CJ’s guitar tones as he strums and swells and paints a picture of feeling. But Ranges continue to evolve, and in honesty, some elements surprised me. Which makes sense, seeing how the band now has two new members contributing to the writing process.
The start of the second track comes in strong, with a sense of power and urgency. I was taken aback when I first heard it, and it still manages to make me sit up with surprise when I hear it now. We hear real fire in their playing, and I can’t help but picture the guys on stage, thrashing about and contorting as they play. And that makes sense too, because although the art and the records are important parts of who Ranges are, they know that their music needs to translate live, especially because they are now at the stage that they are being asked to play – and sometimes headline – prominent post-rock festivals.
Ranges at The Portland Arms, Cambridge
I’m pleased to see the spoken word passage reintroduced for If, giving me a taste of who Ranges were when I first became a fan. It offers a nice taste of both nostalgia and progression – reminding me of why I first loved the band, and showcasing how they’ve grown throughout the decade since then.
I look forward to getting my hands on a physical copy of the record at some point so I can marvel at the art, read through the liner notes that allude to the album concept, and scratch my head at the inevitable cryptic symbols that will allude to some deeper enigmatic layer of lore that the band has created.
Ranges links:
https://www.athousandarmsstore.com/collections/ranges
Words and live band photos by Joseph James