Now that we’ve finally burnt the Bush and elected a "person of color" as our President here in the U.S., I think it’s time other marginalized groups were pushed to the forefront. Groups like, say, the Association of EPs, or AOE. EPs, despite our general nonchalance toward their very existence, will not be relegated to the cut-out bins of the indie-music culture anymore. They’re sick of the taunting, the teasing, the ignorance surrounding their role in the careers of bands everywhere, and as a concerned citizen, I feel I must take up their cause.
And what a cause it is! EPs have played a huge role in my development, from Radiohead’s glorious assortment of EPs (two of which, My Iron Lung and Airbag, contained revelatory unreleased music before the internet made tracking down tunes like “Lewis Mistreated” much, much easier to find), to Hot Hot Heat’s first EP, to Death Cab For Cutie’s Stability EP (the only listenable release they’ve had since The Photo Album), to the first EP I owned: Metallica’s Garage Days Revisited, which kicked even more ass in an era when ’Tallica were kicking ass anyway.
Now, kicking the EP issue even further into the forefront, Slaraffenland follow up their simply awesome debut with an EP that, in practice, at least, possesses the best possible traits of le Classique EP. First, Sunshine has two covers — always a plus, especially when a classic song is granted a new spin, as “Take On Me” and “Paranoid Android” are here. Second, it expands on the Slaraffenland sound; it’s always nice to hear a band take the EPortunity to stretch out. Last, at 25 minutes long, Sunshine is as long or longer than a large portion of the indie pork sent down the factory barrel.
True to its name, Sunshine opens with a blast of bright-yellow flutes and light-orange chants, set atop left-field percussion rhythms like silverware on a dinner table. Once “The Trick” is served, the feast really begins, with cascading trumpets, a gorgeous pixelated build-up, yet another example of drum mastery, and more chanting (which, honestly, ends up dragging all three original songs down a bit).
From there, it’s pretty much two kooky covers and a cloud of dust, “Take On Me” being the most enjoyable of the three, partially because it’s a much more realistic project; turning “Paranoid Android” into anything but the original is a risky proposition, although it pans out reasonably well here considering its labyrinthine twists and turns, so slack is granted on that one.
Any way you slice Sunshine, you’ve got a winner. So how’s about that new LP, boys?
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