Tiny Mix Tapes

she smiles - the EP the EP

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she smiles’ quaint Sunday-school melodies conceal their ominous undertones like a spider-filled Wonder Ball. The three songs that make up this tersely titled EP are adorably earnest enough to have been performed by an anthropomorphic donut puppet, yet are tinged with the same dark blend of hyper-corporeal, magical realist imagery that haunts the lyrics of Jeff Mangum and Daniel Johnston. Each wheeze of fuzzed-out acoustic guitar is the creaking footstep of a poltergeist tiptoeing up the stairs so as to not wake the listener — clocking in at around just four minutes, the EP plays out like one of the surreal little animated bits that appears between Sesame Street sketches, perhaps scored by a squelchy Moog synthesizer. the EP ignites the imagination, it’s potentially traumatizing and it’s bursting with abstract neo-sincerity.