A Day On A Remote Island's Heaven

Picked this EP up from Crawf over at Tome To The Weather Machine. The band is Philadelphia's Remote Islands (or more accurately, Colin Pate and a revolving door of mates), whose Days Of Heaven EP is an interesting mix of folk and experimental intricacy. For whatever reason I got a mixture of Mercury Rev, Neil Young and Syd Barrett when listening to this. The multitude of instruments on display, including banjo, mandolin, upright bass, Wurlitzer, flute, cello (the list is goddamned extensive), combined with the lo-fi production, creates an otherworldly sound, something that is orchestral and baroque in the way Modest Mouse might have been in the 1800s (see 'The Story Of Chairs'), yet with a lot of synth disco influences flooding through the veins (see 'Landau/Midlands' and 'There's A Cost Associated'). I was supposed to be marking dissertations - I instead ate a spinach and feta foccacia, drank two coffees, and threw balled up pieces of scrap paper at the bin - for about an hour. A true procrastinatory tool - obtusely fascinating, strikingly unfamiliar, yet altogether attractive.