PAPER WHITE

Yet another EP for our Frisco friends and hardly the worst one I might add. Clocking in at 25 minutes, this baby is rather interesting short piece is most likely related to The Order Of Things (well the artwork would point to it as both records have ivy or vines climbing up the walls. But on a term of chronology there is two years between the recordings and three between release times. Actually one amazing thing for a post rock album (or EP) is that they graced us with full infos on tracks, studio and line-ups. Guess what? Yes they even gratified us with a picture of themselves, well three out of five anyway. I believe this should give them the gold medal for the least obtuse post rock release.

As for the music here, we get a rather typical and average instrumental post rock (between GYBE! and Mogwai and early Zeit-era Tangerine Dream) album, which draws its best shot on the first track, the longer Isalais Straight. However, by the second track, the EP is sinking into a repeated formula that will last until the music stops. Dominated again by the drums (not mixed as loud as on other releases), the very ambient music borders on a sort of minimalism (but maybe not in the musical way generally understood) that borders on the stingy; but the music is just about strongly reminiscent of Big Black Square, which was released the same year as this one.

Actually, the relative shortness of the disc might just be it best ally. I would not recommend starting out with this record.