Review Summary: Like How To Dress Well's Love Remains, this EP serves as a greatest hits for an artist who has yet to release a physical album.
Porcelain Raft is the musical creation of one man, Mauro Remiddi, who has been creating waves in the musical blogosphere with his self-released EP's. For the last year, Remiddi has been quietly releasing his delicate dream-pop via his Bandcamp page. This EP collects four (six if you get the digital copy) of his best tracks, which have been remastered to bring out their full sound. The EP serves two purposes: introducing people unfamiliar with his work to some of his strongest material, and holding over fans until his debut LP is released later this year.
Wisely included on the EP is "Tip Of Your Tongue", the song that introduced myself (and so many others) to Remiddi's brand of bedroom-crafted, lo-fi brand of music. While the lo-fi thing is being done to death these days, Remiddi owes a great debt to the Phil Spector Wall Of Sound, and it helps separate him from the pack. Another thing Remiddi has working for him is his vocals, which many have compared to John Lennon. While it's not always the case, sometimes the resemblances are uncanny. But the strongest thing he has working in his favor is talent. Many artists aren't quite deserving of the hype they receive from music blogs, and while many of them are extremely talented, the hype works against them in the end. With hype comes backlash, and a band who may be strongly enjoyable gets built up to be the next big thing and can't help but disappoint. Put simply, Remiddi has the songs to back up the hype.
The EP opens with the title track, "Gone Blind". It's a good start for those unfamiliar with his sound, with his vocals sounding underwater in the verses before coming to the forefront in the chorus. The strummed acoustic guitar meshes well with the vocal track, and the song slowly builds momentum as it draws to a close. It's followed by "I Found A Way", one of his more curious selections for the album, but fitting nonetheless. His vocals and the instrumentation play second-string to a looping electronic beat. "Dragonfly" comes next, and this is where his talent really starts to shine. It's also the song that benefits most from the remastering. It opens with an eerie "ahhhhh" from Remeddi, which runs under the whole song. The biggest difference between this version and the early one is the huge-sounding guitar that closes out the song, while Remiddi sings "Whatever you went looking for, it's not here anymore" with a yearning in his voice that you can't help but be affected by.
The back half of the EP finishes strong, with "Talk To Me" leading the way. The song is very similar to "I Found a Way", with layered electronics taking the lead. Up next is the aforementioned "Tip Of Your Tongue"--a beautiful, melon collie song that showcases some of Remiddi's more quirky vocal traits. His pronunciation of the word "tip" (he sings it like TEEP) comes through as strange at first, but damned if you aren't saying it the same way when singing along. The EP closes with the achingly gorgeous "Despite Everything", possibly his strongest song to date. It begins with a solemn-sounding synth, prior to Remiddi finally intoning "I think we're about to be, dropped in the middle of the ocean. And I hope that you know how to swim". The lyrics continue this way ("I hope that you learned how to run", etc.), until it reaches the mid section, in which the song starts to stutter to the point where it sounds like the music may break. It suddenly revives itself, and at this point Remiddi's vocals are turned up, and a wall of distortion kicks in, prior to the song finally ending with that stuttering sound, and the moment where the music finally breaks.
As a placeholder EP, it serves its purpose well. For those who are unfamiliar with Remiddi's work up to this point, it's a great starting point. And for those who have been living with his music for the last year, it helps build the excitement for his LP. The remasters are interesting enough to warrant a purchase. If you like lo-fi, dream-pop indebted indie, this album is going to be right up your alley. Even if you're sick of it at this point, there's enough going on here to differentiate Remmidi from his peers, and it's worth a look. His stuff can be streamed right at his Bandcamp page as well.
(I chose to review the digital EP, which is the only version I suggest getting, because the extra 2 songs are well worth it. The physical copy doesn't include the song "Despite Everything)
