I was pretty sure I had already written about A Sunny Day in Glasgow for Click Hear before, but it turns out my mind's playing tricks on me.
Last year, the Philadelphia band sent the blogosphere to dreamland with the one-two punch of their Scribble Mural Comic Journal LP and Tout New Age EP. A beautifully wonky blend of heavenly textured guitars, erratic programmed beats and ethereal vocals, the two records immediately garnered ocean-sized praise for the relatively unknown five-piece.
Though I'm not sure what their current label situation is, Oakland's Slumberland Records recently invited the band to donate a song to its Searching For the Now single series, which finds the label releasing their favourite new songs on seven-inch, with a compilation of them all planned for later.
A Sunny Day in Glasgow's contribution is a cover of great Scots the Pastels' "Sometimes I Think About You." Of course, it sounds little like the legendary Glaswegians thanks to ASDIG's ability to deconstruct and reconstruct the elements of the original. As the band told me recently in an email interview, they use "a sort of cut-and-paste approach... Lots of samples, kind of artificial stuff that humans couldn't really play," which is explanatory of what they've achieved here. The vocals are shapeless, ricocheting off the tender walls of reverb, while the faint pulsation and warm electronic melody swell much like the Slowdive classic "In Mind."
What I find most exciting about this one-off by the band is how it shows their continued musical evolution, to the point where it's impossible to pigeonhole them, which is a music journalist's worst nightmare! I've often described them as an extension of shoegaze but there's so much more going on with their arrangements. I can only expect their next album to blow my mind into the next galaxy, or at least make me speechless and retire.
A Sunny Day in Glasgow "Sometimes I Think About You"
Last year, the Philadelphia band sent the blogosphere to dreamland with the one-two punch of their Scribble Mural Comic Journal LP and Tout New Age EP. A beautifully wonky blend of heavenly textured guitars, erratic programmed beats and ethereal vocals, the two records immediately garnered ocean-sized praise for the relatively unknown five-piece.
Though I'm not sure what their current label situation is, Oakland's Slumberland Records recently invited the band to donate a song to its Searching For the Now single series, which finds the label releasing their favourite new songs on seven-inch, with a compilation of them all planned for later.
A Sunny Day in Glasgow's contribution is a cover of great Scots the Pastels' "Sometimes I Think About You." Of course, it sounds little like the legendary Glaswegians thanks to ASDIG's ability to deconstruct and reconstruct the elements of the original. As the band told me recently in an email interview, they use "a sort of cut-and-paste approach... Lots of samples, kind of artificial stuff that humans couldn't really play," which is explanatory of what they've achieved here. The vocals are shapeless, ricocheting off the tender walls of reverb, while the faint pulsation and warm electronic melody swell much like the Slowdive classic "In Mind."
What I find most exciting about this one-off by the band is how it shows their continued musical evolution, to the point where it's impossible to pigeonhole them, which is a music journalist's worst nightmare! I've often described them as an extension of shoegaze but there's so much more going on with their arrangements. I can only expect their next album to blow my mind into the next galaxy, or at least make me speechless and retire.
A Sunny Day in Glasgow "Sometimes I Think About You"