Sore Eros & Kurt Vile – Jamaica Plain EP

Artist: Sore Eros & Kurt Vile
Album: Jamaica Plain EP
Released: November 4, 2013
Label: Care in the Community Recordings
Website: kurtvile.com

Philadelphia indie rocker Kurt Vile, known most famously from his work in The War on Drugs, and Connecticut based soloist Robert Robinson, aka Sore Eros, team up for this short, yet rich blending of hazy acoustic daydreams and scraggly, lo-fi tape distortions to induce nostalgia in any eager listener. This 16-minute adventure into the depths of analog beauty is prefaced with Jamaica Plain, where the inherent rhythm of long-time string instrumentalist Kurt Vile shines through with a steady pacing of acoustic strumming and soft, crashing cymbals. The playful dancing of tape distortions near the end of the piece softly ties the duo together in a beautiful, explorative array of low fidelity transcendence.  The next track, Serum, allows Sore Eros to claim the focal point with a sweetly chanting chorus of vocals poking through the lazy, yet progressive tonality of Vile’s strumming. I feel this song would best be enjoyed in a rocking chair.

The EP comes together in a very fit manner, with a sweeping dreamscape of sweetly ephemeral sounds masking a steady strumming of acoustics. The piece quickly lends Eros the floor, as the forefront of sound revolves around the twisting harmonics of electronic sound, painting a visual image of a pixelated firefly. As the blurring of synesthetic dissonance slowly rises, the piece fades into nothingness, leaving the contemplative listener all the more intrigued.

8/10

Reviewed by Ryan Motley