(Jagjaguwar)

What’s small, black and an EP? This!

Chill wave, glo wave, witch house, chill house, glow witch, whatever. NY duo Ryan Heyner and Josh Kolenik make hazy bedroom pop, floating on and underneath a sea of lurid synths, drum machines and distant vocals. This is a densely packed and sonically attractive EP, with songwriting solid enough to support the loose and languid instrumentation. Despicable Dogs and Weird Machines are proof enough that Small Black know how to get the desired effect from their aesthetic – Despicable Dogs is a pretty wash of reverb-soaked pop while Weird Machines, unsurprisingly given the title, is flavoured by mildly industrial percussion. The dreamy Lady In The Wires is effective too. Two of the seven tracks here didn’t appear on the original version of this EP, and sound quite different to what has come before. Kings Of Animals is disappointingly narrow indie pop, while Baby Birds Pt. 2 is a promising glimpse of a more freeform, experimental approach. A good start; let’s see what they can do with a full-length.

MICHAEL PINCOTT

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