Strange Weekend [Digipak] * by Porcelain Raft (CD, Jan-2012, Secretly Canadian)

Album Features
UPC:	656605024523
Artist:	Porcelain Raft
Format:	CD
Release Year:	2012
Record Label:	Secretly Canadian
Genre:	Alternative, Rock & Pop

Track Listing
1. Drifting in and Out
2. Shapeless & Gone
3. Is It Too Deep for You?
4. Put Me to Sleep
5. Backwords
6. Unless You Speak from Your Heart
7. End of Silence, The
8. If You Have a Wish
9. Picture
10. Way In, The

Details
Playing Time:	34 min.
Producer:	Mauro Remiddi
Distributor:	ADA
Recording Type:	Studio
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Audio Mixer: Chris Coady.Recording information: Brooklyn (06/2011-07/2011).Checking the liner notes of Porcelain Raft's debut album Strange Weekend reveals that Mauro Remiddi recorded all the music and vocals in a Brooklyn basement during a two-month span. If you didn't see that, you could probably guess.at least about the basement part. Remiddi's sound is very insular and bathed in reverb and effects, yet still intensely personal and vaguely confessional. It's like he's a Panda Bear who digs Donovan more than he does Arthur Russell; the sounds are always in service of the songs instead of the other way around. The important part of the equation is the short amount of time Remiddi spent recording the album. Rather than tinkering forever or wasting time adding more and more layers, there is a tight focus to the songs and the sounds that gives the album a nice punch and immediacy that many bedroom/basement dreamers can't quite grasp. Remiddi is able to almost flawlessly balance being able to craft beautiful backgrounds for his songs and making sure these sounds don't get in the way of the songs themselves. It's a trick that isn't easy to pull off and it's doubly impressive that he's able to maintain it over the course of the album. A few of the songs stand out as possible mixtape staples: the gently strutting "Unless You Speak from Your Heart," which oddly enough sounds like a T. Rex groover filtered through Brooklyn murk; the quietly majestic "Drifting In & Out," and the girl-group-in-a-wind-tunnel "The End of Silence" all fit the bill nicely. Along with these easy to swallow gems, the record is loaded with deceptively powerful songs that ground the album in real emotion and show that Remiddi isn't just fooling around with sound: the sluggish, hip-hop inflected "Is It Too Deep for You?"; the achingly tender "Backwards," and the album's last song "The Way In" are all examples of Remiddi's depth and the deceptive emotional pull of the album. Strange Weekend is a very impressive debut album, full of craft, emotion, and songs that you'll want to listen to again and again.

Editorial Reviews
CMJ The common factor holding these unusual musical bedfellows together is an undeniably catchy melodic sensibility most immediately recalling the hazy pop of MGMT.

Porcelain Raft borrows liberally from both the shoegaze and dream-pop playbooks, and so we get layers of sonic gauze shot through with delicately strummed acoustic guitar patterns...
Pitchfork

4 stars out of 5 -- [D]reamy, disconnected pop, gauzy waves of sound floating on atmospheric electronics.
Uncut