Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of EPs: 1) Those, whether intended or not, that function as a unique short-form listening experience, and 2) Those that serve more as a clearinghouse for leftover material, covers, remixes, scattered ideas, and the like. That second type tend to be stopgaps and rewards for committed fans, and as such they tend to be the more forgettable of the two. (Though Grizzly Bear's Friend was a recent notable success.)
Still, we can forgive a band like A Sunny Day in Glasgow for offering up something of a patchwork EP with Nitetime Rainbows. After all, this is a group that managed to cram no fewer than 22 tracks onto last year's winning hour-plus opus, Ashes Grammar, so it stands to reason that there would be plenty more from where that came from. What's more, the Philly outfit seems to be experiencing something of a recent renaissance. After playing lineup musical chairs for a few years, a band has finally coalesced around ASDIG mastermind Ben Daniels, and it makes sense that the new crew is eager to get more representative material out there. Hence the Nitetime Rainbows EP, home to three new compositions, alongside the title track (lifted from Ashes but newly mixed) and three remixes of said tune. As if the times needed another sign, it's vinyl and digital only.
Ashes Grammar was the rare record that actually benefitted from its sprawl, and the act of teasing ecstatic moments out of that sprawl is a key delight of the Ashes listening experience. Nitetime foregrounds one of the finer moments, a series of particularly evocative synthetic tones that form the intro of "Nitetime Rainbows". Hidden amidst the LP, these sounds have a transformative, palette-cleansing effect, but even divorced from that context they still make for a marvelously effective mood-setter. Otherworldly and nocturnal, that mood is less second-hand signifiers and more of a piece with the stuff that makes dream-pop and shoegaze so alluring in the first place.
As if to suggest there's more than one way to assemble the Ashes Grammar puzzle, ASDIG roll "Nitetime" right into "Daytime Rainbows", and a renewed esprit de corps immediately becomes evident. The syrup-thick toms and initial volley of "do-do-do"s would have us think we're due for a jangle-pop throwback rave-up in the style of Vivian Girls or the Pains of Being Pure of Heart, but before long a guitar goes de-tuned, the vocals get smeared, and we're right back to business as usual. Even so, to date it's their most pure pop moment. "So Bloody, So Tight" is pretty clean and patient by ASDIG standards, while "Piano Lessons" turns Daniels' late-night attempt to relearn the titular instrument into a spirited ride along a motorik groove. It would have made a perfect closing track were it not for...
The remixes, which is where, in true clearinghouse fashion, things start to taper off and feel tacked-on. Athens, Georgia's the Buddy System come up trumps here with their take on "Rainbows", which shimmers things up and chops the vocals into a delirious rhythmic component. It's rote but enjoyable all the same. Kranky recording artist Benoît Pioulard sands the smooth edges of "Nitetime" with glaciers of static, very much in the manner of Fennesz or Tim Hecker.
On the other end of the spectrum, there's Anticipate label boss Ezekiel Honig, whose significantly more subtle reworking deconstructs the original track into a few chief elements: a drone here, a guitar loop there, a lone handclap somewhere in between. If anything, though, it serves only to prove that it's the collusion of these elements that makes the original such a golden egg. Ashes Grammar, mind you, wasn't without its dull moments-- they were just tucked away at appropriate intervals across a majestic sonic vista. Here those moments cloud together, and the view gets a little obscured.
