Strange Weekend

Porcelain Raft | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 24, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• ASIN: B00699QP28
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,202 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Remiddi's androgynous vapor of a voice weaves like a ghost between Nick Gilder and The Alessi Brothers, Julee Cruise and Judee Sill. In more contemporary terms, Porcelain Raft stands confidently on a high hill between the sounds of M83 and Beach House. Lead track "Drifting In and Out" is loping and anthemic; gauzy and chiming. "Shapeless and Gone" follows with a heavy strum reminiscent of "Cosmic Dancer" full of mood and style without all the wearying excesses and feathered boas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars electronic heartbreak, February 25, 2012

By 

john hubner "hubner73" (Warsaw, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Weekend (MP3 Download)

I tend to romanticize the idea of the lone musician. Alone, with nothing more than the tools of his or her trade(laptop, guitar, keyboard, microphone), the desire to create and the need to share that creation with the rest of the world. Within his or her safe place, be it a bedroom, living room or basement, the artist is free to express their ideas, emotions and heart through the intimacy of songwriting. There have been many of these musicians over the years that have gone the route of the studio hermit. Rather than surround themselves with musicians and collaborators, they take the lonely road and play every part. Overdubbing track after track, tweaking and fading, equalizing and compressing, fading in and fading out, adding and removing parts, till what they hear in their head is what they hear in their ears. Chillwave, a term I'm not particularly fond of, is a community of bedroom tweakers and laptop composers that are very much in the category of the lone wolf. Their self imposed solitary confinement to the bedroom, laptop, and Roland Juno-106 is out of necessity. These are the composers of the 21st century. They no longer need a symphony or music hall to display their art. They merely need a $30 music program and a laptop with a decent size hard drive. The keyboard is their symphony and the internet is their music hall.

Amongst the many artists to be included in this group, Porcelain Raft are one of the newer faces. The sole member, Londoner by way of Italy Mauro Remiddi, has a talent for creating dream-like soundscapes and lush arrangements that pull together both modern and classic synth pop. Strange Weekend's opening track, `Drifting In And Out' has a woozy modulated synth sound moving back and forth as Remiddi's heavily effected vocals sing not over the sound, but as another instrument. 'Shapeless & Gone' opens with light percussion and a strummed acoustic with Remiddi singing as if he's at a campfire in a cavernous region of Mars. `Is It Too Deep For You' is a lilting track with layered vocals, quiet, plucked guitar and spaced out echo. This is a standout track with buzzing drone underneath the calm and longing. `Put Me To Sleep' has almost a Love and Rockets vibe, especially in the vocal delivery. Something that could've played on 120 Minutes back in 1988 quite comfortably.

As much as Porcelain Raft wants to play with the cool kids(Neon Indian, Washed Out, Toro Y Moi among others), Mauro Remiddi has loftier goals for Porcelain Raft. This is good and bad. Good in that he wants to write songs that have more of a mass appeal, not just for the acid blotter crowd(I'm looking at your Alan Palomo) or the hipster crowd(hello, Ernest Greene). But bad in that he at times goes into more Vangelis meets Erasure territory, bordering on schmaltzy ballads. `Backwords' is pretty, but its syrupy-sweet keys and echoed handclaps make me have 7th grade dance flashbacks. 'The Way In', Strange Weekend's final track suffers from Air Supply-itis. It's too pretty for its own good. Fortunately a track like `Unless You Speak From Your Heart' saves the day with it's descending keyboard and falsetto vocals. This is how a ballad should sound.

In the overrun world of chillwave and laptop Brian Wilsons, Porcelain Raft is a welcome addition. He brings a pop finesse to a genre that could use a bit more of it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars it's worth paying for, February 3, 2012

By 

juicy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Strange Weekend (Audio CD)

Some really catchy songs here. I loved Porcelain Raft ever since I heard a song on Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist sometime last year. really happy with this, the songs Back Words and The Way In will bring tears.