Avalon Releases Mini Album

Ahh, it feels good to be back. Sorry to leave you all hanging like that! (I know you've just been dying for a BBBD post, right? Nearly killed you!)

BBBD readers -- or at least the loyal ones -- have heard of Tokyo, Japan's Avalon before since we (ahem) wrote them up already! Seemingly, the quartet's been in the studio nonstop for a year or so since they are prepping a new mini-LP, Avals Variations, for release on the immaculate Escalator Records on May 28.

The six-track release is a lot of fun. Unlike previous EPs and one-offs, the disc is heavy on the instrumentals and light on the vocals. Nothing wrong with that -- just making an observation. The tunes sound sort of like a more subdued or perhaps more complex and layered rendition of something Kavinsky could've conceivable produced.

Damn this stuff is good! All the jams remind me of Cornelius' "2010"; they arrangements are all at once semi-baroque and classical in construction and NES-addled. Love it love it!

Pick the CD up here or, perhaps, here (once it's out, of course). Escalator Records is never wrong.

Avalon - Chartreuse

Avalon - The Art of Fugue