Summer Came Early

After finishing the songs that became their self-titled debut LP for Sacred Bones, Exploded View decided to go back into the studio and record some more. Mixed in with some of the outtakes of the first record, such as “Mirror of the Madman,” the songs on Summer Came Early signal a step forward for the band, revealing more clarity and focus than the first, yet retaining a certain messy experimentalism that gives them the freedom they crave.

The psychotic tale of “Mirror of the Madman” shatters into to the softness of “Summer Came Early,” an epitaph to the environment, written in a post-warming future. “Forever Free” captures a “baroque” approach, with a curious combination of sounds: the fake harpsichord synth sound and the mellotron, plus the “bleeping sound” sequence caused by Hugo Quezada’s personal obsession with Raymond Scott. The track is a tale of mental entrapment and finding the key to freedom from within.

The final song, “You Got A Problem Son,” almost went undiscovered. It could have easily been buried and forgotten eternally, had it not been found by Quezada and Martin Thulin while listening through the 8-track tapes for something else. The lead sound was made with a four-oscillator synth, with the four oscillators slightly out of tune with one another; a nice metaphor for the band perhaps, ending the trip with a disjointed rush; a mod-tale, begging for repeated listening.

Tracklisting:

1. Summer Came Early 
2. Forever Free 
3. Mirror of the Madman
4. You Got A Problem Son