EP - Yawn

There are a few things of interest here.  First of all the website where I first heard this band - http://www.stereomood.com/.  Click your mood or activity and you're given an extensive playlist to fit it.  Most of the playlists overlap, but thats ok.  The  best part is that the music is taken from the best international music blogs (according to the "about us" section).  I've recently become hooked on a lot of bands I've never heard of before thanks to this site.  Now Yawn is a band apparently very brand new.  This EP, as far as I can tell, is only found on their website, but thats good news because its free.  Here is their website - http://yawntheband.com/Yawn/Yawn.html. With only five songs, their sound is clearly impressed into your brain.  "Kind of Guy" has got to be my first favorite.  Like all the songs, the rhythm is simple, repetitive, but the instrumentation is just uncommon enough and expertly matched together to really make the song stand out.  "David" reaches a kind of Beatles "Day in the Life" climax, but instead of presenting a contrast afterward, the song stay at the top and builds with layers and repetition.  "Empress" is a bit darker, more indie I suppose, but their use of percussion again makes it more interesting, the repetition welcome.  "Midnite" opens with electronic wanderings and echoing, overpowering the syllabic vocals, then lyrics, and distant shouts.  It becomes a little more trip-hop than I would generally listen to towards the end.  The whole EP is overall upbeat, easy to dance to and even if it were longer than 20 minutes, worth listening to multiple times over.

Then there was a contest to remix the album.  Making it even better to dance too, but in a different trippier way.  The winning results can also be downloaded from Yawn's website.  "Toys" remixed by GROOVEHAHN is given an electronic steel drum treatment which sounds pretty cool. "Kind of Guy" seems a little drained of the energy Yawn originally gave it when Alex Baez remixes it.  "David" becomes more stretched and ethereal, slightly creepy and many of the elements from the original are lost.  It might just be that this type of music is beyond my enjoyment, but while I'll always listen to the original EP, I don't think I'll take anything from the Remix EP.

Also available on their website are two Mixtapes for download.