In my inbox this morning was a heartwarming Monday-morning surprise. Analogue under-rated indie favourites The Antlers are free-releasing a new EP, New York Hospitals to coincide with the NY-based After The Jump Fest this 21st of June. In ringleader Pete Silberman’s own press-released words the EP consists of “Two covers from New York-ish bands from around 1999 surround an original, entitled “Sylvia (An Introduction)”, intended to introduce the focus of the soon to be completed Hospice LP.” Last time we talked, Silberman chatted about his burgeoning My Bloody Valentine affections, and their influence can be heard seeping through the EP, as the three songs absolutely drip with reverb and ethereal vocals. Yet the New Yorker’s high-frequency vocals and increasingly orchestral compositions lend a particularly singular sound to a record with more cover material than original.

“Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”, from the Magnetic Fields seminal 69 Lovesongs filters the song through some Mazzy Star aesthetics to spectral effect (get used to thesaurus-ized versions of the word “haunted” for this blog entry… comes up quite a bit). It is a deceivingly hopeful opener, and one look at the lyrics set the song up for an impending darkness. Silberman’s lyrics complete the Herculean challenge of matching the haunted chill Merritt’s own words invoke with second song “Sylvia (Introduction)”. He sings in his Elliot Smith-like vibrato ostensibly about Sylvia Plath (It made you crawl under that house/And stick your head under the stove), possibly from the point of view of Ted Hughes. Rather though, it seems like a personal allegory for a Plath-like person in his own life, and the spectres they carry through their lives. Their inability to cope with mortality at an early age “makes you sting/…makes you want to kill“, and Silberman, or Silberman’s character struggles to understand his Sylvia’s morose pain. Set against the same sea of reverb “Sylvia (Introduction)” is otherworldly enough to keep Yvette Fielding in business.

The closing Yo La Tengo cover, “Tears In Your Eyes” from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out acts as a sort of desperate attempt to save the aforementioned Sylvia, with it’s assurances that “Darkness always turns into the Dawn.” A beautiful rendition, if not somewhat unmemorable, rounds a short EP off with the commendable feat of actually engaging with the source material of the songs Silberman has produced here, and is a promising opening salvo from forthcoming sixth album Hospice. Mind you, if it’s this macabre in the New York Hospital, I’ll be needing a much bigger thesaurus for the Hospice…

Get the EP here.

Daniel Gray From the moment he put the first Steps album into his stereo he knew he'd found his calling.
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