Energy Garage EP

With each release, New Yorker James Raftery impresses more. Although one thinks of him as a modern folkie in the Kristen Hersh "Your Ghost" vein, it's electric guitars that make this quiet sound on the oddly named "Energy Garage." (It's actually more like a nice afternoon nap.) Bouts of guitar texture seem to tumble down from nowhere to add a mournful quality to Raftery's Elliott Smith-like voice. And when producer Jeral Benjamin brings back her violas (regrettably missing from the sophomore Horizon Drops) on "You," it's like your well-thumbed This Mortal Coil records, with light drums and bass to add to a light breeze. Lovely! "Be Kissed" is an incongruous, disjointed punchy, rhythmic number -- not sure about that one -- but Horizon's familiar "Anyway Now" is a good closer. (That song also appears on video on the accompanying DVD.)