Here’s a review from this week’s Seven Days:

E_O, LACUNA
(Icebox Records, 3-inch CD)

Burlington’s Icebox Records continues its monthly 3-inch CD series with another dreamy, beautiful collection of understated art-pop. At the plate this time is label co-founder Eric Olsen, masquerading as E_O, who uses his 20 minutes to craft a solid, albeit bleak, string of tunes.

Shifting away from the extended drones and ethereal feedback exercises of the first 3-inch, School Bus’ Painless, Olsen focuses on his quiet, poetic songs. Yet, instead of simply plopping down a few mopey pop tunes, he uses recurring themes and finely crafted instrumental passages to weave the pieces into a glorious, unified whole.

“31” gets things going with plucked acoustic guitars, lazy keys and a soft mechanical drum beat. Olsen’s warm vocals lull the listener into the tune, revealing the layers of finely crafted instrumentation.

After two minutes, the song dissolves into the humid electric guitars and light-handed drumming of “Filling the Space.” “You stay up with the T.V.,” Olsen sings, “You hear me in the drive/You calculate the time I wait outside.” Reciting the lines, Olsen’s plaintive vocals are filled with a desperate melancholy.

“Come in Three” is a 4-minute instrumental passage built upon a simple electric guitar lick and repetitive bass line. Into the mix fly a mass of sampled conversations and found sounds, creating a deep, headphone-ready interlude.

The centerpiece of the album is the 5-and-a-half-minute “Ludlow.” A haunting drug anthem, it is the album’s strongest point, an immensely powerful piece of pop.

“I followed you into the bedroom with a ceiling of stars,” Olsen sings tenderly over sustained organ chords. “You traced a line along my arm/Cartography of arteries/A subway map that no one reads.” As the tune rises, humming cello notes enter, echoing the growing emotion of Olsen’s tale. “I didn’t come this far, just to see her face on the bowl of my spoon,” he dryly recites. “It’s hard to con her face, when I see it on every mark under the moon.”

Like any 3-inch, the disc is unsettlingly brief, but the simple power of Olsen’s songs is nothing short of stunning. Lacuna is a record that should not be missed, and is another leap forward for Icebox Records.

SCHOOL BUS, PAINLESS
(Icebox Records, IB3-001 3-inch CD)
School Bus’ latest effort is the inaugural release of a 3-inch CD series from Burlington-based Icebox Records. Mastermind and multi-instrumentalist Jason Cooley, a.k.a. School Bus, has previously flirted with the possibilities of groove-based, sample-heavy electronica. On Painless, however, he sets aside the drum machine to craft an album of gorgeous, guitar-based drones. Although it clocks in at only 20 minutes, Cooley establishes a hypnotic rhythm through the gentle ebb and flow of ethereal hums and clicks. Sampled voices waver in and out as the brief tracks rise and fall, gelling together into a unified whole. Yet Painless is not mere bliss-out blur. Just as certain notes seem to bring waves of chill, a storm of static fuzz crackles through. Painless is a texturally thrilling document of modern drone, a satisfying journey indeed.

- ETHAN COVEY