Fluorescent Grey EP
Encyclopedia
Fluorescent Grey is an extended play
accompaniment to Cryptograms
, the second studio release by Atlanta
-based band Deerhunter
. The EP was released on CD by Kranky Records
on May 8, 2007, and later as a vinyl
bundle with Cryptograms. A music video for the track "Strange Lights" is included with the CD release. The album's cover is a photograph of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt
as a seventh-grader. Its lyrical themes touch on death and the decomposition of the human body—"Fluorescent Grey" is the name lead singer Bradford Cox gives to the color of dead flesh. Fluorescent Grey received a number of positive reviews upon its release. Cox later released a free series of demos over the internet, being early versions of tracks on Fluorescent Grey and other material.
, Fluorescent Grey does not contain any ambient
tracks. Lead singer Bradford Cox considers the EP's four tracks to be "four singles; they're all four good. They could stand on their own." The songs were recorded while Cryptograms was being mixed
; their sound has been described as "tightly song-focused, not as drifting or dreamy" as Cryptograms. Cox had considered including these tracks on the next Deerhunter record instead of releasing them on their own. However, he wanted the band's next album to be "something totally different" from Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey.
As with Cryptograms, Cox did not write the lyrics to the band's music in advance, instead singing stream-of-consciousness. The lyrics of Fluorescent Grey carry themes of death and the decomposition of the human body. Cox used the term "Fluorescent Grey"—also the title of the EP's opening track—to describe the color of decaying flesh. He has described the lyrics of the song as being "about panic attacks, lust, and existential dread." "Dr. Glass", in which Cox sings of "so many useless bodies…in the world", is characterized as "more existential dread on a global scale". Cox has said that the EP's third track, "Like New," is "about waking up one day after a long period of depression and finding the world somehow more bearable and kind of ‘new’ and exciting again." The fourth and final song on Fluorescent Grey, "Wash Off," describes Cox's encounters with an "uppity hippie kid" who sold him counterfeit acid as a teenager, insisting that Cox was not open-minded enough for the drug to affect him. As the song ends, Cox repeats the phrase "I was sixteen".
. The release includes early demos of tracks from Fluorescent Grey as well as other unreleased material. The first three tracks, "Fluorescent Grey," "Dr. Glass," and "Like New," were recorded over one afternoon, created in an attempt "to better refine the songs" for their eventual release. Cox wrote on the Deerhunter blog that he "especially like[s]" this early version of "Dr. Glass," as he feels the band did not adequately capture "the atmosphere and creepiness" he desired for the song's final incarnation. The fourth track is a version of "Wash Off" recorded by Cox alone in December 2003. "Greyscale," recorded February 2006, is the original version of a track remixed for its release on Deerhunter 7", a split album
recorded for Rob's House Records
. The remix was done by band member Josh Fauver.
"Kousin Klash" and "So Many Bodies" served as the framework for tracks on Fluorescent Grey. Cox recorded "So Many Bodies" after experiencing a panic attack
induced by a photograph he saw in The New York Times
, showing an Iraqi
girl hunched over her dead mother's corpse. "I started thinking about bodies and rotting and brutal violent human stuff, wars, all this terrible stuff from history…and literally hid under my sheets, sweating. I made this tape later that night." "Axis I (F.Grey)" is a track originally released on Atlas Sound/Mexcellent Split
in 2007. "People Never No" is a sketch that later developed into the song "Fluorescent Grey"; in recording the song, Cox was inspired by the bands The Breeders
and The Fall, and "obsessed with having two drum tracks on everything".
, as well as the publication's "Best New Music" accolade. Pitchfork writer Marc Hogan considered the EP "clearer and less abrasive than Cryptograms musically," and "a triumphant document of a stubbornly visionary young band with the world still spread out before them." Mike Diver of Drowned In Sound
called Fluorescent Grey Deerhunter "at their most relaxed". He found the EP's musical style to be a "delightful deviation" from Cryptograms, as it gives listeners an opportunity to step "back from all things fiery and furious" characterized by that album. PopMatters
music critic Josh Berquist wrote of the EP's opening track, pointing out the contrast of Cox's "lucid reflection on loss…[and] the morbid imagery of bodies in decay" sung "over an incongruously bright and chiming rhythm", which he found made "such beautiful invitations to bloody eviscerations unnervingly captivating."
Jeff Klingman of Prefix Magazine considered the final track of Fluorescent Grey, "Wash Off", to be the only song which "channel[s] the aggression that peppers Cryptograms first half." Klingman found Cox to be preoccupied with his past within this song's lyrics, "suggesting an unhealthy disconnect above and beyond wistful remembrance." In his review for Tiny Mix Tapes
, writer Chris Ruen said that Fluorescent Grey "is a bit rushed" in terms of structure, which he feels "detracts from one of Deerhunter’s particular strengths: constructing a dynamic, organic listening experience." David Coleman of No Ripcord
called the EP "a less thrilling ride than Cryptograms," and that while "There are plenty of good ideas, not to mention a great guitar sound...the band chooses to wrap it up early rather than kick back and explore these [ideas] further."
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
accompaniment to Cryptograms
Cryptograms (album)
Cryptograms is the second album from Atlanta, Georgia-based indie rock group Deerhunter, released through Kranky Records on January 29, 2007 on CD and vinyl. Following the 2005 release of its first full-length album Turn It Up Faggot, Deerhunter began recording material for its next record at Rare...
, the second studio release by Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
-based band Deerhunter
Deerhunter
Deerhunter is an American four-piece indie rock group originating from Atlanta, Georgia. The band, consisting of Bradford Cox, Moses Archuleta, Josh Fauver, and Lockett Pundt, have described themselves as "ambient punk," though they incorporate a wide range of genres, including noise rock, art...
. The EP was released on CD by Kranky Records
Kranky Records
Kranky is an independent record label, located in Chicago, Illinois. It was started in 1993 by Bruce Adams and Joel Leoschke.The bands it houses are noted for combining experimental and often electronic influences with elements of more traditional rock structures, and many of the artists on Kranky...
on May 8, 2007, and later as a vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
bundle with Cryptograms. A music video for the track "Strange Lights" is included with the CD release. The album's cover is a photograph of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt
Lotus Plaza
Lotus Plaza is the solo project of American musician Lockett Pundt, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist of Atlanta-based ambient group Deerhunter. Pundt joined Deerhunter in 2005 as a guitarist. He is also the best friend of Deerhunter vocalist Bradford Cox. His debut album as Lotus Plaza, The...
as a seventh-grader. Its lyrical themes touch on death and the decomposition of the human body—"Fluorescent Grey" is the name lead singer Bradford Cox gives to the color of dead flesh. Fluorescent Grey received a number of positive reviews upon its release. Cox later released a free series of demos over the internet, being early versions of tracks on Fluorescent Grey and other material.
Music and lyrics
Unlike CryptogramsCryptograms (album)
Cryptograms is the second album from Atlanta, Georgia-based indie rock group Deerhunter, released through Kranky Records on January 29, 2007 on CD and vinyl. Following the 2005 release of its first full-length album Turn It Up Faggot, Deerhunter began recording material for its next record at Rare...
, Fluorescent Grey does not contain any ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
tracks. Lead singer Bradford Cox considers the EP's four tracks to be "four singles; they're all four good. They could stand on their own." The songs were recorded while Cryptograms was being mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
; their sound has been described as "tightly song-focused, not as drifting or dreamy" as Cryptograms. Cox had considered including these tracks on the next Deerhunter record instead of releasing them on their own. However, he wanted the band's next album to be "something totally different" from Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey.
As with Cryptograms, Cox did not write the lyrics to the band's music in advance, instead singing stream-of-consciousness. The lyrics of Fluorescent Grey carry themes of death and the decomposition of the human body. Cox used the term "Fluorescent Grey"—also the title of the EP's opening track—to describe the color of decaying flesh. He has described the lyrics of the song as being "about panic attacks, lust, and existential dread." "Dr. Glass", in which Cox sings of "so many useless bodies…in the world", is characterized as "more existential dread on a global scale". Cox has said that the EP's third track, "Like New," is "about waking up one day after a long period of depression and finding the world somehow more bearable and kind of ‘new’ and exciting again." The fourth and final song on Fluorescent Grey, "Wash Off," describes Cox's encounters with an "uppity hippie kid" who sold him counterfeit acid as a teenager, insisting that Cox was not open-minded enough for the drug to affect him. As the song ends, Cox repeats the phrase "I was sixteen".
Demo releases
In January 2008, Cox released a collection of nine tracks entitled Fluorescent Grey Demos & Out-takes as a free download on the Deerhunter blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
. The release includes early demos of tracks from Fluorescent Grey as well as other unreleased material. The first three tracks, "Fluorescent Grey," "Dr. Glass," and "Like New," were recorded over one afternoon, created in an attempt "to better refine the songs" for their eventual release. Cox wrote on the Deerhunter blog that he "especially like[s]" this early version of "Dr. Glass," as he feels the band did not adequately capture "the atmosphere and creepiness" he desired for the song's final incarnation. The fourth track is a version of "Wash Off" recorded by Cox alone in December 2003. "Greyscale," recorded February 2006, is the original version of a track remixed for its release on Deerhunter 7", a split album
Split album
A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...
recorded for Rob's House Records
Rob's House Records
Rob's House Records is a small, but prolific American record label based out of Atlanta, Georgia. It was created in 2005 by Trey Lindsay to cater to the unique, but underexposed growing underground music scene in Atlanta, Ga. Rob's House Records caters to many genres of music including punk, indie...
. The remix was done by band member Josh Fauver.
"Kousin Klash" and "So Many Bodies" served as the framework for tracks on Fluorescent Grey. Cox recorded "So Many Bodies" after experiencing a panic attack
Panic attack
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and subside over the next several hours...
induced by a photograph he saw in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, showing an Iraqi
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
girl hunched over her dead mother's corpse. "I started thinking about bodies and rotting and brutal violent human stuff, wars, all this terrible stuff from history…and literally hid under my sheets, sweating. I made this tape later that night." "Axis I (F.Grey)" is a track originally released on Atlas Sound/Mexcellent Split
Atlas Sound/Mexcellent Split
Atlas Sound/Mexcellent Split was released in 2007 on 12" vinyl. Only 500 copies were pressed on 180g vinyl. The Atlas Sound side is called Fractal Trax and the Mexcellent side is called Cornbread Jungle.-Track listing:...
in 2007. "People Never No" is a sketch that later developed into the song "Fluorescent Grey"; in recording the song, Cox was inspired by the bands The Breeders
The Breeders
The Breeders are an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 by Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. The band has experienced a number of line-up changes; the current line-up consists of Kim Deal , her twin sister Kelley Deal , Jose Medeles , Mando Lopez Todd the Fox...
and The Fall, and "obsessed with having two drum tracks on everything".
Reception
Fluorescent Grey EP was given a score of 8.8/10 by Pitchfork MediaPitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, as well as the publication's "Best New Music" accolade. Pitchfork writer Marc Hogan considered the EP "clearer and less abrasive than Cryptograms musically," and "a triumphant document of a stubbornly visionary young band with the world still spread out before them." Mike Diver of Drowned In Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
called Fluorescent Grey Deerhunter "at their most relaxed". He found the EP's musical style to be a "delightful deviation" from Cryptograms, as it gives listeners an opportunity to step "back from all things fiery and furious" characterized by that album. PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
music critic Josh Berquist wrote of the EP's opening track, pointing out the contrast of Cox's "lucid reflection on loss…[and] the morbid imagery of bodies in decay" sung "over an incongruously bright and chiming rhythm", which he found made "such beautiful invitations to bloody eviscerations unnervingly captivating."
Jeff Klingman of Prefix Magazine considered the final track of Fluorescent Grey, "Wash Off", to be the only song which "channel[s] the aggression that peppers Cryptograms first half." Klingman found Cox to be preoccupied with his past within this song's lyrics, "suggesting an unhealthy disconnect above and beyond wistful remembrance." In his review for Tiny Mix Tapes
Tiny Mix Tapes
Tiny Mix Tapes is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, as well as its mix tapes generator.-History:Originally called Tiny Mixtapes Gone to Heaven and...
, writer Chris Ruen said that Fluorescent Grey "is a bit rushed" in terms of structure, which he feels "detracts from one of Deerhunter’s particular strengths: constructing a dynamic, organic listening experience." David Coleman of No Ripcord
No Ripcord
No Ripcord is an online music and film magazine based in Sheffield, England.-History:The website was originally created in April 1999 by editor-in-chief David Coleman and A.M. Booth...
called the EP "a less thrilling ride than Cryptograms," and that while "There are plenty of good ideas, not to mention a great guitar sound...the band chooses to wrap it up early rather than kick back and explore these [ideas] further."
Track listing
All songs written by Bradford Cox.- "Fluorescent Grey" – 5:02
- "Dr. Glass" – 3:14
- "Like New" – 2:13
- "Wash Off" – 5:46
Personnel
- Bradford Cox – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocals, bass drumBass drumBass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
, gongGongA gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....
, tapes, keys, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Moses Archuleta – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Joshua Fauver – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Colin Mee – guitar, tapes, percussion
- Lockett Pundt – guitars
- Nicolas Vernhes – mixing
- Jennifer Munson – mastering