Back When Love

Philly psychedelic pop outfit Aspera (formerly Aspera Ad Astra) return from a lengthy layoff with the curious EP Back When Love. In a further sign that the music industry may be reaching a post-CD age, Back When Love is released both on vinyl (with all five songs on the A-side of a 12" EP) and as digital downloads, but not as a standard CD. Musically, Back When Love is a sort of summation of all of the band's previous musical styles: although the cold mechanical beats and vintage synth whooshes of 2003's Oh Fantastica are still the band's main musical focus, Aspera have dialed back from the sonic overload of that overstuffed album into a quiet brand of psych-electronica much more in keeping with the band's earlier "Psychedelphia" era. The dreamy "Dig Yourself to Sleep" is about as epic as it gets, with big church organ-like swells of keyboards washing over Drew Mills' delicate vocals in a manner that vaguely recalls the early Magnetic Fields. Elsewhere, "I'm Seeing Bubbles Again" alternates between cacophonous sections featuring chaotic zig-zagging beats and a lovely psych-pop chorus featuring the album's most instantly hummable melody, and the title track and "Tread Lightly on the Glow" are whisper-quiet slices of low-key electronica that suggest this changeling band has finally found its niche. The inessential minimalist drone of the minute-long closer, "Jewels," suggests that they haven't quite gotten all the kinks out yet, however; it takes a certain lack of editing skills to have filler on an EP that's not even 15 minutes long. Still, this is Aspera's strongest release in years. ~ Stewart Mason