Album Notes

Recorded by one man in one wintertime back in 2008, Erik Gundel's EP Gundel [utilizing his middle initial P, for Philip] surfaces like a piece of seaglass in the night: smooth to the touch, colorful to the eyes. As a student of classical composition, jazz, and the early work of Hall and Oates, Gundel utilizes every shade in his pallet, and maybe some in your pallet. But this isn't some artsy BS you wouldn't want to look at for more than a minute in a MOMA, this is just pop music when you boil it down. "Antacids Love Song" recalls the Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin in its combination of the banal and the sublime. Elsewhere, some of the more progressive indie acts of the oughts pop in, as if to shake their heads at a nerdier, less cool cousin. Perhaps the music is best summed up by Gundel's myspace page, in which he describes his own work as such: "Brett the Hitman Hart serenading a flock of penguins in the parking lot of Universal Studios, Florida." Actually, a rookery is a group of penguins, Erik. A rookery.

"A fantastic listen, thanks for the memories!"
- MusicBlog-blogspotting.com