Early Day Miners - Placer Found Double Vinyl LP 2020

1. Placer Found (20th Anniversary Edition)
2. East Berlin At Night (20th Anniversary Edition)
3. Texas Cinema (20th Anniversary Edition)
4. In These Hills (20th Anniversary Edition)
5. Stanwix (20th Anniversary Edition)
6. Longwall (20th Anniversary Edition)
7. Desert Cantos (20th Anniversary Edition)
8. Prospect Refuge (20th Anniversary Edition)
9. Blue Casino (20th Anniversary Edition)

 

The opening title track sets the mood just right, its comforting guitar interplay and gentle vocals holding your hand toward an unseen destination that's "still a ways to go." "East Berlin at Night" is the definition of cinematic, almost like an Ativin song with the amplifiers turned down from 12 to 3, while the last two minutes of "Texas Cinema," are the equivalent of a deep embrace from which you never want to let go. Why some sharp-eared music supervisor hasn't utilized "In These Hills" in a movie montage of two people falling in love, I'll never understand. This new edition brings it all back to the proverbial start, as it is being released on the Bloomington label Secretly Canadian which championed Ativin from the beginning and quickly became a home for Early Day Miners after the initial Western Vinyl release of "Placer Found." The two unreleased instrumental tracks on side D are fascinating glimpses into creative paths not taken. "Prospect Refuge" is a delicious slice of posivibes math-rock, while the taut, vaguely ominous "Blue Casino" makes an entirely different song out of a riff later utilized for the standout "Jefferson" from the band's 2003 "Jefferson at Rest" LP.