Pitchfork

More afraid of you than you are of them, maybe, but Grizzly Bear have never been afraid of reinvention. The sylvan Brooklyn band already released a disc of remixes and are letting buddies like Band of Horses, CSS, and Deerhunter's Bradford Cox cover their songs on their upcoming Friends EP. Grizzly Bear's biggest reinvention of all-- so far-- was the shift from the bedroom psych-folk of lo-fi debut Horn of Plenty to the full-band expanses of Pitchfork's #8 album of 2006, the wonderful Yellow House.

Friends' "choir version" of Horn of Plenty's "Alligator" is the best impression you can get outside of a live setting of what Grizzly Bear's first record might sound like as reimagined by the current, epic-leaning four-piece. The original's quiet river of droning Omnichord becomes an oceanic wave of cresting guitars, crashing percussion, and a deadly bass undertow. Guest vocals by Dirty Projectors and Beirut help extend the brief original for more than five minutes-- by the end, the orchestration and keyboard sound huge enough for a Gershwin rhapsody or the score to some three-hour movie. Apparently being Edward Droste's alligator is a pretty big deal.

[from the Friends EP; due 11/06/07 from Warp]