Pitchfork

Jeremy Jay is a singer/songwriter from Los Angeles, not just one of those bands with names that sound like they could belong to one. Though Jay's Airwalker EP arrived earlier this month on Calvin Johnson's Olympia, Wash.-based K Records (followed shortly thereafter by the "We Were There"/"Beautiful Dreamer" 7"), his echoey, foreboding baritone and dubby spaciousness recall homemade English singles from more than two decades ago. From its title, 1980s babies might expect "Airwalker" to be about skateboarding, and it still could be, I suppose: "What's in the air when you're walking on air?/ Where can we go when the lights are low?" Jay sings, a pair of questions as open-ended as they are evocative. They're accompanied here by rigid bass groove, skeletal guitars, and billowing synths; Jay's other songs tend to feature prominent piano.

The "Airwalker" video, directed by Jeremy Hogan (uh, no relation), has the sunny innocence of clips we've seen lately from Sweden's Sincerely Yours-- say, the Tough Alliance's "Silly Crimes", or Jonas Game's "ADHD". I don't know how old Jay is, but he's a blond-headed guy with one of those faces that will probably always look boyish-- more changeling than cherub. The sun glints off the camera or sparkles on the sea as Jay and his band members perform amidst the trees, roam the city, or play for partygoers shown in film-negative black-and-white. The video is unassuming but accomplished, introducing Jay as another artist in search of "something bright and pure," in a city with too few angels.

[from the Airwalker EP; out now on K Records]