Of Montreal: Jon Brion Remix EP

Last year, Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes unleashed Skeletal Lamping, an overlong, often indigestible brick of sexual and musical panic, with Barnes (as "Georgie Fruit") spinning out horny fantasies over spazzy musical threads whiplashing against each other with Girl Talk-like rapidity. The Jon Brion Remix EP is just two Lamping songs in five different versions (some of which, as the title suggests, have been reworked by producer-composer Jon Brion), but it's much more productive overall. The main item of business is "An Eluardian Instance." Brion's "reconstructionist remix" of the song (now renamed "First Time High") blisses out on sunny horns and all the delighted-sounding frills that Of Montreal fans didn't find on Lamping; an acoustic version, rather than a lazy man-and-guitar reading, sparkles in its own right. There are also three versions of Lamping's "Gallery Piece," which sounds a lot better out of context. The actual Brion remix is pretty pointless, but an instrumental version highlights how much is going on when the panicked vocals are stripped away. The eight-minute "long version" vamps through a series of glitch-pop and disco permutations that transform it into a surprisingly successful dance piece. Though just five tracks, the EP acts as a successful palate-cleanser, and it might give fans hope that the old Barnes hasn't completely disappeared.