Hit Pick

The towering, ethereal vocals of Porcelain frontman Eric Larson seem to come from a shadowy place outside of normal time and space. Although Larson's voice is evocative of Jeff Buckley's or Thom Yorke's, it's underpinned by the repetitive, phaser-heavy guitar work and vocal harmonies of Tristram Nelson, his Atlanta art-school...

By Kurt Brighton

July 17, 2003

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The towering, ethereal vocals of Porcelain frontman Eric Larson seem to come from a shadowy place outside of normal time and space. Although Larson's voice is evocative of Jeff Buckley's or Thom Yorke's, it's underpinned by the repetitive, phaser-heavy guitar work and vocal harmonies of Tristram Nelson, his Atlanta art-school chum, which renders the sound more tangible to the listener. Porcelain, due at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday, July 22, with Fortywatt, borrows some of its hypnotically driving rhythms from electronic music, but the band's sound owes just as much to head-space-music progenitors Pink Floyd. Matt Emmett's drums are too big for the constraints of electronic, and the music is too insistent and firm to be easily contained. It mesmerizes with refrains and guitar lines à la Radiohead, and then, just when the tension is exactly right, each song bursts out, breaking the old spell and creating a new one.

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