Paw Paw

“Fox,” the opening track on Paw Paw’s new three-song EP, 3 Eye, immediately separates this release from the band’s 2012 album, Lay Down In the Flower Bed. Whereas that effort was bright and glistening with luminous, uplifting tones, these songs are darker and more organic. They’re the next step in the sonic evolution that began on last year’s Temporalis/Epiphysis, in that there’s more of an emphasis on the abstraction of sound in the evocation of emotion; Eston Lathrop employs a more tonal and atmospheric compositional technique here rather than letting melody and conventional rhythm guide the structure of the songwriting. “The Wind is a Merciless Beast” preserves a delicate balance between pure melodic atmospheres and the physicality of a minimal, textural beat. “Tantalizing,” which closes things out, recalls late ambient-era Eno with its endless sonic horizons.