A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Don’t let the paradoxical name fool you, A Sunny Day in Glasgow are a Philadelphia-based trio that use all sorts of contrary practices in their dazed and confusing pop. Designed as one big jumble thanks to a scattered throng of banjo, mandolin, pedals, samplers, manic timekeeping and pitch-shifting guitar drones, the sibling team of Ben, Robin and Lauren Daniels miraculously filter it all into a disarming swell of agreeable harmonics. Their debut LP, Scribble Mural Comic Journal, was released early this year to much acclaim, due to its gorgeous smear of fluorescent melodies across an amorphous body that’s constantly modified. It sounds too convoluted to be good, and the Daniels family never stop evolving their intricate ideas. The way a song like "Lists, Plans” oscillates between bubbling organs and guitars over Robin and Lauren’s angelic falsettos should be awkwardly disorientating but instead it floats like Tim Gane remixing Throbbing Gristle remixing the Cocteau Twins. However, it’s somehow more coherent than what that would actually sound like. Tout New Age is a companion EP from the summer that continues the dreamy avant-pop with an easier to digest coating. Though still warped and slippery, the band demonstrate their friendlier side on tracks like the C86-ish "Laughter (Victims)” and "Hugs & Kisses,” an accessible song they parenthetically deem the "Theme From A Sunny Day In Glasgow.” ASDIG single-handedly pick up the remnants of shoegazing’s spirit and resurrect it with an emerging concept that feels like it will never grow tired.