Miles of Smiles

Issued a couple months prior to the full-length Creature Comforts, Miles of Smiles is a two-track release that clocks in just short of half-an-hour. Both tracks act as a bridge between prior album Beaches and Canyons and Creature Comforts (the four-four-based "Cone Toaster" from 2003 seems now, more than ever, something of a stylistic one-off), with each moving through several sections before reaching completion. Wilderness recordings, discombobulated marching bands, displaced percussion jams, and minimal electronics both calm and harsh, factor in. Although "Miles of Smiles" itself is quite a wild ride — whether or not you're heavily drugged — "Trip Dude Delay" is significant for the manner in which it begins, with several minutes of low-volume piercing and ghostly voices before being gobbled up in a monsoon of noise.