Rainwater Cassette Exchange

It\'s hard to believe given his towering stature in the indie rock scene these days — both literally and figuratively — but Bradford Cox was a blip on everyone\'s radar up until a few years ago, when Deerhunter delivered their breakthrough disc, *Cryptograms*. Now that he\'s seemingly everywhere, from blabbing on blogs to carving out a side career with Atlas Sound, it\'s easy to write *Rainwater Cassette Exchange* off as Cox\'s spring cleaning collection. After all, it tears through five new tracks in 15 minutes, leaving lots of blustery garage pop in its wake. There\'s a lightheaded ballad that breaks out the bongos (\"Game of Diamonds\"), traces of extraterrestrial theremin lines (\"Famous Last Words\"), and a curtain-closer that starts off as a catchy indie rock tune and ends in a series of splintered samples and scrambled frequencies. Wait, what were we saying about this being a bunch of leftovers again? Never mind.

The fourth Deerhunter-related release on Kranky since October, this five-song EP ranges from translucent psych-pop to pummeling garage-rock.

Atlanta’s Deerhunter is known for a handful of scandalous things—in addition to a glowing reputation for creating top-notch ethereal noise rock—but imitating others has never been one of them. Though last year’s great Microcastle album incorporated broad swaths of psychedelia and garage rock, the stew was always…

Rainwater Cassette Exchange seems to exist as a microcosm of Microcastle. All muscle and no fat, this EP builds on the last album’s diversions into taut, yet dreamy, pop music.

With Microcastle, Weird Era, and this EP -- not to mention all the music the band released on its blog at that time -- Deerhunter hit its creative stride and didn't waste one moment.

Atlanta-based avant-rock foursome Deerhunter aren’t exactly in the habit of keeping a secret – this five-track EP, like the two albums that preceded it it, leaked onto the ‘