The Black Babies

This British EP, clocking in just shy of 24 minutes, features two tracks from Banhart’s debut album, *Oh Me, Oh My…* (“The Charles C. Leary,” “Cosmos and Demos”) and an alternate look at “The Red Lagoon” as simply “Lagoon.” These tracks come from the same set of home demos and feature the same fluttering vocal lines that made the debut album such a bizarre treat. Banhart is an acquired taste for most. He rejects the standard prettifications of the pop song and his use of folk music instrumentation turns him into a pied piper for the mentally deranged. As the leader of the Freak-Folk movement, Banhart’s genius rests in his ability to turn the unusual into something worth hearing twice. “Surgery I Stole” could easily be a long lost demo from the ‘60s or early ‘70s, as Banhart’s voice frequently echoes that of T. Rex’s Marc Bolan. “Onward the Indian” and “Long Song” could be campfire singalongs warped beyond the usual folk song rituals and bluesy accents into surrealist compositions of magic and light.

It's the middle of the night. You're sound asleep. Suddenly, the phone rings and all the sweet, sweet ...