The stylistic elements of 28 Degrees Taurus (28DT) are so unique that it is almost impossible to mistake the group for anyone else: the muted guitars, their hypnotic swirls, the stuttering rhythm of guitar notes, and the awkwardly angelic voice of singer Karina Dacosta who sings with a sort of detached warmth that sounds like precociousness in rebellion.
On the follow-up EP to their full-length release, How Do You Like Your Love, these idiosyncrasies of the band are distilled to such an end that the band cannot get any more closer to what they are. In this almost constricted format of just a tiny bunch of songs, the band doesn’t give any room for experimentation, apart from what is ordinary to their sound. But what is ordinary to 28DT – even as a condensed work – is something quite extraordinary and marvelous.
The Post Midnight Thrills (PMT) EP is what one half of Love? would sound like if it were broken in two pieces. Take out the instantly accessible moody psychedelic numbers like “Single Suicide Mode,” “Waves Of Love,” “Low Light,” and “Wherever You Can Find It,” and you have something that has signs of PMT. But PMT is more melodic, which gives it a much greater, radio-friendly appeal.
In the absence of creative diversions, PMT stands as one cohesive 18-minute music piece. Even with the short songs and their small number (six), the EP is fulfilling, and it is precisely because the band doesn’t deviate much in its approach from number-to-number. The addition of instrumentals “Ecstatic New Times Continuum” and “Electricity” help break the monotony and create beautiful spaces that the subsequent numbers fill.
The edgy, ethereal mood that 28DT creates in the entirety of this EP with numbers that stay true to a strict course of direction works more wonderfully than if the album were to be picked apart into its short songs. The larger canvas is beautiful; though relatively short and fleeting, but beautiful nonetheless.
