One of the many highlights of the recent Fork and Spoon compilation Tidings From Our Light Purple Gam is Kid Trails contribution “Vortex.”. Kid Trails is the project of Toro y Moi live bassist and more recently Painted Palms bass and keys player Patrick Jeffords. In the past Kid Trails releases have been scattered, this EP being the most traceable and cohesive. Outside of drums played by Andy Woodward (Toro y Moi) Jeffords plays every instrument on the album. The four tracks here feel like they belong as one, tied together behind a smokey pop haze. Each song is filled with melodic sensibility, a squirting keyboard hook on “Along,” a pleasant guitar riff over a back and forth progression on “Something Real,” and the fading melody of the chorus of “Never Gonna Change” all have that “get stuck in your head” quality. Once you pop you can’t stop.
