There is a fine line between moody atmospheric music and new age cheese, introspection and escapism, and music that is overproduced versus consciously produced- and Taylor Deupree's brief "Landing" EP skates along all of these lines beautifully. Deupree is the founder of 12k, which looks to be one of most artfully designed labels I've seen. Most of the packaging seems to follow a similar minimal aesthetic concentrating on isolated spaces and muted colors. This visual aesthetic fits perfectly with the music of "Landing". Immediately bringing to mind the stark drones of Stars of the Lid, Deupree's music seems to exist somewhere in that same universe, but perhaps in a more isolated corner filled with the soft glow of recently reanimated computer parts. The lullaby of Deupree is immediately inviting and soothing, but without a doubt filled with a melancholic yearning. Guitars tones and tiny static pulses are spaced out far enough to leave plenty of room for thoughts to fill in the spaces. With only the title and a photo seemingly taken from a plane to guide me, the sounds bring me back to recent feelings of loneliness aboard airplanes- the detachment from the earth being made all the more intense by the foreign look of the landscape from above.

Deupree has succeeded in grasping an ephemeral state of reflection, if only for a short moment- my main complaint here being that "Landing" is far too short. His talent for restraint is what makes this disc stand out, and I look forward to hearing and seeing more from this project and his label. 9/10 -- Charles Franklin (17 July, 2007)