Wild Nothing

Empty Estate (Captured Tracks)

Jack Tatum’s Wild Nothing project has been on a notable winning streak. Since debuting in 2010 with Gemini, a winsome, guitar-pop glide programmed entirely on Garage Band in the college town of Blacksburg, Va., his amber voice and deft songwriting have kept him defiantly in the spotlight. Last year’s mystic Nocturne refreshed his notoriety with a starry rumble of incandescent electro-pop, and now the Empty Estate EP arrives as a vessel for embracing weirder inhibitions. There’s the robotic, vaguely sadomasochistic “A Dancing Shell” and glittering instrumental “On Guyot,” which serves as intriguing potential for the Wild Nothing’s future direction. Mostly though, Empty Estate props itself up on the same airy pop that made Tatum famous. Are “The Body in Rainfall” and “Ocean Repeating (Big-Eyed Girl)” the best tunes he’s written? No, but you can’t fault their existence. (11:15am, Samsung Galaxy stage)

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This article appears in October 4 • 2013.

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