the release of the 'invisible against the sun' ep marks a period of change in shalloboi. begun out of necessity as a solo project for tyler ritter's sprawling songs in 2001 and building to the extended recording of debut 'blue-eyed.' after the release of the album in november and the recording of the bulk of the material which will make up the next full-length release, ritter saw the necessity of bringing at least one other person into his weird, little corner of the universe. that person became stefanie goodwin when they tried to sing one of ritter's newest songs together. 'we sang it together once and when we were listening to it it kind of freaked us out and we were both just like "do you think we should do it again?" in the end we were just too scared to because we thought we might ruin it,' ritter says. that song was 'the weather king' and it set the tone for the writing and recording of 'invisible against the sun' and facilitated goodwin's joining the live lineup for the first time at a show at the knitting factory in hollywood after only two months of learning how to play the bass. ritter also managed to steal some recording time with billy speer, who played cello on two 'blue-eyed' tracks, for each of the 'invisible...' ep's songs. 'invisible against the sun' is more based in spontanaeity and the capturing of a pure moment. much of the music was recorded in one take and each of the songs saw at least two different versions before arriving at their completed states. the results are the first hints of a darker sound which will be explored more fully on the next full-length (called 'petals')which is nearly complete. in typical shalloboi style the ep was recorded in a variety of different places amidst numerous moves, mostly confined at least to just one city this time- portland, or. vanity project zine- Shalloboi – Invisible Against The Sun (Endless December) Recorded between March 2004 and August 2005, this is a 40 minute 5-track EP of blessed, down-beat post-rock ambience that has the same dark intent as early Cranes, but with even less of pop sensibility. ‘Invisible Against The Sun’ flickers like a broken telly, its tube reducing vision to a more dot from which songwriter Tyler Ritter’s mournful vocal escapes. This morphs into the bleaker, more faintly distorted ‘Ivy’ where guitar softly spins and loops in the distance. ‘Flowers For Darcy’ is more upbeat, built on deadened chimes and a soft wail. ‘Are You Awake?’ tickles like the gnawing bite of a thousand blunt scissors. ‘The Weather King’ shickers like grint (and a slinky) on rubber, cello providing a more leathery texture beneath. Skif. komakino fanzine- 25-May-2006 4:16 PM - Shalloboi - Invisible Against The Sun (5tx cd ep, 37'o7" - self-prod. 'o5) - Tyler Ritter is an interesting talented shoegazing boy from Chicago, addicted to long dark spacey sounds producted by a bow and a guitar. That kind of multilayered distortion that remembers more of a cello (and there is one too) than a six strings , accompanied by minimal reversed drumming. Kind of Loveliescrushing vs Sigur Ros. Invisible Against The Sun is suite of five tracks walking the same path more and more times, where boy/girl vocals melt and sing inspired by the holy feeling of dreaming. - Are You Awake? quests the #4, and You might easily think of a strange nocturnal hallucination populated of melancholic ghosts and raining flowers.. //- paolo micelli