In late 2009, Edible Onion put out this vinyl edition of Br’er’s previously released, sold-out cassette “Filled With Diamonds & Guilt” EP, providing it a home within a hand-stitched paper sleeve that sports a confounding photo on the cover that’s completely appropriate for the year of Lars von Trier’s Anti-Christ. In an interview, Br’er leader Benjamin Schurr revealed the emotional pain that led to the creation of these 6 tunes, and the sounds, title, and album art clearly display his attempt to transcend the old nothingness and reach for new light. Having since moved away from Philadelphia, where he was living during the creation of this EP and acquired the emotional experiences it articulates, the fact that PRODUCT OF PHILADELPHIA is written in all caps on the back of the album likely means that this is an attempt to capture a particular historical period of Schurr’s existence that is as geographically grounded as it is temporally. Some feelings are so strong they get written on places, as track 1 is titled “Written Houses,” likely word play on the Rittenhouse area of Philadelphia.

Schurr is joined on these 24 minutes of music by 10 other musicians, most unfamiliar names with the exception of solo-artist and Dirty Projectors bassist Nat Baldwin, who plays contrabass on 2 tracks, and Charles Cohen, who has played with Espers and The Valerie Project. The most plausible sound comparison for this EP is with Owen Pallett, as Br’er creates meticulous and eccentric pop music, but with a much darker force creeping alongside the compositions. The vast array of instruments used include but are not limited to glockenspiel, toy piano, harmonium, Fender Rhodes, toothbrush, various percussive devices, a deck of cards, gong, autoharp, trumpet, and tape loops, thus creating lively and textured tapestries of slow-moving and intricate sound. Splatters of noise occasionally drift in to soak the instrumentation in gloomy delight. Schurr’s echoed vocals are most haunting on “Sugar Bear,” where cascading static spins around his dark confessions. On final track “Catch A Falling Knife,” Christian Mirande contributes the sound of a door opening and closing, which aurally speaks to the emotional transitioning and gender shifting themes of the album. Ultimately, this is a forward-thinking EP that constructs its own universe of sound and sentiment. 7/10 -- Elliott Sharp (21 April, 2010)