We defy you to find one write-up on Porcelain Raft  that does not use “dream” or “dreamy”. In fact, probably more than once. Partly this is due to the fact that there’s not really a spot-on English synonym for “dreamy”, and also to the fact that there’s no word better for the lush, diaphanous sounds made by Mauro Remmidi.

We’ve been into his stuff for a while now, which is why we talked to  him last year at South By Southwest—a conversation in which we talked about, among other things, his transition to P Raft from his previous musical chapters, including but not limited to the indie pop outfit Sunny Day Sets Fire, scoring films, playing in North Korea, and playing for an off-Broadway tap dance show, as well as repeated vocal comparisons to none other than John Lennon.

Those similarities crop on Strange Weekend again, on tracks like “Shapeless and Gone”, but for the most part Remmidi crafts a sound of his own—floating, enveloping on “Is It Too Deep For You” and aptly named “Drifting In and Out”, which puts him squarely in blissful M83 terrain, and in fact P Raft will be touring with Mr. Anthony Gonzales later in the year. Elsewhere, “Put Me to Sleep” is nicely wobbly and propulsive, “Backwords” is bathed in soft acoustic guitar and heavenly coos, and “Unless You Speak From the Heart”—while again a touch Beatlesque—is gently carnivalesque and dreamy. There’s that word again. Can’t help it.

Smooth, shiny and it floats—that would describe a porcelain raft. And the band/project that bears that name is all those things and more. Listen to Mauro Remmidi’s debut album, rate it and tell Noisevox what you think!