Hot off the tails of a tour with The Drums, Craft Spells frontman Justin Vallesteros played a killer show at the Great American Music Hall last month and then never left. (Can you blame him?) In a a recent email, Vallesteros confirmed that he recently returned to the Bay Area after briefly moving to Seattle and is working on demoing an LP to take into the studio to professionally record as Craft Spells for the first time.

Shortly before the end of the Drums tour, Craft Spells released another EP, Gallery featuring six tracks of smooth, synthy, awesome. If you were a fan of Idle Labor you’ll definitely appreciate Craft Spell’s latest release, with the same 80’s electro poppy beats that kept songs like “Pary Talk” and “After the Moment” playing over and over in your head hours after you turned off your iPod. Gallery‘s opening track “Left with Me” is just as catchy, and lyrics to songs like “Burst” prove that Vallesteros’ songwriting skills have continued to grow. I’d go so far as to compare Craft Spells’ sound to the Smiths or Talking Heads, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Whoever they remind you of, the retro vibe is definitely alive and well with this group, and I for one, am not complaining about it.

We’ll be looking forward to seeing what Vallesteros achieves with the new Craft Spells material.