The son of a genetic engineer, Dave Hartley has eschewed his father's profession but decidedly inherited his analytical proclivities and love of "the lab." As NIGHTLANDS, Hartley is a scientist trying to create and understand art through analytical process.

Here, with sophomore album ,Oak Island", his follow up to 2010's superb "Forget the Mantra", new questions are explored: what happens when the human voice is layered exponentially? NIGHTLANDS takes us on a spirit quest through lush forests down into The Uncanny Valley.

Each distorted, silver-voiced melody is wrapped in the sounds of 70s AM gold - plucked acoustic guitars, trumpets, dulcimers and hand percussion.

Hartley is a prolific sideman in many notable Philadelphia bands and the extraordinary bassist of The War on Drugs.

Listeners expecting a simple side project, however, will be surprised by the boldness and scope of his vision -- NIGHTLANDS is the Chuck Close painting to the THE WAR ON DRUGS' De Kooning.