Pop 'stache

From what can be described as indie pop with an avant-garde, retro-psychedelic feel to it, Gardens & Villa has released their self-titled debut with every bit of spark and energy necessary to cover decent ground as a new band.

The record they’ve put together is a diverse taste of styles and arrangements. Some tracks are more catchy and some are more casual while others may seem more odd and others sound more mainstream.

Even from early on, it’s easy to see that each piece fits without feeling scattered or misplaced. This is simply because of the beauty of avant pop and how it pretty much includes all of the above and allows for free implementation at any point.

A great mediator in the midst of a lot of interesting musicianship starts the record with “Black Hills,” a chiming and pulsing track with steady streamlined vocal work. It’s picturesque both in its words and its tune for an ultimately floaty feel to it. Much of the album in its entirety flows along this path, too.

After listeners get a taste of more solid Gardens & Villa tunes with “Cruise Ship,” which could be seen as more catchy, it becomes much more futuristic and foreign in “Orange Blossom.” It sounds a bit like an electronic concoction derived from DJ Danger Mouse’s hands, and they best resemble experimental rockers Dirty Projectors.

Perhaps the most charming pieces along the audio timeline are “Spacetime” and “Star Fire Power.” Both implement sound effects that are uncommon, like something of a space ship landing or a tribal ritual anthem, and it’s not clear whether they add to or detract from the intention of the song. They’re just odd. Either way, the high energy in both songs is exciting and engaging.

As songs soon become more dark and slow near the end of the record, smaller effects seem to make more of a mark in their songs’ outcome. “Carrizo Plain” contains “woah-ah-oh” sounds with harmonies repeated in a captivating way. These lead up to a great closer to the record, “Neon Dove,” whose acoustic guitar and drum ticks travel into silence following its descriptive storyline.

What’s especially notable about the debut album is its pace. Gardens & Villa really doesn’t get into a very quick motion at any point, but the slow-psychedelic route is a neat one to take. This becomes present gradually past the halfway point on the album and increases steadily toward the finish.

It might be considered a cop out for such a new band to list themselves as avant-pop artists. Gardens & Villa may need this as a kickstand early on, but it can’t work for them forever. In order to mature as a band, they’re going to have to establish themselves as a band that can fit into a real category, and not some makeshift gateway.

Maybe by the end of the recording, listeners can get a true feel for avant-pop as a genre. If they can’t, maybe the deed’s been done. Avant-pop is definitely a fill-in-the-blank term, and Gardens & Villa certainly fit right in.

Gardens & Villa – s/t Tracklist:

1. “Black Hills”
2. “Cruise Ship”
3. “Thorn Castles”
4. “Orange Blossom”
5. “Spacetime”
6. “Chemtrails”
7. “Star Fire Power”
8. “Sunday Morning”
9. “Carrizo Plain”
10. “Neon Dove”

*shels shook up the “post-metal” scene quite a bit in 2007 with their full-length debut, Sea of the Dying Dhow. Along with other budding underground acts like The Pax Cecilia, the transcontinental group caught some attention on the Internet thanks to the asterisk in front of their name and the quality of their music. After Googling “Dhow,” most listeners found themselves entranced by *shels’ unique concoction sounds drawing as much from Russians Circles as bands like Oceansize.

The success of their debut had fans anxious for a follow-up. Plains of the Purple Buffalo was in the works for years—the name seemed to be conceived before any of the music—and four years later, it finally sees the light of day. Immediately clear is that the band wasn’t slacking all this time: Plains of the Purple Buffalo is a massive album, clocking in at 76 minutes long.

This also becomes the album’s biggest problem. Seventy-six minutes is a lot of music. Even in the world of post-rock/metal, a set of this size requires some extra craftsmanship on the performer’s part and patience on the listener’s. As is the tendency for many bands in this genre, *shels sticks to more or less the same formula in each track. Fortunately, *shels still manages to rise above their peers for the most part, thanks to some wonderful arrangements and truly sublime peaks. Vocals are used occasionally, adding some depth and character to the songs. No songs are particularly better than the others, but by the halfway point it’s time for something else. It is worth hearing the whole album, but two sittings would be in order.

The record benefits from excellent production. Each instrument has its own space and the dynamics are huge. “Journey to the Plains” will shock the listener to attention within the first 20 seconds. It opens with a quiet acoustic guitar and humming before running the listener over with a stampede sound. This only lasts briefly; having grabbed the listeners attention, *shels brings it back down and constructs an eight-minute behemoth of an opener. True to the title, this track (as well as the others) elicits an image of mighty buffalo on a westward journey.

Along with the nice acoustic passages, the band’s biggest strength might actually be their use of trumpet.

Since the collapse of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the trumpet has been a sadly underused instrument in this field. *shels plays this to their advantage on several tracks. As with “Conference of the Birds,” opener on Sea of the Dying Dhow, “Journey to the Plains” puts trumpet front-and-center for the climax. It carries the glorious outro melody on “The Spirit Horse” and is given a beautiful solo to start “Leaving the Plains,” which leads to a cinematic closure Mono fans would be proud of.

It’s good that a band can still sound fresh in a scene that’s gone terribly stale since the mid-aughts. Plains of the Purple Buffalo showcases both the strengths and weaknesses of post-metal, but with a little tweaking and a little trimming, these guys can be flat-out awesome. Unfortunately interest in this style has waned significantly of the last few years. Though *shels may be onto a genuinely good thing here, it may not be much different from Michael Scott advertising “Limitless paper in a paperless world.”

*shels – Plains of the Purple Buffalo

1. “Journey To The Plains”
2. “Plains Of The Purple Buffalo (Part 1)”
3. “Plains Of The Purple Buffalo (Part 2)”
4. “Searching For Zihuatanejo”
5. “Vision Quest”
6. “Atoll”
7. “Butterflies On Luci’s Way”
8. “Crown Of Eagle Feathers”
9. “Bastien’s Angels”
10. “Conqueror”
11. “The Spirit Horse”
12. “Waking”
13. “Leaving The Plains”

The crawling, lilting terror and wonder to The Entire City is inimitable. Solo artist Elizabeth Walling immerses herself so entirely in performance that it manages to transcend archetypal “costume art-rock” that’s been performed for years by groups such as Fever Ray and Planningtorock. This is not a work that buries itself in a neo-gothic caricature of itself—what’s remarkable about Gazelle Twin’s music is that it’s widely approachable with well-crafted melody, dramatic arch and braggadocio to boot.

The album cover art seems to question the place of man in nature yet actually reveals an urban world of monotony, futility and shadow—distilled perfectly in the empty space and hard steel of “Concrete Mother,” all the forlornness and terror of the work comes through choral. The Entire City borrows its title from a series of paintings by surrealist Max Ernst, a self-confessed influence of Walling’s, though she’s been careful to discern between inspiration and imitation. In any case, the Gazelle Twin’s sound incants a dreamscape of surrealist proportions.

Walling, in performance and recordings, is able to disembody her voice from her identity. The result is a dark, lingering yet ethereally beautiful sound. Though in concept she may be an androgynous, nameless persona, with the aid of vocoders and processing, there is something eerily human to her singing. Not to mention when she does shut off all the electronic aid, as on the single “Changelings,” her vocals shine through exactingly—she is an incredibly talented singer and her desire is unmistakable.

Gazelle Twin’s spooky charm ably navigates the labyrinthine tracklist. From “Men Like Gods,” with its adroit electronic drum work and dissonant, ancient harmonies to “I Am Shell I Am Bone,” with its looping echoes and ghosted. Winding and nightmarish at times, The Entire City does have a unified aesthetic and clearly planned structure.

From its cinematic opening with howling winds to the sound of a bell tower, Walling moves through each segment, constantly evolving her character from paranoid outsider into a strangely fetishized monster, conqueror of the city ruined by its spoils.

Listeners should be prepared—The Entire City is a cinematically immersive experience; nothing feels “fun” or glossed over, every dark edge is perused and felt. Each arrangement hints at this spine-tingling dream-world. There are pages out of Paul Auster, Max Ernst, Prince (check her cover of “I Wonder U”) and of course, Fever Ray. Art rock it is but Art Rock that’s informed, accessible and infectious. Walling herself told The Quietus, “Art and pop practically come from the same place. Both are prone to moments of loftiness just as easily as they are to spouting utter bullshit.” The Entire City is grounded in ritual, performance and imagination—but you don’t need to see Gazelle Twin live to feel that.

Gazelle Twin – The Entire City

At first listen, FOMO may sound like a release from Vampire Weekend’s side project with Ra Ra Riot. But after giving it a bit more time, only the vocal work of Liam Finn resembles that of another indie band’s. This recording has a very individual arrangement to it.

Liam Finn creates his own unique sounds within every track. “Neurotic World” starts with its own pulsing sound before it collects into a neat resounding guitar and piano rhythm. The backing vocals of “Don’t Even Know Your Name” trail along the chorus and make the song more interesting. The chirps in the beginning of “Real Late” are like nothing ever created before. It’s also notable how the acoustic guitar along with a wamped-up electric make for a sound that is reminiscent of a changing of the seasons of the year. Even through the echoing “ohhh” sounds in the ultimate “Jump Your Bones,” there’s no predicting what’ll come next. This is the greatest element of the compilation.

There isn’t anything comparable to Liam Finn. His lyrical style is his own, especially considering songs like “Roll Of The Eye,” which details the simplicity of the lifestyles in his home country.

Because of the diversity contained in just one album, there’s really nothing that sounds like his work either. It’s possible some of the songs on FOMO do sound like another artist’s in their own way, but there’s certainly no artist that accomplishes all that gets accomplished with every song like Liam Finn does. There isn’t another person out there that has songs that sound like grunge while being indie and also feels like an entire band’s effort but fronted by one singular musician.

Though each noise is individually crafted, that doesn’t mean to say that they all resound in a positive way. Some of the tunes on FOMO do fall flat.

Much of the flow along the trail of the album is too slow to match the always-chipper tone in Finn’s voice. It almost sounds like a vocalist such as himself should be composing a more positive tune to accompany his tenor qualities. What he needed to do was remove a bit of the distortion and create more tunes like the adorably beachy, ’50s-sounding “Cold Feet.”

The innovative noises in “Real Late” at the middle of the record might not be meant to be the center of a song’s foundation. The sliding chirps are very peculiar in a ho-hum way, which aren’t pleasant to the ear. Even at the end it trails out with a mindless piano tune that doesn’t align with any part of the record. None of it makes much logical sense.

Certainly the best part of FOMO is the finale. What starts as a collection of beats and sawing sounds of many sorts turns into an epic tale about lust. Not only was it cool of Finn to utilize an expression that’s new to the language of pop culture, but it was clever to implement the most exciting of his trials in this type of song, especially building steam toward where it becomes a finale. It makes for a sound of high amplitude and astronomical energy. Now, if he had used these tactics in the rest of his songs, he might’ve created a masterpiece there. Instead, it’s fascinatingly above average.

Liam Finn – Fomo Tracklist:

1. “Neurotic World”
2. “Don’t Even Know Your Name”
3. “Roll Of The Eye”
4. “Cold Feet”
5. “Real Late”
6. “The Struggle”
7. “Little Words”
8. “Reckless”
9. “Chase The Seasons”
10. “Jump Your Bones”

Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner is something of a renaissance man. For starters, he’s a hell of a bassist—and a versatile one, at that. Currently, he slappa da bass for the thrash metal band Suicidal Tendencies, but has played on songs for Shafiq Husayn, Erykah Baddu and Flying Lotus.

Stylistically, Bruner is amorphous, taking cues from funk and soul sounds of the ’70s but doing so with a perspective set squarely on the future. It comes as no surprise, then, that Flying Lotus would scoop the guy up and sign him to his Brainfeeder imprint. Lotus would even takes it a step further, sitting behind the boards and producing Bruner’s debut, The Golden Age of the Apocalypse, a long-gestating collection of jazz tunes that are indicative of Lotus’ own classically-influenced sounds.

What separates The Golden Age of the Apocalypse from similar albums is Bruner’s aversion to deconstruction. Sure, the album doesn’t sound like a typical jazz record—but it’s also not a spuriously postmodern attempt to reinvent the wheel, either. In lesser hands, the album would be a claptrap of repetitious synth sounds and inauthentic drum loops.

Instead, The Golden Age of the Apocalypse is a malleable and expressionistic experience, made all the more impressive by Lotus’ nimble production.

The record plays like some sort futuristic jam session, with tracks coming and going in seamless fashion. “Jamboree” and its lively rhythm section bleeds effortlessly into the spaced-out “Boat Cruise,” while the minimalist tune “Goldenboy” stands out as a deliciously tranquil respite from an album that, at times, can be quite frenetic.

Bruner sometimes has trouble sticking to his aesthetic, and as a result, the album quickly becomes tiresome. In fact, straight out the gate, “Daylight” proves to be a borderline unlistenable track. With its Miami Vice-ish keyboard licks and intrusive drum pattern overpowering Brune’s playful bass line, the track starts the album off on the wrong foot.

Up next is “Fleer Ultra,” another song that’s too busy for its own good. Unlike the rest of the album, which unfolds at a leisurely and decidedly relaxed pace, the overly kinetic melodies of “Fleer Ultra” are akin to a 13-year-old’s first experience with GarageBand, the incoherent boops and beeps coming off as grating and unnecessary.

Luckily, Bruner settles in nicely by the time he reaches his cover of George Duke’s “For Love I Come,” setting the tone for the rest of the album. The hauntingly majestic track is boasted by the kinds of chord progressions Charlie Parker and John Coltrane hung their hats on, but thanks to Bruner’s decidedly avant-garde style, classic song structure sounds ample and invigorated.

The jazz style remains something of a fixation for modern musicians, but The Golden Age of Apocalypse avoids the shortcomings that plague similar projects. As much as many hip-hop artists have made “jazzy” music—producers like Madlib and Pete Rock, as well as rapper Guru among them—it rarely elevates beyond the realm of homage.

Thundercat and Flying Lotus, however, have embraced the canon, proving to be influenced by it in ways their peers simply aren’t. There’s a passion for the sound at play, making The Golden Age of Apocalypse the rare kind of album that’s as fashionable as it is creditable.

Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse Tracklist:

1. “Hooooooo”
2. “Daylight”
3. “Fleer Ultra”
4. “Is It Love?”
5. “For Love I Come”
6. “It Really Doesn’t Matter to You”
7. “Jamboree”
8. “Boat Cruise”
9. “Seasons”
10. “Golden Boy”
11. “Walkin'”
12. “Mystery Machine (The Golden Age of Apocalypse)”
13. “Return to the Journey”

Only two albums into their young career, Crystal Antlers already hold a dubious distinction: after Touch and Go Records announced a massive downsizing in 2009, the band’s debut effort Tentacles will likely be the last new release for the venerable label. Which is a shame, considering how well they seemed to fit alongside some of Touch and Go’s most famous acts, including Shellac, Polvo and The Black Heart Procession.

Despite the lack of a proper label, the band has self-released their second album, Two-Way Mirror. Recorded in their hometown of Long Beach, Calif., the album seems a logical step forward for the band. But for ever moment of headway, the band seems to get a little too big for their britches, incorporating elements that can only be described as head-scratching.

For an album that strives for frenetic instrumentation and grating tonality, Two-Way Mirror is sometimes a surprisingly complacent collection of songs. Though tracks like “Knee Deep” and “Séance” sound feverish on the surface, there remains a sense of control that does the band’s admittedly intriguing sound a grand disservice. At its worst, the album resembles something like a blueprint, with skeletal tracks like “Way Out” and “Dog Days” doing little in the way of establishing the avant-garage sound the band seems to be looking for.

But then there are moments of a solace. “By The Sawkill,” the album’s best track, is an abrasive affront that kicks off with a Mars Volta-esque guitar riff before eventually settling into an extended and gloomy bridge, making for a roller coaster of sounds and textures.

“By The Sawkill” transitions smoothly into the title track, which features frontman Johnny Bell’s vocal qualities quite nicely. Like a brusquer version of TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Bell works mostly in wails and swoons. But where Adebimpe can often sound outright soulful in his approach, Bell sticks closely to the album’s punk rock groundwork.

When all the stars align, Bell’s voice is one of the Two-Way Mirrors’ greatest features. The album’s opener, “Jules’ Story,” is a perfect introductory track not only for the album, but also for Bell’s unique style. Unfortunately, what follows is hit or miss, both in terms of his vocal qualities and the album’s aesthetic.

To put it bluntly, Two-Way Mirrors suffers from multiple personality disorder. The album would work better if the rampant reverb and layers of distortion were the focal point. When the band attempts to incorporate elements of ’60s psychedelia (“Always Afraid”) and ’70s radio rock (“Dog Days”), their ambition gets the best of them.

In the case of the latter, Bell just doesn’t have the chops, vocally, to match the songs’ expansive melodies and structure. The rest of the band, from a musical standpoint, however, excels in stepping outside the box. In a way, “Dog Days” is indicative of the entire album: many well-intentioned elements coming together in a technically proficient fashion, but never quite reaching its desired effect.

Still, for an album that can, at times, feel meandrous and incoherent, the bright spots of promise point to a band that lacks anything but ambition. Simply put, Crystal Antlers still seem to be finding themselves, making Two-Way Mirror, at the very least, an engaging insight into the always-fascinating process of a harnessing a sound.

Crystal Antlers – Two-Way Mirror Tracklist:

1. “Jules’ Story”
2. “Séance”
3. “Summer Solstice”
4. “By The Sawkill”
5. “Two-Way Mirror’
6. “Way Out”
7. “Fortune Telling”
8. “Always Afraid”
9. “Knee Deep”
10. “Sun-Bleached”
11. “Dog Days”

Art vs. Science are a band that formed after Dan McNamee attended a Daft Punk concert and convinced his long time friends and band mates Jim Finn and Dan Williams to start an electronic band in 2008. Since then, Art vs. Science have released eight singles and EPs in Australia and have just dropped their first album, The Experiment, this year.

The Experiment is a mix between a bunch of electronic influences as well as some funky ones from left field. The album is mostly all electronic instruments with heavy edited vocals like Daft Punk’s “Harder, Faster, Stronger” although there are some parts in which the band sounds similar to Battles or even Rob Zombie. Because of this strange and unique sound and style that Art vs. Science has, some songs excel in their originality while others fall flat and are simply annoying and headache-inducing.

The first half of the album is the cheesy and cheeky part. Songs like “Higher” and “Finally See Our Way” could make you feel a little embarrassed for listening to them because of their over-the-top style. But when “Magic Fountain” starts, you hear the absurd lyrics: “In the beginning there was a fountain/But it wasn’t just any fountain/It was a fountain of light/It was a fountain of truth/It was a fountain of dreams/It was a fountain of youth/It was a magic fountain” and then a semi-dubstep wobble (think SebastiAn on his Smoking Kills EP) that actually fits the style and is extremely tasteful and danceable.

It is during this song that Art vs. Science lay off the vocals, do heavy electronic work and give the listener time to soak up their talent, which is their unique take on electronic club music done in a funny yet danceable way. “Magic Fountain” has a buildup and a breaking point just like any DJ in a club does on a Friday night, but when Art vs. Science do it, you don’t mind if the technique is old, because they did it with some originality for once.

After this point, the album starts to pick up and show some diversity. “With Thoughts” is an indie rock song with supplemental electro added in, reminiscent of MGMT or Empire of the Sun. The rest of The Experiment’s slow songs simply fail. It sounds like when Art vs. Science tried to write lyrics and make a whole, cohesive song that it went wrong. Songs like “Finally See Our Way” and “New World Order” drag along and come off as preachy. At the same time, songs like “Bumblebee” that contain just the title word repeated over and over through different vocal filters has a pulsing, driving beat that is extremely fun to listen to.

The songs where Art vs. Science let it all go and “freak out” are their strongest. The vocals on “Bumblebee” are slurred, gurgled and morphed ever which-way with electronics, and it works. It’s the kind of song that, after taking some random pill at a sweaty summer music festival, you’d be kicking mud around as you’re dancing to it and love every minute of it.

Art vs. Science may be a pop band that shouldn’t have the label. They have potential to go all sorts of directions but seem extremely confined by what seems to be an intention of writing only pop songs. If they let go completely, they could find a whole new branch of fans that could enjoy them.

Art vs. Science The Experiment Tracklist:

1. “Finally See Our Way”
2. “Take a Look at Your Face”
3. “A.I.M. Fire!”
4. “Higher”
5. “Magic Fountain”
6. “With Thoughts”
7. “Meteor (I Feel Fine)”
8. “Rain Dance”
9. “Sledgehammer”
10. “New World Order”
11. “Bumblebee”
12. “Heavy Night”
13. “Before You Came to This Place”

Oregon doom metal trio Yob has been bestowed with the greatest honor any metal band could hope to achieve: having a burger named after it at Chicago metal haven Kuma’s Corner. Sharing a menu with such highly-influential acts such as Slayer and Iron Maiden, Yob’s greatness seems implicit. However, its most recent album Atma raises many questions as to why the band is held in such regard.

Atma is what one would expect from the group, and there’s something to be said for the fact that kind of longevity. Unfortunately, the five songs comprising Atma’s 55-minute runtime are not overly compelling. In fact, the limitations of the subgenre prove to be the biggest hindrance for Yob. Mike Scheidt composes some thoroughly crushing riffs—opening track “Prepare the Ground” is a prime example—but repeating that same riff for minutes on end only serves to lessen its impact over time.

The restrictions of metal’s slower subgenres are all illuminated here. When executed well, doom metal acts are able to consume the listener with their monotonous drive, but here Yob falls just short due in large part to a rhythm section that gets lost in monotony.

There are moments when it seems as if Yob is attempting break outside of these doom-y confines, and in doing so, it creates some of the most interesting pieces in the band’s catalog. The intro for “Adrift in the Ocean” recalls elements of folk-metal before the rhythm section—comprising bassist Aaron Reiseberg and drummer Travis Foster—build slowly with tribal cadences. It only helps that it is one of two tracks in which Neurosis’ Scott Kelly makes an appearance, bringing some much needed diversity to Yob’s vocal styling.

Throughout Atma, it is obvious that Yob has moved forward since its debut, but this growth was so gradual it is hard to notice these nuances.

While Yob could potentially be the band to bring doom metal to new audiences, it is far from being an easy listen. The songs are not easily to digest partly due to their extreme length, Scheidt’s vocal style that occasionally recalls Ozzy-era Black Sabbath, and the fact they set out to ravish the listener.

When Atma concludes, there’s no real resolution. For a group such as Yob, writing songs that build slowly and evolve meticulously are their bread and butter. Sadly, Atma ends without having fully realized that. “Adrift in the Ocean” goes from being one of the album’s best offerings to merely trailing off at its climax, without offering any conclusion. When an album only has five songs, they need to warrant their length and have a ton of replay value. It’s sad to see Yob fail to achieve this because of small missteps in sections of each song. Yob flirts with greatness throughout Atma, but in the end it seems as if the group defaulted to laziness.

Yob – Atma Tracklist:

1. “Prepare The Ground”
2. “Atma”
3. “Before We Dreamed Of Two”
4. “Upon The Sight Of The Other Shore”
5. “Adrift In The Ocean”

Ritual Union continues along the same lines as 2009’s Machine Dreams. On that album, Little Dragon lost a lot of their initial appeal, a cool blend of R&B and jazz, exchanging it for an icy electro-pop sound. It wasn’t a bad release per se, but it is was a rather startling, even regressive, move for the band. Ritual Union seeks to remedy some of the shortcomings of Machine Dreams by reintegrating some of the R&B that made their self-titled debut so fresh.

The music stays along the same percussive sounds + ice-cold synth lines as Machine Dreams and vocalist Yukimi Nagano again provides the perfect foil, at times sexy, at times cool, but most importantly human. She is obviously the band’s greatest asset, breathing life into the pieces and keeping them from falling into average territory.

The title track opens things up with a perfect marriage of Nagano’s charismatic R&B vocals and meticulously composed music, a bit warmer too. This track would have made a perfect transitional piece from the group’s former sound.

While more of that excellent blend is most desirable, the tracks that follow simply provide great, danceable tunes, even if they stick mostly to new wave. And luckily they haven’t forsaken their R&B leanings in the vocal department. “Brush the Heat” features a beat that doesn’t sound too distant from Autechre (minus the glitch) and Nagano commands without having to raise her voice. “Shuffle a Dream” is undeniably catchy. Its ’80s synth throwdown with Nagano’s excellent vocals are unstoppable.

The album gets a little saggy in the middle. The tracks aren’t necessarily weaker than the others, they just sound a lot like what’s already been heard up to that point. However, the band pulls out a couple excellent numbers toward the end with the pulsing “Summertearz” (is the z instead of s thing coming back?) and “Seconds,” featuring pleasantly hushed vocals and delicate accompaniments, is a nice way to end things.

It’s really a shame Little Dragon didn’t catch as much attention with their debut. It was deep, funky and ultimately peerless. Readers are all strongly encouraged to seek out this album. While many have discovered it since their breakout, the somewhat delayed response may have affected the direction they took for these subsequent releases. In their defense, the direction the band has taken will likely garner them a larger audience in today’s indie scene.

Having gained some extra attention thanks to their collaboration with Damon Albarn on Gorillaz’ excellent “Empire Ants” track from last year’s Plastic Beach (as well as others), Little Dragon’s latest, Ritual Union provides a chance to lock up a lot of new fans. For now, Ritual Union is one of the better electro-pop albums to come out this year, but we’ll see if anyone remembers it a few months from now.

Little Dragon – Ritual Union Tracklist:

1. “Ritual Union”
2. “Little Man”
3. “Brush The Heat”
4. “Shuffle A Dream”
5. “Please Turn”
6. “Crystalfilm”
7. “Precious”
8. “Nightlight”
9. “Summertearz”
10. “When I Go Out”
11. “Seconds”

It seems that the current generation of musicians may have found their distinct voice in dance punk. The place in which bands like She Wants Revenge failed, The Chain Gang of 1974 might have hit the nail on the head (and we can’t be sure if they even meant to) with Wayward Fire. If you can get past the band’s awkward name, you might see the freshest new blend of music to come out of Colorado since everyone and their local scene started gushing over Fear Before the March of Flames almost 10 years ago

Kamtin Mohager (lead man in The Chain Gang) is friends with the guys in 3OH3!, and has even been their stage bassist at times. But don’t be discouraged or put off from his music if you don’t like 3OH3!—The Chain Gang shares almost nothing in common with them and is actually a lot more appealing to people who aren’t so keen on a given band’s arguable love affair with Ke$ha.

This is because The Chain Gang of 1974 slips frenetically between rock, electro, dance and little bit of funk. It’s The Faint meets Passion Pit, sprinkled with hints of YACHT and a long-lasting aftertaste of authentic ’80s retro.

The Chain Gang’s album is just a love for synth-pop that has other instruments thrown into the mix at the right times. The combination of these two elements let you feel the tinny, clean synth instruments that give the ’80s feel, and the guitars and bass ground the songs with a small organic feel that reminds you you’re listening to humans playing with electronic toys, and not just machines.

You can feel the nostalgia and love for music in The Chain Gang’s songs; it’ll bring you back to when you first discovered something that wasn’t on the radio and thought you were the only person who knew about it.

The Chain Gang can get away with all this because songs like “Heartbreakin’ Scream” don’t sound like every other teenage poppy electronic band singing about relationships. In fact, The Chain Gang gives off more of a shoegaze vibe than anything else you might be expecting. If you’ve ever heard My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult’s “A Daisy Chain for Satan” (or any early ’80s industrial before things started to sound fast and frightening), you’ll hear the industrial sound that is very beat heavy and relies on adding layer after layer as the song goes on.

There’s also what feels like a strong homage to The Cure. “Matter of Time” sounds like “The Lovecats.” There is a thumping melody that also serves as bass at parts that is played by not just the fun and squawky synth, but the lead guitar as well.

The song’s retro feel peaks when it gets to the three-quarter mark and there’s a semi-breakdown and an almost overdramatic and nostalgic yet not-quite-there single note guitar part that takes the spotlight for a minute before the rest of the band comes back in and you can imagine hearing the song at the end of a teen movie.

But the album isn’t without its weak points. After a while the album does get a bit repetitive and some songs don’t seem all that worth it. By the time “Ethical Drugs” rolls around as track nine of 11, the listener understands that The Chain Gang can whip out a sick beat, sling some guitar hooks over it, throw a synth line or two under it all and make it sound pretty good.

The Chain Gang of 1974 Wayward Fire Tracklist:

1. “Stop”
2. “Devil Is a Lady”
3. “Hold On”
4. “Heartbreakin’ Scream”
5. “Taste of Heaven”
6. “Matter of Time”
7. “Undercover”
8. “Teenagers”
9. “Ethical Drugs”
10. “Tell Me”
11. “Don’t Walk Away”

The British dance-pop duo The Black Ghosts, built from the remnants of anterior bands Simian and the Wiseguys, have channeled their inner macabre to record and produce their latest musical endeavor, When Animals Stare. Behind the powerhouse producing abilities of Theo Keating and Simon William Lord, When Animals Stare packs a house and electronic punch for a good majority of the record. There are a handful of not-so-exciting tunes recorded here, but they are outweighed by Keating and Lord’s fantastic taste and need to be obscure.

“Even in the Darkness” sports an intense guitar riff that builds into a booming cascade of keyboard hits and synthesized drum beats and is a definite standout on the album. The breakdown during the chorus has a certain Tron: Legacy appeal to it. As the song grows, it’s morphed into a back-and-forth battle between organic music and computer-generated neatness. It’s hot and sexy as Keating leads the song out with the vocals, “Love surrounds us, even in the darkness.”

“Sanguinella” is a powerhouse of tasty treats as well. Keating’s vocals are pronounced and effectively tie the entire song together. With the veritable range of sounds and the insular detail that goes into their music writing, The Black Ghosts take the time to create a hot little ditty dug deep in the depths of the horror movies and cadaverous lifestyle.

Keating and Lord change their sound throughout the album. Trading dark electro beats for a more house-esque charm, they cater to the equally interesting disco era of the ’70s.

Put on a rayon suit, find the biggest shirt collar on the shelf and don some platform shoes for “Talk No More.” It has a funky disco feel to it that could easily be heard rumbling off the walls of Studio 54. “Walking on the Moon” holds the same vein and really showcases The Black Ghosts’ house abilities.

“Forgetfulness” has bohemian undertones coupled with an out of the ordinary baritone sax sound. The song is playful and upbeat but trails away too soon. With the multitude of talent between Keating and Lord, they could turn this three-minute gem into an extended block party in just one track. This is a decent song on the album; it’s just short when it comes to the idea of a good electronic melody. With the way the song builds, it’s almost a letdown when it fades out after 3:14.

“In The Clouds” is a love ballad chanting to the tune of a “lost without you” attitude. The background beats take notes from The Postal Service’s Give Up, in that they are subtle, cute and married to kitschy lyrics. With lines like: “I don’t know what I’m doin’ when I’m not with you,” it’s easy to see the similarities.

There are a handful of low and slow tracks on the album and though it is good to switch the tempo up every now and then, it’s these songs that detract from the real energy of the album. “Aurora Borealis” takes a step in the New Wave direction, holding onto a dawdling, methodic beat. “Diamonds” is stalwart right out of the gates with muted tones that lean toward an evil villain theme song. “That’s All There Is” is more like space filler on the record as opposed to being a substantial addition to the collection.

“Water Will Find a Way” is all R&B with the high hat and bass lines, but keeps that eerie appeal with the deep horn synths in the background. There is a playfulness hinted at in the song, with slight glockenspiel and sleigh bells coming through on the chorus. It’s one of the only songs on the record with a radio-friendly sound.

With the mix of sounds and delivery rooted throughout the album, When Animals Stare makes for a decent listening party and has no shortage of tunes that get the listener out of their seat. Some of the music on the album is slow and perhaps a little predictable in the same breath. It would be bold to put this as a top pick of the year, but would definitely make some top 100 lists.

The Black Ghosts – When Animals Stare Tracklist:

1. “Water Will Find A Way”
2. “Walking On The Moon”
3. “In The Clouds”
4. “In The Darkness”
5. “Diamonds”
6. “Sanguinella”
7. “That’s All There Is”
8. “Talk No More”
9. “Aurora Borealis”
10. “Forgetfulness”
11. “Your Soul Is Free”

It takes a lot to freak out They Might Be Giants fans. These are people who sing along to songs about Belgian painters, forgettable American presidents, and the four-chambered hearts of mammals, for god’s sake. Still, the band managed to shake things up with 2007’s The Else, their first album with big name producers (Dust Brothers), no accordion, and no songs shorter than two minutes in length. It was almost as if the Johns (Linnell and Flansburgh) had outgrown their own band.

 While I wouldn’t call the new album a “return to form” (a label that is applied to releases by nearly all aging alternative bands), one can’t help but feel that They Might Be Giants kept an eye on their creative rearview mirror during the writing and recording of Join Us. Rather than sounding like a rehash of their classic material, it’s more like a Whitman’s Sampler of They Might Be Giants various styles. Unfortunately, the genre-hopping becomes almost maddening at times and makes it difficult to establish any momentum.

Of course, it would be almost unforgivable if the material wasn’t so damn catchy. Songs like “Judy Is Your Vietnam” and “Canajoharie” are power pop at its best, while songs like “Cloisonné” and  “Protagonist” have John Flansburgh assuming the role of a folk-rock crooner of sorts.  Experimenting with different genres doesn’t always work, though. “Celebration,” one of only two songs longer than three minutes, is a disco number that doesn’t seem to go anywhere while randomly name-checking Banksy and Dutch painter Hironymous Bosch.

With the exception of “Celebration,” the first two-thirds of the album stay pretty true to the post-2000 They Might Be Giants sound. Something changes right around “The Lady and the Tiger,” as the album closes with a handful of delightfully bizarre songs that wouldn’t sound too out of place on their early albums like Lincoln or Apollo 18. “Spoiler Alert” has both Johns singing different songs over the same music, while “The Lady and the Tiger” almost strays into hip-hop territory. Two of the final tracks,“2082” and “Three Might Be Duende,” sound more like classic TMBG than anything else they’ve put out in years.

In addition to the strong material, the band is in fine form.  John Flansburgh’s vocals are the star of this album, particularly his well-aged falsetto on songs like “Never Knew Love” and “Protagonist.” The non-John members also deliver a fine performance, proving that this lineup (unchanged since 2004) might be “the one.” I got a major kick out of the cute reference to the current lineup in the last verse of “When Will You Die.” Linnell lazily sings, “This is Dan and that’s Dan/Then there’s Marty on the drums to complete the band/I’m John and he is also John.”

On Join Us, They Might Giants have managed to give a nod to the past without coming across as desperate for approval. They’ve learned how to write for and record with a full band, which contributes to the album’s sonic cohesiveness (despite the weak sequencing). While the band might not gain any new fans from this album, it’s definitely going to please the fan base that has been clamoring for shorter, accordion-based songs about death over the past decade or so.

There. I did it. I wrote a They Might Be Giants review without using critics’ favorite TMBG buzzwords: “quirky,” “wacky,” or any variation of  “nerd.”  Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I have to go pat myself on the back.

They Might Be Giants Join Us Tracklist:

1. “You Can’t Keep Johnny Down”
2. “You  Probably Get That A Lot”
3. “Old Pine Box”
4. “Canajoharie”
5. “Cloisonne”
6. “Let Your Hair Hang Down”
7. “Celebration”
8. “In Fact”
9. “When Will You Die”
10. “Protagonist”
11. “Judy Is Your Vietnam”
12. “Never Knew Love”
13. “The Lady and the Tiger”
14. “Spoiler Alert”
15. “Dog Walker”
16. “2082”
17. “Three Might Be Duende”
18. “You Don’t Like Me”