Luke Winkie

There’s a dark undercurrent slithering underneath, even in the brightest flares, like a constant reminder that Simian is saving their biggest fold for a different attitude, but I’d like to think that this is who they are. Sinister House, Techno With Fangs – a smug confidence you would punch if the grooves could let you move.

Dracula is a record that seems to come from a band who hasn’t written any songs yet, just a criss-cross mesh of brown-note tones and (wait for it) a fuzzy vocal channel. It’s not fun, profound, danceable, thinkable, likeable, or even all that hateable – this is empty-release-window music.

It’s incredibly low-stakes music, but Foxes! link some delicate, digestible, and occasionally catchy indie-pop morsels into a half-hour of fulfilled complacency. Whether that’s enough is up to the eye of the beholder.

Christopher Laufman’s Wise Blood makes music out of other people’s songs, but there’s never a moment you doubt his sincerity. The samples he’s grabbing are usually big and pulpy: choir incantations, floor-filling drums, swelling keyboards – they aren’t ironic. It sounds like he’s trying to build a suitable backdrop for his incredible emotions.

Regardless of what conclusion you might reach, it’s pretty easy to applaud Forest Fire for their provocative chops; if they set out to turn heads and force a thoughtful examination, they’ve done it.

The quartet of Big Troubles had the means to compose 10 refreshingly distinct tunes that unite such potentially expensive elements as bells, strings, and a studio-quality sheen rendering reductive modifiers like “bedroom,” “garage,” or “basement” mute.

There are a lot of gentle oscillations, sunset-euphoria, and zinging, pleasure-center synths, but not a whole lot of meat. The running time is generally made of empty, cleansed moments with just enough propulsion to be called a song.

Headbangers in Ecstasy revels in looseness. Babbling, fluorescent guitars, rollicking drums, and gently obfuscated vocals – all tied together in a thin mist of reverb. It’s all delirious and twitchy, but starkly short on hooks.