Have no fear, the New York trio
Sightings
remain -- on one hand -- as impenetrable as ever on their fourth album. By most reasonable standards, the eight songs comprising
City of Straw
are off-putting blasts of mongrel noise. But what appears to be utterly claustrophobic, abstract chaos reveals itself as a rich collection of layered compositions that -- when topped with guitarist
Mark Morgan
's vocals -- can even approach the outer realms of pop. By
' standards, this is accessible, inviting songwriting. The surfaces might be comprised of screeching glitches, but the structures are ordered and repeating. In places, drummer
Jon Lockie
's fractured electronic percussion combined with
Morgan
's textural guitar and drifting vocals recall (surely accidentally) the most barren drum machine moments of
Radiohead
's
Kid A
, with the existential angst knob cranked into overdrive.
Lockie
's setup, which includes a vintage '80s drum brain, defines much of
' sound. On two songs, including the (nearly) straightforward
"Sky Above Mud Below,"
he sticks almost entirely to the acoustic kit, using his electronic drums for fills as a more traditional trap drummer might use cymbals. On the nine-minute title track and centerpiece -- for which the band is joined by
No-Neck Blues Band
keyboardist
Pat Murano
--
stays entirely electronic, laying the fuzzed and ever-shifting grid for
's echoing melody, which floats between narrative and small, buried hooks. Bassist
Richard Hoffman
's job throughout is to play counterpoint to
's impressionistic drums and
's even more impressionistic guitar, defining the songs' most distinct shapes. Recorded with
Oneida
members (and
Brah Records
label heads)
Kid Millions
and
Shahin Motia
,
presents an album that grows more and more connected with each listen. ~ Jesse Jarnow