Paperhaus

Post rock, prog rock. First album from this Washington, D.C., based band. This is arty, interesting stuff, doing a mostly brilliant job of walking the line between epic and excessive. Guitars soaring all over the place, tightly controlled drums, two male voices. A song might be instrumental for a couple minutes, then a voice might jump in, then everything will dissolve in a shimmering haze, then the guitars will power it up again. The guitars dominate the album and they sound pretty great, sometimes immersing the listeners in waves of sound, as in “Cairo,” while sometimes maintaining a ludicrously sharp edge, as on “Misery.” Compelling, intricate: an absorbing listen. A great album for KZSU. Try 1, 2, 4, or 6.

1) “Cairo” (6:24): Long beautiful grooving instrumental interlude with plenty of room for the bass guitar. Lovely cosmic stuff.
2) “Untitled” (5:50): More robust vocals on this track, giving me flashbacks to the ‘80s. Cool transition at 2:20.
3) “432” (4:16): Like molasses—dark, slow, a bit spicy. Cello really important on this track. The song stumbles forward in a really cool way.
4) “Misery” (7:44): Stripped down: guitar, voice. Bluesy. Weird. Comically slow before breaking forward at 5:30. Hard to know what to make of this but I love it.
5) “Surrender” (5:15): This felt a bit over the top but whatever. “Surrender to the night.” Thicker on the cheese. But I guess you could be into that sort of thing.
6) “So Slow” (3:05): Cool stuff. I liked the jagged, fragmented chorus.
7) “I’ll Send It To You” (4:30): Again: slow, heavy, thick. Methodical and deliberate to the point of being stylized.
8) “Surrender (Outro)” (4:40): Quiet beginning—guitar plays the theme over a background of ambient noise. Then: things suddenly get funky, open up. A reprise of “surrender,” but simpler. I preferred this version.

—Mr. Tumnus