Lower Dens

In a music scene that increasingly thrives on willy-nilly fusion and the stacking of disparate influences because well, why not, Lower Dens stand out for finding ample inspiration in the simple, dependable four-piece rock band set-up. Not that the Baltimore group sounds conventional by any means—they're much too murky and far too experimental for that—but they have developed their subterranean sound using only rock’s basic elements. Jana Hunter's cloudy vocals and edgy riffs are backed by Will Adams' unhurried guitar work, while the doom-pop rhythm section of bassist Geoff Graham and drummer Abram Sanders adds an atmospheric rattle to the band's already nervous sound.

Hunter is originally from Houston; before Lower Dens, she was a noted purveyor of damaged folk-rock on Devendra Banhart's label Gnomonsong. She moved to Baltimore, the kind of place where “freak folk” still thrives, and instead formed the relatively conventional post-punk rumblers Lower Dens. On last year's debut album, Twin Hand Movement, Lower Dens immediately proved themselves to be doing more than simply backing Hunter’s tripped-out folk. No, these were subtly navigating surf-rock grooves, wounded singer-songwriter vamps, and gloomy guitar work that wasn’t afraid to wander into diffuse, almost ambient territory.

Live, they’re quite good at capturing the rarefied sound of their recordings, but they also possess the talent to recreate the feeling of their jangle pop. There's an even deeper intensity to their songs on the stage, and the band is in a perpetual, startlingly intense mind-meld, playing off of one another and mashing all their instruments together into a big fuzzy swath of gorgeous noise. —Brandon Soderberg