On their early EPs and singles,
Drahla
showed a knack for balancing the fiery, confrontational side of no wave with the detachment of classic British post-punk like
Wire
. Since then, they've grown quickly, and their debut album
Useless Coordinates
complicates their music in intriguing and increasingly assured ways. They're among the post-punk acts rediscovering the power of a well-deployed saxophone, thanks to the contributions of their longtime friend and collaborator
Chris Duffin
of
XAM Duo
and
Virginia Wing
.
Duffin
holds his own among
's churning attack, and his artfully skronky sax elevates "Serenity" and "React/Revolt," a rangy track that puts the band through their paces as it lumbers, skulks, and races to its climax.
's other not-so-secret weapon is singer/guitarist
Luciel Brown
's deadpan singing style. The vocal equivalent of a Rorschach blot, the slightest change in her delivery speaks volumes. On the jagged "Stimulus for Living," the subtle shifts when she repeats "It feels fine" are just as defiant -- and more interesting -- than a typical punk sneer. She's the eye of the storm on "Gilded Cloud," where her near-monotone recitation of non sequiturs like "string of pearls around your neck/gilded cloud in a plasticine sunset" adds to the track's surreality. Some of
' finest moments appear near the end of the album: "Twelve Dimensions of the Day" is equally hypnotic and insistent, with unison vocals from
Brown
and bassist
Rob Riggs
that add an extra dose of strangeness to the proceedings. Similarly, their call-and-response interplay on "Unwound" is another example of how skillfully they channel their avant-garde influences into pop structures. Elsewhere,
display an impressive flair for creating complex moods in just a handful of minutes. "Serotonin Level" teeters somewhere between anxious and sleazy as it hurtles along with
's big, buzzing sax trailing in its wake, while "Invisible Sex"'s paranoid lyrics are almost disguised by
's cooing voice and dreamy guitars. A more-than-promising debut,
makes good on the potential of
's previous work and suggests they're not done evolving. ~ Heather Phares