Effi Briest "Mirror Rim"

Leave it to Brooklyn to spawn a septet that look and sound like they introduced rock’n’roll to Summerisle, the eerie Mother-Nature-lovin’ island in The Wicker Man. Hell, I’m sure the citizens would love someone else to headline the May Day festival other than either Magnet or those drunkards in the pub singing "The Landlord’s Daughter.” Originally imagined as a noise band, Effi Briest (unabashedly named after Theodor Fontane’s 1894 realist novel) come off like a coven casting spells on an unbeknownst listener. It’s no wonder the bassist came from Psychic Ills, these girls pump trance-y waves of lustful r’n’r through their stacks, best exemplified by their cover of Jim Pepper’s "The Newlyweds Song,” which works occultish mind-fuckery both through the lyrics and crawling Pagan chants. However, "Mirror Rim” is the more interesting of the two songs released on a seven-inch by the Loog label (Patrick Wolf, the Horrors). The Slits comparisons have been done to death, but here comes the nail in the coffin; not only does vocalist Kelsey Barrett howl and annunciate like a stoned Ari Up, but her band even enchant up a polyrhythmic storm behind her, laying down all sorts of interweaving guitar parts and time measures of an ominous kind that simultaneously signal a Can infatuation. The fact that it’s all done while Barrett belts out palindromes (check the title!) makes them all the more bewitching.

Effi Briest "Mirror Rims”

• More Effi Briest