Growing

For the last couple of releases, this Brooklyn, NY via Olympia, WA duo have been gene splicing their guitars to create a new hybrid form of danceable music. Kevin Doria and Joe Denardo have eased away from their early output as epic drone purveyors in the vein of Pelt or (obviously) Sunn O))). Starting with Lateral and All the Way, both from 2008, they fractured and fragmented their chords with a digital turbine of flange, tremolo and delay ad nausea. On Pumps!, they've come closest to actually sequencing those efforts into melodic progressions. The addition of a drum machine, as on "Massive Dropout," lightens the burden on the guitar jitters to completely carry the rhythm of the piece. Consequently, the guitar equivalent of Autotune unlocks waves of melody that traipse across the over-caffeinated beat patterns. The drum programming varies between fairly textbook 4/4 dance beats, but occasionally reinforces a hint of gamelan-like orchestration or even, as on "Challenger," a more forceful dubstep menace. After a couple of workbook quality releases. Pumps! feels like the fieldwork has paid off.