J Church

Pained, strained and sometimes emo vocals (à la Dinosaur Jr.) start out as the focus here, and that, coupled with the noisy pop feel, will certainly appeal to the Radiohead loving masses out there. Australia's Joshua manages to screw around with these six songs just enough to take them well out of commercial rock territory, and some of the heavier electronic moments even push them closer to KMFDM-inspired industrial. Although the noise they're making isn't exactly what I'd call pink and fluffy, they do combine programming with guitar rock to come up with often interesting results. By the end of the disc, Joshua even throws in a bit of funk here and there next to the power chords, but somehow it all works.