No Gold

On paper, world music-influenced indie rock from Vancouver doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence. But in practice, Van City trio No Gold have managed to blend pop, krautrock and noise to create a blissed-out approximation of just such a thing. Although they've floated around their hometown for a while now, previously playing under the name Yukon before morphing into their current incarnation, No Gold have offered little in the way of recorded material, posting tracks on their Myspace page with frustrating irregularity. Recorded in Vancouver's Chinatown last year, this debut showcases the group's wide range of influences and styles, mixing a traditional guitar, bass and drums set-up with some electronic flourishes to great effect. Opener "Rainforce" offers up squalls of white noise before morphing into sister track "Rainforts" which remarkably, finds middle ground between Malian rockers Tinariwen and Kula Shaker. Their tropical pop influences raise their head on "Weird Week," but groove-based tracks like the stellar "Council Jam" are where No Gold really take flight. A band whose sonic identity shifts with each track, No Gold is unclassifiably brilliant.