Salem

The Northern Michigan beaches of Traverse City hardly seem like a haven for the type of dark, blustering soundscapes that Salem deliver. King Night (the debut LP from the three-piece) features draft-y tracks that are all action and no talk. Songs like densely lit party-pooper "Release da Boar" and the high-concept/low-conceit "Hound" show Salem burying synthesized orchestra hits beneath overdriven sheets of noise, allowing them to carry both melody and mood within the same space. Obviously indebted to Southern hip-hop, French post-house and the apathy purveyed by almost every hot-shit suburban electro-producer under 20, King Night is the sound of lightning being trapped in a bottle of Colt .45. But it's songs like "Sick" and "Trapdoor," incorporating chopped and screwed raps, courtesy of diminutive Wiley Wiggins look-alike John Holland, that allow the trio to come off as the most imaginative, mysterious and adventurous band of 2010. Yes, even more than Die Antwoord.