Zorch

Austin, TX duo Zorch are ready and willing to fight Jenny Omnichord for supremacy of her namesake instrument. The '80s electronic instrument figures heavily in the band's psychedelic punk jams, replacing the guitars all together, giving these four tracks a fun, analog, chiptune vibe. The songs, with titles like "Crying During Circumcision is A Shame to the Whole Village," are mostly instrumental ― what few vocal incursions keyboardist Zac Trager and drummer Shmu (they both rock the omnichord) do make are mostly nonsensical. In fact, this demo EP is itself pretty schizophrenic, bumping back and forth between straight-ahead pop songwriting ("Zut Alore," "Morris the Loris") and weird, experimental noise ("Gimme the Axe"). Which road the duo go down when it actually comes time to make an album is anybody's guess, but given the excellent noise they're making here, I can't wait to find out.