Interiors

Leaving little to the imagination, first track "Ambulance Red" literally kicks off Brokaw's 2012 debut, Interiors, with siren-like guitar oscillations, but the ride (and presumably the patient's life) is over within two minutes, and in somewhat abrupt, inconclusive fashion at that -- fair warning of Brokaw's songwriting m.o. to follow. Come to think of it, "songs" isn't even the most suitable description for frequently free-form noise rock impressions like "Berlin Heart," "Terms of War," and "You Didn't Invent Sex," which rarely coalesce into recognizable patterns long enough to qualify as such. That doesn't impede them from delivering insidious earworms along the way, though, whether it's via the Jaws theme-like repetition of "Time Ain't Now" or hypnotic club-footed grooves of unusually extended offerings (like, six minutes) "No Morphine Doctor" and "The Slide." Keen-eared listeners will also notice that Brokaw take subversive delight in coopting familiar lyric couplets from artists as far-ranging as Dylan and AC/DC, and then jamming them into their own oblique poetry, a disarming, welcome contrast to the band's at times admittedly off-putting sonic barrage. Perhaps as a result, what at first sounds quite disorienting and even totally aimless, duly takes on seductive shapes as Interiors unfolds, and ultimately produces a highly individual impressionistic painting through coarse music that, while never short of challenging, eventually looks impressively cohesive nonetheless. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia