They Mean Us

The California super-duo the Ladies are Rob Crow, who has an ear for off-kilter pop, and Hella drummer Zach Hill, who has a yen for feverish hyper-rhythmic accompaniment. Together they comprise a cacophonous collision of cosmic clatter, where the potentially lush, Pink Floyd-like "So Much For the Fourth Wall" sounds like it's being performed on five miles of unpaved road, and the semi-placid "And Them" is subjected to sporadic percussive intrusions. Surprisingly, it works, with Crow's gentle melodies given an edgy air of menace by Hill's frantic patterns, which in turn get a loose structure on which to anchor their agitation.