Wet Hair

Comprising members of the well-known noise-rock outfit Racoo-ooo-oon, Wet Hair dispenses with live guitars entirely, but not the former’s intense drones and emphasis on rhythm over melody. Still, the electronic sounds are resonant and expansive rather than abrasive; at times the band sounds as though it’s playing a tape of an unlikely collaboration between John Cage, Robert Moog and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Minimalist, layered compositions of texture, shimmery synth atmospheres, electronic keyboards and drums and live drums collide and collude to craft a sound that captures perfectly the silent majesty of a major metropolitan area seen from a distant hill. This band isn’t perpetrating some kind of lo-fi post-rock; rather, it’s taking a recycling approach that puts old equipment and techniques in new contexts. Not scientist rock, but mad-scientist rock.