The second edition of The Underdog comes during a month that saw an abundance of releases by well-established acts: Spoon, FKA twigs, The New Pornographers, Basement Jaxx, and so forth. But for every big name that put out an album this month, there were dozens of exciting artists whose work found a much smaller audience. Check out this month’s Underdogs here, and travel back in time to July’s Underdogs for more well-hidden gems!

Adebisi Shank – This Is the Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

Adebisi Shank blend chiptune, math rock, and vocoders into what could be the soundtrack to your favorite arcade action game. Their pummeling, major-key guitars are the sonic equivalent of lasers, and their retro synth sounds sound like how a friendly android might speak. And yeah, that track titled “Chaos Emeralds” is absolutely a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog; Adebisi Shank equates listening to playing, and it’s so much fun. Although their music certainly wouldn’t pass the Voight-Kampff test, it’ll remind you just how great the experience of pure, unfiltered, adolescent joy can be.

Cold Specks – Neuroplasticity

A repeat Underdog, Cold Specks’ Bodies at Bay EP last month merely previewed her elaborate, mystifying Goth-soul sophomore effort, Neuroplasticity. As with the EP, listening to the album quickly becomes a competition for how many new hyphenated genre names one can invent to describe Cold Specks’ incredibly specific, captivating sound. Elements of jazz, soul, post-rock, Gothic rock, and blues abound and fuse into an eerie, soul-sucking backdrop for vocalist Al Spx’ hefty beckon. That Swans’ Michael Gira provides backing vocal harmonies on two of these tracks is perfectly fitting; the addicting unease his band is renowned for pervades Neuroplasticity, an album appropriately titled to rewire your thoughts about genre boundaries.

El May – The Other Person Is You

El May is Australian singer/songwriter Lara Meyerratken; this moniker is how you’d pronounce her name if shortened to L. Mey. It’s a simple, whimsical method for coming up with a name, mirroring the free flow of Meyerratken’s songs. The music on her debut, The Other Person Is You, is catchy and sticky without using much more than some synth pops, tropical flourishes, a linear drumbeat, and Meyerratken’s angelic, flowing voice. Whether as explicitly poppy as “Diamonds, Girl” or as mellow as “Atlantic/Pacific”, the songs on this album offer something for everyone, and would require a host of arrogant vitriol to dislike.

Elephant Stone – The Three Poisons

Elephant Stone may not be a well-known name yet, but it turns out this Canadian threesome’s 2009 debut was long-listed for that year’s Polaris Prize. Five years later, their sophomore album arrives (although there was an EP in 2011). It’s a throwback to the psychedelic classics: in the same way that Temples and early Tame Impala specifically recall Cream and The Beatles, The Three Poisons feels like a lost Pink Floyd or drug-era Beatles album. The very first sound heard on this album is a sitar, of all things; Elephant Stone tell listeners their exact musical goals immediately as the album commences, and deliver on their aspirations across eleven tracks in forty minutes.

Listen to The Tree Poisons

Literature – Chorus

Jangle pop might sometimes be associated with cheesiness, but Literature make it fun without sounding contrived and disingenuous. Their guitar lines are groovy, watery, and optimistic, all qualities that endow their sound with hopefulness, cheerfulness, and a shining, dance-like gleam. That the high-pitched, drawn-out vocals are drenched in reverb actually helps: the effects applied add a surprising amount of emotional depth to the indie party being had here. Their sophomore album is called Chorus for a reason: all twenty-nine minutes of its incredibly short runtime are as memorable and striking as your favorite song’s chorus.

Mozart’s Sister – Being

It’s totally possible that Caila Thompson-Hannant, who performs as Mozart’s Sister, will forever live in friend and musical soundalike Grimes’ shadow. Not enough people have given her full-length debut, Being, a fair chance. It’s definitely a flawed album, but the ominous, rapping beatwork and thoughtfully inane lyrics of “Bow a Kiss” will linger in your head for weeks after hearing it just a few times. “Lone Wolf”, although a tad brighter and more harmonious, achieves the same effect; “Do It To Myself (Run Run)” also achieves this to a lesser extent. Even with the minor missteps of “Salty Tear” and “My House Is Wild” in tow, Being is a solid album that suggests a bright future for Mozart’s Sister, so long as she stops being the Santigold to Grimes’ M.I.A.

Music Go Music – Impressions

Impressions is a very self-aware title for Music Go Music’s second album. Their songs come off as sharp, accurate impressions of their idols, of whom ABBA and Madonna are just a couple of examples. Their sugary, hyperactive disco-funk sound derives from their thumping bass, stellar guitars, and delicate, hefty female dancefloor vocals borrowed from the 1980s. They don’t just wear their influences on their sleeves; instead, they fully occupy them, and the music that follows is catchy, fun, and impossible to ignore.

The Outs – Spiral Dreams EP

As with Elephant Stone’s The Three Poisons from earlier in the list, The Outs’ latest EP displays these Brazilian psychedelic auteurs in a welcoming state of backwards-looking gaze. Psychedelic pop acts of decades past including The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and even Jimi Hendrix lend their legacy to Spiral Dreams’ fuzzy, blurry vision. Over a mere four tracks, it explores the same space its inspirations trekked through years ago, all while making these sounds new and refreshing.

Roadkill Ghost Choir – In Tongues

With spacious acoustics and reverberating, lackadaisical vocals, Roadkill Ghost Choir make great music in a style with which many other artists struggle to succeed. Instead of falling into the various pitfalls of country, western, and folk, on In Tongues, Roadkill Ghost Choir flavor their sound with enough vigor and resonance to capture even the most skeptical of ears. There’s even a psychedelic edge to their folky soundscapes, in the same way that Kurt Vile’s music is a bit trippy. With vocal harmonies and watery, flowering guitar lines abound, In Tongues does weird and wonderful in just the right amounts.

Rubblebucket – Survival Sounds

Fun comes first in Rubblebucket’s world. It’s not sloppy, overproduced fun, though; instead, this seven-piece Brooklyn band use clever arrangements of synths, brass, guitar, percussion, and female vocals to get listeners groovin’ and movin’. Even at its most upbeat and funky, though, the group’s latest album, Survival Sounds, is at its strongest when vocalist Annakalmia Traver takes center stage. Without Traver’s dynamic, adaptable vocals, Rubblebucket would merely record exciting instrumentals rather than playful, taunting pop anthems. That the vocals make all the difference testify that, although Rubblebucket are all fun and games, they also know damn well how to balance fervor with fury.

Welcome to The Underdog, a new column here at Way Too Indie! Each month we’ll collect and highlight the best new indie releases. Our aim here is to expose readers to great new music they may not have been aware of otherwise. We intend to cover music that we believe doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves, hence the title of this column: The Underdog. With that in mind, let’s begin!

Bell’s Roar – Bell’s Roar EP

Sean Desiree alternates her home between New York City and Albany, but there’s no wavering in her music. As Bell’s Roar, she creates eerie, R&B-infused dream pop that will affect any listener with even a semblance of a soul. On her debut EP, guitars sparkle and emote, drums pitter and patter, and Desiree pours her very essence into her gorgeous, unequivocally moving vocal performance. “In my heart, I’m feeling sore,” she laments on “Ancestors”; that she’s already this emotionally invested on merely her debut EP suggests that this singer-songwriter only has more greatness to offer in the near future.

Boytoy – Boytoy EP

Name every modern rock trend you can think of: garage, surf, power pop, lo-fi, and so forth. Boytoy have synthesized their own brand of music from all these themes; rather than sounding like a rip-off of past successes, they advance a rockin’ approach that makes the band’s debts clear without explicitly copying them. “Shallow Town” is a throwback to garage and surf, and a riotous, undeniably catchy anthem; “Blazed” is the world’s millionth stoner anthem, but it’s also a sticky earworm of a jam. In an era where so many garage and punk bands find themselves stuck in their forebears’ shadows, Boytoy have their own wonderful charm.

Cold Specks – Bodies at Bay EP

Post-punk and post-rock are established genres, but what about post-soul and post-jazz? Cold Specks make a case for both these labels (although, concession, more genre labels are most certainly not needed). Vocalist Al Spx sings with a lounge-imbued, soulful tone, and her smoky, subdued brass arrangements and jazz-indebted percussion and atmospherics aid in outlining just how haunting her voice is. “Absisto”, a highlight from her recently released Bodies at Bay EP, showcases her strengths boldly: trombones, watery keyboards, and wispy percussion bolster fervent vocals. A bit more than halfway through the song, a brief period of silence precedes an instrumental explosion, a moment that’s a nice metaphor for the joy of listening to this EP.

Field Mouse – Hold Still Life

Shoegaze’s three-decade-or-so run has succeeded in no small part because the genre’s guitar-vocal interplay provides an innate emotional connection. Field Mouse know this all too well, as they craft nearly every track on Hold Still Life with roaring six-string attack and vulnerable, ductile, high-pitched female vocals. The biggest complaint an album like this will inevitably receive is that it’s too familiar and repetitive, but tunes as pointed as “Everyone But You”, “Bright Lights”, and “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” excuse some of the flaws. An imperfect listen, but a sprawling and enjoyable one nonetheless. Check out our review of Hold Still Life.

Junk Riot – Headache

“Excuse me?” would be an appropriate initial reaction to the following true statement: Junk Riot sound like Savages and the Rapture. Surely, a band comparable to these completely distinct acts must have an intensely unique sound; in that regard, and in many others, they don’t disappoint. The hyperactive, shrill synths and guitar-bent dance-punk of The Rapture and other mid-2000s DFA acts meets the outsider female post-punk ferocity and darkness of Savages and their obvious ancestors (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Patti Smith). Complete with a blatant Stooges interpolation on “How It Goes”, this is the most harrowing and hardcore dance-punk has ever sounded.

Kestrels – The Moon Is Shining Our Way EP

I’m not sure whether constantly referring to Loveless when I write about shoegaze is merely lazy journalism, or if it’s genuinely inevitable since it really is a seminal record for the genre. Either way, it’s utterly necessary to mention it when talking about this EP by Kestrels: in the twenty-three years since Loveless‘ release, arguably no other act has so perfectly pinpointed Kevin Shields’ guitar tone and Bilinda Butcher’s vocal dreariness. It’s almost like Shields lent his pedalboard to Kestrels, and it actually sounds incredible. That constant flange and whammy tone pervades The Moon Is Shining Our Way, a direct, searing document whose only true flaw is brevity.

Ladi6 – Automatic

“Electrosoul” is a term that’s been bounced around in recent years to describe acts as diverse as Frank Ocean, Jai Paul, and even Matthew Dear. Yet none of the artists to fall under this umbrella have quite sounded like Ladi6, whose Automatic amounts to little more than classic soul redone with psychedelic synths. Erykah Badu’s legacy smiles widely over this record: deep, raspy, low-pitched female vocals meet the past half-decade’s advent of bedroom-produced trip-hop, resulting in an unexpectedly specific sound. It’s a style you have to hear to believe, and Automatic will hook you from the first listen.

The Muffs – Whoop Dee Doo

The Muffs are surf punks, sweet and simple. Their strong, overdriven power chords and power pop melodies instantly gratify over the course of the standard two to four minutes per song. But what sticks out the most about this band (and a sweet spot is helpful, maybe even necessary, when dealing with such a tried-and-true style) is how obviously bad their vocalist is. Many of the most memorable vocalists are remarkable partly because it’s near-certain they’d sound terrible without music backing them: Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Julian Casablancas, Dan Bejar, Britt Daniel, the dudes from The Rapture and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Add The Muffs to this list of acts that rightfully get away with murder.

Toasted Plastic – TP/ST EP

In the summer of 2011, Ridgewood, NJ’s most successful act, dream pop wunderkinds Real Estate, returned to their hometown for a free show featuring the town’s resident math punks, Toasted Plastic. At the time, they couldn’t have chosen many groups with a sound so diametrically opposed to their own; three years later, Toasted Plastic are looking a bit more melodic and straightforward with TP/ST. Their usual bouts of mathy spasms persist throughout this EP’s four songs, but there are also plenty of calmer passages guided by warm guitars and steady rhythms. It’s not an album for those who suffer musical vertigo, so to speak, but the dizzying thrills presented here will spin anyone right ’round.

The Wytches – Annabel Dream Reader

A self-described “surf psych” band, England’s Wytches adorn slowed-down garage rhythms with classic post-punk shades, surf swagger, and lo-fi recording techniques. It’s the sound of a surf-punk haunted house, equal parts harrowing, thorny, groovy, and brash. “She took all of your mind!” shouts Annabel Dream Reader‘s opening track, “Digsaw” (or maybe it’s “money”, not “mind”?); by the end of this album, The Wytches will have taken the same from most of their listeners.