Dirty on Purpose

Well-versed in the kind of early-'90s shoegaze that typically took 27 guitar pedals and a British passport to create, Dirty on Purpose weaves those wobbly, blustery, mesmerizing tendrils of sound into arrangements so nicely crafted and highly melodic that you're as likely to sing along with the act's dreamy tunes as you are to bliss out to them. Listening to tracks from the Brooklyn-based group's recently released second album, Hallelujah Sirens (as well as revisiting 2004's Sleep Late for a Better Tomorrow), evokes some familiar, exemplary touchstones: the woozy chaos of My Bloody Valentine, of course, but also the buzzy posi-pop of Velocity Girl, the six-string wig-outs of Mercury Rev and Galaxie 500, and the winsome boy-girl vocal interplay of the Bats (and My Bloody Valentine, too, come to think of it). Singer-keyboardist Erika Forster left Dirty on Purpose after the first album, so these days the female vocals are restricted to studio efforts, but in the live setting, you'll probably be too swept away by the band's sweet fury to mind all that much