Indigenous Robot

Indigenous Robot didn’t waste much time in producing a followup to Fireball, the quartet’s three-song EP from earlier this year. Castles plays like a natural complement to that release, with its unpredictable time signatures, surreal imagery and bizarre sound cues. But where Fireball largely stayed true to the band’s self-described status as a “psychedelic garage-rock band,” the five tunes on Castles hint at broader skills and deeper dimensions. Apart from fuzz-infused guitar solos on tunes like “Wonderful Life,” the album moves away from a dependence on effects. Instead, the choppy guitar chords and understated keyboard effects stress substance over style. The hyper tempo of “Metal Boots” feels more like early new wave than psychedelic rock, and with its frenetic energy and constantly shifting time signatures, “Dragoon” comes off like an art-rock experiment. There’s a wide musical palette here, one that goes much deeper than before.