Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien

Unlike virtually all adventurous New York acts around these days, Cymbals Eat Guitars are based not in Brooklyn, but on the considerably less hip Staten Island. That outsider status feels reflected in their music, which flirts in equal measure with early 90s indie noise, fuzzy ambient washes, and post-rock tensions. The idiosyncrasy of this approach, and the deftness of execution, gives Lenses Alien a rare distinctiveness and depth of personality.

One act that does spring to mind is Polvo, who similarly begin with a Pavement/Dinosaur Jr-style foundation, yet force that sound into altogether more dreamy and uncertain territory. A swampy noise lurks on the periphery at all times, occasionally rising to overwhelm the mix; the overall effect is of a re-imagining of the lo-fi era that emphasises its psychedelic, hallucinatory elements. Plenty of bands are currently excavating the late 80s/early 90s golden age of experimental indie, but it's rarely done with this level of confidence and imagination. [Sam Wiseman]