Gauntlet Hair – Gauntlet Hair

Denver duo Gauntlet Hair garnered quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere last year with their accessible blend of echoey noise-pop, and now they're back with their first full-length. Perhaps not the most original offering you'll hear this year – Animal Collective at their poppiest come to mind on more than one occasion, particularly in the vocal melodies – but when they're nailing their blueprint on Top Bunk and Overkill, it's easy to overlook any dreaded sense of instant familiarity.

 

The inventive production style of the album gives it a pretty solid backbone; opening track Keep Time – with its effective combination of drum-machine handclaps and crashing cymbals – is irresistible. There's also plenty of subtle guitar melodies swimming away in the background (My Christ, Showing) which are easily worth returning for. Bands like No Age and Japandroids have proven that two-man bands can work, and Gauntlet Hair show they're capable of making just as much of an ecstatic racket on this debut.