Lile

Argentina's Lile, which counts singer Naila Borensztein from the group No Lo Soporto among its membership, creates on its debut a familiar but attractive blend of post-Radiohead/Boards of Canada glitch-pop which with Borensztein's vocals give it an attractive, compelling gloss. In ways the equivalent to far distant bands like Norway's Differnet, Lile's embrace of odd arrangements and samples to swirl around a core, restrained, melodic keyboard anchor enables the trio to straddle the divide between accessibility and the unusual quite well. Musicians Nico Bacal and Nico Mastracchio create simple but effective hooks that their rhythm overlays and other sonic elements fit around snugly; nothing leaps to the fore as being unique but it's still refreshing to hear more work in this vein than yet another rock band with yet another set of obvious arrangements, say. Borensztein's singing adds the key melody itself more often than not, sounding at times like a lost soul wandering carefully through a strange landscape (the wheezing factory sounds and distorted melodica on "The Word I Need" suggests this most of all). If there's a downside to the album it's that the combination works so well it almost becomes monochromatic — Borensztein's vocals stay in the same general coolly passionate mode song for song (though with interesting exceptions, such as the overdubbed harmonies on "Void"). Sometimes a song title says it all — "Sticky Images" has enough of a running crunchy squelch in the background to suggest glue on the back of old photographs (or maybe something worse, if one's mind runs to the gutter).