Seek Warmer Climes

Copenhagen’s Lower run on the same tightly wound emotional energy that drives bands like Xiu Xiu—especially on the fraught, exciting opening track, “Another Life.” There's a reason for that; singer Adrian Toubro is an admirable young soul whose conscience once took him to do service work in Africa. There he came within a hair’s breadth of being kidnapped, resulting in no small amount of questioning and introspection. Here, the quartet’s foray into classic, clanging postpunk unease is spot on. Occasional guitar tones conjure the dark, bristling angst of bands like PiL and Toiling Midgets, but with an undercurrent of hardcore punk. Lyrically, punk’s wry and acerbic roots are also at work: “Should I be shocked to the core/By your rigmarole/Your snivelling narration?” The seven-minute “Expanding Horizons” is not, as one might expect, an unnecessary indulgence; it's a powerful exorcism. Seek Warmer Climes isn’t the musical escapism its name implies, but it's indeed a journey.