The Horror

Pop. 1280 are one of a clutch of likeminded Brooklyn contemporaries who’ve discarded the wide-eyed, faux-naïve optimism of the late-‘00s psychedelic revival and traded it for the far murkier, more misanthropic aesthetic perfected at the dawn of the ‘80s by doom-obsessed acts like The Birthday Party, Jesus Lizard, and Swans. Pop. 1280 distinguished itself early on with the scary intensity of its frenetic live shows and the uniquely damaged sounds of early efforts like “The Grid” and “Bedbugs,” a maniacal, first-person account of psychosis and infestation. The group’s debut full-length, The Horror, is even more laden with vitriol and misanthropy than its predecessors. “Bodies in the Dunes” is the album’s most immediately arresting track. It rides a frenetic, clanging rhythm provided by no less than two drum kits and an array of stray percussion effects that sound like pieces of salvaged scrap metal banged against one another. Not every track here recaptures the visceral intensity of “Bodies in the Dunes,” but The Horror stands as one of 2012’s most unrepentantly unsettling and abrasive releases.