Man, Woman, Beast

The married couple of Carley and Jonathan Wolf play with such a primal, desperate edge to their music that it’d be a real shame if they expanded their ranks. A tune like “Baby Fang Thang” is a basic motif that reaches levels of transcendence because the guitars are so distorted and the drums so dedicated to remaining true to the ultimate riff that Carley’s vocals are dead serious in their playfulness. “Grave Dollas” shows what they can do when they speed up the tempo. Man, Woman, Beast was recorded at Austin, Texas’ Arlyn Studios, where artists such as Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, and Stevie Ray Vaughan have achieved very different results. Jonny’s four-piece drum kit and Carley’s one-string electric guitar somehow manage to fill the room with enough sound to satisfy. Fleshing out the 10-song album are three live bonus tracks—“Lies I Told,” “White Lily,” and “Mosquito”—cut at Converse Rubber Tracks; they further illustrate the duo’s rudimentary charms.