Sound Track web extra: More Songs About Animals and TV

“You guys have an amazingly beautiful and bizarre sound,” wrote a commenter called Mowri on the Soundcloud for the Alligator Indian song “Corpsing.” It’s an apt summation for the twitchy-ethereal other-worldly sonic scapes that the local surreal-pop band crafts. Electronics and vocals leap and swoop interchangeably, sometimes with aching beauty, sometimes as discordant as one red sock in a washer full of whites. That track appears on the band’s new EP, More Songs About Animals and TV, just released today.

“Revar Yu Droem” starts off with children’s voices and then drone (either vocal or instrumental) and the lush, resonant voice of Spooky Bubble. Christian Church provides (vocally), the baritone Gregorian monk to her rounded and soaring Agnes of God. The song nods to Enigma without being ‘90s-retro. Instead, it’s heavy and gorgeous and weird and makes you want to dance all Thom Yorke-like.

“PUF//FIN” is more ‘80s in origin — just in its dark and sparkly new wave-ness. But, with its dance beats and layered vocals, its reverb and static, the song is more futuristic than reminiscent. It’s a solidly-cool pop offering. Though pop rarely dares to look into the abyss, whereas this song pretty much moves into said abyss and starts hanging up posters.

“Later, Data Dog” creeps and slinks on ascending and descending scales. It’s not the sort of song you can cozy up with, but it’s endlessly interesting. Prickly, icy, atonal, meditative but unsettling, eerily appealing. The percussion pops and crackles beneath Spooky Bubble’s smooth voice, a vocal that never loses its polish yet never cares about being the prettiest thing in the room. Which, of course, makes it the prettiest thing in the room.

Alligator Indian holds an EP release show for More Songs About Animals and TV at Apothecary on Thursday, Sept. 26. Molly Nilsson and Nick James also perform. 9 p.m., $5-$7.