iTunes lists Clipd Beaks' acid-soaked post-punk as “gospel”. Hmmm— are they referring to the gospel of Prince? This categorization would make perfect sense considering that the quartet hail from the Purple One’s hometown of Minneapolis.

Unlike the latter’s candy-coated glam-pop, Clipd Beaks offer something a little more tempting. The album cover of the Oakland quartet’s debut EP, Preyers, looks just like its music sounds—a meltdown of dreamy synth fuzz, dancey, funked-out rhythms, and shoe-gaze delight.

Relying heavily on experimentation, the band scrounges up all of its electronic gizmos and ducted-taped distortion pedals and fuck everything up in the process. Songs such as “Messed Up Desert” and “Smoke Me When I'm Gone” teem with drugged-out walls of noise and esoteric inflections as singer Nic Barbeln's decayed vocals reverberate amongst the lethargic-sounding buzz.

Barbeln's lyrics on "Nuclear Arab" touch on paranoia and alienation as he yells “How long will we live inside of it knowing that's its wrong?/Life time of giving out to it, life time TV drunk/this don’t make no sense to me this is not where I come from/ this don’t make no sense to me this is not where I belong” through a barrage of endless drum tom rolls and winding keys.

You might have missed out on Factory Records' post-punk heyday, but the beaked ones give their forefathers a good run with their kraut-rock tempos and smart-ass energy. So get your ass to the band’s next warehouse party and start dancing.

[Christoph Mariah]

[STREAM] Clipd Beaks: Various Trakcs