Just when it starts to become easy to grab ahold of what’s going on with the blasts of hard-edged electronics Lazer Crystal dish out on their debut album, the trio from Chicago see fit to change it all up and launch things in another direction. Hybridizing bits of noise, industrial, mathrock, post-punk, techno, krautrock and synthpop, they have plenty of source material to work with, and they show little caution about ramming the sounds together until the pieces are correspondingly dented and tightly locked together. One moment the band is clattering it’s way through a long abandoned warehouse, the next they’re throwing open the places massive doors and admiring the sunlight pouring in. Transitions such as these can be jarring, but Lazer Crystal seems to have a handle on layering in brighter, more melodic concepts after setting up a foundation of jagged overdriven synths and equally animated rhythms. The sounds are relentlessly electronic, yet even when the vocoders claim the vocals for their own (which they do about half the time) Lazer Crystal never find themselves completely lost in all the machines. Rather they keep all the electricity on tight, if tenuous, leashes and execute seemingly specific designs. It’s proper use of machines and it’s quite often captivating.

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