Kevin Bronson on January 9th, 2012

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It’s as if Princeton gave its brainy but not previously brawny indie-pop a style job. And it’s looking good. On its sophomore album “Remembrance of Things to Come,” the Santa Monica-bred quartet of twins Matt and Jesse Kivel, Ben Usen and David Kitz forgoes traditional pop constructs in favor of dense and often percussive orchestrations over a template of insistent rhythms. The album, due Feb. 21 via Hit City U.S.A./Easter Everywhere and recorded with the seven-piece Los Angeles New Music Ensemble, bears the vaguely detached Euro feel of Jesse Kivel’s side project Kisses, with what the band calls a reliance on “classical minimalism and its short, repetitive phrases.” If it’s meant to tap into the listener’s muscle memory, it’s working just fine.

||| Download: “Remembrance of Things to Come” as “Today’s Top Tune” on KCRW

||| Live: Princeton is playing the free Monday residency this month at the Bootleg Theater, with tonight’s bill featuring the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble.