Kevin Bronson on June 27th, 2012

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David Shane Smith continues to be one of the most compelling pop explorers in the L.A. underground. Equally adept (and some would say, inscrutable) at glitchy, sample-based electro and only slightly off-kilter acoustic guitar compositions, the prolific songwriter never met a song he couldn’t tweak, and his subversive lyrics and titles are keen and biting. (We still like “Global Warming Makes Me Hot.”) His new EP “Snake V Owl” caters to both of his avant sensibilities. Smith released an album a year from 2009 to ’11, and late last year released the brilliant “Shampoo” EP, following it up with the Christian Bale-spiked single “Additives.” There’s tension in every soundscape on “Snake V Owl.” And is that a missile strike we witness on “Nevada to Waziristan?” The head spins.

||| Download: “Wrestler”

||| Also: Visit David Shane Smith on Bandcamp to get “Snake V Owl” on a pay-what-you-want basis.