Kevin Bronson on January 18th, 2014

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More than a decade ago, before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, singer-guitarist Evan Dickson minded the store for Austin indie-rockers Hidden Speaker, who released two well-regarded albums. Dickson’s bandmates went on to form the core of the equally well-regarded instrumental rockers the Octopus Project, while the aspiring screenwriter shelved his musical endeavors to concentrate on film. But Dickson – who “missed making music, but had a habit of somehow convincing myself I was too busy to do it,” he says – has mounted Hidden Speaker’s comeback “from a closet in Glendale,” self-recording most of the new album “Wet Recluse” before retreating to Austin to finish it up with his old bandmates and studio hand Erik Wofford. As might be expected, “Wet Recluse” suggests a decade worth of ideas spilling out in stream-of-consciousness fashion; Dickson’s lyrics feel like free association, which adds to the tension created by the dichotomy between his spacey, post-rock arrangements and intimate production. He’s hearing voices (actually, his ex-bandmates’ vocals) in “Hiss Citrus,” heading to another galaxy in “Purple Flesh Car;” and stretching Sonic Youth’s angsty confusion to 9 minutes in “You Stole My Thunder, I’ll Steal Your Drugs.” There’s a note of finality in his speak-sung chorus on “Vapor Hair,” which is something of a psych-rock Rorschach test, but here’s hoping he retreats to that close in Glendale more often.

||| Download: “Vapor Hair”