Kevin Bronson on March 24th, 2014

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It’s easy to imagine the Habits album as a laboratory experiment gone south – a beaker overflowing, then exploding, triggering a chain reaction and sending particulates all over the room until, when the smoke clears, there’s something beautiful on the wall. The title is “Unselves in Arrival,” which suggests some metaphysical exploration is in order once you sort through the music’s dynamics, which are striking. Habits is the work of Dustin Krapes, last spotted on these pages in Halloween Swim Team. His solo project mixes synthesizers and samples to great effect; it’s guitar-less garage rock at one moment, punk trapped in a video game at another and fuzzed-out bass-and-drums the next. Krapes’ speak-singing recalls the dalliances of a young Beck, the subversive prose-arrows of Eels and the slacker charm of Cake – in short, this is not some guy whacking off on his synth trying to sound like a space cadet. “Unselves in Arrival” (which came out in late February via Fleeting Youth Records) does sound different, of course, brilliant and strange and as good as made-by-collage rock can be. Underdog pick for L.A. album of the year? Maybe. It’s only March.

||| Stream: “Splendor of the Panic,” “Snkchrmr” and “Shrug Lyfe Shadows”

||| Live: Habits are on the bill for the Desert Daze festival (featuring Blonde Redhead, Liars, the Raveonettes Autolux and more) on Saturday, April 26 at Sunset Ranch Oasis near Mecca.