Kevin Bronson on April 28th, 2017

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Three-letter-word reactions. Upon hearing that husband-wife duo Stefanie Drootin and Chris Senseney were working on new music: “Yay.” Upon hearing that it would not be issued as Big Harp, the name under which they’ve released three albums: “Huh?” Upon hearing the name of their new project is Umm: “Umm …” Well, never mind the hesitancy, because Umm is, like, wow. Drenched in harmonies, fuzz and cool, the first two songs from the album “Double Worshipper” recall a less-noisy Raveonettes, or a coed Jesus and Mary Chain/Suicide. The album was engineered by Pierre de Reeder and mixed by Mike Mogis, two of the couple’s cold connections to Saddle Creek, the label that released the first two Big Harp records and those by the Good Life (in which Drootin plays) and Tilly & the Wall (in which Senseney played). As for the separate moniker, they write: “This is different somehow because [we] both sing all the time and nobody else plays any instruments on it. I guess a drum machine helped but [we] told it what to do.” Adding: “Wait, am I supposed to talk about how awesome we are and how we’re weaving rich and subtle textures into sonic tapestries that both support and decontextualize our lyrical content? Umm…” Hah.

||| Stream: “Oh Yes No” and “Black Summer”