Kevin Bronson on January 4th, 2017

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It took a year and a half for Dot Hacker to record their new album “N°3,” which isn’t surprising given the resumés and exploits of the members of the L.A. quartet. Josh Klinghoffer started work on Dot Hacker with Clint Walsh prior to the former’s joining Red Hot Chili Peppers as guitarist in 2009, finally releasing an EP and an album in 2012 and a two-part full-length — “How’s Your Process? (Work)” and “How’s Your Process? (Play)” — in 2014. Between Klinghoffer, Walsh and bandmates Eric Gardner and Jonathan Hischke, they have played with the likes of Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells, PJ Harvey, Morrissey, the Shins, Beck and Hella.

Besides, Dot Hacker’s mind-bending rock is not the two-chords-and-a-cloud-of-effects stuff that can be dashed off quickly. The album’s opening track “C Section” is a fever dream slaloming toward an intense climax. “N°3” will be released on Inauguration Day — and the timing of the release is not lost on Klinghoffer. “For a number of strange, obnoxious and uncontrollable reasons, ‘N°3’ is coming out on Jan, 20,” he writes. “My initial notion was to write something about what may prove to be one of the darkest days in recent memory, here’s a little whiny music with mostly unintelligible singing, but which is steeped in hope, for you to enjoy. I know, for obvious reasons, of the aforementioned hope. Then I thought not to play upon the negativity of the day, or mention it all … then I nearly didn’t write anything. Basically, for whatever it’s worth, here’s a little more music to throw onto the ever growing pile in the hopes of bringing even a littlest bit of peace, joy and contentment to the hearts of even one person in these strange, obnoxious and uncontrollable times.”

||| Stream: “C Section”