Cleveland rocks hip-hop.
If your only exposure to Efterklang has been an Audi commercial (“The Modern Drift”), take a closer look. The Danish ensemble’s refined indie pop pairs the glacial ambience of Sigur Rós with the digital verve of Kid A-era Radiohead. Last year’s Piramida was inspired by field recordings the band collected – and later incorporated – from a ghost town in the Arctic Circle, and it marks the band’s most immediate work to date. Nightlands, the bedroom project of the War on Drugs bassist Dave Hartley, opens with the hazy pop of Oak Island.
– Austin Powell