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Equality dictates a big ixnay on calling Merrill Garbus the non-male David Byrne. Nevertheless, Oakland’s rhythmic revolutionary exhibits a like-minded genius with percussive pop. On March’s Sketchy, Garbus calls out backhanded sexism on opener “Nowhere, Man,” singing, “Seems like Jesus and Dylan got the whole thing wrong/ If you cannot hear a woman, how can you write her song.” Her song of modernity and modality on a fifth LP for 4AD leaves listeners “Hypnotized” by a complex layering of base elements – clapping, sticks, piano – and lyrical truth-saying that peaks on two-part centerpiece “Silence” with, “It’s the future that I shape, the changing and revealing.”