Excepter

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Not exactly a noise band, Excepter makes records out of prolonged death rattles. Debt Dept., its first album for Paw Tracks, finds the band intuitively fucking around over backdrops that vacillate between barren expanses and fertile meadows. There's a double meaning to the title of opener "Entrance": It's both scene-setting intro and a deliberate act of hypnosis. Vocals float in and out, often intoning clunky lyrics such as "Did you know that the cost of life is one dollar?/That's why there are slaves." The echoey boy-girl singing persists throughout, distracting from the creepy, tribal-damaged mess Excepter is so busy brewing. The goofy faux-metal voiceover on "Kill People" is laughable, and yet the music's soft snap and intermittent hiss are plenty compelling. "The Last Dance" is especially submerged, its clustered blips used for better effect on the following "Greenhouse/Stretch." "Walking Through the Night" is happily blown out and foreboding, "Sunrise" is a cyclical jumble, and bonus track "'Burgers" is jumpy on the surface but grim beneath. Debt Dept. is a purposely erratic record, but Excepter would be better served singing less and allowing its haunted racket do the talking.