Formed in 2011 when William Kennedy (Imperceivable Shifts in Latitude, LOOK and Salsa Chest) moved to Athens, GA to study music and wound up playing in CoCoRICo with Andrew McFrarland (Semicircle) and eventually collaborating with Ryan Engelberger (Semicircle) and Graham Ulicny (Thick Paint, LOOK, Channel Pressure) also moved to Athens, the quartet of Reptar have proudly devoted themselves to crating the weirdest pop songs they could possibly come up with for “those not interested in the tired hetereo-normative pop that inundates the airwaves,” as the band says in press notes. 

The band’s debut EP, Oblangle Fizz Y’all and their debut full-length Body Faucet were released to critical praise across the blogosphere for being indefinable, gene-defying and utterly weird in the spirit of The Talking Heads, MGMT (who’s Congratulations may be the worst album I’ve heard in about 5 years), Frank Zappa, Mike Patton and others. The band’s much-anticipated sophomore effort – and the first in three years, Lurid Glow reportedly expands on the sound that won the attention of the blogosphere and music nerds as horns, keyboards, guitar, drums, synths and other instruments are used in danceable songs with bizarre, almost prog rock-like arrangements, as you’ll hear on Lurid Glow’s latest single “Cable,” which sounds to my ears as though it owes a debt to The Talking Heads, afrobeat and post punk as you’ll hear angular synth and guitar chords, horns, weird time signature changes paired with lyrics that are sung with a lilting falsetto and with a guttural roar. It’s a riotous, ridiculous party song – the sort of song I can picture drunk white people with poor rhythm trying to dance along, as well as the sort of dance song you can mosh to and dance to simultaneously.