With the release of last year’s Language EP, Hypoluxo, a Brooklyn-based indie rock quartet currently comprised of Samuel Cogen, Marco Ocampo, Cameron Riordan, and Eric Jasso quickly received attention for crafting lush melodies with clever, somewhat cynical and perhaps at points coy humor; however, the band’s latest effort, Taste Buds finds the band stripping their sound down quite a bit, with the focus and guiding point being Cogen’s moody Matt Beringer-like baritone — and with their latest single “Nevada,” Cogen and company manage to sound as though they were slyly drawing from High Violet-era The National, complete with jangling guitars but while retaining the sly humor that first caught the attention of the blogosphere and elsewhere. And interestingly enough the song will further the band’s growing reputation for a sound and aesthetic that’s difficult to pinpoint, let alone pigeonhole as it’s not quite dream pop, nor is it twee and a bit too humorous to be typical indie rock while drawing from each one.
