“Out, Don’t…”
from the single Out, Don’t…
2010
iTunes
The absurdist handle, the odd compulsion to outfit many of their song titles with an ellipsis — none of it infringes on Gauntlet Hair’s knack for shaping riotously giddy, cavernous echo-pop. “Out, Don’t…”, the A-side from the Denver duo’s latest Mexican Summer 7″, captures the same thumping lucidity found on last spring’s “I Was Thinking…” and shocks it with a weirdly danceable energy. It’s a good look for a band that could probably just get by on slight charms. Instead, “Out, Don’t…” enlists shimmering new wave guitars, joyous yelps, and drum-smashed peaks that all meld together beneath a faint, homemade crackle. But it’s the beat-centric bent here that really elevates it above your average brand of dream-drenched noise pop. Using bits of negative space to reassess the grooves, Gauntlet Hair manage to solicit a sophisticated delayed-gratification reaction out of what would otherwise be considered a really disjointed smattering of ideas. Sometimes subsisting on only a handclap, “Out, Don’t…” brings a sharp physicality to an inspiriting racket, seemingly funneled in from some crystal-laden tomb below the ground.