(AD 93)
Scene-stealing fills from drummer Sam Pickard send you toppling through the foursome’s thrilling, fresh debut

The spirit of funky, far-out post-punkers such as This Heat, A Certain Ratio and 23 Skidoo charges through the thrilling debut album by this New York quartet, knocking over furniture and ruffling everyone’s hair up. But amid the chaos, YHWH Nailgun (pronounced Yahweh Nailgun) evade easy comparisons with a genuinely fresh and singular sound.

Their MVP is drummer Sam Pickard, whose playing is less backbeat than a series of fills repeated again and again: he sends you toppling into each new bar but also keeps you just about upright. Sometimes he fidgets at a high tempo, focusing on drum rims and tight hi-hats, to make indie-disco tracks for salsa-quality dancers; slower numbers such as Tear Pusher have an almost boom-bap hip-hop sensibility. The other half of the rhythm section isn’t bass guitar but synths: Jack Tobias’s playing on Iron Feet and Sickle Walk sounds like the serendipitously tuneful machinations of a lift shaft or slowing locomotive.