Enon

Enon waited only a year between the release of their sophomore album, 2002’s High Society, and their third disc, Hocus Pocus, and to a lot of fans’ ears, the lack of wait time showed. Perhaps the band realized this, because now it’s been a four-year wait for new material. The result, Grass Geysers…Carbon Clouds, is the best news possible for Enon fans: not only is the band back with a vengeance, but they spent all that time producing one of the best indie-rock dance records of the year.?

Where Hocus Pocus featured a number of low key, mellow dinner party background tracks, Grass Geysers pushes the dinner table to the side to make room for the dance party. “Mirror on You” sets the pace, all fuzzed-out bass, handclaps and Matt Schultz’s shake-it-shake-it drums, with bassist Toko Yasuda’s pixie voice catching the listener’s attention right off the bat. A scant minute-forty-six later, “Colette” delivers more of the same; the synth-bass jam “Dr. Freeze” provides still more after that, its alien Ed-Wood-film-produced-by-Martians vibe providing the best ring entrance theme for a nonexistent luchador ever heard.

The closest the album comes to taking a breather is the fantastic and instantly memorable “Mr. Ratatatatat,” a midtempo stomper that utilizes Enon’s secret weapon—the interplay of Yasuda’s demure Japanese vocals with guitarist (and ex-Brainiac gunslinger) John Schmersal’s barking croon. In an alternate universe somewhere, this song is already a smash chart-topper.

That should be taken literally. This band isn’t just otherworldly; they’re multi-dimensional. The best we can hope for in this universe is that club deejays everywhere latch onto the unstoppable dance beats pounding their way out of Grass Geysers and into awaiting ears. If it takes another four years for Enon to produce a follow-up, that’ll be just fine. It’ll probably take many years beyond that to tire of this one.