The Microphones

As part of K's slight expansion from the release of purely indie pop records, there are the Microphones, whose Don't Wake Me Up moves between gritty lo-fi rock and droning, spacy constructions; a delicate pop melodicism lies beneath the surface noise of both, putting the general aesthetic of the album somewhere close to Stereolab's Transient Random-Noise Bursts, or some of Grandaddy's early work. The latter of the two approaches seems to fare better, with the songs' dramatic builds and careful composition rendering a sound that is a lot more artistically impressive than pure rock -- but the fuller compositions are just as impressive, using their rampaging drums and the odd dichotomy between lo-fi guitar noise and frail, His Name Is Alive-style vocal presentation to approach something like an exaggerated shoegaze effect. Above all, Don't Wake Me Up offers a fascinating and involving set of sounds -- even in the rare moments when these sounds aren't organized as well as could be, they're still compelling. ~ Nitsuh Abebe, All Music Guide