PRETTIEST EYES
Pools
Castle Face

By now, I’m sure you’re familiar with Prettiest Eyes. The group became somewhat of a local legend back in 2013: “Oh, but have you seen them live?” I remember people often telling me. So finally I had to witness the mayhem for myself. Lead vocalist and drummer Pachy possesses the kind of otherworldly and unrelenting intensity of punk’s forefathers, like a modern-day Nick Cave or Tomata du Plenty. With the powerfully frantic synths and electro-manipulations of keyboardist Paco and bassist Marcos’ slamming waves of distortion—often delivered as he joins you in the crowd—the band will outperform itself at every show, time and time again. The trio’s newest Pools, released on John Dwyer’s Castle Face, happily captures the pulverizing energy and interstellar explosiveness at the very core of Prettiest Eyes. Truly the product of a band from a former era and from another different dimension, Pools summons the dystopic electropunk that will deliver terrifying nightmares to Siri’s Electric Sheep. Prepare yourself for this cosmic voyage directly into a meteor shower. In the words of Dwyer himself: “There is electricity in this sound.”

—Bennett Kogon