3.5 stars (out of 4)The guitar of Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller contains multitudes – arcade-game sound effects, chewed-up Kinks and Black Sabbath riffs, backfiring motorcycle engines. His electronic bass lines aren’t just deep, they quake and rumble, enough to satisfy any hip-hop head on a quest for the ultimate speaker-vibrating low end. His bandmate, Alexis Krauss, sings about playing “cowboys and Indians” or a new set of braces. Sometimes she doesn’t sing anything at all; she just cheerfully burbles nonsense to the tune of some half-remembered nursery rhyme.
Everything Miller does – guitars, percussion, keyboards, even chiming bells – is distorted to the point where the recording sounds defective. Krauss keeps things cheerful and conversational in the midst of the mayhem created by her partner. Together they create absorbingly terse songs, and prove that the indie-rock trend of minimalist, two-person bands still has some kick in it.
The Sleigh Bells pack their debut album,
"Treats" ((Mom + Pop Music/Neet), with hooks, and then drive them into the ground with obsessive glee. Miller finds a riff he likes and then struts with it, sits back for a few bars to let things breathe, and then comes back with renewed conviction. Krauss zeroes in on a few phrases that suit her fancy, and then chants them like a cheerleader at a high school pep rally. Just for fun she’ll break things up with a well-timed squeal. The contrast between her bright, conversational tone and Miller’s trash-compactor destructiveness could become repetitive, and some listeners will find the distortion grating. But the duo never lingers too long over any one idea, and when they break up their annihilating attack with a little swing and a sweet melody, as in “Rill Rill,” it’s exhilarating.
greg@gregkot.com