Imperial China – How We Connect

It’s been a couple of years since Imperial China has released an album, but that doesn’t mean the band has been dormant. With the release of How We Connect, Imperial China has come back with a force. This album builds from the success of the previous Phosphenes by, significantly and counter-intuitively, paring down and directing its focus. Many bands bloat their successor albums as they get used to being in the studio. Imperial China pulled a Seamonsters and went the opposite direction.

That’s not to say the album lacks the drive and power of earlier efforts, because it decidedly does not. Witness even the dulcet “Bird Calls,” with its constant, gentle guitar arpeggios: as the song progresses, Imperial China takes it to an unexpectedly full gallop. Or take “Redux,” which is a re-worked version of “Space Anthem” from the first EP. It has the same basic flavor to it but it has replaced the expansive sound of the first with a sprinting, cyclical, compressed momentum. “Revolter” and “Rookie Cop” also find the band accelerating its delivery; both pound along with abandon in a way that was only occasionally exhibited on past efforts.

With its alarm-guitar bursts and wild high-low bass swings, “Creative License” perhaps best exemplifies the “dance punk” tag that some have applied to Imperial China’s approach. Other songs on the record have the same tension/release cycle, like “In The House In The Head,” which itself goes for an almost Asian sounding guitar figure. A more-diluted Asian tonal range appears also on instrumental “Ljos,” whose breakbeat-then-syncopated drumming give the song a feel unlike anything else you’ve heard.

While Phosphenes showed Imperial China discovering its sound through a diversity of material, How We Connect shows the band locking in and executing for a more cohesive overall statement. It still has the hallmark common elements: alien synth samples, deft guitar work, cryptic bass, and complex — sometimes tribal — drum rhythms. It’s just that now the elements have tighter bonds. Whether considered dance-punk, post-punk, or some other category of “indie rock,” How We Connect outdoes itself. It’s already got a “top releases of 2012″ stamp on it, and we’re barely even out of January.

One additional note: for turntable enthusiasts, the album has a limited-edition white vinyl release. And one more note: don’t miss the live show if you like the album, as the band’s energy cannot be fully captured in its recordings.