Sin Pelo

Sin Pelo

Navigation (GFY)

Possessed of more inner glow than E.T. himself, Sin Pelo's Navigation gives off enough radiant heat to cook a whole freezer-case full of rotisserie chickens. The nombre de rock y roll of Austin's busiest bassist Andrew Duplantis (Superego, Bob Mould, Dismukes), Sin Pelo's sound is closest kin to two Duplantis employers: the Meat Puppets' sunburnt psychedelia and Alejandro Escovedo's heavy folk, both precisely refracted in the warm acoustic bath and cockeyed mariachi trumpet of opener "Isolation Tank." Though largely free of electricity, the disc fairly crackles with rock energy; the almost drone-like chords of "Translation" and "State Lines" are as hypnotic and foot-stomping as a Zeppelin song. Poppier moments such as the wind-in-your-hair rush of "Ever Anywhere" and the organ swirls of "Shotgun" are no less kinetic. With Duplantis' vexing lyrics about fresh dirt, trolls, and red chairs, and Ethan Azarian's typically whimsical cover art as added bonuses, Navigation sets a course for terrain not often explored and yet comfortably familiar.