Making quirky, structurally complex avant-pop in the style of Menomena or a less ornate Broken Social Scene, local three piece Iretsu manages something quite special—persuaded me to hit repeat after a week spent listening to way too many bands.

One of the nicest surprises on “Name Our Numbers, Numbers,” the title track from its new 3-song EP, is how weightless the whole thing feels. The songs got a lot of things going on—wide, reverberating slabs of guitar; a spiraling keyboard line; elegant notes of glockenspiel and moaning violin. After a minute-long intro, you almost expect it to stay the instrumental route—so when the voices finally enter the mix, you’ve already gone through the entire first section. It’s an unexpected moment, like the band just decided to skip the entire first verse and suddenly delve right into the thick of melody.

After the frantic, sugar-rush opening, “Numbers” slows down to catch its breath for the closing two minutes. With so many songs gradually building toward epic heights, it’s refreshing to hear someone actually scale back and let a song breathe for once. Chamber pop can often be pretty heavy stuff, something that you can’t really digest on one listen, but Iretsu has made something immensely listenable. It takes a bit of time to adjust to its world, but once you do, you might never look back.

Download audio file (numbers.mp3)

Links:
IretsuSpace

Photo courtesy of Iretsu