A Track A Day Will Prep You for Health's Difficult Bliss

Do you enjoy blasts of white noise? How about harnessed feedback anarchy, when instruments turn incoherent?

At first, HEALTH might not seem like your sonic bag. The LA foursome culls power-tronics and abrasive beats from bashing experimentalists like Liars and manage to cram in post-punk, hardcore and techno sheen. But get this: no screaming. Just Jake Duzsik’s ghost-in-the-machine monotone syllables, a lulling counterpoint to the madness behind him.

Not as immediately tasty as last week’s Vampire Weekend expose, but you need bands like HEALTH to yank your mind in disparate directions with guitar stabs and tempo shifts.

Dip your toes into the great, murky pool that is HEALTH’s alienation with new single “Die Slow,” and watch the morphing chords and ’90s rap-speed beat grab you. Intrigued? Wade further with “We Are Water,” a hardcore drill sergeant wrapped in dance gauze, to keep the head nodding and tease at something more visceral.

Finally, to prepare your body for the show this Saturday, try “Triceratops” off their self-titled debut. A feedback swirl and crash cymbals lead into a robo-strobe beat, riding in like a freak train, barely waiting for you to hop on before devolving into A.D.D. squalor. The last third of the track reaches ambient tremolo bliss as BJ Miller slams the shit out of his toms until they fade to paced drums. HEALTH proves rock can still shock — it hasn’t all been done before.

Weirdo-poppers Tape Deck Mountain open for HEALTH.

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