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Local spin: Three new Vegas treats for your ears

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On his latest EP, Brett Bolton’s electronic project Kitze is all about glitzed-out, synthy hooks.
Brett Bolton

Kitze, Talkboys EP

Brett Bolton sits in his basement surrounded by gear—a Moog synthesizer, a drum machine and a keyboard—while a geyser of geometric icebergs erupts next to him, as if escaping from the floorboards. The Talkboys EP cover reveals a few things about Bolton’s latest collection of electronic songs, namely, that it’s filled with Kitze’s familiar, funked-out computerized jams, put through a warm filter. Layered with twinkling blips, claps and hooky catchphrases—not to mention smooth and synthy grooves (hear: “RKCP”)—Bolton mixes decades of influences into something that shape-shifts like a lava lamp and livens up any room.

The Psyatics, Famous Monsters

This third full-length launches into rock ’n’ roll overdrive on its very first song, “Famous Monsters,” which happens to be about history’s most infamous serial killers. Backed by Mark Bäertschi’s surfy drum fills and guitarist Jack Ball’s electrifying fretwork, vocalist/bassist Rob Bell puts his snarling delivery front and center on the trio’s gasoline-powered garage-rock. From the spunky Drags cover “I Like to Die” to the rockabilly-tinged “The Last Time I Saw Julia,” Famous Monsters thunders from start to finish.

Amy Pate, Amy Pate

“I’ve been slipping into madness/This life’s a waking dream/Time is an illusion/I can’t wake up, I can’t sleep.” That’s how Candy Warpop’s singer opens this solo album, a harrowing statement softened only by her vocal restraint and the strum of her acoustic guitar, evoking comparisons to PJ Harvey. Pate, whose guitars, amps and other gear was stolen earlier this year, will release her self-titled record at a November 18 release show at 11th Street Records—with the help of the Vegas music scene. “Allan Carter from SquidHat [Records] heard what happened to me, and financed my entire album production and pressing,” she says.

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