Ear PWR

Like many electronic acts at the moment, Baltimore's Ear PWR is clearly drawing inspiration from analog synth-pop bands of the '80s as well as the bizarre disco/ambient/experimental pop hybrid made famous by Giorgio Moroder. There's also a hint of that surrealistic Teletubbies air (minus the borderline creepiness) to the band's catchy oeuvre.

As a result, much of Ear PWR's music sounds like what might happen if a way-too-clever-for-TV kids' show composer tried her hand at dance-club music—that is, if she also wove in electroclash and grime as a symbolic slight to any pretense of musical purity. Ultimately, Ear PWR is not a group of electro-dilettantes, but rather the band equivalent of an artist taking cast-off fashions and aesthetics and splicing them together to make something cool from the detritus of culture.

—Tom Murphy