Glo-fi?  Chillwave?  Hypnagogic pop?  Music journalists have been desperate searching to categorize what they see as the emergence of a new wave of artists creating lo-fi bedroom recordings of electronic music.  Whether or not this warrants a new genre name is up to the masses, but these artists have carved out a certain niche in indie pop.  It is characterized by hazy electro-pop with a penchant for imposing a hallucinogenic effect on the listener and nostalgia for childhood.  One artist being lumped in with this movement is Neon Indian, who released his debut album; Psychic Chasms on October 27.  Neon Indian is composed of merely one member, Alan Palomo, who some of you may recognize from earlier this year under his VEGA moniker.  The hype surrounding Neon Indian has been steadily building since the summer when he released an EP of the same name, so does his full length debut live up the promise?  Although not an all out success, the album is for the most part stunning.

The album kicks off with brief interlude entitled “(AM)”, but really gets into the heart of things once recent summer jam, “Deadbeat Summer” enters the fray.  A laidback track marked by video game sound effects, rhythmic guitar work, hushed vocals and a (implosive) propulsion usually found in a more “serious” forms of electronic dance music.  One the album’s highlights come midway through, “6669 (I Don’t Know if You Know).”  A track that manages to effortlessly combines the elements found in “Deadbeat Summer” into something sleeker without coming off across as cheesy, which is one of my main criticisms of the album.  At times, all of the bizarre effects and synth noises scattered throughout songs are just too “cutesy,” which would tie in the album’s theme of childhood, but just sound ridiculous at times.  “Mind Jokes” displays a throbbing bassline that recalls the best of 80’s synth pop and Italo disco, transforming into one of the most euphoric songs of the year.  If there is one artist that Neon Indian clearly brings to mind, it is Cut Copy, who on last year’s In Ghost Colours, smoothly combined synth-pop, electro, French house, and indie rock into a fascinating collection of tracks.  Neon Indian draws from a similar template yet is not as concerned with crafting structured songs.  They instead opt to deliver pop bliss of a more deranged style that is amorphous in the best of ways, much like what Bradford Cox has done with his Atlas Sound project.  Palomo has proved on their debut that he is a promising young talent with an ear for catching shards of melody among the foggy haze of acid-drenched noise.

–Anish