Best Local Experimental Music Act

A Berklee College of Music graduate and classically trained pianist making a hard left into extreme noise seems like an unexpected move. But when Alexa Lima joins forces with Keith William of Atlanta hip-hop outfit Wake, their talents come together in a wash of abstract sound called DIALOGUE. The collaboration began as a means of deconstructing Lima’s 2015 self-titled EP. Paired with William’s noisy impulses, Lima’s modern classical compositions are deconstructed to reveal a universe of hidden possibilities through sampling and an avant-garde approach to sound. This year, their efforts culminated in a hypnotic visual compilation titled “Study No. 3,” in which any semblance of hip-hop production or traditional structure melts into a haze of open-ended sonic texture. To call the result of their deep musical interaction noise sells their works short. But to call it anything else is misleading. On stage, they run a turntable into a sampler and synthesizers. William samples and manipulates records live while Lima plays keys and twists knobs. The music is composed, but done in a language that’s singular to this pairing of musicians. Abstractions, a debut cassette featuring Lima’s EP on the A-side and Dialogue’s deconstruction on the flip side, is due out in September. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT6SaypdpPk. less...

The electronic-tinged local rock innovator Jungol has created a beautiful and twisted film and soundtrack project dubbed Go Softly. The group’s core members, twin brothers Josh and Graham Yoder, have long probed the outer limits of the imagination with reverb-heavy electronic rock. With Go Softly, the group reaches even further into the realms of the strange and surreal. Released as a series of short vignettes via YouTube, the abstract film follows a few different characters communing with nature in various ways. Each scene is drenched in surreal colors that flood the synapses with disjointed narratives and themes that are at once pleasant and nightmarish. The film’s musical score creates a dreamlike ambiance with bouncy rhythms and a totally psychedelic vibe. Together, the resulting sound and vision is hypnotizing, eerie, and sometimes just plain weird. www.jungol.net. less...

Best known for orchestrating layers of winding and bucolic rhythms that evoke equal parts Can’s hypnotic rhythms and the Grateful Dead’s hippie-dippie ways, Faun and a Pan Flute is the most engaging act of the last year to spring from Atlanta’s esoteric rock underbelly. With a lineup that generally settles in at around nine players, the group has transformed from a ragtag math rock band into a much larger ensemble that knows no musical bounds. Since former Street Violence vocalist Suzanne Baker joined the group, her voice has become a calming agent that has redirected the Fauns to explore a nuanced kaleidoscope of sound where every horn, guitar, and drum arrangement is an essential component to the whole. Don’t let the saxophone and long hair fool you, there’s nothing jammy about Faun and a Pan Flute. Every note, every crashing melody, and every breath this group takes contributes to an unorthodox musical method that is distinct and deliberate. www.faunandapanflute.bandcamp.com. less...

Over the last three years, Lyonnais has methodically explored the grey area between post-punk and proto-industrial drone. Through it all, the group has fostered a mesmerizing art-pop that morphs ever so slightly each time the band steps on stage. Pulling off such versatility is no easy chore. But the impending release of the enigmatic group’s debut album, Want For Wish For Nowhere (Hoss Records), proves that keeping experimental music interesting is a task at which this mysterious foursome excels. myspace.com/teamlyonnais.

Listen: Lyonnais “The Fatalist”

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It’s easy to mistake the THE BACK POCKETS’ ragged display of noise-folk and performance art for an urban art-hippie thing. But there’s not a lot of peace and love going on within this marriage of broken banjo strumming, keyboards, industrial rhythms and theatrics. Frontwoman and mastermind Emily Kempf leads a revolving cast of players in an all-encompassing cabaret that stands apart from Atlanta’s rock ‘n’ roll bar scene. The sound is Of Montreal mixed with Marquis de Sade, with ramshackle musical elements unfolding alongside actors’ exaggerated vignettes. The audience is armed with drumsticks, tearing down the wall between spectator and performer. Through it all, band members don face paint of jeweled shapes, clouds and flowers, taking on a feral presence that, despite its anti-pop connotations, results in songs and scenes that are compelling and catchy. www.myspace.com/thebackpockets less...

Since CARNIVORES released their debut LP, All Night Dead USA, the last year has taken them on a whirlwind East Coast and Midwest tour, earning them a few nods from such national tastemakers as Fader, Vice and Pitchfork. With their forthcoming sophomore album, If I’m Ancient, Carnivores are poised to raise their profile with an album of art-damaged post-punk and avant-garde pop that rekindles the dissonance and mutant elation that defined their tangled beginnings. Capturing Carnivores’ corrosive musical chemistry, If I’m Ancient shows that the group is primed for the forward march out of Atlanta and into the rest of the world. www.myspace.com/carnivoresatl less...

One of the most disconcerting acts to grace Atlanta stages in 2009, FACEHUGGER creates an atmosphere that eclipses the normal exuberance experienced at a live show. Drawing from a palette of proto-industrial noise and pop grooves in the vein of Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire and even Joy Division, the group turns out a surprisingly pleasing sound both antiquated and surreal. But the aggressive, hyper-manic performance of vocalist John Hannah is enough to jar an entire audience out of its comfort zone. www.myspace.com/facehuggeratl. less...

Amid the backdrop of Atlanta’s various fringe electro-noise and experimental acts, TREE CREATURE tests the boundaries of noise, pop and minimalism while diving headlong into a blissfully distinctive world of sound. One could easily file the group under “electronic music,” but Tree Creature never once brings a laptop to the stage. Instead it chooses the analog route to craft spacey and ethereal ambiance. By comparison with the harsh noise of fellow local contender Black Meat, Tree Creature’s long, undulating waves of angelic drones and repeating musical phrases are much more inviting, and always make for a palatable and social backdrop to any of the group’s weekly performances at house parties or low-key venues, such as Eyedrum or 11:11 Teahouse.

www.myspace.com/treecreature

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