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Clipd Beaks know what an EP is for. Preyers has me completely and utterly begging for their full-length to come out. The band creates dense, noisy, psych-pop. The first three songs show off their dancier, frenetic side. Opener "Nuclear Arab" is the most straight-forward song here with its droning keyboards and effects-laden vocals coasting to a buzzing, rhythmic conclusion. It's great but the least distinct song. Following it is "No Horizons" a bass-heavy trod through lands burnt. Creppy synth washes and looped vocals lead up to a noise breakdown about a third of the way through the track. The looped vocals become more prominent, as does the synth wash. The song then slowly but surely becomes ambient before fading out. The loudest, shortest track is "We Will Bomb You (We Will)" which is supposedly a rap about Abu Ghraib but the vocals are alternately too dying-animal-yelp and effects-ridden to be understood. The last few seconds of the song lapse into ultra lo-fi recordings of more rapping and someone banging on a bucket. "Messed Up Desert" is the first slower track despite the machine gun drumming in its middle section. It's shimmering and beautiful; backed by a glorious noise drone and the first clear vocal track. It hits the machine gun drumming section before the boys use the slowly-becoming-ambient trick again to transfer it to the next track, the underwater adventure "Hash Angels." The percussion here is all electronic and the vocals are a looped noise not unlike the sound your dog makes when it realizes it's not going to get anything off your dinner plate. "Smoke Me When I'm Gone" is a wonderful closer. The band finds a groove and covers it with keyboards before dropping it all away to leave tribal drums and the repetitous vocal refrain "Earth, moon, trees, sky, animals, and the sun/I won't tell anyone." The synth wash and a chorus of looped vocals return for the fade out. The two main topics on the EP seem to be drugs (witnessed with the final two song titles) and the Middle East (all the other song titles). They've definitely got the drugs down but it seems like a trashy psych band wouldn't be the first place to look for Middle East commentary and, really, we don't get any. The vocals are too obscured most of the time to understand anything and the included lyrics are scrawled in one giant block. The vocals do nothing for political statement but everything for the music itself. The splayed and splattered and recurring vocals fit the style these guys are doing perfectly. I think the full-length is going to be about balancing their obvious desire to say something and having their vocals being totally tripped-out and rad. And, boy, if they do... Watch out.

Clipd Beaks at Amazon & Insound