Undercover Crops

Brothers Caleb and Ashton Bird infuse 20th-century hard rock with 21st-century plunderphonic hijinx to create a new kind of psychedelia. Undercover Crops opens with the delightfully disturbing “Moans,” which, at just under two minutes, consists of collaged sonic textures shuffling under a repeated loop of a woman chanting “Everyone is paranoid.” The second track, “People,” really gets things going, with deep, guttural vintage guitar tones that howl like Neil Young’s Crazy Horse rig. Propelled by a steady meat-and-potatoes rhythm, the brothers Bird sing boyish harmonies over the sonic avalanche. This duality provides a weird but interesting contrast here and throughout Undercover Crops. “Psychorain” follows, with a mammoth mantra of bellbottomed riffs digging to the center of the earth. Over this, helium-affected vocals sing through thick doses of reverb, sounding like Jennifer Gentle’s Marco Fasolo fronting Big Business. “Pigeons” blasts a swampy soup of hot, molten distortion, over which Caleb and Ashton croon sibling harmonies.