Canopies

Since bursting out of the gate with a terrific self-titled EP in 2011, Milwaukee’s Canopies have established themselves as the city’s premiere synth slingers. The album is clearly indebted to a proto-new-wave past full of murky ’80s dance clubs, but still shot through with a spirit of post-millennial dance parties. John Marston and Nolan Treolo form the band’s core and, along with drummer Craig Leren, already seem to be a notch above the current chillwave high-water mark. The group’s songs are anything but gauzy, unfocused psychedelia. Lead-off track “Rebels” is effortlessly stuffed with dreamy, straight-up pop hooks, and “Strangers Glare” does well by a driving, insidiously catchy chorus.

Updated 04/24/2012