Honey Claws

Multi-instrumentalists Dr. Zero, Ben Senior, Jon Von Letscher, and Traey Hatch went down in the lab with a pen and a pad (in Austin and Houston, respectively) and came out six months later with a new take on American music. Absent in their debut is any sense of confirmed or confined genre, but at the same time it's a fully realized sound, part mad scientist hip-hop experiment, part soulful psychedelic wall of sound.

And therein lies the essence of the Austin-based band’s self-titled debut record. Its 14 tracks are based on that brand of playful, creative, wild-eyed, stream-of-consciousness energy. The four-piece group moves through 49 minutes of innovative experimental hip-hop psychedelia that’s equal parts Panda Bear as it is Madlib.

The record is, at its very heart, an electronic animal and when its heart beats, you feel the floor shaking from sixty-six blocks away. Sexed-up beats pulse thick with electro bass while a whole pile of robotic trippiness blankets the sound in a way that recalls likeminded souls Daft Punk, Odelay-era Beck, and Kraftwerk. Still, the sound is all their own. Without Honey Claws there would be no Honey Claws music. Without Honey Claws music there would be no Honey Claws. They are a unique and new creature unto themselves.

Songs like “Giant Town,” “Villains,” and “Ambulance” are electronic music that’s both lovesick with technology and totally organic-feeling. “Shout Out” is the playful party jam that radio’s been waiting for. “E-Sticker” is pure electro FUNK with Jon Von Letscher’s tight old school hip-hop flows blowin’ off doors from Austin to deepest, darkest Peru. “Animalssss” is a glowing pool of bioluminescent trip out.

Honey Claws is currently available for digital purchase