Teeming 2

On this sophomore effort, Texan Daniel Huffman—the noise musician and visual artist who goes by the moniker New Fumes—shows off his skills in creating sonic collages, finding a sweet spot where lo-fi weirdness meets pop sensibilities. Huffman pushes the boundaries of his melodies, as on “Goodbye Planet,” layering howling crystalline high tones with more abrupt intrusions of sawing noises in a kind of tornado effect, with his voice low and hazy on the sonic horizon. On “Billy, I’m a Living Animal,” Huffman combines chant-like hooks with staccato beats and a smattering of synth sound-effects. The sound is a mix of buoyant 1990s guitar-driven rock and outer-space synth atmosphere that harkens to The Flaming Lips (in fact, the Lips’ Wayne Coyne makes an appearance on the single “Rioter’s Milk”). At times, these feel less like songs and more like brief glimpses through passing windows—a product, perhaps, of Huffman’s visual background. Go into it with an open mind; it’s worth it.