Buke and Gass at Chop Suey

Brooklyn duo Buke and Gass have us counting down the Friday minutes. The young group's Seattle debut comes tonight at Chop Suey where they support Danish band Efterklang (4AD). Also on the ticket is Seattle's electro-down-tempo songsmith Anomie Belle.

Buke and Gass -- named after two homemade instruments its members created; the "buke" is a baritone ukulele; the "gass" is a guitar/bass -- has been receiving lots o' love from media and new fans for its first full length album, Riposte (Brassland), which was released only four days ago. We've had Riposte playing over and over, and now we're throwing our love into the mix, too.

Buke and Gass is Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez (was it fate?), Sanchez handling drums and gass, while Dyer plays buke and sings. The duo plays a unique style of art rock. The instrumentation may be somewhat basic, but their sound is modern, layered, sometimes spastic, almost always driving, and controlled. A sort of modern jazz meets indie/folk rock, they bear a resemblance both to their indie contemporaries (Dirty Projectors, The Dodos) and also to the more non-electronic adventurers of the 90s, especially when Dyer's shifting yet confident vocals take center.

A single Buke and Gass song can go through ranges and phases, from straight ahead rock to meandering experimentation. They can teeter over a sort of metal sound, but they never fall into disguising distortion, and the group is only diplomatically abrasive. That's not to say the music is without angst. it's just a lucid and candid angst. Songs may stretch into the avant-garde, but in the end, Buke and Gass is decidedly pop-centered, relatively unambiguous, and easily enjoyed. It's strange, but familiar, a wonderful blend. And we hear they sound fantastic live.

Go faster, Friday.

9:00 p.m. // Chop Suey // $10