Dmonstrations

Night Trrors. Shock!

[3/5] The underground is teeming with over-caffeinated units trafficking in prickly, tangled guitar figures, but only a handful have a mania that truly inspires levitation. Night Trrors. Shock!, the second disc by Bay Area-based Dmonstrations, comes off as more hovercraft than B-1 bomber. Shock! sports mutant boogie (“Voyeur”) and some slightly linear structures (“Uvula,” “Crocodile Brain”) that meld the vibe of antisocial Midwest ’90s rock (Shellac, Halo Of Flies, the Jesus Lizard) with the art damage usually associated with downtown NYC back in the day. And while guitarist Tetsunori Tawaraya’s vocals occasionally make him worthy of repeated shots to the face with a tube sock filled with quarters, these 10 tracks are far more exciting than, say, a 30-pound bag of Shins demos. (GSL; goldstandardlabs.com) Jason Pettigrew