Song of the Day: Telekinesis - Ghost and Creatures

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s selection, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is "Ghost and Creatures" by Telekinesis from the 2013 album Dormarion on Merge.

Telekinesis - Ghost and Creatures (MP3)

Formed in Seattle in 2008, Telekinesis is the musical project of Michael Benjamin Lerner. Although joined by a live band on tour, Lerner remains the sole musical force behind Telekinesis, crafting a set of slick, guitar-driven indie rock tunes on his self-titled debut, and expanding on those ideas on his second full length. Now prepping to release his third album, the Jim Eno-produced Dormarion, Lerner has moved in a more electronic direction than ever, trading in his power-pop sensibilities for Cure-esque waves of echoing keyboards and soaring, emotive vocals. Buzzing with wide-screen electronics, "Ghost and Creatures" taps into an anthemic, pulsing vein that was hinted at on Telekinesis' last album, but never fully realized. His voice floating in a sea of feedback and keyboards, Lerner's dramatic synthesis of melancholy vocals and wide-screen soundscapes shares elements with Bloc Party's Intimacy and Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours, but unlike those two records, "Ghost and Creatures" isn't built around peaks and valleys, but rather a consistent, increasingly tense stream of instrumentation. More danceable and singalong-friendly than ever, "Ghost and Creatures" is the sound of Lerner beginning to grasp a bigger sound, and if this club-filling sound finds a larger audience, Lerner might need to ask M83 where they got their light show.

Telekinesis have booked a Spring tour in support of Dormarion, starting with a show at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge on April 21st. (More info and tickets on that show here.) Keep an eye on their website and Facebook for more updates and tour dates, and watch the band perform "Country Lane" from 2011's 12 Desperate Straight Lines live on KEXP in 2011 below.