It’s been four years and a few lineup changes since PAUCITY’s Friction Records debut An Untitled Album, but their sophomore effort DEER BIRD BEAR SHIP has been well worth the wait. The new set finds the band back as it started, with the original musicians upping the ante on composition and craft in instrumental, experimental music. Recorded in early 2009 at the White Lodge in Wayland, MI, Deer Bird Bear Ship was mastered by Al McAvoy and documents the next stage in PAUCITY.

Building on the framework set by post-rock innovators Mogwai, Tortoise and Don Caballero, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based foursome continues to extend the possibilities of vocal-less rock music, offering equal nods to their previously named forbearers, as well as the sounds of Miles Davis’ electric outings; electronic music pioneers Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin; post-hardcore titans Isis and Envy; and the atmospheric work of alt-rock mainstays Radiohead and The Cure.

As a wave of new instrumental bands has emerged over the years, so have a few common clichés. The first is an overuse of the pregnant repetition of some emotive chord progression, which, when the moment arrives, has no choice but to erupt in a celebration of brute volume (with no change to the music’s melodic content), not unlike a wailing infant. The second is an over-glorification of technical prowess that borders on a Saturday afternoon visit to the local Guitar Mart—were the associates at said mart run by people who liked better music.

Make no mistake, PAUCITY’s music makes much use of shifts in dynamic, as well as the accomplished skill of its musicians but, like watching any brilliant actor in a play or a film, the players—in spite of their exceptional talents—make the listener forget the facts and follow the music wherever it takes them. There just may be a jaw-dropping crescendo around the bend; you may hear some extended measures in a meter most math students couldn’t follow. But it will never feel exploitative or without purpose. As satisfying as it is, the music isn’t interested in winking at you and saying, “Look what we did,” or “Isn’t this important?” It’s too busy being exceptional.

Band members Kertis Lytle, Jared Wekenman, Sam Hutchinson and Ric Carroll layer warm synths, airy keys, bristling guitar, churning bass and complex rhythms with a true sense of purpose and aural space, where no note—no matter how off-the-cuff— sounds out of place. Carroll and Wekenman may have both spent time away from the band since the last recording, but Deer Bird Bear Ship shows PAUCITY writing and playing at their strongest and most cohesive and mature.

From the lyrical, pentatonic riff that leads “The Cradle;” to the odd-timed, fist-pumping prog-rock of “Funnel Web,” to the creeping guitar squawks and wah-filtered synth lines of “Cowboys & Arabs;” and sublimated drum rolls of “Twice the Pumpkin,” Deer Bird Bear Ship is a demonstration in variety for the purpose of musical advancement, marking a clear step forward for the band, as well as the genre.