THE KIMONOS Sound (It) Out {FACTORY RECORDINGS}

The sophisticated slinkiness of Houston-based the Kimonos is more New York City cool than Texas skronk.  This arty quartet mingles rangy guitar riffs, pulsing keyboards, and murky, bittersweet lyrics on their smart, new wave-inspired debut.  Kimono singer-keyboardist Gina Miller, the axis upon which the band turns, saturates each song with oozing sensuality; she plays temptress, dominatrix, and muse all at once as she breathlessly pouts and growls her way through each track.  Her gentle whipsers and aching moans serve as a perfect counterpoint to guitarist-songwriter Ken Shoen's sharp, high-wire intonations. In "On the Screen" and "Natasha F.," the two trade verses effortlessly while angular rhythms dense with sexual energy seesaw between them.  Shoen, for his part, sounds best when drowning in despair:  As the tortured lover in "Side by Side," he bemoans a partner who won't stay true ("Was so nice last night/You lay there right by my side/Now you are far away laughing and alone I stay / It seeps through my bones/Deliver me, take me home").  But, as with many of the tunes on the record, the desolation is offset by echoing, singsong medlodies and guitar lines graced with a kicky cadence.  The Kimonos' engaging push-pull vocal foreplay and hooky ambience make Sound (It) Out one of the best albums of 2005 you never heard.

-A. BRESHEARS

Best on a mix tape with: Enon, Broken Social Scene, Blondie.
If the album was a stanger at a pary:  That girl with the jet-black hair and mod minidress.