Brute Heart: Lonely Hunter

The sophomore release from this Minneapolis, Minnesota trio seamlessly blends elements of art rock/pop with touches of world music—Middle Eastern and Indian music influence abound—in deeply imaginative and thoroughly pure ways. The undeniably cool and thoughtfully executed tracks call to mind the Brian Eno/David Byrne classic My Life in the Bush of Ghosts but add a thoroughly contemporary spin on the matter. Key tracks include “Hunter”, a heavy, unpretentious tune rife with trance-inducing rhythms as well as “Charmed One”, a quiet and meditative number that seems to have been birthed specifically for rain-soaked afternoons and dark nights of the soul. More conventional—a term used here rather loosely—numbers populate the album’s back end but Brute Heart is really at its best when destroying boundaries and expanding minds.

• Multiple songs MySpace