Karma Vision

Named for the house where the album was recorded and where Karma Vision hosts monthly local-music showcases, Pizza Power finds the Lawrence psychedelic-folk outfit integrating the looseness of its first two EPs and achieving a sort of laid-back control. Frontman Bobby Sauder is no longer with his other band, Mammoth Life, and the album reflects that — the wonky synthesizers, easy-listening saxophone riffs and whimsical chant-along harmonies carry the sort of statement that a first LP should. Karma Vision owes a considerable debt to groups like Fleet Foxes and Animal Collective, but the tracks “Price Meltdown” and “Cone Doo Womp” hit on something that achieves a more unified synthesis of the group’s weirder sonic elements, a cohesion that was lacking up until this point. Pizza Power is the work of a band that’s on the cusp of finding a sound wholly its own but that’s content to get there at its own leisurely pace.

Categories: Music