But the meat of the album comes with tougher tracks like "Balloon Factory," which goes on about the virgin mother being seen on the face of a balloon, while distorted, exuberantly weird vocals breathe fire and deliver a ripping chorus of "Whang-diddly dang dang."

Somewhere in the wilds of Canada, there are strange creatures lurking about. One of them is Dandi Wind, a collaborative musical enterprise between vocalist Dandilion Wind Opaine and multi-instrumentalist Szam Findlay. There is something almost reptilian about this duo (joined last year by drummer Evan Pierce): a lumbering beast inhabits the dark, sometimes abrasive terrain of Concrete Igloo that acts like it would just as soon spit venom as look at you. In other words, this band has teeth - and they'll take a big bite outta your ass within minutes if you don't display respectful submissiveness to the industrial dance grooves of their 14-song debut full-length.

Besides the hypnotic but sometimes discordant rhythms and carnivorous, gaping-maw vocals the fiery Ms. Wind lets loose, you get cheery song titles like "Shrapnel," "Slumlord" and the unforgettable "Apotemnophilia." Yes, kids, time to learn a new word. Bet you didn't know there was a medical term for poor saps who have a hankerin' to get one of their limbs lopped off, did you? Well, now you do...and this song—a furious bit of elemental IDM that sounds like Skinny Puppy if Siouxsie Sioux had taken over for a spell—will tell you all about it.

As dark as this record is, it's really quite compelling thanks to Findlay's slam-bang production and some irresistible grooves. "Flooded Grass" and "Hitch-hiker" will bring a smile to the face of anyone who misses early '80s synth pop with an edge; you can sure as shit dance to this stuff, or get herky-jerky like Devo. But the meat of the album comes with tougher tracks like "Balloon Factory," which goes on about the virgin mother being seen on the face of a balloon, while distorted, exuberantly weird vocals breathe fire and deliver a ripping chorus of "Whang-diddly dang dang"—gripping stuff.

Or "Utopia Now," a dark grabber of a tune which illustrates an apparent trademark of this band: the ability to make an interesting hook out of short lyrical phrases repeated very fast, in this case, "You wanted it you needed it you needed it now/ We're headed for Utopia now." Very machine-like, very cool. The aforementioned "Slumlord" takes a metronome-precise slow rhythm and combines it with clear, single notes on a piano played repeatedly and a Dubya-bashing rap to devastating effect: "Your idiot mug impressed the masses/ Fear mongering cuts through the classes/ But in a day's work and when it was chic/ You always found time to grease up the sheiks...It's quite a team you've managed to acquire/ Deniers, liars and pacifiers..." It's one of the best anti-war tunes of the year, although you may not catch all the lyrics on first listening.

It's also worth mentioning "Hostages," a harshly rendered song that nevertheless has guts and soul galore in its tense grooves, and "Biddings," which sends the Cool-O-Meter almost to 10 with its cartoonish synth and ear-commandeering rhythm track.

Dandi Wind are not wallflowers, and they aren't making music for such. Although there are certainly retro elements in this sound, and plenty of fun if you look for it, the sensibility is thoroughly new millennium: a black-clad gathering of hyperbusy and hyperconcerned friends dealing with life during wartime. Their solution: dance, rant, throw heavy things around and tell the unthinking, inflexible types who show up to fuck off. Hey, if it results in cool platters like Concrete Igloo, that's fine and Dandi... A- | Kevin Renick

RIYL: Skinny Puppy, The Knife, early Devo