Now this is the sound that gets me excited. Portland’s Wow & Flutter released Equilibrio! just over a month ago on Mt. Fuji Records and if you have yet to check it out, don’t hesitate. Theirs is a sound you do not want to miss. “The Puget Sound” reminds me of noisy melodramatic 90s rock, packed with dreamy vocals, ringing guitars, and heavy percussion. It’s a sound just as familiar to the northwest (their hometown is Portland, OR) as it is to that era DC. The harmonies are dissonant and emotive, while the music behind is wildly consistent and hypnotic. This is the best thing I’ve heard yet from Wow & Flutter!

This sound rocks, flat out, uninhibited. And Equilibrio! can be found on Mt. Fuji Records, too, which adorned us last year with the likes of Virgin Islands (the Seattle band will have a new one out early next year on the label too!) and The Maldives.

Download: “The Puget Sound” by Wow & Flutter

No sooner than I discovered The Cops, they were over; succumbing to the fate all bands reach at some point. But Mt. Fuji Records mastermind Mike Jaworski is back with a new project, one in the same vein as The Cops. This group, Virgin Islands, just dropped their first EP. I picked up Age Of Anxiety on a whim while in Seattle last weekend and now I’m obsessing over its post-punk Seattle in-your-face greatness.

Title track “The Age Of Anxiety” is what you’d expect from a new Seattle-based group. It’s gritty and raw and sucks you in with loud guitars and massive feedback. The vocals pack a punch strong enough to knock Alice Kramden flat on her face. Age Of Anxiety is, of course, available now from Mt. Fuji Records. Here’s what the label says about the release:

The EP is called The Age of Anxiety and is available on 12″ vinyl and digitally through all of your favorite digital stores. The vinyl pressing is limited to 300 copies, so don’t sleep on it!

Head over to Mt. Fuji and get your own limited print copy, and enjoy the title track below in the meantime.

Virgin Islands: The Age Of Anxiety [mp3]

Point Juncture WA chose a fine time to start knocking the cover off of the ball. Their third record, Heart to Elk, has been picked up by Seattle label Mt. Fuji Records and was given wide release in February. Seattle indie radio behemoth KEXP has been wearing down the grooves of Heart to Elk for months. The band is now preparing for a national tour in support of fellow Portlanders The Thermals and the Shaky Hands, to be capped triumphantly by their first Sasquatch gig in May. Their plan for world domination may yet come to fruition.

Heart to Elk is the band’s most cohesive statement to date, infused with joy and delight. It incorporates their love of the precision space groove of bands like Broadcast and Stereolab with the textural gradiations of Yo La Tengo and some catchy damned tunes. It is a pleasure to hear Amanda Spring’s vocals float over her own skittering traps, or to hear Victor Nash provide the masculine counterpoint in PJWA’s boy-girl dichotomy. The third track, “New Machine,” would have fit perfectly on Electr-o-Pura, and I’ll be jiggered if Nash doesn’t kill me every time I hear him coyly deliver the line: So what’s this shit about / your mom says you’re all tuckered out/ is that some kind of answer / for me and for you?

“Sioux Arrow” features an appreciation for meticulousness in arrangement and harmonies that Krautrockers would envy, but it would all be wasted if the song were not so compelling. The shaker, trumpet and nylon string guitar that begin “Kings Part II” portend the groovy, woozy ditty that follows. “Fleet and Small” sounds like avian instructions beamed across the globe to assist migratory patterns. Guitarist Wilson Vediner provides the rock basis for the band, and his delectable fingerprints mark every song on the record.

It’s not an accident that they sound like a producer’s band, with PDX wunderkind Skyler Norwood playing in the band and assisting in the knob twiddling, and lots of Portland’s finest helping to lay down or engineer the tracks. The result is no case of too many cooks in the kitchen; the recording is impeccable. Point Juncture WA effortlessly meld horns, vibes, and drum machines with the elements of classic indie rock. Their music is tidal, with an oceanic ebb and flow that becomes mesmerizing when interlocking patterns click. It is a sweet, beguiling sound that you want to like; luckily, PJWA makes it all so easy to dig.

Point Juncture WA: Melon Bird [mp3]

Mt. Fuji Records [CD, 2009]

1. Rocks and Sand
2. Once Tasted Ever Wanted
3. New Machine
4. Biathalon
5. Sioux Arrow
6. Kings Part II
7. The Kings Were Good
8. Sick On Sugar
9. Melon Bird
10. Stray Bear
11 . Fleet and Small
12. Viking Mission to Mars
13. The Easy Winners