Welcome to a new Bloglin feature foccused solely on exposing the creative underbelly of Los Angeles. We’ve asked our record reviewer, Hollow Eyed to take some time away from Hollywood coke parties and meandering through beastly LA traffic to start a monthly—or maybe more frequent—column entitled Smog City Sounds in the hopes of bringing the best of The City of Angels has to offer to the Bloglin eyes. To kick things off, he reviews dream-pop foursome Superhumanoids’ latest, self-released and produced 12-inch Urgency.

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LA-based Superhumanoids play a sound that’s well beyond their short career. Featuring two members of snarky post-punk speedsters The Franks, they claim it’s “music to help kiss the doldrums away” and the quartet are pretty much right in their over-the-moon assertion. Throughout their current, self-released (on own imprint Hit City) and self-produced, six-song 12″ Urgency, the band succeed outright in letting spill the slow-growing froth of perfectly paced dream pop. Mimicking the likes of all things Labrador Records, former acts like Felt, early Talking Heads and the bevy of Kraut or Velvets’ garage delivery, these songs are spiced with Calypso shine, rolling bass, chorally-shared vocals and tender electro-meets-organic backbones.

Opener “Persona” slowly ticks on the cylinders like an Arcade Fire growth over motorik beats before “Cranial Contest” drops in for a hazy surf-pop bob. Continuing by steering down different roads and known eras, Urgency’s engine remains fueled by the same enjoyable entity; it may be bedroom funk on “Hey Big Bang” and Sarah Chernoff’s “All I want to do is love, but sometimes my love is gone” assertion, or “Contemporary Individual” aping Grizzly-Bear-like delicacy over early Cure guitars.

Making shape-shifting look effortless, these six songs are well worth the time you’ll spend just trying to name a few of your own sonic comparisons. Like a large number of acts these days, pure lobbed genre classification is spent and with Urgency, Superhumanoids are going forth knowing this.

For those in The City of Smog, Superhumanoids are among the lineup for the upcoming LA HEARDfest that’s set to go down next weekend at the Historic State Park in Chinatown. Curated by promoters Heard of Elephants, it marks the debut multimedia festival for the group and features 20-plus local bands, comedians and artists.

- The Holloweyed