Standout Track: No. 2, “New Visions,” which buries Italian disco in Jesus and Mary Chain-style fuzz, damp synthesizers, and found-sound flourishes. Locals Jake and Kim Reid (aka J. Sequential and Kim K) have been shoegaze-ing up the District since their days in the gloom-peddling Alcian Blue, and their newest release as Screen Vinyl Image continues in a similarly hazy vein.

Musical Motivation: The couple had been listening to “a bunch of old live Velvet Underground material” while working on the single, and found inspiration in the less-than-stable moods the VU could conjure up before an audience. “Lyrically, the song is about those days when you just feel behind everything else going on,” says Sequential. “Yet that feeling gives you a different perspective on what is going on around you.”

Velvet Touch: In concert, the band uses its own analog gear and massive PA system to reproduce the densely layered (and ear-splittingly-loud) soundscapes of its recordings. But it doesn’t stretch its songs to “Sister Ray” lengths, at least in public. “The demo was originally a 10-minute drone from this sound generator we built,” Sequential says. “The beginning synth sound is a snippet from that demo and we built upon that.”