Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Before Today

LA's Ariel Marcus Rosenberg has been active on the US underground since the mid-90s, when he started recording lo-fi albums and handing them out to strangers in the street. Fast forward 15 years or so and the bedroom musician is now part of a band, and the studio no longer consists of just a 4-track. Not that Before Today is polished; its mix of psych-pop, glam rock and white funk creeps out of the speakers as if heard through the fuzz of half-sleep. Nuggets of pop perfection shine through, not least on the Hall & Oates-aping Round and Round or the Super Furry Animalsesque bubblegum pop of Little Wig. It's like the strangest early-80s radio station you can imagine, complete with a song about gender confusion entitled Menopause Man. Beguiling stuff.