Produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, Icky Blossoms is a bright and aggressive synth-pop album from the Omaha trio of the same name. The rhythm tracks are tight and pumping, but where most other club-friendly groups insist on productions that are compressed into a solid, relentless flatline of sound, Icky Blossoms maintain a sense of space and dynamics. It's an artful approach that allows for greater variety and a series of left turns. "Heat Lightning" is an excited opener, but "I Am" gets plenty weird, with joyous harmonies between synthist Sarah Bohling and multi-instrumentalists Derek Pressnall and Nik Fackler turning the track into a new wave/punk delight. "Sex to the Devil" turns hypnotic with its humorously dark catchphrases spoken as android-like as possible. "Stark Weather" casts an eye toward the same teenage spree killer who inspired Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska," with a very different musical approach but the same darkness. It's an inspired debut.