Indebted to no wave and post-punk, and named for one of noir novelist Jim Thompson's bleakest tales, Pop. 1280 was founded by Chris Bug and Ivan Lip as a vehicle for their dark creative vision, and their early work was an assaultive mix of distorted guitars, bruising rhythms, and a mix of the electronic and the organic that harkened to early industrial music. On the 2010 EP The Grid and the 2012 LP The Horror, guitars played a major role in their music, which was physical and intimidating. But their approach continued to refine itself, and by 2020's Way Station, keyboards and harmonies gave their sound a more polished surface with a hint of goth. In 2021, they released Museum on the Horizon, a set of songs that were thematically current while looking to the past of goth and industrial sounds.