Harry the Nightgown

Ugh is a cry of frustration: you’ve been trying and it’s not working out. Five years after their self-titled debut, electronic avant-pop outfit Harry the Nightgown embrace failure on their most maximalist, bittersweet record yet. Ugh, their latest eleven-song offering out June 6th on Leaving Records, is an exercise in freaked-out perfectionism — sighing and grinding to reveal a degree of care rooted, perhaps, more in exasperation than in self-possession. Now a trio, original members Spencer Hartling — solo artist tp Dutchkiss, experimental producer and founder of Wiggle World studio — and Sami Perez — of Cherry Glazerr, Jerry Paper and the She’s — are joined by DIY harmonic theory whiz Luke Macdonald, also touring with Cherry Glazerr. Trading earlier releases’ analog shenanigans for uncompromising digital recording meticulousness, Ugh bears witness to an unresigned, painstaking approach to songcraft. A manic document of digital recording experimentalism, its outsized soundscapes — grooved up and dubbed out; sharp as ever, yet littered with recording artefacts — are omnivorous. Breakup bossanovas alternate into paranoid hyperballads; horns and strings chop into ambient techno beats. Yet Harry the Nightgown never give in, rattling it all into shape to craft real pop songs out of jagged palettes.