The 4-piece band Traps PS took me by surprise when they played at Origami Vinyl on Saturday night, but their short, shattering songs played with the help of 2 drum sets, were taking enough detours to keep me interested till the end of their set. Their tunes were working like ultra-brief sonic injections – I am pretty sure all of them were under 2-minute long – noisy and melodic at the same time with nervous reverb and shredding, restless drumming and shouting vocals.
I am not sure how to qualify their hiccup music, punk? Post-punk? Garage-rock? All of the above? It was more assaulting projectile music sprinkled with a few surfing riffs and tribal drumming than anything else to me.
Andrew Jeffords, on vocals and guitar, was moving mechanically at times, shaking his guitar while having some David Byrne moments, whilst the second drum was kicking up in the middle of their fast-paced songs. The guitar-driven tunes were fueled with these energetic outbursts and the whole thing was giving the impression they were playing with randomness and hoping for the best,… I read that they work out their songs live before recording and this completely makes sense to me.
Traps PS features some former members of Anchors for Architects and another band called Eagle and Talon, they are signed to Papermade, have released a self-titled 7” with only 4 tracks, and have sporadically played around LA.
May be what they do is a sort of equivalent to abstract painting, you don’t understand everything of what’s going on, you cannot follow the execution, but are immediately captivated.