Your Dog on Instagram | Your Dog on Facebook | Your Dog on Bandcamp

Prolific Singer/Songwriter Ian Bond had been playing in a series of bands in the Bronx before forming Your Dog in late 2016. Joined by Kate FitzSimons (drums), and Julius Bowditch (bass), the band released their debut EP Talking to Bob via Invertebrate in December 2016. Written primarily where Bond and FitzSimons reside, the release contained four short and sweet tracks filled with contemplative lyrics and distorted guitar riffs. Talking to Bob honestly and accurately depicts the ongoing battle with cognitive dissonance: the vacillation between childhood nostalgia and the crippling anxiety and uncertainty of what the future may hold.

Hypoluxo on Facebook | Hypoluxo on Bandcamp | Hypoluxo on Instagram

There has always been something sort of funny about Hypoluxo’s music—not the melodies themselves, but the tone of each song, both what’s being said and how. It’s more clever, more coy—the sort of humor that might elicit a smirk between sips of coffee or provoke a puff of laughter in an inappropriate moment.

Take their most recent EP Taste Buds, which builds on their 2016 debut If Language by peeling layers away. Gone are those saturating chords, the melodies that seep through the fabric of each song, bleeding into singer Samuel Cogen’s dark, cavernous voice; instead, Taste Buds feels more like a road trip through the desert, all dry heat and adrenaline. Indeed, the guitars have dried up on songs like “Sometimes,” but feel more firm beneath the listener’s feet; here, the drums sound distant and dusty, and the animated bass kicks more rhythmically than before. Cogen’s baritone snaps to the forefront here and on the trotting “Nevada,” his voice now guiding the song instead of swirling in its bleary din. The outcome is unmistakably Hypoluxo, but odd—like an identical twin that seems just different enough.

The band is comprised of Samuel Jacob Cogen singing and playing guitar, Eric Jaso on bass, Cameron Riordan on lead guitar, and Marco Hector Ocampo on drums. They have their second long pressing being released September of 2018 on Broken Circles with a national tour to follow.