See Mystery Lights (2009)

This super-arty Portland duo says its new album was inspired by the mysterious illuminations observable after dark over Marfa, Tex. But judging by the party starting indie-electro jams here, those nighttime lights might simply be the distant glimmer of a disco ball. See Mystery Lights' ''The Afterlife'' and ''Psychic City (Voodoo City)'' both throb with humid jungle-boogie grooves, while ''I'm in Love With a Ripper'' turns a sly T-Pain reference into a percolating future-soul workout reminiscent of Michael Jackson-era Quincy Jones. Brainy and block-rocking rarely coexist like this. A–

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