Barcelona, the sparkly new EP from Virginia’s Soft Complex transcends easy genre labeling. Containing three original tracks and their remixes, one could (and this one does) describe the disc as offering the best of Ben Gibbard. Ben who? Why Ben Gibbard, the force behind indie darlings The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie. Like the beloved Portland quartet, Soft Complex explores love, loss and lost love. Taking a quasi-literary apprach, the songs feel like character sketches or monologues—lyrically deft without letting wit trump emotion.

Lead singer, Shane German, audibly brings to mind Morrissey and on occasion, The Cure's Robert Smith. Instrumentally, the band just stops short of lush with instruments sonically swirling around each other as the steady drum anchors them all. Their remixes echo Gibbard’s other venture by simply being intelligent, danceable music. The guest remixers work with the existing musical ideas—not against or despite them. The result is uptempo pop that is true to its source material while still different enough to be interesting.

At their CD release show, Soft Complex combined both these musical ideas into a pretty darn enjoyable set. During live performance they give more energy to their low-key album sound, making their music quite danceable without a guest remixer. After being soothed by the Cedars and energized by Monopoli, a decently sized crowd bobbed to the bass line of an unfamiliar funk song, awaiting the band. The show started casually with different members setting up equipment until Alexia Kauffman (cello/keyboard) called her band mates to action with a few synthesized chords.

If the album's vocals only hinted at a Smiths influence, German’s performance declared it—the singer went from sounding kind of like Morrissey to becoming his younger, more cheerful doppleganger. With his expressive gesticulation one could also see a smidge of Diana Ross.

The group played with both natural ease and ruthless efficiency. There was little conversation between songs. Rich Dejong was all business behind the drum kit, providing a beat that even had the lonely kids in the back dancing; this rhythm was enhanced by Harbin’s sinuous bass. Guitarist Chris Connelly added bright tones to the music while Kauffman provided an earthy contrast on her seemingly Dada inspired electric cello. After a brisk, engaging set the band disappointed the audience in the best possible way—they hadn’t prepared an encore. "I regret to tell you that's all the songs we’ve written" said Mike Harbin, apologzing to the sighing crowd. Fortunately, that was lowest point of the show.

Visit them at www.softcomplexmusic.com

See them next: DC9 October 26th with The Oranges Band and Bellflur as a part of the DAM Festival.

Questions for singer Shane German, guitarist Chris Connelly, drummer Rick Dejong and bassist Mike Harbin:

DC: As genre labels are generally wasted on you, how do you describe your music?

MH: It’s a little bit pop a little bit dancing elements. Dance/pop/rock indie…can you put that all down there?

DC: What’s the best description of the band you’ve heard?

CC: I really liked what the Citypaper had to say, I though that it was really nice.

MH: We had a comparison to New Order, Roxy Music.

RD: It’s not like we sat down and said "we want this kind of sound". It's more of a process of just sitting down and playing.

How would you describe DC’s music community and has being in Falls Church made it difficult to be part of that community?

CC: I think it’s really turning around; they’re a lot of great bands that are growing their audience. Everyone’s real excited for what everyone else is doing—we’re pretty present in the city.

DC: Looking to the band’s future, whose career do you want?

MH: To be honest, I look at the careers of a DJ, selling out once-off shows—I think that’d be pretty amazing. Touring in a bus ten months out of the year is not what I aspire to.

SG: We’re just at a point where we just want to be able to make our music in DC, do our thing—

RD: Play quality shows, not quantity shows.

SG: Right, if we can just record and make music and have fun with the music that's what we're looking for.

RD: We’re not setting out to be rock stars; this is an outlet for our creative energy.

DC: How are your remixes done, do you work with the DJ or work separately and is hard to trust someone else with your songs?

SG: We do our own thing in studio and then we leave it up to the remixer. We know a lot of people in DC and just looked to our friends.I enjoy hearing what people come up with.

CC: Yeah, it goes back to the community thing we were talking about. It’s exciting to give it to another artist you respect. It makes you think about your music in a different way.

DC: It’s 4pm on a Saturday. You’re in house, in your socks and you want to dance, what’s on the stereo?

SG: Moloko [a chorus of agreement], Daft punk

Rich: Faithless

MH: Spectrum, Donna Summer

CC: LCD Soundsystem, the new Madonna record is pretty awesome and after the 9:30 show I’m sold on Justin.

SG: I’d rather listen to Prince any day. Did you hear what he said about Justin Timberlake? He says “I didn’t know sexy went away.”

DC: Last question: what would you say is the moral to the story of your life?

MH: Give up now. [Laughter]

SG: Just say no, crack is whack.

RD: Have a good time, all the time.