Heavy Breathing (Photo by Craig Hudson)

By DCist Contributor Quinn Myers

D.C.’s Heavy Breathing, a noisy dance rock band that uses samples and found sounds from the Internet in place of a traditional vocalist, is back with Airtight, a new album out today on local label Electric Cowbell. Self described as “robo-psych,” the band combines quirks, compositional courage, and genuine talent pop up throughout the record to make one of the most unique and enjoyable local releases of the year.

Airtight opens and closes with samples of actual heavy breathing, bookending the album with how listeners will probably feel when the recording ends—exhausted from dancing their asses off. The sampled vocals work in most of the songs as a fourth instrument, ascending from muttering and incoherent yelps to controlled, euphoric chaos. They offer another layer to the already rich instrumentation. Lyrically, like some of the best music in the dance genre, Heavy Breathing gives you just enough to grab onto—a glimpse of larger ideas that become abstracted throughout the album’s ten songs. The music forces you to remember that it is ultimately about the beat.

The titles of Heavy Breathing’s songs, like “Getting Down,” “Body High,” and “Drop It” could be found on a Spotify playlist of club bangers. While they’re certain to be thrown into local DJ rotations, the skill and intelligence of the record reaches a satisfying sophistication on each track, especially on softer songs like “Touch It”.

Heavy Breathing’s songs are well crafted and deserve the listener’s close attention—Erick Jackson’s psychedelic guitars sear against Jeff Schimd’s drums and Amanda Kleinman’s playful synths. Ultimately the trio creates fun, accessible music to which it’s impossible not to dance.