Impossible Hair‘s members have been kicking around the Baltimore indie rock scene for well over a decade, in outfits of local legend and modest national renown like Buttsteak, The Oranges Band, Roads To Space Travel and the Lee Harvey Keitel Band. So in a sense it’s easy to regard them as just another project from a few journeymen that will probably move onto something else in a couple years.  And while their breezy, 35-minute debut, What Is The Secret Of Impossible Hair, doesn’t necessarily disprove that notion, it packs an impressive punch that consolidates the strengths of their previous bands into a fun, compact package.

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“X-ray Man,” one of the few tracks that breaks the 3-minute mark, feels downright epic in the context of the album, particularly for the dramatic instrumental intro that brings to mind Spaghetti Western scores. But for the most part, the songs come and go so quickly that if you tune out and miss one chiming, circular riff, another will be along in a matter of seconds. Drummer Sammy Ponzar, put to better use here than with his other band, Dischord’s Andalusians, supplies the forward momentum, while guitarists Jim Glass and Joe Ryan alternate vocals and intermittently drift in and out of fake British accents. Bassist Roman Kuebler may still have his hands full fronting the Oranges Band and Romania, but Impossible Hair show enough promise in their first set of songs that hopefully they’ll remain a going concern and not just a one-off.