The veteran Chicago-based indie label Thrill Jockey has been snapping up Baltimore bands left and right as of late, including Thank You and most recently Double Dagger. And earlier this year, Pontiak made their Thrill Jockey debut in a rather interesting format: a split album with hometown labelmates Arbouretum, released not on CD but on vinyl and via digital release, each band contributing both original material and covers of solo material by John Cale of the Velvet Underground.

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Regardless of what you prefer to call it — prog, math rock, or otherwise — Yukon are a band that push the technical limits of a traditional guitar rock combo to its logical extremes. The guitar, bass and drums all occupy their usual sonic space, and retain a texture and timbre you’re accustomed to, but the players arrange them into inventive structures and intricate polyrhythms that never fall into neatly predictable patterns. When the Baltimore-based band plays live, drummer/singer Nick Podgurski looks like a conductor, wildly swinging his sticks but seemingly in complete control of every sound that comes out of or accompanies his instrument, and occasionally providing minimal vocals.

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