Santa Barbara's Gardens & Villa formed as late as in 2008. Their synth-driven indie pop gained attention from Secretly Canadian who released their Oregon-recorded, self-titled, debut this summer. We catch them upon their twenty-second date of a total of almost thirty nights building up their extensive European tour. Chris Lynch flute skills add another dimension to the sound, rarely seen at this venue.

"But if the ambiguous quality of their sound sometimes makes it hard to become emotionally invested in Gardens & Villa, in Lynch, they're blessed with a singer who has remarkable presence and poise. For all the effeminate intimations in his voice, he never uses it for pure affectation or gratuitous, histrionic effect. And though the band has been quick to cite the percussive funk of Talking Heads as a driving influence, they truly excel at crafting atmospheric ballads: the Low-like hymn "Chemtrails" and, especially, the foreboding "Sunday Morning", a rainy-day requiem that favorably recalls the retro-futurist psych-pop of the United States of America or Broadcast. It's hard to predict where Gardens & Villa might go from here: bombastic, drum-circle-ready closer "Neon Dove" carries the possibility of Yeasayer-styled transition from misfits to populists, while "Orange Blossom" suggests a desire to join Wild Beasts on the art-funk fringes. But in the flute-tootin' Lynch, they've got a pied piper worth following down whichever path he takes." Pitchfork

More stuff from Gardens & Villa: