The Craters are Jared Arnold and Wes Kaplan, a songwriting duo. Their music results from the tension between two impulses. First, there is their concern for the craft of songwriting. The Craters are concise with music, lyrics, and form, leaving dense little knots of songs in their wake. Second, they are sonically adventurous and eager to sample, tearing their libraries apart and weaving the pieces back into lucid dreams.

Kissing’s songs starts in the bedroom with lightly strummed guitar vamps and land in the living room next to the wallflowers via playful sampled/electronic garnish. Samba Party pulls it to the kitchen dance floor, drawing all its material (before vocals are added) from samples, not that you could tell since all the sources are twisted and warped beyond recognition.