Right from the outset, TART’s “Rabid Dogs” snares you with its hooks of intrigue. Looped drum beats hit like the soundtrack from an ‘80s new wave dance club, albeit one laced with black lights and a purplish noir haze, as Adam Michael Lee Padden’s metallic guitar riffs start churning. When vocalist Zee Bricker belts out her ominous observations, the song suitably assumes the role of its title. Frothing and snarling like a deranged beast, the tune takes on skittery rhythms and handclap percussion before dropping out to sparse key notes. The guitars then get decidedly more melodic and dreamy near the midpoint before the aggressive fretwork flares back with an increased bedlam.
The single is a followup to the Detroit duo’s debut EP, Knots, released in July 2014. Both “Rabid Dogs” and Knots are available for download on TART’s Bandcamp and Soundcloud pages, iTunes, and Spotify this week.