Something is seriously askew in the world that Cop City/Chill Pillars inhabit. Their strange sound comes across as what your classic underground, shambling and off-kilter guitar pop, punk, and post-punk (think The Clean, Archers of Loaf, etc.) would sound like if played upside down, backwards, and inside out by aliens trying desperately to pass as human but failing in the most elegant way possible. Add in touches of the most out-there psych, Devo’s robotic and cold yet subtly human sense of melody, the Urinals’ minimalist art-punk bashing, and Swell Maps’ British DIY post-punk and that might give you an idea of what you have in store when you drop the needle down on this excellent slab of vinyl. CC/CP have synthesized decades of only the weirdest rock n’ roll experiments that the underground has spat out into their own fucked-up and freaked-out mutant sound. The A-side, “Gift Shop” begins as a psyched-out Urinals-esque punk trip down memory lane before speeding up into an insanely catchy yet still very weird chorus, the kind that you might find on one of those great Messthetics compilations where an off-kilter sense of melody and a sense of amateur (in the best way possible) experimentation existed in literal and figurative harmony. The B-side, “Brand New Neighbor Blues,” while not as immediately memorable as the A-side, rewards repeat listens with it’s hypnotic, droney, and angular post-punk. Pick this up from the ever-reliable Hozac Records, who seem to always have their finger directly on the pulse of the coolest happenings in punk music.