This may make absolutely no sense to those living outside of my head, but when I listen to Arc in Round – the local “dark-pop” four-piece of Mikele Edwards, Chris Coello, Matt Ricchini, and producer/engineer Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs, Lymbyc Systym) – I envision a nomadic ghost among boisterous souls. As all-encompassing live as it is on their recently released debut EP, Diagonal Fields, their wall of sound is layer upon layer of starry-eyed vocal echoes and hazy blasts of drifting cadence. And tonight at Johnny Brenda’s, where they’ll open for New York’s psych-noise three-piece Violens, Arc in Round will debut their single “Slow Ceiling” from Diagonal Fields (it’s available on iTunes and Bandcamp, with the Bandcamp version offering the Pink Skull Remix of “Spirit” as a bonus track). Featuring Philly wunderkind Kurt Vile on trumpet and Man Antlers’ Pete Angevine on percussion (both of whom helped on the EP and impending LP), the five-minute instrumental is a creeping build-up of dizzying musical notes and swirling ambience – a kind of mystic display of technical prowess that’s bound to blow your mind live. Follow that with the mysterious shoegaze guitar-pop adventures of local six-piece Nothing, and it’s aces. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave, 8pm, $10, 21+ – Annamarya Scaccia
Slow Ceiling by Arc in Round