Beekeepers

***“'Undertaker Bee' opens like a punchy bout of disjunct synth-punk, with sharp pivots into negative space, but it quickly contorts into a mangled mess of seething noise-rock. The midsection is gripping—blitzkrieg snare rattles through a swelling Moog, as rude chords intersect needling feedback. It’s a glorious pileup, and it exemplifies the mightily combustible feel that animates Bay Area trio Beekeepers’ forthcoming debut LP, Varroa Mites. It also illustrates the thematic fixation of a group whose live getups involve veiled masks and off-white jumpsuits. The song title refers to the bee that drags the bee corpses out of the beehive (a gesture that guitarist KYLE DAY mimicked with his amplifier in the studio), and the album title refers to a parasite that thrives on bee blood (and is also known, rather dramatically, as “varroa destructor”). Clearly, Beekeepers are attuned to the teeming scree and mortal peril of hive society."—Pitchfork