Polvo

In the ’90s, before cardigan kids got into metal, and indie rock was actually capable of heaviness, the go-to act for complicated riff science was Polvo, four dorks from North Carolina whose guitar weave could hold up a bridge. This reunion packs no shortage of vintage wank -- knotty, largely instrumental songs that surge together and drift apart with a proggy, loose-limbed precision, from the oddly martial “Beggar’s Bowl” and massive “Link in the Chain” to the lighter “D.C. Trials” and fiercely melodic “Dream Residue/ Work.”

By Joe Gross