Personnel: Mark Bradshaw (vocals, keyboards); Bjorn Baillie, Jim Fairchild (vocals).

Additional personnel: Peter Walker (vocals); Mark Bradshaw (keyboards); Bjorn Baillie, Jim Fairchild.

Audio Mixer: Jacquire King .

Recording information: New Monkey Studios, Los Angels, CA; Sonora Recorders; Sunset sound.

For its 2007 album, GRANDDANCE, the Australian indie ensemble Dapples Cities (formerly known as Dappled Cities Fly) unveils a dynamic and energetic outing that displays clear alternative-rock/post-punk influences (see the Flaming Lips, Television), while still establishing its own sound. Though "Holy Bell" notably evokes Grandaddy (no coincidence, since that band's Jim Fairchild is one of the record's producers), its playful arrangement and quirky refrain set the group apart from its predecessor, while others songs (see the bright "Fire Fire Fire") show off Dappled Cities' poppier inclinations.

Australian art pop/rockers Dappled Cities (formerly Dappled Cities Fly) come across like some sort of gleefully cracked mash-up of Pavement, 10cc, and the Flaming Lips on their U.S. debut, Granddance. Normally, a band as fond of bizarre falsetto vocals (opening track "Holy Chord," the driving and otherwise oddly Radiohead-like "Vision Bell"), willfully obscurantist lyrics (pretty much everything), and oddball arrangement and production tricks (ditto) would find their albums too insular to appeal to anyone beyond a small hipster cult, but the secret weapon of Dappled Cities is an undeniable pop sense that makes Granddance sound like someone slipped the Shins a massive dose of acid and a whole bunch of early Todd Rundgren and Split Enz LPs, then sent them into the studio. The songs are richly melodic to begin with, and then the elaborate production layers on a couple dozen ear-grabbing hooks per song on top of that, resulting in gloriously odd confections like "The Eve the Girl" and "Watercourse," and completely over the top extravaganzas like the pseudo-martial album closer, "Battlewon." The sort of album that takes a couple listens to truly sink in, once Granddance reveals its pure pop underpinnings, it becomes difficult to stop listening to. ~ Stewart Mason