There is a point about three minutes into "Trinidad" where Getting Killed stops making sense in any conventional way and starts making sense in every other way that matters. A Ukrainian choir sample materialises from nowhere, layering over garage-rock guitars that are already fighting for space with a drum machine hissing like a broken radiator. It should be a disaster. It is, instead, one of the most thrilling moments on any record released this year. Geese have always been a band that refuses to sit still, but their fourth album represents something more radical than restlessness. This is a band that has decided the entire notion of genre boundaries is beneath them.
The Brooklyn five-piece earned their Pitchfork Best New Music designation honestly. Getting Killed is not an album that reveals its architecture on first listen. It demands repeated plays, each pass uncovering new details buried in the mix — a synth line you missed beneath the screeching guitar on "Cobra," a rhythmic counterpoint in the bass that transforms the groove of "Husbands" from straightforward to labyrinthine. The production is dense without being cluttered, every element placed with the deliberation of a band that understands the difference between maximalism and mess.
The Krautrock influence is unmistakable. Several tracks build on motorik rhythms that recall Neu! and Can, but Geese warp these foundations with an unpredictability that owes more to Captain Beefheart than to Cologne. "100 Horses" rides a single propulsive groove for nearly six minutes, layering psychedelic guitar textures over a rhythm section that refuses to deviate from its hypnotic pulse. It is a masterclass in tension and restraint — the guitars want to explode, the drums insist on discipline, and the result is a track that vibrates with barely contained energy.
What distinguishes Getting Killed from the crowded field of art-rock revivalism is the sheer audacity of its genre-blending. These are not musicians dabbling in unfamiliar territory for novelty. The choir samples feel integral rather than ornamental. The drum machines serve the songs rather than decorating them. When the guitars screech and feedback on "Cobra," they do so with a purpose that connects to the melodic resolution that follows. Every risk is calculated, every left turn leads somewhere worth arriving.
The vocal performances deserve particular attention. There is a rawness here that cuts through the elaborate arrangements — a voice that sounds genuinely exposed even when surrounded by walls of sound. On the quieter passages, where the instrumentation thins to just guitar and voice, you can hear the emotional core that drives all the experimentation. This is not chaos for its own sake. This is a band processing something real and finding that conventional musical language is simply insufficient for the task.
Getting Killed is the rare album that justifies its ambition. In a landscape where most bands pick a lane and stay in it, Geese have built an entire highway interchange. It is cinematic, unpredictable, occasionally bewildering, and absolutely essential.
