POP/ROCK

Skullcrusher, "Skullcrusher" (Secretly Group)

The artist who performs as Skullcrusher crafts work that on the surface is hardly as menacing as her moniker. The simmering, acoustic guitar-centered songs on her debut EP will not collapse your noggin with aggressive rage, distorted noise or irrational violence. You will survive the experience intact.

Those who listen at full volume and with intent, however, may find their brains a tad dented after absorbing this four-song, 11-minute introduction. The solo project of Los Angeles-based Helen Ballentine revels in tense moments, hard emotions and uncertain outcomes. Issued by the indie music powerhouse Secretly Group, which has an ear and eye for breakout talent, Ballentine's work aligns with the company's aesthetic: smart, insightful sounds that draw on classic forms but explore them from inventive new angles.

Skullcrusher builds songs that seem to creep into the room, reside for a few vague minutes to make their presence known and then fade away. As a guitarist, she likes layering a few different takes to create a web of sound, and she does the same with her voice. By the end of "Places/Plans," she's repeating in layered vocal lines the lyric, "I don't have any plans tomorrow."

Ironically, to best appreciate her lyrical skills, consider "Two Weeks in December." Clocking in at a mere 56 seconds, the song conveys a charged moment recollected in tranquillity, one that occurs across a half-month in pre-COVID times. Every word is sacred: A chance meeting, a cigarette, a few jokes and a connection — followed by bouts of solitude. "I woke up alone / In a frozen, broken home / And my cousin gave me the flu / So I flew back to L.A. with my back to you."

Like other memorable miniatures, it draws power from its in-and-out brevity and the questions that arise in its wake. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the tenor of the times, Skullcrusher leans into solitude at nearly every turn. The songs themselves, however, have a communal vibe. This subtle combination is at the center of her forward-thinking, expansive aesthetic.

Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times

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