Austra
"The Beat and the Pulse"
Playing SATURDAY at: Glasslands Gallery (289 Kent Ave., Williamsburg)
Info: Tickets ($10) | Directions

You won’t need to crawl into noise-cancelling headphones to hear the epic soundscapes of Austra. But give the group a listen if you’d like to harness the capacity of Katie Stelmanis’s pipes. Austra's singer and principal songwriter grew up with an obsession with Puccinni, Debussy, Mozart and Bach and sights on becoming a professional opera singer. Her current fanbase is probably grateful for the Nine Inch Nails and The Knife that she consumed in the latter years of her adolescence—they led her to making songs with Austra like "The Beat and the Pulse." The press release for the Toronto trio’s first single released says the song includes “urgent dark melodies arpeggiating,” an “army of synthesizers” that can’t quite consume the lead vocals, and “a beating heart dressed in black.” Download this track and get cozy with those headphones.