Never heard of Le Loup before today. Got an e-mail with a link to this MP3 of “Shenandoah.” I guess it’s X-mas music. It’s got beautiful churchy vocal harmonies, a hypnotic bass-drum pulse that washes over you like a slow steady and powerful surf, and the boney banjo plunking adds earth to the elemental mix of water and air. There may even be the foreboding sound swarming birds folded into the background there. Le Loup are from DC, and once you listen you can understand the comparisons they get to Animal Collective and Sufjan Stevens.

“Shenandoah” – Le Loup