Pink Reason

Kevin DeBroux's music revives the reverb-soaked gloom of Joy Division, Section 25, and any other industrial-goth outfit that recorded for Factory Records in the early '80s. But unlike Interpol, the Wisconsin-born DeBroux (aka Pink Reason) is no retro slave. He's far more audacious in terms of composition and production.

On Cleaning the Mirror, his six-song debut, the singer-songwriter filters post-punk's frigid atmospherics and a cavernous pulse through the hazy, lo-fi strum of Columbus' Jim Shepard and early Royal Trux.

Surprisingly, Cleaning the Mirror is a rather refreshing listen, despite ominous, home-recorded dirges like "Motherfucker," "Dead End," and "Goodbye." DeBroux (who apparently consumed a lot of drugs while making this music) isn't trying to sound like a vacuous fashionista from Brooklyn or London. He's a small-town midwesterner, bleeding ragged and at times earthy American rock.

Music writers, however, are already weaving a fractured-genius myth around DeBroux. But let's wait for another five or six releases before entertaining that idea.