Health

• Genre: Noise Rock
• Hometown: Los Angeles
• Health Website

About

Like Black Dice, Los Angeles' Health are a gaggle of art-school noise-rockers experimenting with electronica. The quartet came together in 2006 and has been a key component to L.A.'s underground rock scene, playing many of the same stages as No Age, Wives and Abe Vigoda. Health's self-titled debut, released on the Lovepump United imprint, explodes with squealing robo-synth and proggy tribal grooves obviously inspired by heavies like Lightning Bolt and the Boredoms. In 2007 the group teamed up with those cacophonous electro-brats in Crystal Castles and scored a U.K. indie hit with a remix of "Crimewave," one of the debut album's top jams. Health then dove deeper into electronic dance music with the release of Disco, a collection of even more remixes. But unlike Black Dice, the band hasn't totally abandoned its roots in noise-punk mayhem. Sure, a track like Pink Skulls' remix of "Heaven" is pure 3 a.m. ecstasy. But when compared to most mainstream club jams, its raw beats and searing distorto-drone would freak out most dance-floor vets. But who knows -- maybe Health represents the very beginnings of a lo-fi, club-noize revolution.

- Justin Farrar