Turnip King Members Board ‘Freightliner’ as Anna Altman

Anna Altman is the duo of Lucia Arias and Christian Billard, the respective co-bandleader and drummer of New York psych-rock quartet Turnip King. Not long after their main band's newest full-length, last September's Laika, the pair is forging a new path with a jangly project of their own, so named for an immigrant teenager who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 (which, a century later, has come to embody the inhumanity inherent in unbridled capitalism and, by extension, unchecked greed). Their first sonic offering is Freightliner, a nine-track tape that marks the inaugural entry in Exploding in Sound's monthly tape series. Today, we're streaming the whole thing ahead of its April 28 release date.

Recorded reel-to-reel at Billard's home in Long Island, Freightliner offers a smooth, meandering ride, with the duo weaving in-and-out of pop-rock, shoegaze and wiry lo-fi, a mesmerizing drift. For a two-piece, they possess a remarkable degree of aural heft — Arias' chiming riffs and airy vocals freely explore the expanded space granted by Billard's slack percussion, falling into a woozy, syrupy shuffle that recalls Helium by way of Orange Juice, or perhaps a supremely stoned Speedy Ortiz. Listen below.

Anna Altman's inaugural full-length, Freightliner, arrives April 28 via the Exploding in Sound tape club. Pre-order it here.