As a competitor, you'd have a hard time topping those kids over at Matador these days. Quite simply, the bottomless pool of talent they've amassed thrusts most down to the lowest lows of the record label caste system. But from the superstar-ish, quirky cash-cow Pavement to the low-fi bliss of a Guided By Voices (to countless others), one has to wonder if the label's modest indie-fra-structure can support yet another top draw without tipping the single-source venerability scale.

Enter Chavez. The dense thicket of sound on Ride the Fader makes you want to wheel your bike around the neighborhood with your tape recorder blaring, or beat somebody up. The sophomore offering swells with the familiar angularity of Gone Glimmering and a new, more refined sense of sonic maturity.

Producer John Agnello, doing his best last-second, understudy performance impression, stepped in for a struggling Bryce Goggin to create an album that backs everything good you've heard about them playing live.

On "Tight Around the Jaws," Clay Tarver's lush guitar swallows up a distant bell-tree accompaniment while Matt Sweeney's menacing, yet indifferent vocals give even Stephen Malkmus a run for his money.

"Flight '96" grooves atop drummer James Lo's steady pop-beat and warms to a feverish, trance-like coda, while a kinder, gentler Chavez rounds the album with cuts like "Ever Overpsyched" and the catchy "Unreal is Here".

Ride the Fader is the kind of album you'll want to listen to with headphones. In an age of generic alterna-kitsch, Chavez's brand of pure, indie-rock svelte takes a back seat to no one, even on a label like Matador's.

-Jeff Boron