It's funny how you can let the little things bother you; how someone else's opinion of something can affect yours; how minor factors can bear a major impact on your perception; how one disagreeable sound among many pleasant ones can detract greatly from a full enjoyment of the whole. The most common case is the presence of the human voice in music. How many times have you tried to "get into" a record only to be stopped cold by words sung in a tone that was simply too nasally, too theatric, too high, too erratic, and too deadpan to tolerate?

When first listening to a record you have little or no prior knowledge of, there's always that little window of time during which the music announces itself and settles in before the voice adds the final, essential component. Listening to No Lullaby for Sleep for the first time, I immediately took notice of the promising sounds that were in progress.

However, it soon became apparent that the Intima are yet another band that don't want to be pigeonholed as an instrumental act, yet don't have much to offer lyrically or vocally. And it's a shame, because the instrumental arrangements offered here are easily sophisticated enough to maintain a listener's attention, or at least curiosity, without the benefit of a singer. But after beginning with the EP's only instrumental track, "Death Ship Intro," we're offered dull, toneless, and tuneless vocals by guitarist Andrew that immediately sour the promise laid forth in the record's first few minutes. Oh, did I mention that this is one of those bands that goes by first names only? Well, they are. But let's not hold that against them too much.

Although in a different league from most of the music currently coming out of their native Olympia, the Intima do not offer a particularly unique sound or vision. The quartet pair angular post-punk rhythms and structures with bright guitar and violin tones and jumpy tempos that veer safely past the maudlin aggression that usually plagues those instruments in such a context. Drummer Alex leads the tightly wound unit through tense, dynamic rhythms that, rather than relying on complex, mathy arrangements, push repetition until the songs unexpectedly pivot from one point to another with a refreshing subtlety and agility. The songs also wrap themselves up tightly and relatively quickly, running through seven tracks in the EP's 25 minutes, not daring to test the mileage of any idea before moving along to the next.

But at just about every point that the Intima strike upon an entrancing groove or snap into a surprising right turn, Andrew's right there waiting with his perfunctory vocals and invariably uninspired, forgettable lyrics, ready to frustrate the once intrigued listener. Even the sound quality of the vocals is subpar, feeling somehow removed from the instrumentation and recorded with a cheap mic, at least thankfully low in the mix. After a while, it's hard to not wish for the Intima to wise up and either focus on their instruments or hook up with a real frontperson.

-Al Shipley