**1/2 Rebecca Blasband

RAPT

(Mercury)

Don't let the name fool you. Blasband may have parlayed her Real World exposure into a recording contract, but she has real music to make. The tracks explore varying hues of minimalism, from haunted, slow-tempo jangly folk pop to straight-up punk rock. Colors include vibrato electric bass and guitar, acoustic guitar, and Hammond B3 organ, interspersed with brief lyrical phrasings. Blasband takes the currently overused "filtered-voice" effect to an extreme (it's on almost every song) and makes it seem fresh; the result gives her rich alto a floating, angelic feel. The prominence of low, accentuated bass lines and heavy drumming, combined with the twangy 12-string and slide-guitar work of Violent Femmes guitarist/vocalist Gordon Gano, adds to the album's somber, shadowy edge.

-- Y. Ryan Gonen