** 1/2 Archers of Loaf

WHITE TRASH HEROES

(Alias)

This Chapel Hill-based indie quartet get more ambitious with each release. Their fourth album adds proggy post-rock to their regular menu of noise-pop aggression. Although the twin-guitar attack of Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson remains prominent, the Archers bring analog synths and scattered sampling to a mix that seems apt in the post-OK Computer era. The result is a schizoid, developmental disc that lurches from deconstructed roots rock (the dirgy "Slick Tricks and Bright Lights," the unhinged, insistent "Banging on a Dead Drum") to synth-charged retro ("One Slight Wrong Move," "Dead Red Eyes") to throwaway instrumentals like the Pixies-inspired "Smokers in Love Laugh" to the surprisingly Depeche Modal hues of the title track. Bachmann does deliver an inspired tale of the downtrodden with "After the Last." The song -- a blend of angular guitar dissonance, synths, and an a cappella chorus -- showcases him at his best, chronicling the poetics of misery, and of the down and out.

-- Mark Woodlief