DC band Ekko Astral formed in 2020, put out their debut EP QUARTZ in 2022, and today they release their debut album pink balloons via Topshelf. The album puts the “punk” in post-punk, it treasures noise as it much as it treasures pop, it’s got an orchestral spoken word track called “somewhere at the bottom of the river between l’enfant and eastern market” (La Dispute reference confirmed), it dips its toes into twee pop (“make me young”), and it saves the most epic song for last: a nearly-nine-minute collaboration with Josaleigh Pollett called “i90” that clashes between post-rock build-ups and anthemic singalongs. Thematically, pink balloons is an apocalypse party. It’s a record inspired by the myriad reasons that it feels like the...