Ester Drang

Though considered by many to be a relatively new act, Ester Drang has spent the last eight years droning away in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, playing their elegant and arty songs to a dedicated but rather modest following. Convinced it would be a travesty to let these engaging symphonies go unnoticed, Jade Tree signed the band in early 2003, providing a home for their swinging-door guitar lines, hollowed out drum beats and synth-covered yearnings, while allowing the group to deliver their visions with Technicolor radiance.

These days the Drang seem to tight-rope walk along the same musical heights as heady experimentalists like Spiritualized, the Sea and Cake or even their neighbors and occasional collaborators the Flaming Lips. But there is of course more here than easy compartmentalizing, and as these four friends from the Bible Belt continue their Quixote-like search for a niche of their own, they do so proving that musical transcendence can lead you anywhere. Even Oklahoma.