Machine Guns

With 11 upbeat jams, Big Mean Sound Machine has delivered an energetic but never obtrusive summer soundtrack. The 10-piece Ithaca, NY-based band’s fourth record, Runnin’ For the Ghost, flirts with genres ranging from soul to funk to Afrobeat to Ethiopian big band, while remaining steadfastly married to the groove. Every track is anchored by flittering, relentless drums and rock-solid bass work. The horns swap solos and come together to wring out booming melodic lines, while the guitar pounds out a rhythm line like a typewriter, content with quick solos in the song’s back end.

In the midst of the forest, the floor is littered with monstrous heads and mythical figures, frozen in torturous combat or threatened by wild beasts. A dragon fights a dog and a wolf. A lion sinks its teeth into the fire-breathing monster’s chest.