School of Seven Bells are technically an indie super group, they include members of Secret Machines and On!Air!Library!, but “super group” often translates as “cash grab” and for a band this curious, a band that aches with this much life, that cynical description doesn't fit.

Here's their more appropriate and mystical background story: The band are named after a South American gang of pickpockets who tested proteges by placing bells on mannequins. If a bell rung during the robbery, the prospective thief failed and never heard from the gang again. It's a cool story and an apt metaphor for the band's high wire act between gossamer dance music and abrasive Brooklyn shoegaze.

Their debut album, Alpinisms, starts with a trio of fantastic songs. “Iamundernodisguise” lays down their mission statement: Loping tribal rhythms, repetitive lyrics chanted in dense females harmonies and torrents of effected guitar squall.

“Face to Face on High Places” expands the formula with a gorgeous vocal hook that grows over slowly ascending chords of noise. The melody builds and builds until, drunk on it's own gorgeous reflection, it swoons into its own arms.

The triptych concludes with their best tune, “Half Asleep.” Singers Alejandra and Claudia Deheza question themselves in tight harmony:

“Be aware, my darling these things I say I mean/ are just traces of something I long to feel again/ I see our time expand, in the air almost forcibly/ spreading thinner till it dissolves completely.”

The song bursts into a wordless chorus that validates the whole experiment; something once cocooned in noise is now right there in front of you, stunning.

Try not to ring the bells.

School of Seven Bells plays Neumos on Saturday October 10th