Hip-hop act The Internet clicks with satisfying songs

If you want to gain any real traction as an artist or musician, branding can be important. Needless to say, if you're at all concerned with that sort of thing, it's important to choose a memorable moniker. Otherwise, you risk being relegated to the realm of obscurity — that is, unless you already claim the kind of cachet that can catapult you from obscurity to singularity, or you just happen to make music that's good enough to get the same results.

Such is the case of The Internet, the Los Angeles-based Odd Future offshoot formed by Syd tha Kyd and Matt Martians. Unlike now when you type in the act's seemingly search-defying designation into Google and the band comes up as one of the first results, almost five years ago when the combo was first conceived, The Internet was about as nebulous of a name as you could possibly have. That makes the notice that's been gained since even more noteworthy.

But while the outfit was undeniably helped along by the association with its infamous crew, whose other members include Tyler. The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt, it's the music being produced by The Internet that's made the act truly stand out, as evidenced by "Ego Death," the band's superb new album. Led by the smooth vocals of Syd the Kyd, the languid sounds of The Internet, which recall the more serene moments of acts like Incognito, are supremely satisfying — enough to make a nondescript noun much more definitive.

— Read more from Dave Herrera at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at dherrera@reviewjournal.com.