Le Loup plies a breathy jumble — all globe-trotting rhythms and experimental pop — that is very much of its time. The three-year-old D.C. troupe recently followed up its mouthful of a debut, 2007's The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly, with the curtly titled Family. Both came out on Hardly Art, the Sub Pop offshoot specializing in more modest bands, and Le Loup fits the bill. There's something intimate and small-scale about each album, even as freaky swaths of instruments and influences come into play.
