YOUNG PRISMS

Friends for Now

myspace.com/youngprisms

On its own, each element that makes up Young Prisms’ debut would sound monotonous, abrasive or both. The bass and drums throb pleasantly enough, ramping up old-school girl-group rhythms, but the guitars drone like amplified vacuum cleaners and the two singers do little more than howl into the sonic tornado. But when these wily San Franciscans put all these elements together they get songs like “Feel Fine,” an aptly named track whose beauty offsets—and in fact derives from—its visceral brutality. Closing track “Stay Awake” varies the formula, its serene, oscillating riff pointedly contradicting the title and pointing the way toward dreamland.