Have you seen David Lynch's art? My cat makes better art in her litter box. However, when surrealist movies are the game, my cat can't hold a candle to one of modern indie cinema's finest. The point being, usually only artists are good at art. Richard Fearless, 1/2 of Death in Vegas is actually good at art. He's had numerous exhibitions here and in England. The DIV covers often combine decadent fonts with symbols of celebrity, for example cursive in front of TVs or shoes belonging to Elvis backdropping more fancy script.

Normally, music is only art when it is complex. The Beatles, Beethoven, Pink Floyd all come to mind. However, Picasso's Don Quixote comes to mind when simplicity in art is desired. A glorified stickman, that Man of La Mancha. Scorpio Rising, a title of a gay Italian biker movie, at least according to my brother, manages to become artsy without being complicated or begging for your affection. Its the girl at the dance you might have a shot at, the lottery ticket that just looks like a winner. DIV's latest might just be composed of the thing of which great CDs are made.

The linked opening tracks "Leather" and "Girls" reek of pretension. Linked songs? S&M techno? However, with the infectious chants of "Hands around my Throat," which I swear come from a tribe of androgyne pygmys domesticated and taught in the manners of the English. Kind of Yeah Yeah Yeah-ish, but built around a beat, not a scene. Moving on through the tracklisting, the CD enlists the help of both british techno retreads and unknowns. Liam Gallagher is at his peak on the title track, although I hope someone had the guts to tell him that the title is of a gay biker movie, Italian no less, or at least my brother claims. It just adds dimension to his lyrics about entering another person's temple. The fuzzy guitars and thumping beats provide the album's best instrumentation, accessible and yet oddly unique.

With "Killing Horses," however, Fearless and co. reach their high point. Banjos and sultry female singing? Spaghetti westerns and morality? Yes please! No distortion, no undercurrent, no vocal effects. Just a long instrumentation that sounds archived from 1866 and a voice that could have been from then. That, my friends, is art.

Rounding out the last two tracks are the obligatory girlfriend track and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval track. Although Sandoval gets the extended, sweeping, almost too long final track, its clear who's been cleaning Fearless's boots. Dot Allison, gorgeously hypnotic on The Contino Sessions is once again at the center of the swirling, haunting "Diving Horses." Its a song that seems like its been on forever in some place you've never been, and in some place you'll never forget.

So return that ticket to Dogstar. You didn't think Keanu Reeves could actually sing, did you? Dunga, the Brazilian sweeper, once said "Art, for art's sake, is bunk." Call it art, scoff at the suggestion that recycled Chemical Brothers vocalists are anything other than untalented, or call it post techno. Just don't buy David Lynch's paintings. Really, he should stick to movies.

- Drew Smith