The EP's five tightly crafted pop songs can be sugary sweet, but subtle hints at psych-rock and noise-pop give the sound a rich flavor.

NPR: Falcon: 'The Sandfighter'

Animal Collective's latest CD, on the Domino label, is the appropriately named Strawberry Jam: a sticky-sweet mixture of mashed-up musical elements, from noise pop and fringe folk to ambient drones and psychedelia, with crunchy seeds of noise rock.

NPR: Animal Collective in Concert

The band scores these themes with appropriately gloomy, experimental noise-rock.

NPR: ((Sounder)): 'Those Days Were Good Days (as Days Sometimes Are)'

Australian outfit No Anchor understand how to make sinister noise-rock that sounds great: Their 2011 album, Real Pain Supernova, includes slabs of distorted bass notes that rumble and quake, sludgy riffs played at a crawling pace, shrieks of feedback that shoot skyward, and harrowing vocals punctuated with shrill wailing.

FORBES: Cheap Tunes: No Anchor's 'The Golden Bridge'

It is designed to withstand the decibels of the loudest rock band or even the noise of a Formula 1 racing car.

ECONOMIST: Germany's export champions

The group grew in popularity as the '80s progressed, and 1988's Daydream Nation was widely hailed as a masterpiece of noise-influenced art-rock.

NPR: Sonic Youth: The First Quarter-Century

Though it began as more of an experiment in guitar noise and feedback than a rock band, Sonic Youth has cemented its legacy as one of the most important acts of its era, influencing countless performers both directly and indirectly.

NPR: Sonic Youth: The First Quarter-Century

Drawing from sources as disparate as Black Sabbath, the indie-instrumentalists in Tortoise and the self-flagellating noise-masters in Swans, Pelican makes instrumental hard rock that whispers as much as it shouts, and teases as much as it pummels.

NPR: Instrumental Hard Rock, Teasing as It Pummels

The primary clientele for this line of high-end earphones is rock musicians, who need to protect their hearing during concerts by blocking out loud noise at the same time that they need to hear themselves accurately.

FORBES: Connect