When you talk about the best drummers of the last 15 years, Autolux's Carla Azar is near the top of that list. Jack White knew exactly who to recruit when he was putting together his all-female solo group the Peacocks, giving her material on both Blunderbuss and Lazaretto to really embellish her love for Mitch Mitchell and Keith Moon. But nothing compares to what she does as the spine of L.A.’s Autolux. Her evolution is palpable across the din of the trio’s first two albums, 2004’s Future Perfect and 2010’s Transit Transit as she, bassist Eugene Goreshter and guitarist/keyboardist Greg Edwards split the difference between the electronic and the organic. On Pussy’s Dead, they take this distinct hybrid of *Dirty-*era Sonic Youth dissonance and vintage 4AD dreaminess completely into the EDM/IDM machine.

They worked in collaboration with Boots, collaborator with Beyoncé and Run the Jewels, and his influence is all over these 10 songs. Azar has already mastered the Bonzo stomp, but the discipline of abstract timekeeping she constructs on songs like the sultry “Soft Scene” and the trap-like “Junk For Code” are new. They have the metronomic mastery and razor-edged precision of ?uestlove or Phil Selway.

They've also stepped up their songwriting from their prior studio works. From Sonic Youth, they appear to have learned the ability to find melody in madness. The spacey piano ballad “Anonymous” or the gorgeous penultimate track “Change My Head” hits the transcendence of Breeders and Spiritualized records, bolstered by the vocal harmonies of Azar, Edwards and Goreshter. By the time you get to the buggy coda “Becker,” Edwards is singing in a high, plaintive tenor that feels open-hearted. Yet, as the second half of “Listen to the Order” indicates, they can wield slashing fuzz guitars to slice through you like hot shrapnel all the same.

For those of us who have been in Autolux’s corner since they first emerged from Los Angeles, it’s been a bit trying to watch this group hide in plain sight. All kudos go to Boots for parlaying this influence he’s garnered producing the likes of Beyoncé, Run The Jewels and FKA twigs to help craft this record for a band whose breakthrough moment has eluded them for long enough.

Correction (4/5/16 at 5:22 p.m.): The original version of this review incorrectly claimed that Eugene Goreshter sings "Becker."