Dog Bite, led by Atlanta-based musician Phil Jones, occupies an expanse of lo-fi dream pop bandwidth beyond the orbits of Minks and Memoryhouse and closer to the sun than Ariel Pink. Many of Dog Bite’s songs feature a simple, repetitive guitar line in the foreground with a complex, murky vocal filling the background canvas to create a sound painting, an aural impression that conveys a mood or captures a transient emotion.

“I get stuck on sounds,” Jones told Interview Magazine. “I just like to hear those go over and over again. I see them more just as a bunch of loops that I put together, but they somehow kind of mesh together and form this very fluid kind of motion.”

Dog Bite’s first full-length album was released in early 2013 on Carpark Records.  Velvet Changes (a nod to the Velvet Underground?) received mixed reviews as the bloggers whom we accept as critics struggled to make sense of a sound that did not fit into a convenient pigeonhole.

David Maine derided “the monotone dynamics of these songs; they don’t rise and fall sonically, instead establishing a constant droney level of sound that rarely varies.”

But Bryan Parker noted that “The songs shift dramatically between and within themselves” to create “a diverse yet cohesive first effort of quality songs.”  One wonders if the two men listened to the same album.

Like a painter who applies the same style to diverse subjects, Jones seeks to capture a range of impressions within an album in which the songs share a common creative technique. The album may best be viewed as a gallery, as a collection of vignettes, rather than as a series of stand-alone performances.

The live performance of “You’re Not That Great,” presented by indieATL, captures the shape-shifting density that makes Dog Bite simultaneously impenetrable and accessible.

With eleven songs and totaling over 40 minutes, Velvet Changes is a substantial body of work, a refreshing departure from the [dope-induced?] non-work ethic to which many indie bands aspire. Their work dribbles out, a single this year, an EP next year. You can grow old and die before your favorite band produces enough product to provide a soundtrack for your funeral.

Dog Bite’s new four-song effort, LA EP, arrives just seven months after the release of Velvet Changes. We hope that this is the tip of a creative iceberg and that a full LP will soon follow.

On “Cold Weather,” the first single, Dog Bite infuses their basic construct with a warm pop sensation. The chord changes, multiple guitar lines, and melody are vaguely Minks-like. The result is a more user-friendly Dog Bite, which is not a criticism. I’m on my third straight play of “Cold Weather.”

Visit Dog Bite on Facebook, Tumblr, Myspace, and Twitter.

Dog Bite’s music is available from iTunes, Amazon, and Carpark Records.

BONUS TRACKS: Dog Bite covers of Thom Yorke’s “Atoms for Peace” and Joy Division’s “Disorder.”

POSTSCRIPT: We’re no longer allowed to say “Chillwave,” that sub-genre of a sub-genre having been declared dead back in 2011.  But can we say “Gogh Pop?” Remember, folks, you read it here first.