GIFT previously introduced Illuminator with “Wish Me Away,” their first new song in the 18 months since the debut. With its earworm guitar lines, propulsive rhythms, riveting vocals and mind-expanding aural flourishes, “Wish Me Away” is the perfect sonic springboard from Momentary Presence to where GIFT are going next. It’s also a potent reminder that you can still preserve that twinkle in your eye even when you feel like everything’s slipping away.

With GIFT repping the emerging New York scene for Captured Tracks, Freda admits he “felt a strong responsibility to make the best record possible. New York has featured a lot of post-punk and garage rock over the past decade, and we’ve just always wanted to do the opposite to what everyone else is doing. There’s a new wave happening here much like there was in the early 2000s and 2010’s, yet nobody is talking about it. It’s going under people’s radar.”

That’s likely to change once the word is out about Illuminator, which sounds overjoyed every moment it is shaking up the sonic status quo. With new and unabashed inspiration from artists as wide-ranging as Madonna to MGMT, GIFT generates a dynamic genre fusion on Illuminator with just the right spritz of electronic elements and widescreen pop production techniques.