Plucked from Amoral, Violens‘ debut album released last fall, “It Couldn’t Be Perceived” has been given new life as a split-single whose flip is the first solo song from Au Revoir Simone’s Erika Spring.

Led by Jorge Elbrecht (formerly of Lansing-Dreiden, whose “Glass Corridor” earned a spot on a mix CD I made back in 2005), the Brooklyn-based trio doesn’t fit the indie-rock stereotype such geography has come to shorthand. Though Violens’ heart is New Wave-shaped, the band eschews the sunnier sounds a ‘synthpop’ label usually suggests, traversing on the darker tinged, densley layered side of the genre. Echo & The Bunnymen, Tears For Fears, New Order (in guitars-forward phase), and The Smiths come to mind, though Violens lists none of those UK bands as influences.

“It Couldn’t Be Perceived” begins with a low rumble, a saxophone faintly playing in the distance, yielding to angular guitar and a voice that isn’t far from Bernard Sumner’s. It’s an expansive tune with melodic shifts, stops, and dramatic builds that pay off with additional listens. Such zigging and zagging also applies to the tune’s new music video, full of blurred footage, chase scenes, and much green tinting. The clip was directed by Caroline Polahcek of Chairlift, a frequent Violens vocal collaborator.

Purchase Violens – “It Couldn’t Be Perceived” via iTunes.