New York-based quartet Professor Murder recently released a new track on their MySpace page, entitled "Dutch Hex." The 12" single, to be released on Brooklyn's The Brothers Label, will also include a remix by Trey Told 'Em (a collabo between Girl Talk and Hearts of Darknesses).

On "Dutch Hex," P-Murder (or King Oppression, as they are alternately known) sound as if they've been using a dance-punk cheat sheet, compiled from the notes of their contemporaries and predecessors. And yet, just as on last year's Professor Murder Rides the Subway EP, the foursome manage to sound fun and original, rather than derivative. Take equal parts The Rapture, !!!, and The Clash, and add a dash of new-wave zest, and you're approaching Professor Murder's territory.

The final minute or so of the song consists of a refrain being chanted a capella, then suddenly rescued from pretension by the addition of tribal percussion, then synth claps, and finally that ubiquitous Professor Murder favorite: the cowbell. The real treat of this track comes at the 2:30 mark, though, when the Brothers' production work backs up the call-and-response yelping of the refrain with a synth effect that sounds something akin to a Gospel choir singing through a vocoder.

After an appearance at last weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, the band will resume their North American tour on August 16th, with eight cities on their schedule as of today. Sadly for me, the boys' native New York isn't one of them.

Photo by Nev Brown.