A Place to Bury Strangers had a simple goal for their first proper studio album, the exquisitely-damaged Exploding Head: "The original idea," says vocalist / guitarist Oliver Ackermann, "was to create the craziest, most fucked-up recording ever."

How crazy, you ask? Enough to justify that Cronenberg-channeling title, for one, as dollops of distortion and flecks of feedback deliver enough controlled chaos to derail a turntable. And if vinyl isn't your thing, well, let's just say you'll be checking the levels on your living room stereo from the second "It Is Nothing" sucks everyone in earshot through a vortex of groove-locked rhythms (hammered out by drummer Jay Space and bassist Jono MOFO) and back-spun power chords.

Pain as pleasure, if you will, a beautiful feeling that's maintained for 43 mesmerizing minutes, from the paranoid android pop of "In Your Heart" and gorgeous gate-crashing melodies of "Keep Slipping Away" to the Chinese water torture chords of "Lost Feeling" and sputtering percussion of "Everything Always Goes Wrong" Not to mention the apocalypse now effects of "Ego Death" the sinewy, slightly sinister overtones of the title track, and the firework finale flare-ups of "I Lived My Life To Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart"

"I love the interplay and contrasts between something that's pretty and something that's scary," explains Ackerman. "Taking listeners to different places-even in one song - is so important, whether it makes them cry or pissed off. If you listen closely, some of the riffs on this record are actually like Ramones songs or '60s bubblegum pop."

While Phil Spector's Wall of Sound approach makes its presence known in the seared surf guitar lead of "Deadbeat" and the hazy harmonies of "Smile When You Smile," Exploding Head's recurring hey-ho-let's-go vibe stems in part from MOFO, Jono and Jay's previous project, a perfect fit for the already-in-progress A Place To Bury Strangers, a power trio founded by Ackermann soon after the frontman moved from Virginia to Brooklyn in 2003.

Space joined APTBS the following spring, but two long years passed before his old friend/creative collaborator MOFO was tapped to replace founding member Tim Gregorio. With a reunited rhythm section providing their piston-like pulse and Ackermann pumping out a 21st-century strain of speaker-swallowing shoegaze, APTBS started hitting their stride and burning freshly-pressed EPs hours before packed shows at Mercury Lounge and barely-legal venues throughout Brooklyn. While no one seems to know just how many impromptu releases have landed in the collections of the group's longtime fans, they do remember discs in the shades of green, gray, red and blue, along with a Christmas album rounded out by a raucous rendition of "I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus"

"Because I come from a real DIY sort of background, I've always felt like you gotta eat and help out the band however you can," adds Ackermann. "One of the reasons A Place to Bury Strangers has been successful is we've always been there to fill in the gaps, whether it's booking our own tour or putting a CD out."

As happy as they would have been self-releasing a steady stream of limited CDRs year after year, the band was presented with a more alluring proposition in late 2006 when Jon Whitney-the founder of Brainwashed, a respected underground record label and Web site-said he wanted to release a remastered collection of early APTBS cuts on his Killer Pimp imprint. Sealed with a handshake and a scribbled napkin, the self-titled disc's first pressing (rolled out in August of 2007) was just 500 copies. It didn't last long; hell, it will soon eclipse 15 thousand.

But, since Ackermann prefers the peak/valley experience of listening to carefully-sequenced LPs, he couldn't wait to create APTBS' very own album. The only problem? A whirlwind of tour offers that included a full North American trek with Holy Fuck, hype-raking appearances at South by Southwest, and an opening act run for Nine Inch Nails in the summer of 2008-one that was handpicked by Trent Reznor himself.

In late 2008, shortly following a support slot on MGMT's UK tour, APTBS began tracking new songs at Death By Audio, the rehearsal/recording/living space that Ackermann helped build in 2005. (The DIY-or-die building is also an independent venue and the headquarters of Ackermann's Death By Audio company, a customized guitar pedal manufacturer that counts U2, TV on the Radio and My Bloody Valentine among its many happy customers.)

He's quick to say, "I think Hank Williams Sr. said it best-'If you don't write a song in 20 minutes, you just throw it away,'" but there's no denying the insomnia-inducing work that went into writing and recording Exploding Head. After all, finding a balance between nihilistic noise and brain-burrowing hooks isn't something you just stumble upon. It's a formula you refine to a Technicolor degree, where the nasty bits are freakier than a four-alarm fire and the pleasant parts are like eye-singeing rays of sunshine.

To do this, APTBS first laid all of their songs down at Death By Audio, where they could develop each track without the pressure of a ticking time clock. Soon after the completion of those ongoing sessions, Andy Smith (an engineer for such A-list artists as Paul Simon and David Bowie) was brought in to steamroll some edges and leave shards of glass strewn across the rest. He also pushed Ackermann's vocals to the front of the fray, where he could emerge as a real deal singer amid all the severed circuitry and flame-fueled wreckage.

"Andy comes from this really hi-fi world, so he was able to capture some sounds in ways I never could," admits Ackermann. "He really cleaned up the whole album, taking it to a whole other level."

"His approach to music is like a mathematical point of view," adds MOFO. "I listen to it now and sometimes think, 'Who are these guys?' It's just such a huge progression for us."

The thing about Exploding Head's sonic leaps, though, is that they were achieved without losing a sliver of the strobe-addled danger that accompanies their acclaimed shows (The Washington Post called them "the most ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you'll ever hear") and the rather bad-ass album that got everyone excited about APTBS in the first place.

"The purest form of songwriting is when your subconscious speaks for you," explains Ackermann. "Our sound has nothing to do with a particular processor or setup. You could give us a trumpet, violin and keyboard, and we'd still come up with the same kind of energy." MOFO is even more to the point: "Hype is only going to get you so far. If your music is shite, it isn't gonna last long."

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