By Samuel Rubenfeld

The new record from Brooklyn’s Parts and Labor, “Receivers,” takes indie music, runs it through a meat grinder and makes the best noise-punk-rock record of the year.

The songs now build and release, instead of beating the listener to submission from the beginning, a former Parts and Labor hallmark. They now sound less like another Brooklyn noise-rock band, Pterodactyl, and instead more like a much noisier U2.

These songs are also much longer, giving the band more space to work with. Parts and Labor solicited fans for sound samples to add to the record, and they have said in interviews they used every single one of the hundreds submitted.

Maybe it’s a sign of maturity. But by distancing itself from its hardcore roots, the band finally sounds sure of itself on record, matching the intensity of their live show.

Largely a record about the apocalypse happening because the world cannot keep up with advancing technology, the dour mood does not always reflect the tone of the lyrics. Both “Little Ones” and “Wedding in a Wasteland” take the noise groove and mixes it with a Celtic bounce, the latter a veritable jig.

“Satellites” opens the album with a light drone and some guitar and synth-noodling; and, 45 seconds later, a spunky punk riff jumps in. “Sometimes I get the feeling that this never really was my home,” vocalist Dan Friel monotonously intones, and over the course of seven minutes, synth whooshes and squalls of guitar begin their mesmerizing, yet energizing, thrill ride.

The band went through some major personnel changes since 2006’s Mapmaker: skin-bludgeoner Christopher Weingarten left, and his replacement, Joe Wong, realizes extremely loud drums are not necessarily required for great noise-rock. New guitarist Sarah Lipstate, making the band a four-piece also adds subtleties to a band whose trademark was not to have any.

Parts and Labor show the indie rock world how bigger can actually be better.

4 Stars