Cave

Cave’s bedrock is Krautrock’s motorik—the steady, moderate, 4/4-time ostinato pioneered by Can and Neu!, and deployed to great psychedelic effect by Stereolab. (The term means “motor skill” in its native German.) Upon this driving engine, the Chicago quintet patches together alluring and invigorating sonic collages, pastiching funk, Afrobeat, Latin rock, and soul-jazz into transcendent jams that aren’t just kraut-y but kosmische. Allways, which is out on Drag City on October 19, continues Cave’s trend toward retroflection, winnowing what were once lengthy, spiraling free-form freakouts into singular, deceptively intricate waves of groove. Consider “San’Yago,” the album’s lead track. It leans less on powerful psych payload and much, much more on restraint, building its subtle hypnoticism through rigorous focus, pinpoint precision, and locked-in group playing. The band’s groove is exultant and animative, imbued with infinite layers of nuance. Wild Actions and Corroder open. Tickets $5 —Patrick Wall