There’s a lot of promise in Plasma Driver’s debut, once they can harness their clear influences into a sound uniquely theirs.

Night Whispers is a brief 27-minute affair, with seven proper songs and three instrumental interludes, and comes on the heels of two singles and a live EP. The Miami quartet is influenced by turn-of-the-century bands like Interpol, the Strokes and Queens Of The Stone Age; I also hear a hint of the Doors and Bowie in the vocal delivery.

The band is more effective on faster numbers like “dose,” a punchy rock opener that is only undone by a point where the music stops and the lyric “monkey eating his brain” comes to the surface. Why they isolated that, I don’t know. “Tip Of My Tongue” is sporadically effective, the band’s take on a bluesy ballad, but it plods a bit too much and is best during the guitar solo.

“Regina” is solid, led by Nate Tritto’s nimble drumming and some vocal harmonics (and histrionics, in the bridge) from guitarist Peter Vayda and/or bassist Bryan Menendez. Another guitar solo follows. The stop-start after the first verse does kill any early momentum; hopefully that part gets excised in concert, because this could be turned into an early career highlight.

The Queens influence is heard on “it” but with a jolt of energy (think “First It Giveth”), while “Spent” is pleasant in that sort of inoffensive Interpol way. Hearing it will definitely transport one back to 2004. The album closes with “Midnight,” another slower song in the vein of “Tip Of my Tongue” but with a ’70s AOR sheen and vocals that try a bit too hard. In between these are the three brief instrumentals—“Para Ti,” “Fever Of The Mad” and “That’s Thirty Minutes Away I’ll Be There In Ten,” which contribute to the overall sound and feel.

Night Whispers ends up being one of those debuts that is more indebted to its influences and less indicative of a band’s overall personality and sound. I have no doubt Plasma Driver will get somewhere based on the flashes of promise showed here, even if the album itself is only moderately successful.

Rating: C

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