Between the rush and rumble, and the 3am burritos of indeterminate origin, I miss two things: year-round temperate California nights and restlessly driving through them. I don’t own a car in Chicago, but I would hazard a guess that it’s not really the same thing. The locked grid of traffic lights and months of pucker-inducing black ice tend to provide enough evidence to me. I know I could always just drive out a few miles to the corn fields, but looking around and seeing a vast field of darkness doesn’t appeal to me like the dull glow of a deserted Santa Monica Blvd, or even the blinding flames at the Carson refinery.

It’s tracks like Axis: Sova‘s “Fractal Ancestry” that trigger this sort of nostalgia for me. I remember that drum machine beat as the thing that kept me going at speeds only achievable on an asphalt clearing the size of a nearly-abandoned 405. The “solos” are simple and dissonant, with just enough melody to follow along and a harmony that sounds like murky ’70s rock filtered though a cheese grater.

Axis: Sova’s second full-length Early Surf is due out on February 17 via Ty Segall-led label God?, but in the meantime you can listen to “Fractal Ancestry” below on Soundcloud.