The indie underground has always thrived upon borrowing from the past to create something new, discovering new styles that can't be easily defined and have not yet been exploited by the mainstream. In music, as well as in art, indie artists try to reject modern approaches by tearing apart the sounds and actions that make up the current pop culture.

It's an approach that is not new by any means. In fact, it's an approach that sparked the high modernism of early 20th-century art when Ezra Pound so famously urged artists to "make it new," sparking a revolution of new approaches that may seem tame now, but caused riots at the time (see Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for an example of the power of the new).

Modern indie musicians continue to revolutionize sound, and even as they become a part of the mainstream, many of them continue to try new things. Beck's 2005 EP GameBoy Variations is a great example. By re-mixing some of his most recent hits using a Nintendo Game Boy, Beck connected his music to the sounds of an emerging generation while taking a completely new approach to his songs.

It's with this concept of modern indie music that I approached Shy Child's latest LP Noise Won't Stop, an album that takes the electronic noises of the modern world (cell phone beeps, game consoles, MacBooks, whatever) and mixes it all into some beautifully composed songs. At the same time, Shy Child borrows heavily from 1980s pop and modern dance music to create something oddly familiar, yet far out in space.

Noise Won't Stop begins with "Drop The Phone," a song chocked full of beeps, buzzes, and dial tones. Using synth noises on top of a driving drum beat, singer Pete Cafarella adds in situational lyrics to accentuate the cell phone theme: "Then I just lost the signal / the signal's gone." It's a powerful start, but there are better moments on this album.

The album continues with "Pressure to Come," a song more in tune with modern dance and electronica than anything from the past. Drummer Nate Smith adds some complex drumming on top of sirens and Cafarella's keytar riffs. On "The Volume," the electronica takes on a more vintage tone, and Smith uses a drum machine to keep with the '80s mood. While "The Volume" has a straightforward sound, the syncopation is complicated, and Cafarella's vocals summarize the band's lifestyle: "The volume's turned up too loud, but we don't cover our ears / Because they're already numb, from damage already done." Indeed, Noise Won't Stop is an album designed to be enjoyed at high volume.