2013's Water on Mars is Purling Hiss's first recording outside the fuzzy confines of Mike Polizze's inner rock utopia, where the first three albums and EP were constructed in solitude with a home recording setup. Now, there is a center to the Hiss maelstrom, with Polizze's guitars slugging, sizzling and spiraling their way around the rhythm throb. Purling Hiss have a deeply satisfying way of drawing from the wells of '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s Rock to inform their own sound, giving things a retro ring while doing what they do in the Philadelphia of today. This is heavy stuff from Purling Hiss, unknotting the strings that tangled all their previous records together so righteously to reveal another, greater storm within.