“The best way to understand Brutalism is to view it as a nonhierarchical music collective with authoritarian tendencies,” they decreed. “All of our ideas belong to each other, and all carry the full force of sonic law.”

The D.C.-based electronic act consists of Gavin Holland, Zach Carter and Boston resident Benjamin Bruno. All musical ideas are credited as collaborative — but the dynamic has a decidedly Teutonic edge.

“Each member has sonic veto power,” they declare, “but given the political cost, it’s rarely invoked.”

The harsh tone is certainly in line with Brutalism’s first singles, “Friday Night (Home Invasion)” and “New Empire.” The songs were fist-pumping anthems celebrating the violent and the despotic. They both appeared on No Rave, the group’s cassette EP released in November.

“Amulets,” on the other hand, is a mood piece with largely hushed vocals. The song progresses like a deep breath. Soft piano notes punctuate a bed of krautrock-style synths, while singer Bruno sighs wistfully about the inevitable end of all things.

“We wanted to expand our horizons to encompass death itself,” the group explains. “If you can capture death in song, you can defeat it.”

The cover art extends this new direction. While Brutalism have previously identified themselves with photos of solid, large-scale structures, “Amulets” is presented with a close-up view of a ruined Ancient Egyptian tomb.

“Even monoliths crumble in time,” they state. “The tomb is shattered. It would be scarcely recognizable to its architects. Yet, in an important way, it endured.”

“Amulets” is the first of several singles Brutalism is releasing in 2016, and they plan to perform live again this fall.

Dawit Eklund, Ouroborous
Recommended tracks: “Litchi Juice,” “Lies Are Chic (Makeshift Mix)”

So far, stout head-nodders haven’t been the domain of D.C. electronic label 1432 R, but imprint co-founder Dawit Eklund maximizes the 4/4 energy on “Litchi Juice,” and keeps it bubbling on two versions of “Lies Are Chic.” But don’t view Ouroborous as a departure from 1432R’s heavily Ethiopian vibe (see: E.R., Mikael Seifu). Instead, it’s a complement: All those Horn of Africa sounds have been filtered with American house freakitude in one small way or another, and this EP proudly flaunts those roots. (Joe Warminsky)

Ricky Eat Acid, “Dear Lord”
Recommended track: The only track, “Dear Lord”

Former calzone delivery guy Sam Ray, aka producer Ricky Eat Acid, has always liked futzing around: The Maryland native (who also plays with Teen Suicide and Julia Brown) started out diddling with pop and hip-hop, then graduated to thinky ambient works on his debut Three Love Songs, titling his compositions with long, vague phrases (“Driving alone past roadwork at night”; “God puts us all in the swimming pool”). Ricky Eat Acid’s latest track, “Dear Lord,” throws hooky hip-hop, techno tropes and piano chords into a Magic Bullet and watches them whirl. (Ally Schweitzer)

Future Times Records’ Vibe 3
Recommended tracks: Protect-U, “Krums,” Juju & Jordash, “Soggy Bottom,” DSR.MR, “Crystal Jungle”

Like a lot of Future Times releases, the vinyl version of the new compilation Vibe 3 is already sold out (one retailer allowed one per customer). For most of us, though, those “out of stock” notices don’t matter, because the label made these goods highly accessible on the digital tip. (The Internet hasn’t always been a priority for the Vibe series.) Considering the Future Times crew’s knack for sequencing tracks, the digi flow makes more sense, anyway: 14 cuts, a global outlook (the crew extends from Vancouver to Amsterdam at this point), tons o’ bliss and myriad lessons about popped percussion and manipulated frequencies. Lay ’em end to end. (JW)

The Walking Sticks, “The News”
Recommended track: The only track, “The News”

The Walking Sticks started as a folk-pop band. You wouldn’t know it from the Maryland trio’s new single, “The News,” a squelching earworm with singer Chelsea Lee crushing — crushing! — the vocals. The single is officially out Nov. 20 on Play Me Records. (AS)

Brett, On Account Of Your Love
Recommended track: “On Account Of Your Love (Club Mix)”

Originally based in the D.C. area, Brett now operates out of Los Angeles, which seems like the right spiritual home for the group’s bittersweet synth-pop. On Account Of Your Love is Brett’s latest EP, released on L.A.’s Chill Mega Chill label, which promises a vinyl edition next year. Also coming in 2016: Brett’s sophomore LP, the followup to their 2014 self-titled debut. Look out for that March 11 on Cascine. (AS)

Benoit & Sergio, “Dancing Shoes”/”Old Streets”
Recommended track: “Old Streets”

Benoit & Sergio, the globe-hopping party boys who started in D.C., return with two low-key house concoctions. Like earlier tracks “Walk and Talk” and “New Ships,” their vocals still ooze drowsy sleaze — the kind you might encounter in the last hour of an after-afterparty. The 12-inch is out Nov. 17 on Soul Clap and digital versions are available now on Spotify, iTunes and Beatport. (AS)

Brutalism, No Rave
Recommended track: “Friday Night”

One of the more absurd new groups out of D.C., Brutalism keeps its tongue firmly in cheek. Debut single “Friday Night” was a deceptively peppy murder ballad; “New Empire” pledged allegiance to a draconian political regime. But on the trio’s new tape, No Rave, Brutalism takes the insanity down a notch with a track we haven’t heard before: “Human Being.” (AS)

Other new local music: The latest from rock groups More Humans, Swings, Polyon and The Split Seconds.

“Friday night!” the group bellows on the track. Their vocals sound overwrought; their synths sparkly. But this is no anthem for weekend warriors.

“It was a Friday night home invasion,” goes one verse. “Male, 6’2″ and Caucasian. Cause of death: strangulation.”

D.C.’s only murder tale to be paired with dance pop (in recent memory, anyway), “Friday Night” is giddily gruesome — and now it has an equally bizarre video, premiered on Bandwidth today.

Like the group’s earlier video for “New Empire,” the “Friday Night” visual is basically a potpourri of vintage footage, only this time, most of it looks pulled from the ’80s and ’90s. If the video has a main character, it’s a nuclear-green Pontiac Stinger — described by one YouTube user as “the most ridiculous concept/future car ever” — that cruises the beach dispensing sexy fun.

There’s not really a narrative here, though. Brutalism member Gavin Holland says he and bandmates Ben Bruno and Zach Carter just scoured the Internet for “the weirdest vintage yet action-oriented footage” they could get.

“Some of it is thematically relevant, but we also have imagery we just enjoy,” Holland writes, “like dudes surfing and ’90s robot CGI dinosaurs.”

Carter points out that while the video might seem random, it actually stems from Brutalism’s core philosophy.

“Brutalism has always believed that if you’re going to be murdered in your own home, you might as well go windsurfing first,” Carter writes. “We consider this a bedrock aesthetic principle.”

The first song from new D.C. electronic trio Brutalism was a tough act to follow: “Friday Night (Home Invasion)” told a story about a gruesome murder, backed by a soundtrack of Italo-kissed synth-pop. But its newest song, “New Empire,” could be even more demented: It imagines a ruthless imperial order that mandates public death matches, self-immolation and lots of sex, and ties it all up with Soviet electro.

The song started with an idea from Brutalism member Zach Carter, according to his bandmate Gavin Holland. “Then we had to figure out a sonic direction to go in,” Holland writes in an email. “All came together when we threw in a new synth we got that’s American-made, but retrofitted with Soviet electronics.”

Lyrically, this one is as twisted as “Friday Night (Home Invasion),” which seems to be the theme Brutalism is going for. “As far as the lyrics go, the language of imperialism has always been seductive and absurd all at once, and this song definitely reflects that,” Holland writes.

The video had to match the tone, says Holland. So Brutalism borrowed from vintage film, combining images of steely industry, Western urbanization and hoards of Greco-Roman-era slaves.

“We are talking about empires, so we wanted it to come off as massive,” Holland writes. “CGI didn’t cut it for us, so we chose to do something with thousands of actual human extras.”

That’s what I asked Bandwidth’s contributors to help me do last month. Our writers sent me their picks for their favorite D.C. music of 2015 thus far, and the result was this extremely awesome playlist (stream it below).

One limitation, though: I had to pick songs that have been uploaded to Soundcloud. As it turns out, not everybody puts their music on the service. A lot of rock and punk bands, in particular, use Bandcamp, and some artists — for reasons my under-30 brain is still struggling to understand — don’t even put their songs on the Internet for free.

So this playlist still isn’t as exhaustive as I wanted it to be, but it’s still pretty freaking great. Give it a listen on your computer or chosen mobile device, and be sure to chide us in the comments, on Twitter or via email for missing your favorite D.C. music of the year. (Seriously! Send me your nominations — we want to hear it all.)

For more coverage of D.C. music, follow Bandwidth’s Track Work series.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Image, clockwise from top left: April + VISTA, Kali Uchis, Young Rapids (partial image), Ras Nebyu, Prinze George (partial image), Visto.

For “Friday Night (Home Invasion),” members Gavin Holland, Zach Carter and Ben Bruno took their cues from true-crime TV and country-music storytelling. The song’s narrative is simple enough: “It’s about having your home broken into and getting murdered,” Carter says.

Why so macabre, fellows? “I used to watch The First 48 a lot — I’ve probably seen 50 episodes of it,” says Holland, a longtime local DJ and producer. “There’s a lot of botched home invasions on that show: bad circumstances, someone breaking in at the wrong time, ending up in murder.”

“Friday Night” tells the story of such a thwarted robbery attempt — except over an insanely hyper soundtrack. Dancing to it may seem slightly perverse, but dissonance was more or less the point.

“I liked the idea of doing music that is both accessible and confrontational — something that makes you feel good but a little uncomfortable at the same time,” Carter says. “I felt like having such a melodic song with such stark lyrical content would help accomplish that goal.”

Holland, Carter and Bruno (who splits his time between Boston and D.C.) are old friends who played around with the idea of making music together for a while, but they started taking it seriously about six months ago. Holland may be best known for his Nouveau Riche dance parties, and Carter is a journalist by day and a former member of the band Drunk Tigers. In Brutalism, their roles are fluid; all three members trade off behind the mic.

While “Friday Night (Home Invasion)” is something of a floor filler — it’s tagged “no rave” on the band’s Soundcloud page — that doesn’t necessarily mean that future Brutalism songs will sound like it. Carter cites eclectic indie titans Beck and The Magnetic Fields as influences. Brutalism would like to be just as heterogeneous while maintaining a confrontational edge.

“You’ll see when those [later songs] come out, there’s a common theme that the songs are not so much concerned with common sonic textures or instruments, but rather with ideas and attitudes,” Carter says.

The trio’s ideas already seem front and center — and that extends to its choice of name. Brutalism, of course, is an architectural movement marked by aggressive geometric structures as unmistakable as they are divisive. Not surprisingly, Carter and Co., are pretty into it. But the name “Brutalism” is more a homage to contention rather than the architectural style itself.

As Carter says, “We liked the idea of being at the center of some sort of aesthetic controversy before we even got out of the gate.”