What do you get when a nihilistic Juilliard grad smashes progressive rock, industrial metal, and experimental classical music into a hadron collider? — FauxFriend, the dark, dense, and daring solo project by Los Angeles-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Chris Kapica.

This heavy-but-quirky music runs the aesthetic gamut: manic, mathy rollercoasters;  grandiloquent, stately synth baths; and even off-kilter dance tracks bemoaning the plight of the proletariat. Many of Kapica’s lyrics dwell on the struggle to endure in the face of widespread oppression, ignorance, and greed.

In an age of passive, easy listening, FauxFriend is anything but.