In our global culture of sound bites and easy information, instrumental music tends to intimidate the average listener. Many a modern-rock enthusiast rejects instrumental rock categorically, or uses it as a sort of half-heard soundtrack in the background during long phone calls or projects at home. And while this must be frustrating to musicians who play in instrumental bands, such rejection is often warranted. A problem in much of contemporary rock- and jazz-based instrumental music is the self-indulgent manner in which bands tend to alienate the listener by dragging, droning, or simply meandering off into territory that the players are either not competent, inspired, or just plain fucked-up enough to navigate. Honestly, unless your band is on the level of Dirty Three, why leave the practice space?

There's nothing more insulting than paying admission to watch three to 10 elitist instrumental jag-offs onstage, tediously engaged in an hour-long circle jerk wherein the audience is totally uninvolved, and consequently left to wonder why it didn't just shell out a bit less to go see the local community college's jazz band put some real heart into a performance.

Of course there are the present-day greats. Many of them are on Chicago's Thrill Jockey roster. In contemporary instrumental rock music (a genre where jazz is given much cadence and reference), great ideas tend to move quickly and confuse and distance the listener who is unaccustomed to the adventurous spirit of instrumental music. Bands like Tortoise and even Chicago Underground Duo are making undeniably groundbreaking strides, and warrant the concentration required to make it through their shows.

However, most rock and roll lovers want singers. Singers make music digestible for the most nonmusical among us. Singers make melody gratifying by providing a wash of verbal idea with which to digest whatever melody, however complex. When a rock band plays without a singer, many of us don't know what to do, though in some ways it's a gift because it gives us the freedom to do anything we want.

Which brings us to Munich, Germany's Couch, a sinfully easy band with which a standard rock and roll lover can become acquainted. Couch is Stefanie Böhm on keyboard, Thomas Geltinger on drums, Michael Heilrath on bass, and Jürgen Söder on drums. Their new record (the second the band has released on Matador in the States, and the first it has released concurrently with its overseas imprint) is called Profane. At first, as a friend pointed out, it sounds like a Hal Hartley soundtrack--which is a good thing--before taking it upon itself to creep inside and gently uplift the listener. The obvious Kraut rock references can be made here (Can, Kraftwerk, and their ilk), which makes sense perhaps rhythmically and geographically, though that's about where the comparisons end.

Couch's Profane is an indie rock record. The second track, "Alle Auf Pause," is among the finest of all indie rock songs--a 4/4, bass-driven anthem, given a rich, even texture by sexy, repetitive guitar and keyboard lines. The drums begin to roll about halfway through, and the guitar and keyboard parts give way to one another gently, with an easy, tidal grace. The song feels smart and organic, both in its simple structure and in the ideas (taking form in rich, perfect melody) that are presented. One could get lost for hours alone with this song on repeat; and within the song, repetition is fundamental. Add to that the fact that this, the finest, is only one of the excellent tracks on Profane. The record rarely deviates from a guitar- and keyboard-based rock format, but when it does--when it goes jazzy or deeper into electronics--it is still perfect for a rock lover.

Profane is textured and propulsive: an ordered universe of ideas presented in a structured, comfortable format that could either be the soundtrack for your next movie or the Fleet banking empire's new advertising campaign (for which the band's music is now being used). The music of Couch is an open, immaculate space created from finely honed repetition, the love of music and easy melody, and the belief that the creation of rock and roll can be a truly inventive and simultaneously gratifying act for the artist and the listener alike.