As the singer in Olympia punk band Vexx, Mary Jane Dunphe lets rip with an impressive volley of snarls, screams, sneered asides, and yelps as the band crashes around her in lo-fi fury. CC Dust, her project with bassist David Jaques, is an entirely different experience that's built around sparse, New Order and electro-inspired synth pop. Dunphe's vocals are just as impressively expressive on their debut five-song EP, but they are a little more under control even when she starts to growl and shout a little. The sparseness of the synths, the simple beats, and Jaques' slippery Peter Hook-style basslines provide a nice launching pad for Dunphe's vocals, which never fail to get right down to the emotion they desire and proceed to serve it up with the heart still beating. Her throaty proclamations that she's never going to die (on the song of the same name), her choked delivery on "Tonopah (Burning Brown)," the almost Björk-ian yodels on the glacial "Abra" (the EP's best song) -- these are moments when Dunphe sounds like she can do just about anything and do it just right. The music and vocals combine to conjure up some serious underground '80s magic throughout, and the EP works as a very enticing introduction to the duo. There is no shortage of bands treading the nostalgic waters of the synth pop past, but thanks to Dunphe's startlingly good vocals and the overall emotional wallop of the EP, CC Dust are definitely a group to keep an eye on.