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Brash Swedish import delivers the goods

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Special to The Times

The explosive sonic energy that Swedish rock quartet Division of Laura Lee injected into its Wednesday performance at the Troubadour gave it a kinship with such garage-punk revival acts as fellow Scandinavians the Hives and New York’s the Strokes. But the Goteborg-based group proved more innovative, churning together innumerable influences into a unique modern sound.

Gaptoothed frontman Per Stalberg was nearly as talkative during the hourlong set as the Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, his chatter tending toward sarcastic exhortations and political remarks.

By turns ragged and ethereal, angular and frenzied, sinuous and buzzing, selections from the group’s latest album, “Black City,” and other works bore traces of everything from ‘70s punk to ‘90s grunge but evoked the sui generis inventiveness of Fugazi or the Jesus and Mary Chain.

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Occasionally trading lead-vocal duties with bassist Jonas Gustafsson and guitarist David Ojala, Stalberg sang so intensely he seemed in danger of bursting some blood vessels. Yet the players kept their instrumental aggression tightly in check, to the point that drummer Hakan Johansson maintained the beat even as he knocked his kit to the floor at show’s end.

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