A beginner’s guide to TV on the Radio as they visit Henry Miller Library in Big Sur.

“Happy Idiot” – the first single off TV on the Radio’s forthcoming album Seeds (Nov. 18) – pounces with an early-’90s Euro-house beat. It’s an instant TVOTR classic, defined by gazillions of symbiotic layers of instrumentation, effects and musical algorithms, catchy new wave dosed with Novocaine in a world where “ignorance is bliss.”

“Happy Idiot” also marks some of TVOTR’s first new material in nearly five years. “We’ve been through a lot of stuff in the past few years that could have stopped the band cold, but I’m glad we got it together and took stock of the connection we have between each other because the record is, 1,000 percent, without a doubt, the best thing we’ve ever done,” lead singer Tunde Adebimpe says.

New material from the esoteric Brooklyn art rockers has created buzz. Its intimate Folkyeah-sanctioned show at Henry Miller Saturday sold out in minutes.

For those unfamiliar with TVOTR, it’s a good time to get acquainted. Here are four songs that’ll make you a fan for life.

The wonderfully dreary piano that opens “Family Tree” (Dear Science), sounds like weeping. Then, orchestral rebirth slowly builds and convinces itself that its perception of the world isn’t wrong. The prose elevates even more: “And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree/ There’s a hundred hearts soar free/ Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep it young.”

“Crying” (Dear Science) is about overcoming hopelessness in an unforgiving world. A burst of retro Licensed to Ill-coated rhythm sizzles in a pot of reimagined Rick James-minded funk. “The blood on the cradle/ And the ashes you wade through/ Got you callin’ God’s name in vain,” sings Adebimpe in an award-worthy Prince falsetto.

With “Wolf Like Me” (Return to Cookie Mountain), TVOTR proves they can do accessible mainstream pop. You may have heard the tune playing everywhere from TV shows and movies to video games and commercials. The good news: The outfit’s signature layers of noisy experimentation, looping and dissonance remain intact.

“Caffeinated Consciousness,” the final track on 2011’s Nine Types of Light, TVOTR’s last release, represents the last song with bassist Gerard Smith, who died of cancer nine days after the album came out. It’s musically amorphous – traces of punk and shoegazer weave in and out of mini-time signature changes. It’s one of TVOTR best qualities: They always keep you guessing.

TV ON THE RADIO 7:30pm Saturday, Oct. 18. Henry Miller Library, 48603 California 1, Big Sur. Sold out. www.folkyeah.com