King Midas Sound - Waiting For You

(8)

Here is a great under-the-radar album. It's a little difficult to describe the sound accurately. It's not instrumental, but it sounds like it the way the singers add their voices into the mix. It's not reggae, but it sounds like it. It's dubby, but it's not dubstep, although the influence is noticeable. It's wispy, dark and deeply paranoid. It's a bunch of ghostly beats pretty much. But it's elegant, like something a high class raver would listen to in the cab at 3 in the morning.

Fans of more elegant softer dubstep like Burial will dig this. Not for the current frat boy dubstep craze.

Sounds Like

A more dubbed out, smoky Massive Attack

Gang Gang Dance - Revival of the Shittest

(6.0)

This early release is Gang Gang Dance at it's most primal. Not the most commercial album of theirs, maybe the least. More thunderous tribal percussion over freaky hypnotic rhythms. It sounds really old. A lot of the record is in lo-fi, but some of it isn't. I'm not sure if I like that idea because it doesn't use the idea well, it doesn't balance itself out and I think the overall sound would be better in hi-fi, it's just that kind of music where you want it as clear as possible. But props to them for trying it out.

Definitely check it out if you're into GGD or noisy tribal stuff. If not, it'd be hard to get into.

Sounds like

Black Dice with more structure

Mary Anne Hobbs - Volcano Refugee Show

Mary Anne Hobbs, being stranded in L.A. after Coachella due to the volcano disrupting flights into Europe, decided to broadcast from Pure Filth Studios in Los Angeles profiling the West cost glitch hop sound by getting knob twisters by the likes of Rag G, Daedelus, Take, Flying Lotus and Teebs to create special mixes and interviews for the show.

Daedelus started the set with a mix profiling his new EP on Brainfeeder records Righteous Fists of Harmony which is a step in the atmospheric/organic, less dance oriented sound. Ras G's set was a stand out, which he featured powerful mostly new sounds. Take's set was intense, like a new Perfuse 73. Take's video game sound is better than old flylo material and has more new age soul than Pretty Lights. Take's the breakout artist of 2010. Hobbs also profiled the new first lady of Brainfeeder Records Tokimonsta. Flying Lotus took the last spot and featured music mostly from his new album Cosmogramma.

Listen Now

Flying Lotus

Daedelus

Ras G

Tokimonsta

Hobbs

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute

(10)

More bais reviews. It's not for everyone. Love them or hate them, there's no middle ground. It took me a few years before I actually "got" the sound they make. It sounds messy to a lot of people. But it's actually not, it's complex. Messy means it doesn't make sense musically. Complex means it's not easy. You'll get used to it. Now the sound is wired in me. I need it. I love the Mars Volta for everything they are. No one makes music as intense as them.

Frances the Mute is more of a trip album that Deloused. It's separated into five songs, more like five sections that slow seamlessly and needs to be listened in order all at once. Dedicate the time or you'll fall short. My favorite aspect of this album is how they ditched the spacey acid rock of Deloused and traded it for a latin fusion psychedelic trippy thing. You hear it right away.

The album opens with Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus and lone spanish acoustic guitars and soon blasts with full force into what sounds like Santana on speed. The verses in that song feature some of the tightest guitar work by Omar doing this fast passed latin funk thing and you're just trying to follow along with out falling behind of the sound. Once the track slows down you feel like you've just listened to three songs. They then proceed to go into my favorite Volta jam, which you can count of hearing during a 30+ minute jam session at their live shows (seen them 3 times, played it all 3 shows). It's like this weird time signature bass line and guitar over that which Omar modestly solos over. Second most beautiful moment of the album.

Next track is The Widow, which might be their most popular song. Great single, nice and shot at 5 minutes. It's basically and epic classic rock sounding song. Lots of face melting guitar solos, lots of horns, lots of trippyness.

After that comes 12 minutes of sheer chaos in L'Via L'Viaquez. The guitar solos will literally blow your mind in this one. It's their most latin sounding song and it's a crowd pleaser. Cedric sings in spanish about avenging his mothers death or something weird thing. (the story they're telling in this album comes from a real journal they found in the glove compartment in a used car they bought) The bass is sooo heavy in this song. Lots of hazy stuff and salsa piano in the refrains.

Now we hit the half way mark. It begins to get darker, no turning back now. Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore is split into 4 parts. The first is the most beautiful and romantic sound TMV have ever created. The horns make this song. Complete psychosis follows in the next sections of the song. Lots of jazz flute, saxophone, distorted vocals and fucked up time signatures. After Miranda comes Cassandra Geminni, also in five parts. Powerful song.

If you've listened to the full album, you'll likely not listen to anything else for a few hours after that, as you're pretty worn out. Over all, it's The Mars Volta at their most hazy and trippy, it literally smells like bong smoke.

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

(8.5)

I like music that infuses as many influences and styles into one as possible. The Beastie Boys were the kings of accomplishing that. Three jewish kids from the boroughs start a hardcore punk back in the late 80's, then the drop the guitars and put up the turntables.

1992's Check Your Head is when the Beastie Boys found their sound. They took the rap thing mixed with heavy metal from Licensed to Ill and combined it with the soul/funk/jazz sound form their second album, Paul's Boutique. I'm baffled just thinking about how they had this sound in '92, it sounds way before it's time.

Jimmy James starts out with a think jazzy bass line to which they do their white boy rap over adding a shit load of turntablism into the mix.

Gratitude mixes their early hardcore punk scene with some angry sounding rapping for three jews. The classic So Whatcha Want takes everything I've described so far and multiplies it by 5 for a throbber of a track. Time for Livin' is a straight hardcore punk track which proves they could have easily made it as a punk band. Everything in between is a mix of funk, jazz, punk and hip hop and collectively creates on of the first great cross over albums.

Interesting fact: The Beastie Boys debut album from 1986 was the first ever "gangster rap" album, containing lyrics of a violent and crime-ful nature. Three punks from the boroughs did it first. Never doubt the B Boys.

J Dilla - Donuts

(9.5)

Dilla says go. Not surprisingly, this is my most played album. It's my happy album, the one that will put you in a good mood no matter what. One of the greatest producers of all time for sure. The last record before his death in 2006, it's said he finished it in his hospital bed with a mixer and turntable. This is the album that turned me on to blunted neo-soul hip hop beats.

Everything about this album is perfect. The samples Jay Dee uses are full of soul with guitar lines and percussion from all of your favorite black soul and funk artists of the 60's. He proceeds to use those samples and creates a completely new sound with them, that is what this album is really about. It'll blow your mind how good the sound is yet it's still so incoherent. He blunts the bass till it's pounding though to the back of your head, Echos the handclaps and manipulated the drums better than the best dub producers.

I'm not ganna go on to describe the sound because it wont do it justice. It's just an album that needs to be heard by everyone, friend of foe of hip hop.

Sounds Like

The best beats you've ever heard.

Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

(8.5)

What a beautifully diverse album. Nothing Bibio has been is as good as this, and I don't think it will be as good again. The producer goes in two completely different directions on the album. There's the electro acoustic tracks, then there's the Dilla inspired beat tracks.

On the electro acoustic side, we start with the title track. It's a sunny opener, like a walk on a beautiful day on the morning. The first half of Lovers Carvings is a pretty waltz and goes into a really catchy indie pop cut, it's a unique track, and a highlight. Then there is my personal favorite Haikuesque (When She Laughs) , a beautiful dreamy piece that will touch you the deepest, it'll be the track that you walk away remembering.

Then sprinkled between all of the acoustic tracks are these random beat tracks, and they're really good. The first one Fire Ants sounds JUST like a lost J Dilla track, its intensely soulful, complete with the vinyl crackles and pops. He obviously knows his stuff. Then there's the darker futuristic sounding Sugarette. It's actually a decent glitch hop track. Then we get S'Vive which combines all of the albums ideas and puts them into one bouncy and highly successful experimental song.

The production is amazing. I suggest picking it up in FLAC or buying the vinyl if you can find it (mine cost $75)

Sounds Like

electro acoustic + glitch hop beats

Amon Tobin - Supermodified

(6.5)

I've always thought Amon Tobin sounded dated. The trick to making good electronic music is to create a sound that is ganna outlast time it's self.

The sound is like a mix of modified drum n' bass with something soulful and jazzy. You can tell DJ Shadow is a big influence to that side of his music. The sound is think and layered, which is a good thing. There's a lot of depth to the wall of sound being blown at you, it actually sounds three dimensional which is what Amon Tobin is best at, it's what makes his music stand out from the average experimental electronic producer.

It's a good listen if you're new to experimental electronic, but once you become more familiar with the genre and it's depth, Amon Tobin gets old quick.

Sounds Like

A more focused and serious Pretty Lights

Airiel - Winks & Kisses

(7)

Shoegaze is great. Not a lot of music this simple can keep my attention, but most shoegaze can. Great shoegaze is classic shoegaze OR classic sounding shoegaze. Airiel take the basic formula of sound from classic bands like Slowdive and Cocteau Twins and gives it a modern touch of production in this four EP set. They still keep it loud and dense, but each individual part comes out and is equally noticeable. I'm not music engineer or producer but it seems like a feat. A lot of shoegaze bands don't have particularly good drummers, it's a section that the genre has always lacked on. Airiel takes simple drum lines and rolls with it through the whole song with out changing it up. It's crisp and concise and sounds great.

Kiss Me Slowly has a bouncing bass line over the haze on noisy guitars. Ri is an instrumental that demonstrates how well they can write a drum line for a hazy song. And This is why I Can't Sleep is a sleepy waltz that is rare to find in the genre.

A good band that is moving forward on the classic shoegaze sound, not pulling it back.

Sounds Like

Cleaner hazy dream pop

Rusted Root - When I Woke

(7.5)

This is some earthy hippy shit. Probably the most organic sounding music I have ever heard. Not quite a jam bad. The tracks don't run 15 minutes long with bullshit extended solos. It's not quite psychedelic. There's a lot of really clean sounding musicianship here, and the lead singer's voice is strong. The band takes on influences from around the globe. African, Latin, Indian and Native American sound can be heard in all of the instruments and song structure, especially the percussion.

Every member of the bad is supposedly proficient in african and latin style percussion, and it shows. This is a band thats all about their percussion. Give Drum Trip a listen and try not to smile. Ecstasy is as frantic as it is strong. Martyr is a sunny tropical piece that sounds like Fools Gold. Back To The Earth is that peaceful hippy way to end the album, complete with gentle sitar. And everyone will recognize Send Me On My Way, which has been featured in countless movies.

This is a great album by true musicians. Earthy as hell and great to trip to.

Sounds Like

Organic world music

Ras G - Brotha From Anotha Planet

(7)

Ras G makes spaced out highly blunted beats a little more listener friendly with his debut album. Being on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder Records, if you're familiar with the team, you know what to expect. If your not, then you're in for a trippy ride. Like Flylo's work, the beats are spacey and filled with blips and beeps, deep space kinda shit. Ras G's take on the sound is to put it in a more lo-fi setting, and the outcome is great. Other than that, there's not a lot of new ideas, just a bunch of rehashed ones. That doesn't mean the album is bad.

Definitely something to play full though

Sounds Like

more spacey lo-fi beats from Brainfeeder

Everclear - World Of Noise

(9.5)

A friend gave me this incredibly rare album a while ago, and it's still a favorite of mine to this day. If you're familiar with Everclear, you probably have an image of some one hit wonder clique 90's alternative band. This is not the everclear you think you know. Their first three albums were surprisingly punk as fuck. This is their first and it's exceptionally hardcore indie punk.

Recorded in '93 on a budget of $400 and a broken amplifier that would reportedly start on fire after extensive use, the sound on World Of Noise is raw and noisy as hell. You can really hear the low quality set up they were forced to use on Laughing World where the guitar literally squeaks and squeals. Sick and Tired lets bassist Craig Montoya shine on one of the hardest songs they've ever recorded. The end to that song is intense to say the least.

The album deals with dark themes of true-story accounts of Art Alexakis' life growing up with a heroin addiction and alcoholism. The centerpiece Fire Maple Song is an exceptionally emotional track about dealing with the death of a friend to an overdose. Sparkle, Your Genius Hands, and Evergleam are all indie punk anthems filled with energy that balance out the slower tracks like Loser Makes Good.

Raw, gritty, original and full of energy, this is probably the best debut by a band that eventually falls apart after they get clean (happens to the best of them) Highly recommended.

Sounds Like

Early 90's high energy indie punk/grunge

El Trio de Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Ciencia de los Inutiles

(7.5)

There's not much I can say about this album. Omar Rodriguez Lopez is the puppet master behind The Mars Volta for those who don't know. It's a light album. Acoustic guitar from Omar and singing from Ximena Sarinana, the grammy nominated Mexican singer and songwriter, and boy can she sing. Everything is in spanish, but it doesn't matter at all. It's just beautifully peaceful music perfectly sung.

My favorite track is Noche Dia, it's got that sleepy magical sound, with the crickets, chimes, spoken word and sparse guitar. It's quite the hypnotizing track.

It's interesting that most of these solo albums that Omar has been releasing were never intended for release at all. It's also insane that he put out 10 solo albums in 2009 alone. (half of them were solid gold, half were a mess of acid jazz)

Sounds Like

Spanish Acoustic

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

(10)

It's to bad that the two most recent Modest Mouse (Good News and Dead Before) albums suck as much as they do, because Modest Mouse war the last great rock band. It's because they're rootsy as hell and use minimum production that makes them so good. I'm not saying that their new stuff is anything special, but everything they created up until Lonesome Crowded West is absolutely amazing.

This album is all over the place, in a good way. There's the soft acoustic tracks (Out of Gas, Polar Opposites), the screaming punk tracks (Shit Luck), the country infused working class songs (Cowboy Dan) and even a jumper (Lounge (Closing Time)) reminiscent of their earlier track Summer from The Fruit That Ate Itself EP. Mean while,they manage to keep each track emotional as hell. It still has that proto emo sound.

My favorite track on the album is the 11 minute cocaine powered epic Truckers Atlas, probably my favorite Modest Mouse song in general. The drums on it are some of the best ever. Every time i play the track, I listen to the entire 11 minutes of it and never look at the clock. It's that good. Another classic is Doin' The Cockroach. Starts of slow and angry and gets faster and angrier until it ends with Isaac Brock doing what he does best, screaming with emotion with that lisp of his.

Easily the best album of 1997, top five of the 90's and my favorite Modest Mouse album.

Sounds Like

Working class early emo

Los Peyotes - iCavernicola!

(7.5)

Garage rock just sounds so much better when the production sucks, and it sounds old, authentic. Classic garage rock bands like The Sonics, The Seeds, Shadows of Knight, The Animals and The Troggs demonstrate that raw sound. To me, garage rock was the beginning of punk, and that last stand of rock.

Since the early days of garage rock, there's been quite a few altercations to the genre and scene. Gospel, surf, horror, hardcore, psychedelic, rhythm and blues and even country have tweaked the basic foundation of garage rock to fit the scene.

Here we have the newest from Los Peyotes, who hail from Argentina. iCavernicola! has everything you'd want from a good garage band. Dirty choppy guitar, lo-fi production and a punk foundation. The focus more on the surf side, but they also have the organ from those old horror movies which makes them sound like Early Horrors (same band that did Primary Colors). They sound just like the Horror's first album Strange House except with spanish influence. They even share a song title "Jack The Ripper" which sound similar.

The track When I Arrive puts use to a lot of good effects and El Humo Te Hace Mal is a drunken chant of horror punk. The entire album is laced with horror organs, gritty lyrics and screams. All without sounding like the misfits in any way.

A great horror punk album.

Sounds Like

Mexican horror/surf punk

MGMT - Congratulations

(5.5)

I couldn't wait to bash this album . The first time I heard it, it sounded so messy and random, in a bad way. But I just spent my hour long train ride home sitting down and giving it my full attention, just to be fair. It wasn't bad, it was actually a lot better than I was expecting.

I first heard MGMT back when the first EP came out, Time to Pretend, the one with the earth on the cover , with the original version of Kids, which is a lot better than the one on the LP. Boogie Down was cool, and then I heard Electric Feel and Of Birds, Moons and Mosters which became my two favorite song for all of 2006, waaaaay before anyone knew about them. I'd show people it and they would just dismiss it for trash, then once one of their songs was in a trailer for some lame movie, it became the biggest thing. Same thing happened with M.I.A but I digress. MGMT simply just became so old quick, in a gimmicky way, just like Neon Indian this year.

So when Congratulations came out this month, I wasn't even interested in listening to it at all. I expected it to be all 'psychedelic' in their post-queen way, messy and annoying. But it turned out to be not bad, and the further the album progressed, the better it got better. It actually does sound like I imaged, post-queen pop psychedelic, and a lot less radio friendly and pop as the first LP. It actually kind of sounds like it should be on Elephant 6. But what I was NOT expecting was how well it flows. It's not annoying and messy at all. The music is well written. It's so mellow, not chaotic, which saved it for me.

The 12 minute medley Siberian Breaks acts as the center piece. Every section it goes into is great, and the ending reminds me of the ending to Of Birds, Moons and Monsters, which is the greatest two minutes of music MGMT has ever created. One of my favorites.

The other great song is Congratulations, an good way to end the album. I would guessed they would have done so overly self indulgent weird annoying thing. But this is so down to earth and peaceful.

I just felt like I needed to justify this. I don't like MGMT, and this album isn't great. But it's definitely not terrible. Also if they were to substitute half of the synths for organs, I'd like it a lot more.

Sounds Like

Later Beatles + Queen - the self indulgence

De Facto - Légende du Scorpion à Quatre Queues

(8.5)

You would go though this entire album and not know it's a Mars Volta side project. Thats the brilliance in it. Omar Rodrigez-Lopez on bass, Cedric Blixer-Zavala on drums, "IKey" Owens on the keys and the legendary late Jeremy Michael Ward, who created the beautiful soundscapes on Deloused In The Comatorium, is the sound manipulator.

The sound is just straight dub reggae. And really good dub reggae at that. There's a few live tracks on here, the sound isn't too bad, but you can tell their live. Most of the songs are improvised, and the flow is excellent. If the flow is subpar, a dub song is going to suck. It's all about losing your self in the sound. It's about being blazed and listening to the pounding bass and echos of a single random snare hit.

Cordova is such a cool song. Words can not describe how confident the song is in it's own coolness. Like the Mars Volta, the sound is pretty jazzy, you'll spot some subtle connections between this and Frances The Mute.

If you're a fan of Omar and Cedric's work, but not of dub, you probably wont like it. Dub is special music, it's not for everyone. It's definitely been a favorite of mine for quite some time.

Sounds Like

Spacey dub reggae

Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth

(7.5)

Great music comes from Brooklyn. Mos Def, Tribe Called Quest, Yeasayer, Talib Kweli, TV on the Radio, the list goes on and on. From what I hear, Brooklyn is the hippest place in the states right now.

Bear in Heaven is a promising band. It's like beautiful sleepy (Deafening Love) indie music that can be epic and times (You Do You). There's even a touch of late Shoegaze with some great pitch bending (Dust Cloud), which in my opinion is the best track of the lot. The songs are well crafted, great dynamics, and they can actually play their instruments (the drums in Beast in Peace?). It has a strange sound, that perfectly blends this organic rootys unaltered sound with a good amount of electronic. Also Jon Philpot's voice doesn't stack up to Chris Keating of Yeasayer, but it doesn't suck at all.

Don't assume it sucks when it puts you to sleep. It's soothing as hell. Not everything needs to be annoyingly loud.

Sounds Like

Yeasayer with out all the ethnic influences. Peaceful and Beautiful

Mary Anne Hobbs Show - BBC Radio 1

Be sure to turn into BBC Radio 1 tonight/friday early morning 2:00 - 4:00 UK time for Mary Anne Hobb's show, everything new in left-field dance, obscure electronic and dub. The radio may suck here but thats not the case in the UK.

Also UK once underground legendary MC Dizzee Rascal's new single from his shiny disco album (out May 24) just got it's on air debut last night on Radio one. It really is the premier place for new music from all sides of the spectrum so check it out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wqb7

10 ft. Ganja Plant - Hillside Airstrip

(9)

My favorite current reggae band. Ganja Plant is the secret side project of John Brown's Body, who are strangely not nearly as good? This is not a stoner album, nor a stoner band. There are limited weed references. It's just great roots reggae.

There's two unique things about Ganja Plant that make them the best. First, they rock the base like no other reggae band. It's a secret who the bassist is, my theory is they switch off, but it is excellent. The base guitar is the key to good reggae. The other is their recording technique to insure that it has that old sound where they record each song with all the instruments playing together in one take instead of laying down each instrument at a time.

Pure Sugar is the center piece very funky vibe to it. There's the awesome instrumental title track, which they literally school every other current reggae band on how to create amazing and authentic sounding roots reggae They even treat us to a sick dub track Two Bulls which is heady beyond belief.

The overall sound and vibe is dark, not depressing but like.. nighttime. Especially Pure Sugar. Personally the cover gives a good prelude to what to expect the sound to be like. Very laid back, like the man with the spliff who sits and waits in the middle of the night on the airstrip on the hillside for the planes that smuggle the ganja around the island.

If you're a reggae fan, you need this.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light

(9.5)

The first album my dad ever gave me was not Remain In Light. It was True Stories.

This is probably the coolest album I've ever heard. Post punk at it's finest. Talking Heads, the original art rock group, made some of the most original music decades before all these buzz hipster bands today rehashed it. Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Arcade Fire, Yeasayer, Broken Bells, Phoenix.. the list drags on. Talking Heads are obviously that good.

A huge transition from their previous three albums, Remain In Light is a head trip of African influenced polyrhythms, tight-as-shit funk base, and amazing sounding and highly original guitar solos that don't even sound like they're coming from a guitar.

I feel like the best is Born Under Punches but I'm sure everyone will disagree and claim Once in a Lifetime. It's great and original as hell, but Born Under Punches is all that and more. The tight guitar line, the almost random base and the electronics at the end create such a paranoid sound that I've never heard from anything that early before. The Clash later ripped off this sound in The Magnificent Seven. Seen and Unseen is another underrated track. Very original and strangely comfortable sounding. Byrne proves his genius of poetry on that one. David Byrne does not sing. He preaches. It's an art-punk band.

All of todays artsy music comes from this influential album. Way before it's time.

Sounds Like

Artsy Post Punk

Vampire Weekend - Contra

(4.5)

This isn't great. I wasn't much of a fan of their first album. They sound like a . And I can't stand Ezra Koenig's voice, so that doesn't help. I like the whole tropical/exotic sounding music, hell, I really like it. But it's just been done so much and in such better ways. Think Talking Heads Naked album. As far as I know, thats the roots of artsy tropical sounding music. Vampire Weekend it's really bringing anything new to the genre on this one.

I can admit there was catchy tracks on their first. With the exception of the head ache Cousins, there's nothing here that stuck with me, and I wish it hadn't. That track is annoying as fuck. God I hate his voice. On the other hand, his voice is tolerable on Giving up the Gun and on my favorite track Diplomat's Son which has that vibe I got from those minimalist Beirut songs on Gulag Orkestar.

Boring music for pre teen hipsters. Try moving in some sort of new direction.

Sounds Like

Same old same old

Various Artists - Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label

(8.5)

There are many many Eccentric Soul records. Out of the few I have managed to find, this is my favorite.

When looking for old classic soul without turing on some oldies radio station, one might turn to Sharon Jones. There's no problem with that, all of her records are excellent. But you can do better. Eccentric Soul presents you with a collection of lost and unknown classic soul and funk tracks from artists that even someone who was around to listen to this type of music while it was being released wouldn't even know.

This is straight funky music. I mean really funky. It's like James Brown x10. It's lo-fi as shit, and well before lo-fi was just some hipster gimmick production technique. The singing its tops as excpected from soul singers, they're the best, and the backing bands of each artists are comparable, if not better, than the legendary Dap Kings. My favorite of the bunch if I had to pick would be one of the two Marion Black tracks Come on and Gettit. If my record collection was filled with nothing but 45s from these artists, I'd be pretty happy.

Early 60's > Late 60's. This is why.

Sounds Like

Old School Soul and Funk

Indian Jewelry - Sangles Redux

(8)

The lost and terribly unknown Indian Jewelry (then known as Swarm of Angels) album. It's a lot more friendly to the ears than their later work. It' weird that Indian Jewelry's music is so vulgar and unpleasant to the ears yet it makes me want to listen to it all the time. This one is a lot more post punk in the straightforward sense. You wont find that swampy drone on this one.

Most of the songs are delightfully uncomfortable (Pain Releiver) there's a lot of fuzz rock (Warm Boxcutter) and then there's really driven Joy Division esqe thumpers like Downtown and Going South, which was redone for Invasive Exotics.

This is definitly not for everyone, but if you can get into it, you'll really appreciate it

Sounds Like

A paranoid Velvet Underground

Young Black Preachers - YBP EP

(5.5)

This is pretty funky. Great beats, great thoughtful lyrics. Sounds like it should be from Stones Throw but it's not. Kinda sounds like a mix between N.E.R.D. (Do You Feel It?) and Kanye (Clockers) too.

I heard the whole 'theory' behind this group is to create thoughtful rap instead of the gangster shit being put out to the masses. It's not like they're the only group doing that tho, but it's still better than the Wayne and such shit. Not bad, but nothing new at all. Always trying to find good underground hip hop with blunted beats though, and this delivers that.

Sounds Like

N.E.R.D./Kanye mix

Woods - At Echo Lake

(7.5)

My favorite 'campfire music' is that of Woods. I managed to find this album early, it came out today but i've had a leak for about a month now. After their latest and extremely pleasant Songs Of Shame, they're putting the new one out only a year later, but this album is not rushed in anyway. I'd say it's a little more "up" and positive sounding (Suffering Season). It's still a bunch of nice short songs. It's still really folk in that Neil Young & Crazy Horse or CSNY way. And still great 60's folk sounding guitars. The singer's voice is still falsetto as fuck, but it's great and I don't thing I'd love Woods nearly as much with out his unique voice. Most importantly, it's still the accessible side of Woods, unlike At Rear House which is great in its own right, but this is something that a lot of people will like.

Not as much on the dark side like Songs of Shame and not as catchy but still a really enjoyable album

Sounds Like

Crosby Stills & Nash

At The Drive-In - Acrobatic Tenement

(9.5)

This is the El Paso band's finest album. Being their first, it's rootsy as hell. I mean rootsy in a completely raw way where it's just straight punk without all of the production and electronic effects of their later releases. Check out their first three EPs for more of this raw sound.

The album starts with the high energy Star Slight and chaos follows. Cedric vocals are as high pitched as always, and his lyrics are cryptic poetry (Embroglio). The albums center piece, Initiation, is the beautiful and I mean just the prettiest thing you've ever heard from a hardcore punk band about the bands stalker. The guitar work by the great Omar Rodriguez Lopez is fantastic as always. Lots of crazy guitar riffs you coulda never thought up. The bass is thumping nice and deep. There's a lot of emotion is this music. Kinda like other early emo bands like Modest Mouse and the notorious Cap'n Jazz.

This is a legendary album by a legendary band. Highly Recommended

Also, if you're a fan of Mars Volta, you'll find hints of things to come in Deloused. The one guitar line in Ticklish is exactly the same one from Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt at the end of that awesome fusion jazz guitar solo.

Sounds Like

Early cosmic punk

Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love

(8)

In my opinion, this (first) album is better than their second. It's a lot darker, which really brings out the neon sounding electronic pop. I feel that these Australians were the 'creators' of the whole glo-fi/chill wave movement today. The vocals aren't are faded and washed out, and it's not lo-fi in anyway, but the roots are really there, just listen closely. There's a good amount of diversity, Saturdays (reprise) is a short post punk rendition. Twilight is heavily influenced by the early 80's post punk bands as well, where club dance music has it's roots interestingly enough.

My favorite track is Zap Zap. it really is a memorizing danceable retro hit.

Sounds Like

Neon flavored retro dance

Circulatory System - Circulatory System

(8)

This off shoot side project of the Elephant 6 Olivia Tremor Control is a more thoughtful and trippy, less playful and poppy version. This experimental Beatles esque band brings as many strange sounding instruments as possible into the mix without sounding cluttered. They sound a lot like the Beatles with their textured pop melodies and themes. You really notice it right away on the albums opener Yesterday's World that sounds a lot like Strawberry fields mixed with Lucy in the Sky. They do however give something new to this whole scene, there's a good amount of distortion which the Beatles never had and a lot of clever obscure (Oboes and accordions?) instruments as well.

This album will float by like a colorful dream and you wont know where the time went.

I would definitely get this if you're a fan of the Beatles or Elephant 6 (in that case you probably already have it anyway)

Sounds like

A trippyer Beatles

Celebration - The Modern Tribe

(7)

This is a pretty interesting band. I think I like them so much because they use a lot of organ. This three piece band makes wild and frantic post punk of sorts. They lay down swift rifts over tribal inspired percussion and lay that organ over all of that while occasionally adding some horns (Hands Off My Gold) while the singer sounds a lot like Karen O. Highlights are In This Land which is really drifty, Heartbreak and Evergreeen. Like I mentioned before, this is a great album for lovers of the organ.

Sometimes a little hard to follow, but never boring.

Sound Like

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing psychedelic shit

Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals

(10)

I love this album so much. I remember hearing Sunrise and 2080 a few times when the album first came out and not thinking much of it, I couldn't really get into it. Then later that summer I gave the album a full listen all the way though and it instantly became a top 5. It's just that kind of album, taking the full trip makes it just that much better.

There's a lot of soul in it, always a good thing. It starts with the dark Sunrise that shows how well they can work their instruments, and goes into Wait for the Summer which demonstrates how well they can put together a song (halfway though after the conga line it really takes off) and then into 2080 where they clearly prove they can write interesting lyrics and really make it fun to sing along to if you're fast enough.

After those three, the extremely ethnic sounding Germs starts the next movement of the album. Very delicate sounding song, I really like the hand claps over the guitar line right before the chant in the middle of song. Germs is underrated. The short Ah, Weir floats by next as a sort of interlude into the third movement which begins with No Need To Worry which a powerful dreamy sort of song with an awesome guitar solo reminiscent of Neil Young & Crazy Horse shit. Forgiveness picks this up with another ethnic sounding piece, love the ending to that song. Wintertime ends the third movement with my personal favorite. It's sort of the most heady epic Middle Eastern sounding acid sludge rock you've ever heard. Ever. It is sung perfectly.

The final movement is Waves and Worms with are soft and smooth sounding, and the album ends on a good note with the ultra positive Celtic/Indian sounding Red Cave.

I have yet to find an album that makes me as happy as this one does. A Perfect Album.

Sounds Like

Middle Eastern psych snap gospel

Side note. Tightrope which is not on this album.. 10/10

PNAU - PNAU

(8.5)

PNAU is from Australia. They make dance music. Their sound is like an even mix between Cut Copy and MGMT (except a lot better than both of them, especially MGMT, cause they suck) and it's really catchy and really good. That pretty much sums it up. It's just fun music that you need to listen to. Highlights are With You Forever, Come Together, and Embrace.

If you like sparkly glam-rock mixed with electro dance then you'll be at home with PNAU.

Sounds Like

Cut Copy + MGMT

The Almighty Defenders - The Almighty Defenders

(8.5)

The almighty defenders live up to their name. Supposedly created in a week, this sloppy gospel garage rock is some of the best i've heard since King Khan & BBQ Show's latest. If you're a big fan of the Black Lips, you're aware of their mishap in India. Short story is their racy stage antics in India got them kicked out of the county cutting the India tour short, so they fled to Germany where their friends King Khan and Mark Sultan reside. While their week togeather, they created this album.

It sounds exactly how one would imaging an album created by the two groups would sound, except they added in this new gospel theme. The over all sound is sloppy as hell, which give it the authentic vibe. You can't really tell what's being sung in most of the songs, just a lot of intoxicated ramblings and noises. But the songs that are decipherable (Jihad Blues) are really good.

Lots and Lots of soul from this ultimate supergroup. Highly Recommended.

Sounds Like

(King Khan & BBQ Show) - (Doo-wop) + (Black Lips) + (Gospel)

Nigeria Rock Special Psychedelic Afro Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria - Various Artists

(8)

This is a gold mine of vintage fresh sounding classic rock sounds from Nigeria. The melodies are great, the fuzzy guitar give it that classic rock feel, and the ethnic beats of the native percussion gives this sound a something new. There's a lot of sick guitar solos and technical and fancy instrumentation to keep you occupied. A lot of this will sound like Santana, but with a African tint to it. This album definitely has that psychedelic heady shit to it much like the Grateful Dead and the likes.

If you're a classic rock fan and are bored to death of the same old shit, get this album.

Sounds Like

Fuzzy African acid rock

Alex B - Moments

(7.5)

Ahhh Alex B's fantastic tripped out beats. Runner up for Flylo? Probably. This is the LP that is going to throw him into the inevitable spotlight in the coming months. Good glitch hop/downtempo molds a good amount of soul into their sound, and there is plenty of soul on this album.

One of the biggest problems with the average producer is that they just don't have enough form. It's not acid free jazz. There needs to be a certain amount of order. When it's all over the place and random as hell, it's practically ambient and defeats the "beat" aspect, which is what glitch hop is all about.

There is so much new shit happening on this album, progress the sound with Alex B

Qwerty Musique - Mononucléose

(8)

Such an original glitch sound. I don't know much about this French producer, there's not a lot of info on him out there, but this is some great work. It kind of sounds like a progressive Samiyam with more spaced out schizophrenic beats. There track segway smoothly with is always great for this type of music as you don't really know or care where one track ends and the next starts. This will mess with your head.

Yes, the music sounds just like the cover looks

Sound Like

A schizophrenic cross of flylo and samiyam

Dam-Funk - Toeachizown

(6.5)

This unique release surprised the hell out of me. Hailing from the legendary Stones Throw Records, new comer Dam-Funk brings a fresh revival of 80's funk. The sound is sparkly and shimmers of neon colors against black. Lots of deep bass lines, fuzzy synths and decent beats here. It sounds a little like Hudmo without the sharpness.

There's a lot of tracks on the LP, which is a problem because he runs out of steam and new ideas to keep the listener fully interested the entire time, but it's a good album to throw on for background music. He sings like an early Prince too which is a bonus. Not a bad album, looking forward to more from him.

Sounds Like

80's club funk revival

Clark - Growls Garden EP

(6.5)

Clark creates experimental electronic music. Half of his stuff is beat oriented, and half is IDM. The Growls Garden EP is a good example of what he does to create good IDM. This one is a little less noisy than his prior LP release and focuses more on a darker theme. Clark also features a decent amount of vocal samples, which isn't particularly common of him.

The highlight here is the title track. You're going to want to make sure you give this a close listen through headphones. It's dark, windy and eire as hell. It starts out mysterious sounding, you wonder where it's taking you, then halfway though it blows up.

Sounds Like

IDM/techno

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

I came across a leak of Flylo's 3rd about a week ago. It's good, hell it's great. I've been patiently waiting for this for about two years until I could wait no longer. It truly is a "cosmic drama" as Flying Lotus claimed in a recent interview about his intended direction of the album. He stated that this is the album he always wanted to make before he had the means to do so.

Flying Lotus' second album was highly texturized and "metallic" sounding with pounding beats and percussion. This one is more 'organic' so to speak. It's more far out and cosmic/space sounding. There's a lot of instrumentation as well, some harps, bass, orchestra shit...it's more 'beautiful' sounding in general. He still dishes the video game synths though so don't worry about the sound changing too much, it definitely still sounds like Flylo, just a lot more progressive.

I'm not going to give it a rating because the rip thats floating around isn't the best of quality so I can't really judge. But it is great, everything I hoped it would be. It's just hard to judge a electronic album of this complexity without hearing how good the production is. I'll do a follow up once I have the real copy in May

Amanaz - Africa

(7.5)

I was admittedly a huge fan of classic rock back in my middle school days. Hell, it's a great place to start your journey of 'great music', all the legends are from 1950-1984 so it makes sense right?

This is a gem from '75 by a psychedelic band from Africa. It sounds a lot like early Cream, a little fuzzier in everything, guitars.. production.. This album is a great addition for fans of early psychedelic rock. The best part is the variety in the songs, which frankly surprised me. The main reason albums like this fail is because every track sounds the same. Thats not the case here. This was a very pleasant find that brought me back to those old days classic rock in a new fresh way, but still authentically 1975 and not some modern soundalike.

Easy Street is a laid back strut, Khala My Friend is a stellar soul piece, Amanaz shows that these guys can stand up to the likes of Cream.

Sounds Like

Zambian Psych Fuzz