In just one more trip around the sun, another swarm of immensely talented but under-recognized musicians has harnessed its collective talents and discharged its creations into the void. This list is but one fraction of those dedicated individuals — admittedly, based mostly in the Western world — who caught our ears with some serious jams.
For us, 2011 was another year of taking in as much as we could and sharing the best with you. Next year, however, will be a homecoming of sorts, a return to rock-‘n’-roll roots. We’ll soon be able to share the projects that we have in store — across multiple mediums — but for now, dig into this rock-focused list of must-own albums.
Presented in chronological order.
Steven Drozd: “Born”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Steven_Drozd_Born.mp3|titles=Steven Drozd: “Born”]A multi-instrumentalist and the third-most-tenured member of The Flaming Lips, Steven Drozd marked his first official solo release early this year with the nearly instrumental accompaniment to the documentary The Heart is a Drum Machine.
The music shares a lot of characteristics with the Flaming Lips of the past dozen years – synthesized grooves, big rock beats, fuzz bass, airy keyboards, and different instrumental flourishes weaving in and out. But listeners are unlikely to confuse the two, and the score succeeds as a standalone album as well as a film accompaniment.
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: “Weight of the Sun”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Trail_of_Dead_Weight_of_the_Sun.mp3|titles=…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: “Weight of the Sun”]There has been no shortage of grand themes and allegories in the canon of Austin post-punk quintet …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. The band’s newest album, however, better matches its ambitious themes with its music, presenting an epic pair of pieces for Tao of the Dead.
The album recalls progressive albums of yore, from the likes of Rush and King Crimson, but channels them into easily digested movements. Stretches of heavy distortion and drum thrashing will appeal to the more metal-minded Trail of Dead fans, but there’s also plenty of hook-laden, radio-ready alternative rock.
Wires Under Tension: “Electricity Turns Them On”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Wires_Under_Tension_ETTO.mp3|titles=Wires Under Tension: “Electricity Turns Them On”]Light Science is the exciting debut from Wires Under Tension, a duo comprised of violinist/multi-instrumentalist Christopher Tignor and drummer Theo Metz. With help from a few friends, including Jared Bell of Lymbyc Systym, the two combine live performance with electronic manipulation, sounding something like a progressive Dirty Three with horns, hip-hop beats, and post-rock guitar swells.
This seven-track release is a dense, fluid collection that retains consistency thanks to Metz’s steady rhythms. Electro-mechanical piano, clavinet, and synthesizers mesh with loops and samples to round out an impressive first release.
Pitom: “Head in the Ground”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Pitom_Head_in_the_Ground.mp3|titles=Pitom: “Head in the Ground”]Combining heavy, fuzzy rock jams with Jewish melodies, Pitom is one of many projects from guitarist, bassist, and composer Yoshie Fruchter. Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes, the quartet’s second release on Tzadik, follows the same path as its predecessor, but it does so with a bit more cohesion and restraint.
Built from the ground up with distorted bass and violin, the band’s music carries similarities to that of Skeletonbreath and Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses. Whether driving a song with an infectious melody, commingling with the violin in the high end, or simply taking over a track with raw ability, Fruchter knows when to go full throttle (the punk power of “An Epic Encounter”) or pull back (the dark slow jam of “A Resentful Repentance”).
The Psychic Paramount: “RW”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The_Psychic_Paramount_RW.mp3|titles=The Psychic Paramount: “RW”]Though relatively silent for the past six years, New York noise-rock trio The Psychic Paramount returned in February to release its first full-length since 2005. Effected guitar loops, devastating low-end grooves, and bashing rhythms again form the core of the band’s sound, but II is a direct yet dynamic rock explosion.
Between the guitar, the cymbals, and the effects, the mid-range gets a constant workout. Those who are turned off by this kind of music may find it to be an exercise in patience, but the lengthier durations are a testament to the trio’s skills at climax and denouement.
DeVotchKa: “100 Other Lovers”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/DeVotchKa-100-Other-Lovers.mp3|titles=DeVotchKa: “100 Other Lovers”]Following the fame from its Oscar-winning soundtrack for Little Miss Sunshine in 2006, Denver multi-instrumental quartet DeVotchKa has playfully tinkered with its sweeping, emotive sound. Though it already tossed together elements of folk, rock, Mexican, and Gypsy music, it remained united by the sullen croons and songwriting of frontman Nick Urata.
That unifying factor remains, but its newest album, 100 Lovers – its second post-Sunshine full-length – continues to expand the band’s scope. The material adds new and often subtle flavors to DeVotchKa’s repertoire. Uninitiated listeners might hear more of the same, but 100 Lovers is perfect for content fans – moving in new directions without a radical departure.
Stateless: “Ariel”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/02-Ariel.mp3|titles=Stateless: “Ariel”]Matilda, Stateless‘ second full-length, showcases the British electro-rock group’s continued maturity. Lead singer Chris James hits an impressive range of notes, from reverb-cloaked backing croons to soulful leads, atop an amalgamated mix of styles, sounds, and beats.
With contributions from The Balanescu Quartet, DJ Shadow, and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), Matilda is stylistically inventive, with familiar worldly touchstones reworked into new contexts.
Grails: “I Led Three Lives”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Grails-I-Led-Three-Lives.mp3|titles=Grails: “I Led Three Lives”]With cinematic soundscapes, Westernized Indian melodies, film-noir mystique, 1960s psychedelia, and crushing heaviness, Grails is an instrumental rarity. The Portland band’s newest offering, Deep Politics, is an engaging and epic mix of acoustic intonations, indigenous sounds and melodies, spaghetti-western motifs, somber piano balladry, and more doom-filled, Eastern-infused stylistic transcendence.
And thanks in part to arrangements by Timba Harris, the mighty violinist from unparalleled genre annihilators Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3, Deep Politics vies to be Grails’ best album yet.
Parts & Labor: “Constant Future”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/constantfuture.mp3|titles=Parts & Labor: “Constant Future”]After establishing itself early last decade as an interesting new name in noise rock, Parts & Labor delivered a flurry of releases over the span of just a few years. Since then, the band has scaled back to a trio built around the fuzzed guitar, bass, keyboard hooks, and tight rock rhythms.
Featuring some of the band’s sturdiest songs yet, Constant Future is direct, potent, and catchy. Behind Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw‘s echoing, harmonized vocals are dirty, thick grooves that power the overlaid electronic freak-outs.
Adebisi Shank: “Micro Machines”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/04-Micromachines.mp3|titles=Adebisi Shank: “Micromachines”]Released to European acclaim in 2010, the aptly titled second album from Irish electro/math rockers Adebisi Shank achieved North American release this year thanks to the peerless Sargent House.
The management company / record label describes the trio as a blend of Fang Island’s shredding riffs with Battles’ electronic quirkiness and rhythmic playfulness. That description isn’t off the mark, but readers won’t get a sense of the band’s real abilities until they hear its hyper-melodic, polyrhythmic, and — most importantly — jubilant songs in full.
Second Album delivers a maelstrom of zany electronics, unusual distortions, and triumphant, rapidly ascending scales mixed with vintage synths, marimba, horns, and other accoutrements. This is all packaged between and around gloriously catchy and powerful rock riffs, resulting in a manic and buoyant sophomore effort.
Trap Them: “The Facts”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Trap_Them_The_Facts.mp3|titles=Trap Them: “The Facts”]Riotous hardcore quintet Trap Them became a full-time endeavor half a decade ago and has been perfecting its sound ever since. For Darker Handcraft, the band continues expanding its grindcore style to present more assailing D-beat rhythms and impossibly heavy sounds. The production, again courtesy of Kurt Ballou, draws understandable parallels to the producer’s main gig in Converge.
But Trap Them’s low tunings, dark chord progressions, and noodling high-string riffs are more responsible for the comparison, even if Trap Them is less about diversity and more about straight-forward fury. Vocalist Ryan McKenney has a crisper but equally brutal delivery, often recalling former Refused front man Dennis Lyxzén. In all, Darker Handcraft is top-notch modern hardcore, meshing punk and metal with equal aplomb.
Maggie Björklund: “The Anchor Song”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Maggie_Bjorklund_The_Anchor_Song.mp3|titles=Maggie Björklund: “The Anchor Song”]In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Danish guitarist Maggie Björklund got her chops playing around Europe in country bands and pop groups. But it wasn’t until she discovered the radiant sounds of the pedal-steel guitar that she packed her bags to learn under a Nashville veteran.
Björklund’s debut solo album, Coming Home, is a charming collection of Southwestern folk tunes, and many of her established relationships with US artists help make it so — including guest spots by Calexico, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), Rachel Flotard (Visqueen), and Jon Auer (The Posies). Coming Home proves itself to be a beautiful debut, from the crooning vocals, western guitar licks, and cello strikes of “Summer Romance” to the dark guitar lines and ghostly, high-octave contrasts of “Insekt.”
Gangpol & Mit: “The 1000 People Band Part 1”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Gangpol__Mit_The_1000_People_Band_part_1.mp3|titles=Gangpol & Mit: “The 1000 People Band Part 1”]French animation/electronic duo Gangpol & Mit makes music for a playful cartoon world. On its newest album, the bizarrely titled The 1000 Softcore Tourist People Club, G&M expands its zany video-game aesthetic with a conglomerate of textured, glimmering Tinkertoy instrumentation.
“The 1000 People Band (Part 1),” one of the album’s first “singles,” demonstrates this Mario Kart-meets-Architecture in Helsinki-meets-The Books musical collage. The rest of the album is a strange and lighthearted romp through airy and electro-classical orchestrations, drum-and-bass distortions, wandering keyboard melodies, and other oddities, using mallets, flute, harpsichord, harp, oboe, and other “standard” sounds alongside the 21st Century additions.
True Widow: “Skull Eyes”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/04-Skull-Eyes.mp3|titles=True Widow: “Skull Eyes”]On its self-titled debut in 2008, True Widow turned heads with its blend of down-tuned shoe-gaze and stoner rock, somehow straddling the line between doom aesthetics and pop sensibilities.
The trio’s second album and first for Kemado, As High as the Highest Heavens…, is a new dose of drawn-out melodies, fuzzy guitars, and hypnotizing harmonies. That last aspect comes equally from guitarist DH Phillips (formerly of Slowdive) and bassist Nicole Estill, whose echoing vocals ensure that you experience the music at a comfortably slow pace.
Jim Guthrie: Sword & Sworcery LP: The Ballad of the Space Babies (4/5/11)
Jim Guthrie: “Dark Flute”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Jim_Guthrie_Dark_Flute.mp3|titles=Jim Guthrie: “Dark Flute”]With a list of accomplishments that includes a solo career, band collaborations, and the co-founding of Three Gut Records, Jim Guthrie is more than a notable name in Toronto’s music scene. He has recorded as part of Islands, Royal City, and Human Highway and has worked with Arcade Fire, but his newest project transcends the realm of reality to explore a magical/digital world.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is a successful cross-platform game / music project for the iPad and iPhone. Guthrie delivered a great score for it, and as of April, the music has been available to purchase on its own.
From the open, The Ballad of the Space Babies is sort of a Legend of Zelda-meets-Goblin blend of space jams. The songs here vary considerably, and as a piece, they flow together nicely, stringing together motifs and constructing moods as it goes. Although it is evocative and unfolds slowly, the music does not feel like it’s “missing” anything, thankfully avoiding the purpose-based monotony that plagues a lot of scores.
Septicflesh: “The Vampire from Nazareth”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Septicflesh-The-Vampire-from-Nazareth.mp3|titles=Septicflesh: “The Vampire from Nazareth”]In 2008, Grecian death-metal quartet Septicflesh made a triumphant hiatus-ending return with Communion, an album that marked a new symphonic direction on the back of guitarist Christos Antoniou‘s classical studies.
The Great Mass is the group’s second post-reunion effort, and it continues this direction with more of Antoniou’s marvelous arrangements. Orchestral and guitar-based hooks lead the way, but there’s plenty of double-kick and blast beats, unearthly growls, and lightning-fast picking. The album also is greatly strengthened by its secondary elements: mid-tempo riffs, Gothic singing, tom-heavy drum pounding, and brooding cinematic motifs.
Death Grips: “Guillotine”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Death-Grips-Exmilitary-2-Guillotine.mp3|titles=Death Grips: “Guillotine”]The enigmatic brainchild of Bay-area producer Flatlander, Sacramento “hardcore hip-hop” group Death Grips turned and confused many heads in 2011.
Featuring the likes of MC Ride, Zach Hill (Hella), Info Warrior, and Mexican Girl, its debut album/mixtape, Exmilitary, consists equally of minimal, industrial-influenced production, recognizable and unconventional samples, and Ride’s death-obsessed shout-raps. The result is a raw intensity unlike anything you’ve heard before.
Xerath: “Unite to Defy”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Xerath_Unite_to_Defy.mp3|titles=Xerath: “Unite to Defy”]In 2009, English symphonic-metal band Xerath delivered an emphatic debut that, according to Wikipedia, intended to “combine film-score composition with syncopated guitar rhythms and crushing metal grooves.”
It’s a spot-on description of an outstanding metal album, but the quartet’s sophomore release, II, is a fuller realization of the band’s potential. Song development, melodic/harmonic interplay, and polyrhythms — each is even stronger than on Xerath’s debut. There are a few intermittent bursts of reverberated clean singing, but none succumbs to cheesy metal trappings. The rest of II is full of Meshuggah-style “djent” intensity, careening single-note guitar riffs, furious drum fills and blast beats, and assailing screams — all joined by eerie symphonic accompaniments.
Liturgy: “Returner”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/03-Returner.mp3|titles=Liturgy: “Returner”]Since its debut full-length in 2009, Brooklyn-based quartet Liturgy has helped to steer black metal into a bold new direction. On Aesthethica, Liturgy comes armed once more with Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s mostly indecipherable howl and quasi-anthemic guitar lines blasted with co-pilot Bernard Gann, both positioned over Greg Fox’s machine-gun drumming and Tyler Dusenbury’s frenetic bass lines.
Aesthethica, however, also can be taxing due to its unconventionality, notably on tracks such as on the seven-minute, one-riff “Generation,” a song that plays with rhythmic dynamics. But with its emphasis on unorthodox instrument application, it gradually becomes apparent that Liturgy, despite its upside-down-cross artwork and full-metal sound, really stands closer to Sonic Youth or The Boredoms than to Black Breath.
Man Man: “Knuckle Down”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Man-Man-Knuckle-Down.mp3|titles=Man Man: “Knuckle Down”]With stronger musical chops and a greater feel for melody and structure, Man Man‘s Rabbit Habits helped to expand the band’s critical reach. Now Man Man, the quirky and peerless pop five-piece, has hit new heights with Life Fantastic.
This new batch is the band’s first recording to feature a professional producer, and it shows. Though the compositions themselves are Man Man’s best to date — punctuated by twisting melodies and off-the-wall lyrics — Life Fantastic gets a boost from string arrangements by Bright Eyes multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott. His resonant accompaniments and pizzicato plucks give the album a new element and infuse it with even more life.
Spindrift: “When I Was Free”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Spindrift_When_I_Was_Free.mp3|titles=Spindrift: “When I Was Free”]Mixing influences from Italian-western composers like Ennio Morricone with elements of psychedelic rock, Spindrift has pioneered its own brand of western music. Its style is manifested through a diversity of sounds, including guitar, organ, pedal steel, flute, autoharp, sitar, tabla, and bass, but its musical résumé is more than mere instruments.
The band’s latest, Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1, is an album of unreleased movie themes and new material that captures its eclectic nature and cinematic tendencies. The twangy, reverberated, psych-effected guitars are a staple in nearly every sonic journey, but with the assorted accents — glockenspiel, Theremin, quasi-Cambodian backing vocals, and even howling wolves — you never feel like you’ve quite been there before.
Other Lives: “For 12”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Other_Lives_For_12.mp3|titles=Other Lives: “For 12”]After releasing one album under the name Kunek in 2006, Oklahoma quintet Other Lives changed names and presented a striking “debut” that landed somewhere between indie folk and chamber pop. Tamer Animals, the group’s sequel on TBD Records, intersperses more moments of instrumental prowess between the verses and choruses, giving the vocals more room to breathe and resulting in elongated intros, outros, and bridges.
The album is replete with vocal harmonies (some evoking classics like The Beatles‘ “Because”), and it’s just as packed with instrumental timbres — quickly twitching and slowly sliding string clusters, tinkling piano flourishes, acoustic guitar strums, western guitar licks, vibraphone accents, woodwind repetitions, and many others.
Nader Sadek: “Petrophilia”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Nader_Sadek_Petrophilia.mp3|titles=Nader Sadek: “Petrophilia”]Born in Egypt and residing in New York, visual artist Nader Sadek has become a leading purveyor of extreme-metal imagery, creating backdrops, videos, installations, masks, and more, often for music-related purposes. Now he has called on many of his metal brethren to help create a collaborative concept album of pummeling death metal with black-metal undertones and brooding interludes.
Credited as a writer and producer, Sadek is the key creative component, but he doesn’t play the music. Instead, that’s left to a super-group trio of vocalist Steve Tucker, guitarist Rune Eriksen, and drummer Florent Mounier as well as a small army of high-profile guests, including Attila Csihar, Travis Ryan, Nick McMaster, Mike Lerner, and others. Musically, In the Flesh is a bombardment of speed picking, dive-bombing guitar leads, blazing double-bass beats, and deathly growls, but it always demonstrates a sense of balance, avoiding the listening fatigue that’s common to the genre.
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: “Two Against One” (f. Jack White)
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Rome_Two_Against_One.mp3|titles=Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: “Two Against One” f. Jack White]After meeting in the mid-2000s, eclectic producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi began work on a new project — part pop collaboration and part homage to the classic Italian film scores of the 1960s and ’70s.
This year, after a number of trips back to Italy and the addition of guest vocalists Jack White and Norah Jones, the project finally was released to anxious ears. Though at least 50% instrumental, Rome falls closer to elaborate pop than Ennio Morricone mimicry, with basic foundations allowing for romantic tinges and sweeping strings to flavor the surroundings. Each track is short and sweet, with none clocking in over three-and-a-half minutes, resulting in a beautiful old-school pop album that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Cave In: “Sing My Loves”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Cave_In_Sing_My_Loves.mp3|titles=Cave In: “Sing My Loves”]When Cave In returned from hiatus with its Planets of Old EP in 2009, it marked a true full-circle moment — from metalcore mastery to pop-rock faltering back to thrashing, effects-driven hardcore. This year, Cave In was back again with White Silence, its first full-length since Perfect Pitch Black, the 2005 transition back to heaviness that featured trance-inducing grooves as well as acoustic balladry care of guitarist/singer Stephen Brodsky.
White Silence is nearly as much a melting pot as Planets of Old. Though tracks such as “Serpeants” lean on bassist Caleb Scofield‘s searing screams and Old Man Gloom-esque riffs, and the final three tracks are built around Brodsky’s singer/songwriter abilities, the members always complement each other in a way that keeps the band treading new ground.
The guitar effects of Brodsky and Adam McGrath are especially crucial, as a celestial or shrieking texture often pairs with the pure riffing. They make as much of an impact on the tracks that Brodsky leads, making his first (“Heartbreaks, Earthquakes”) sound like if John Lennon fronted a psych-sludge band. It’s been a strange trip for Cave In, but White Silence finds the Boston band in a sort of “second prime.”
Amon Tobin: “Lost and Found”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Amon_Tobin_Lost_and_Found.mp3|titles=Amon Tobin: “Lost and Found”]During his 15-year career, DJ and electronic artist Amon Tobin has transitioned from expert sampler and breakbeat artist to field-recording guru and sound designer. ISAM completes this move to synthesized and manipulated original samples, turning otherwise atonal sounds into instruments.
Tobin’s last few albums have been as heavy on ambience and abstraction as on piecemeal beats, and ISAM is no different. Melodies are interwoven into unsettling mixtures of timbre. There are cuts of recognizable instruments, such as guitar or bells, but they’re often just a layer in a greater sea of sound.
Interestingly, ISAM marks the first time that Tobin has recorded his own vocals for an album, and at times they’re manipulated to sound like a woman or a young boy. As one might imagine, they’re rarely used in a traditional manner — except for the weird falsetto harmonies of “Kitty Cat,” which might just foreshadow an Amon Tobin “pop” album.
Battles: “Ice Cream” (f. Matias Aguayo)
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Ice-Cream.mp3|titles=Battles: “Ice Cream”]Shaken up and stripped down, the three members of experimental post-rock outfit Battles spent the better part of the past year reshaping and restructuring a sound that, up until then, included multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and loop guru Tyondai Braxton.
The band’s new record, Gloss Drop, is a shimmering, fascinating detour from Battles’ previous output, soaring with ebullience and sheen. It bounces about on dance-y, frenetic beats and ripples in restorative whirlpools. Lively guitar parts and math-rock riffs fuse with overlapping rhythms. The music retains Battles’ signatory edge and cerebral tone, but the band’s instinctual process has brought about a surprising, new result.
Fucked Up: “The Other Shoe”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Fucked_Up_The_Other_Shoe.mp3|titles=Fucked Up: “The Other Shoe”]The latest from punk sextet / “social experiment” Fucked Up is another unexpected turn in an unpredictable career — an 18-song, 80-minute post-punk epic that tells a four-part narrative. David Comes to Life is far and away the band’s hardiest release to date. It’s a punk-rock marathon that plays into punk’s short attention span but that also demands patience, particularly when piecing together a narrative that shifts perspectives.
Musically, Fucked Up continues to come into its own, albeit with shades of The Who and other beloved practitioners of the rock opera. The band’s triple-guitar attack remains as aggressive and quasi-psychedelic as ever, but the gruff shouts of front-man Damian Abraham here are commonly backed by “real singers” whose softer intonations provide a pleasant contrast. The album’s 18 tracks have a tendency to blend together, but they benefit from their full-throttle delivery.
The Book of Knots: “Microgravity”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/The_Book_of_Knots_Microgravity.mp3|titles=The Book of Knots: “Microgravity”]Garden of Fainting Stars is the third installment in the “By Sea, By Land, By Air” trilogy of The Book of Knots, a collaborative studio project that’s built around the quartet of producer/musician Joel Hamilton, bassist Tony Maimone, drummer Matthias Bossi, and violinist Carla Kihlstedt. As on the previous two albums, the band delivers a dissonant yet melodic mix of pitch-bending, alien effects, and textured, metallic tones, and an all-star stable of guests again helps narrate the album’s tales, this time relating to aeronautics.
Garden of Fainting Stars, however, feels the most cohesive of the three albums, as the core group comes closer to perfecting its brand of disconsolate rock experimentation. The album’s guests, consisting of extended musical family, include Mike Patton, Trey Spruance of Secret Chiefs 3, Mike Watt, Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables. It ends the trilogy in pessimism and mystery — fitting for an album that is self-described as a “wormless, rusty hook into the lifeless seas of the music industry, expecting to reap only sorrow.”
Bosco Delrey: “Baby’s Got a Blue Flame”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Bosco_Delrey_Babys_Got_A_Blue_Flame.mp3|titles=Bosco Delrey: “Baby’s Got a Blue Flame”]Bosco Delrey is one curious cat, one whose debut album is a Jon Spencer-esque roots-rock revival that incorporates strong elements of electronica and psychedelia. Following a pair of seven-inch releases earlier this year, Everybody Wah is that debut, using a plethora of modern sounds, from fuzz bass to drum machines to synthesizers.
“Archebold Ivy” is one of the more genre-blended songs on the album, combining a classically flavored harpsichord melody with dance-fueled synth lines and Delrey’s throwback vocals. That’s immediately followed by “Afterlife,” a soulful yet futuristic faux-string-tinged amalgamation. “Cool Out” borrows some Venetian Snares-style drum and bass over a simple sweeping backdrop, and “Insta Love” follows with a romantic rock-and-roll ballad.
World’s End Girlfriend: “Teenage Ziggy”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Worlds_End_Girlfriend_Teenage_Ziggy.mp3|titles=World’s End Girlfriend: “Teenage Ziggy”]World’s End Girlfriend is the wild, hyper-melodic project of Japanese composer Katsuhiko Maeda, whose vivid arrangements have created a following in his homeland and been used in critically acclaimed films. Originally released last year in Japan, Seven Idiots is his tenth studio album.
The music is a dense, larger-than-life blend of post-rock, classical music, and electronica, and within just the first minute of Seven Idiots, the listener is hit with a beautiful union of Battles-esque guitar lines, funky bass slaps, classical melodies, glitch beats, and squiggly synth lines. As the album progresses, it delves into polyrhythms, improvisation, and other complexities — particularly during the “Bohemian Purgatory” triptych — but a robust sense of melody and an opportunity for head-nodding are almost always at its core.
Helms Alee: “8/16”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Helms_Alee_8_16.mp3|titles=Helms Alee: “8/16”]With its 2008 debut album, Seattle trio Helms Alee forged a sound all its own — part metal, part post-punk, part melody-driven rock, and all abandon. As a trio, the band’s personal contributions to its sophomore effort, Weatherhead, are easier to discern: the driving, effected guitar and guttural screams of Ben Verellen, the distorted low end and breathy, light-weight vocals of bassist Dana James, and the steady, pounding aggression of Hozoji Matheson-Margullis.
On top of alternately punishing and pulchritudinous riffage, Verellen and James again are paired for vocal harmonies. But this time around, they’re joined by the assertive vocals of Matheson-Margullis. James, however, takes the lead at other points, and she frequently harmonizes with Verellen’s clean vocals to produce some of the album’s most hypnotic tracks. The egalitarianism of the vocals is nearly matched by the diversity of the music — albeit music that nearly always rocks.
Sole & The Skyrider Band: “Hello, Cruel World”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Sole__the_Skyrider_Band_Hello_Cruel_World.mp3|titles=Sole & The Skyrider Band: “Hello, Cruel World”]As one of the co-founders of the Anticon rap collective, Tim Holland (better known as Sole) has spent his career pushing the boundaries of alternative hip hop. Hello, Cruel World is his third album with The Skyrider Band, and it’s another reinvention.
Skyrider, which has been the force behind Sole’s sonic development over the past few years, now sets a surprisingly mainstream and orchestral backdrop for Holland’s rhymes, which have slowed and become more decipherable — but no less potent in criticism. Holland wanted Hello, Cruel World to sound more like a “big rap album,” and it accomplishes the feat with club beats, vocoder-inspired choruses, and a posse of collaborators (Sage Francis, Xiu Xiu, Lil B, and many more). But the musical backdrop also is more cerebral and beautiful, thanks in part to the talents of band member and film-score composer William Ryan Fritch (a.k.a. Vieo Abiungo).
Mister Heavenly: “Bronx Sniper”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Mister_Heavenly_Bronx_Sniper.mp3|titles=Mister Heavenly: “Bronx Sniper”]Formed in 2010 with far less pageantry than the would-be “big three” of the Miami Heat, the Mister Heavenly super-group is its own high-powered triumvirate, comprised of Nick Thorburn (Islands, The Unicorns), Ryan Kattner (Man Man), and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, The Shins).
The first 25 seconds of the trio’s debut album, Out of Love, feints left with a strummed guitar and brittle vocals — territory where Thorburn has made his name — and then cracks wide open with pure rock-‘n’-roll swagger. With the two songwriters, Thorburn and Kattner, carrying on an exchange of verses and riffs, one expects a certain amount of fragmentation. Instead, the dual vocalists complement each other in surprising ways — a result likely due to the rather unlikely influence of doo-wop.
An ear for nostalgia and a strict set of ground rules keeps Out of Love from developing a split personality. Of course, it’s not doo-wop; it’s “doom-wop,” according to the band. Thorburn can sing a mean hook, and sticky melodies seem to come effortlessly, but it’s Kattner (known for his guttural vocals and manic, face-painted antics) and Plummer who bring the edge and keep things unpredictable.
Retox: “30 Cents Shy of a Quarter”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Retox-30-cents-shy-of-a-quarter.mp3|titles=Retox: “30 Cents Shy of a Quarter”]Featuring Justin Pearson and Gabe Serbian of The Locust and Holy Molar, Michael Crain of Kill the Capulets and The Festival of Dead Deer, and solo artist Thor Dickey, Retox has roots in some of the most challenging bands to come out of West Coast DIY punk and hardcore over the past few decades.
On this debut LP, 11 furious and fast-paced tracks blaze past in just 13 minutes. It’s noisy and angry but has plenty of riff hooks, balancing speed and intricacy with easily digestible melodies over Serbian’s plentiful fills. According to the band, its existence is owed, in part, to stagnant counterculture, and that’s apparent on suggestively titled tracks such as “Boredom is Counter-Revolutionary.”
Flash Bang Grenada: “In a Perfect World” (f. Open Mike Eagle)
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Flash_Bang_Grenada_In_a_Perfect_World.mp3|titles=Flash Bang Grenada: “In a Perfect World”]Indie rappers Busdriver and NoCanDo have reputations for being wordy, nerdy, and bitingly sarcastic. For Flash Bang Grenada, the two have joined forces to make nerd rap gone dirty. With their first full-length together, the two have taken to toppling the mainstream rap game by fighting fire with fire. Amid frequent drops of “bitch” and “ho,” there’s plenty of moisturizer-based raunchiness and sarcastic misogyny — but also songs about teleportation and hyperbole as well as slams at Lockheed Martin, John Boehner, and the Tea Party.
Indeed, the clever lyrics are much more than gratuitous mockery. But even though Busdriver and NoCanDo both carry their mantles as masters of wordplay, the album also fields a bevy of other key contributions, including great production from Mexicans with Guns, Nosaj Thing, Free the Robots, Shlohmo, Busdriver, and more for heavily synthesized, beat-banging hip hop.
Hella: “Headless”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Hella_Headless.mp3|titles=Hella: “Headless”]In 2002, a wild math-rock duo named Hella released a much-ballyhooed debut that sounded impossible to perform with just two members. From there, guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer Zach Hill expanded their sound (and level of complexity) with synthesizers and additional members.
Now, following a few years off to pursue other projects, Seim and Hill are back as Hella’s core, releasing their first album based around guitar and drums since Hold Your Horse Is, that 2002 debut. It’s a welcome return to original form, one that is both “accessible” and melodic despite being highly technical.
Chthonic: “Takao”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Chthonic_Takao.mp3|titles=Chthonic: “Takao”]Formed in Taipei in 1997, Chthonic (pronounced “thonic”) plays symphonic black metal rooted in traditional Taiwanese music and folklore. Takasago Army is Chthonic’s sixth full-length album and is a concept piece about aboriginal Taiwanese tribesmen who volunteered in the Imperial Japanese Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Musically, it splashes elements of black, thrash, power, and melodic death metal with the emotional cries of the erhu and Freddy Lim‘s piercing shrieks and guttural screams. The symphonic moments are strategically placed, showing themselves for dramatic effect and melodic accompaniment; the result is an alternately war-like and pensive atmosphere.
KILLL: “194”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/KILLL_194.mp3|titles=KILLL: “194”]Comprised of members of JR Ewing, Jaga Jazzist, and Altaar — and including visual/sound artist Are Mokkelbost — Oslo’s KILLL is a live-only band that collides mechanical yet fervid noise metal with insane strobe and LED visuals. During concerts, Kyrre Karlsen, the band’s de-facto lighting technician, sets off an intense series of colors that are in perfect time with the music, creating a pulsating illusion of movement against the backdrop.
The video footage that was captured for this DVD is unable to recreate the optical phenomenon, so the music videos therein are collages of hyperactive video cuts, built in large part from third-party sources (audience members, show organizers, etc.). Witnessing KILLL’s live show is the only true way to experience the band, but if you can’t get to Scandinavia anytime soon, grab this dual CD/DVD release — and brace yourself.
Mastodon: “Curl of the Burl”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Mastodon_Curl_of_the_Burl.mp3|titles=Mastodon: “Curl of the Burl”]Since forming in 1999, Mastodon‘s crushing, complex brand of melodic sludge has absorbed elements of thrash, prog, and Southern rock, all complemented by earthen mythology, literary ambition, and serious chops.
On The Hunter, vocal melodies are at an all-time high, with genuine pop catchy-ness that, at times, approaches the intonations of Alice in Chains. But grizzly screams and up-tempo sludge riffs have not gone the way of the band’s namesake. A few spacey and horror-esque elements, musically and lyrically, give the album an interesting wrinkle here and there. In all, The Hunter is a fun, riff-filled album, but it’s destined to alienate more Mastodon “purists.” The bottom line, however, is that the band continues to crank out killer riffs and turn on a new generation to metal — even if it has a softer edge.
Boom Bip: “All Hands”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Boom_Bip_All_Hands.mp3|titles=Boom Bip: “All Hands”]Ever since his loop-based beginnings, Bryan Charles Hollan — known better as experimental hip-hop artist Boom Bip — has been on the search for his optimal live-band incarnation. With his latest, Zig Zaj, he seems to have found it. Now Hollan is armed with a permanent live band, and their chemistry is immediately evident on this album.
Partly because of the several guests, the new material takes a poppier and more rock-driven direction. But there’s still plenty of the old Bip underneath, as synths and electronics commingle with the bass grooves and delicate acoustic riffs. It’s a catchy, beautiful, and well-balanced blend, perfect for first-time Bip listeners.
Zechs Marquise: “Static Lovers”
El Paso-based psych-prog five-piece Zechs Marquise is three-fifths Rodriguez Lopez, a surname that gained music-industry notoriety from Omar, the prolific Mars Volta guitarist.
Though its official debut album, the 2009 effort Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare, was a much more experimental and atmospheric work, Getting Paid fully focuses on the groove. Each of the album’s nine tracks moves at its own pace, venturing into an alternate sonic universe at a moment’s notice. Abrupt tempo shifts, an inexhaustible junk drawer of textures, and a healthy obsession with ’70s prog fusion culminate in a truly shape-shifting record, albeit one that consistently rocks. Zechs Marquise knows when to give into its sweaty, twisted vision-quest dalliances and when to let a groove ride.
Craig Wedren: “Are We”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Craig_Wedren_Are_We.mp3|titles=Craig Wedren: “Are We”]In the early and mid-’90s, impressionable alt-rock listeners were introduced to the quirky guitar hooks and breathy, fiercely belted falsettos of Shudder to Think front-man Craig Wedren. Since then, Wedren has spent a lot of time writing themes for film and television, and he released a pair of solo albums (one entirely of ambient tracks) in the 2000s. Wand is “official” followup to the 2005 album Lapland.
Over the course of this forward-thinking album, Wedren really shines by experimenting with structure within a pop context. If his vocals and idiosyncrasies didn’t tie everything together, each track might sound like a different band, and there are all sorts of guitar intonations to go with bleating and ambient synths, fuzz bass, and murmuring classical guitar. In all, Wand is a hearty dose of “dream post-punk,” with a healthy dose of pop surrealism and sneaky depth.
DJ Shadow: “Warning Call” (f. Tom Vek)
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DJ_Shadow_Warning_Call.mp3|titles=DJ Shadow: “Warning Call”]After a lengthy layoff, DJ Shadow is back with The Less You Know, the Better, an album that will better resonate with his original fan base than The Outsider from five years ago. The club sounds that caused the consternation are gone, which should allow listeners to appreciate the producer’s breadth without distractions.
Diversity is on display from the album’s first handful of tracks. “Border Crossing” mixes sampled rock riffs with skittering beats; “Stay the Course” is a funky hip-hop track with guest MCs Talib Kweli and Posdnuos; “I’ve Been Trying” layers vocal samples over acoustic guitar, gooey electronics, marching snare, lap-steel guitar, and flute. Not far behind are the rock-hop hybrid “Warning Call,” featuring Tom Vek, and “Sad and Lonely,” a melancholy piano and violin ballad that also makes compelling use of sampled vocals.
Mayer Hawthorne: “A Long Time”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/02-A-Long-Time-mastered.mp3|titles=Mayer Hawthorne: “A Long Time”]As the soul revival sound goes, Mayer Hawthorne is in a league of singers who strike the proper balance between old school and new school. Yes, the singer’s act takes greatest influence from the early Northern soul era, but there’s more to Hawthorne’s music than a game of name-that-classic-45.
For this sophomore effort, Hawthorne reaches deeper into the late-’60s, early-’70s reference bag to make a no-frills record packed with tolerantly addictive soul hooks. How Do You Do? covers a lot of ground and shows some new sides to Hawthorne’s musical palette with cleaner and more robust production and instrument arrangements. Whether or not his jump to Universal Republic from Stones Throw has anything to do with it is arguable, but Hawthorne finds a way to use time-honored soul maxims to forge an individual sound.
Dub Trio: “Control Issues Controlling Your Mind”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Dub_Trio_Control_Issues_Controlling_Your_Mind.mp3|titles=Dub Trio: “Control Issues Controlling Your Mind”]When dub-rock powerhouse Dub Trio last released a full album at the start of 2008, it marked a significantly heavier direction, with chugging hardcore and sludge-metal tendencies creeping into its unparalleled blend of grooves and riffs. The trio’s newest, IV, continues that trajectory, committing the group first and foremost to metal.
Dub remains a key factor, albeit more subtly. Few tracks bear the mark of modern reggae or dub music, but individual instruments are tweaked at key moments. “Ends Justify the Means” is the band’s first venture into the wobbly bass sounds of dubstep, but palm-muted and manipulated guitar stabs make it entirely new. And “1:1.:618” is an experiment in prepared piano and improvised effects, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of this inimitable outfit.
Russian Circles: “Mlàdek”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Russian_Circles_Mlàdek.mp3|titles=Russian Circles: “Mlàdek”]In 2009, instrumental rock trio Russian Circles released Geneva, an album that both introduced the worming bass lines of Brian Cook (of These Arms are Snakes) and showcased the band’s balance of metallic fury and melodic beauty. Complementary strings and horns also dotted the sonic landscape, creating a superlative post-metal opus.
Empros cuts away the complementary pieces of Geneva, instead focusing on the trio’s interplay. Cook has further ingrained himself in the Russian Circles sound, allowing the galloping rhythm section just as frequently to play the lead as Mike Sullivan’s effects-heavy, overdubbed guitars. And the usual ear for dynamics is present once more, building moments of tension and release to go with the killer riffs.
Tom Waits: “Bad as Me”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Tom_Waits_Bad_as_Me.mp3|titles=Tom Waits: “Bad as Me”]Few musicians are as cloaked in mythology as Tom Waits. His music is both comforting and jarring, pushing boundaries while always honoring the legacy of American songwriting. Bad As Me, Waits’ first studio album in seven years, is all of these things. The songs oscillate between manic and maudlin, flip-flopping throughout the entire album. Where a Depression-era blues tune ends, a ballad begins.
There are multiple references throughout, the most obvious of which is when Waits calls out Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on “Satisfied.” The punch line of the joke is that Richards is playing guitar on the track. And he’s not the album’s only superstar. Flea plays bass; so does Les Claypool. Marc Ribot, who’s played with Waits since 1985, lends his Latin-infused guitar licks to just about every tune. And Waits’ son, Casey, plays drums, emerging here as a versatile musician in his own right.
Animals as Leaders: “Odessa”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Animals_as_Leaders_Odessa.mp3|titles=Animals as Leaders: “Odessa”]Begun as a solo project that highlighted guitarist Tosin Abasi’s unmistakable shredding, Animals as Leaders released its debut album in 2009, emitting progressive-metal instrumentals with tasteful ambient, electronic, and jazz undertones. Now a trio, Animals as Leaders has returned with Weightless, its first recording as an official band.
The album features more hyper-prolific finger-tapping on eight-string guitars, the instrument of choice for Abasi’s meticulously crafted material. Electronica intros and bridges play a large role, but Weightless — ironically — often is very, very heavy, more so than its predecessor, trudging into sludge territory for spells. Despite the insane technicality, there’s always an emphasis on melody and head-banging rhythms, but the music — endorsed by shred virtuoso Steve Vai — is just as suitable for those with short attention spans.
Doomtree: “The Grand Experiment”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Doomtree_The_Grand_Experiment.mp3|titles=Doomtree: “The Grand Experiment”]Moving from a high-school clique to a crew and record label was a natural transition for the Minneapolis-based Doomtree collective. The label’s foundation was built on the wings of impassioned, down-to-earth MCs P.O.S and Sims, hybrid rapper/songstress Dessa, multifaceted instrumentalist Paper Tiger, and nostalgic storyteller Cecil Otter, but the seven-member collective soon demonstrated its cohesiveness as a group.
No Kings is Doomtree’s third studio album, and though it maintains a playful demeanor, it’s the most diverse and mature of the three. From track to track, the different flavors and personalities of each member come through in their own ways. “Bolt Cutter,” the album’s second single, features four MCs and a spate of production values, shifting from a minimalist tom beat and bass line to electro-hop synths to piano and acoustic-guitar melodies — before it all layers together and adds a deep electronic groove.
But no matter its style, the production is on point. And more importantly, No Kings maintains the balance that makes such a large collaboration work, both as a group and as a business.
Honorable Mentions
Beep: City of the Future (Third Culture, 1/18/11)
Braids: Native Speaker (Kanine, 1/18/11)
John Vanderslice with the Magik*Magik Orchestra: White Wilderness (Dead Oceans, 1/25/11)
Talib Kweli: Gutter Rainbows (Javotti Media / 3D / Talibra, 1/25/11)
Bruce Lamont: Feral Songs for the Epic Decline (At A Loss, 1/25/11)
Manuscripts Don’t Burn: The Breathing House (Aural Music, 2/8/11)
DC the MIDI Alien: Avengers Airwaves (Brick, 2/15/11)
Colin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation, 2/22/11)
Earth: Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 (Southern Lord, 2/22/11)
Julianna Barwick: The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty, 2/22/11)
Mamiffer: Mare Decendrii (SIGE, 3/15/11)
The Dead Kenny Gs: Operation Long Leash (Royal Potato Family, 3/15/11)
Pharoahe Monch: We Are Renegades (3/22/11)
Todd Reynolds: Outerborough (Innova, 3/29/11)
GDP: Useless Eaters (Run for Cover, 3/29/11)
Wagon Christ: Toomorrow (Ninja Tune, 3/29/11)
The Kills: Blood Pressures (Domino, 4/5/11)
Young Widows: In and Out of Youth and Lightness (Temporary Residence, 4/12/11)
Garage á Trois: Always Be Happy but Stay Evil (Royal Potato Family, 4/12/11)
Atmosphere: The Family Sign (Rhymesayers, 4/12/11)
A Lull: Confetti (Mush, 4/12/11)
Arkan: Salam (Season of Mist, 4/19/11)
Lanu: Her 12 Faces (Tru Thoughts, 4/19/11)
Son Lux: We Are Rising (Anticon, 4/26/11)
Graviton: Massless (Translation Loss, 4/26/11)
Grand Pianoramax: Smooth Danger (Obliqsound, 5/3/11)
Nervecell: Psychogenesis (Lifeforce, 5/3/11)
Dead Rider: The Raw Dents (Tizona, 5/3/11)
Austra: Feel it Break (Domino, 5/17/11)
13 & God: Own Your Ghost (Anticon, 5/17/11)
Starlicker: Double Demon (Delmark, 5/17/11)
Ash Black Bufflo: Andasol (Knitting Factory, 5/23/11)
Shabazz Palaces: Black Up (Sub Pop, 5/31/11)
Hail Mary Mallon: Are You Gonna Eat That? (Rhymesayers, 6/7/11)
Esmerine: La Lechuza (Constellation, 6/7/11)
Marissa Nadler: s/t (Box of Cedar, 6/14/11)
Erik Friedlander: Bonebridge (SkipStone, 6/14/11)
Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Beileid (Ipecac, 6/28/11)
Ancestors: Invisible White EP (Tee Pee, 6/28/11)
Brian Eno and the words of Rick Holland: Drums Between the Bells (Warp, 7/5/11)
Earth Crisis: Neutralize the Threat (Century Media, 7/12/11)
William Elliot Whitmore: Field Songs (Anti-, 7/12/11)
Decapitated: Carnival is Forever (Nuclear Blast, 7/12/11)
Serengeti: Family and Friends (Anticon, 7/19/11)
Prurient: Bermuda Drain (Hydra Head, 7/19/11)
Big Business: Quadruple Single EP (Gold Metal, 7/26/11)
Noxious Foxes: Légs (Broth IRA, 7/26/11)
Mariachi El Bronx: II (ATO, 8/2/11)
MoHa!: Meiningslaust Oppgulp (Rune Grammofon, 8/16/11)
NewVillager: s/t (IAMSOUND / Columbia, 8/16/11)
Gojogo: 28,000 Days (Porto Franco, 8/16/11)
Active Child: You Are All I See (Vagrant, 8/23/11)
Yawn: Open Season (FeelTrip/Englophile, 8/30/11)
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Race Riot Suite (Kinnara Records / Royal Potato Family, 8/30/11)
Vieo Abiungo: And the World is Still Yawning (Lost Tribe Sound, 8/30/11)
Arkona: Slovo (Napalm, 9/6/11)
The Chemical Brothers: Hanna OST (Relativity Music Group, 9/6/11)
The Dirt Daubers: Wake Up, Sinners! (Colonel Knowledge / Thirty Tigers, 9/13/11)
Welder: Florescence (Ancestor, 9/27/11)
Björk: Biophilia (Nonesuch, 10/11/11)
Sandro Perri: Impossible Spaces (Constellation, 10/18/11)
Darkness Falls: Alive in Us (HFN Music / Fake Diamond Records, 10/24/11)
Kid Koala: Space Cadet graphic novel and soundtrack (Ninja Tune, 10/25/11)
Mr. Gnome: Madness In Miniature (El Marko, 10/25/11)
Mike Patton: Music From The Film and Inspired By the Book The Solitude of Prime Numbers (La Solitudine Dei Numeri Primi) (Ipecac, 11/1/11)
Krisiun: The Great Execution (Century Media, 11/1/11)
Ralfe Band: Bunny and the Bull soundtrack (Warp Films / Ghost Ship, 11/8/11)
And So I Watch You from Afar: Gangs (Sargent House / Richter Collective, 11/8/11)
David Lynch: Crazy Clown Time (Sunday Best / PIAS, 11/8/11)
Loka: Passing Place (Ninja Tune, 12/6/11)