Music

The Amber Gatherers (Drag City), the fourth solo record by Scottish folk singer/guitarist Alasdair Roberts , contains many elements from his extensive catalogue of past work. The combination of his honest lyrics and voice is effortless.

Spoken word poetry greets us when we open the doors to Vietnam, the first full-length release by the band with the same name. The music gives off an air of 60s and 70s protest music, which is fitting given the band’s name.

On his third solo LP, True Magic (Geffen), Mos Def returns to rhyming and showcasing some of his soulful crooning. Mos Def makes what he feels and, while that may discourage his early fans, he continues to make socially important music.

The popular saying goes “venture adventure,” as should any footnote that accompanies this beautiful new sound from Ethiopia. It is an adventurous sound that incorporates ethnocentric rhymes, funky horns, lively percussion, and booty-shaking beats.

Who needs southern or ’70s rock credibility when you can grow thick hair on every square inch of your head and face? On the self-titled debut from Buffalo Killers, these mountain men open with a spacey mix of White Album melodies and blues-heavy guitar work. And that’s before the Buffalo Killers figure out what they do really well.

Polemics is a little noisier, a little more avant-garde than 31Knots’ previous album, Talk Like Blood, but it is definitely accessible. “Sedition’s Wish” is the EP’s best song, and with its catchy vocal and guitar melodies, it is sure to please any indie rock fan.

In the hands of the wrong musicians, experiments on ProTools and other home recording software can come out sounding inauthentic and useless, which makes Gojogo a godsend is so many ways; they are a classically trained quartet in the music of several root cultures, including African and Indian, and are passionately devoted to the kinds of sounds that are introduced into musical climates when languages speak to each other.

There was something electric swirling through the Gulf of Mexico in the ’60s and ’70s that bred a twisted psychedelia with some serious stamina; it burrowed in the sticky corners of Houston, Texas and bled inland. Three and four decades after their emergence, Jandek is touring, Roky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators) is out of the mental hospital, and The Red Krayola have carte blanche on Chicago’s incomparable Drag City.

Reminiscent of Blur’s 13, Viva Voce open their third LP, Get Yr Blood Sucked Out, with a subtle groove, exploding first with a resonant bass drum, only to add a semi-audible chant layered upon the slow emergence of a swirling psychedelic guitar riff. Infectious to say the least, it has you hooked after a mere three minutes, nine seconds.

With the name of a poet and the voice of a mountain, William Elliott Whitmore seemed to be bred for folk music. Growing up on a horse farm on the banks of the Mississippi River, it would seem as though the life of this man has culminated itself into a collection of stories that are told over simple banjo or guitar pickings that harkens back to the days of American folk music being played on front porches all across the South.

Few bands excel at toeing the line of an obscure cult institution as well the many incarnations of Wooden Wand. With dozens of unofficial self-released records and a handful of beautifully packaged vinyl, CD, and cassette releases under their belt, this lo-fi folk outfit has found a niche for themselves in a scene that seems to be similar to the underground trading of hand-made packaged noise recordings.