Kevin Hooyman’s vivid and vicious cover for !!!’s third LP, Myth Takes (Warp Records), perfectly captures the uninhibited energy of the band. The cluttered landscape of cavorting animals crammed into a tightly packed throng recalls the ghastly triptychs of Hieronymus Bosch and the detailed scenes of Martin Handford.
RJD2: The Third Hand
Bringing the pop sensibility with which he flirted on 2004’s Since We Last Spoke to the forefront, and seamlessly blending in that same album’s prog-rock flourishes, The Third Hand (XL Recordings) threatens to turn our sharpest DJ/producer into an indispensable pop figurehead.
Big Business: Here Come the Waterworks
Big Business had a big year in 2006. Along with relocating to Los Angeles and recording their newest album, the heavy bass-and-drums twosome also became the newest members of The Melvins.
Aerogramme: My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go
With My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go, Aereogramme eschews the heavy in favor of the expansive. In contrast to their collaboration with Isis (In the Fishtank) the new material launches their mammoth size skyward – with explosive strings, ethereal keyboards, rolling fills, and crashing cymbals.
Antibalas: Security
Antibalas is an American take on Nigerian Afrobeat, one that’s become more refined with each subsequent release. Security (Anti Records), the band’s fourth full-length album, leaves the Afrobeat sound for new territory.
Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective: Watina
For the past decade, producer Ivan Duran from Stonetree Records of Belize has gathered Garifuna artists to create exciting, impeccably produced new music that brims with the same timeless freshness as the finest roots reggae. In the process, Belize’s biggest star, Andy Palacio, abandoned the upbeat but mindless local punta dance music for a mellow yet funky, incantatory sound based on traditional rhythms.
High Priest: Born Identity
Many times in the musical sphere, when different elements from different genres are combined, the result is labeled “experimental.” High Priest is doing something different, and doesn’t try to fit in any specific musical category.
The Glasspack: Dirty Women
Louisville’s The Glasspack wears its Southern heritage like a badge of honor. Tales of barbeques, whiskey, and cars flow through their music like the Mississippi River through the delta valley.
With RIP USA (Chimp Beams: “Menina”
Chimp Beams are a dub trio out of Brooklyn, formed in 2001 by “track maker” Marihito, guitarist K-Go Mizutani, and multi-instrumentalist Yusuke Yamamoto. On Menina, tracks like “Sleep Talking” (featuring Jerome Loston) and “Synthesized” (featuring Roger Kahlon) incorporate hip-hop vocals that justify the comparisons to—and self-professed influence of—Massive Attack.
Rwake: Voices of Omens
Rwake plays the kind of music that makes babies cry. They’re one of the many reasons that there will always be clusters of people across America who believe that metal has the power to turn “normal” kids into blood-thirsty demons.
