adam franklin: spent bullets

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from 1990 to 1998 adam franklin was the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for london-based swervedriver. then from 1999 to 2006 adam recorded and toured as toshack highway, a gentler but no less inventive folky/electronic/film-soundtracky hybrid. in 2007 an album that had started out as the next toshack highway release became the first album to be released under the moniker adam franklin and was titled bolts of melody. In 2008 franklin found time to record the debut album of magnetic morning, his new collaboration with sam fogarino of interpol, and record the second adam franklin release, spent bullets. the new album walks beyond the ground broken on bolts and is a more direct, varied and satisfying album than ever before. in short, some of the most sonicly beautiful songs of franklin's career converge on one disc that aims straight for the heart.

jason lytle: yours truly, the commuter

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ex-grandaddy jason lytle returns with a new collection of songs that are at once a continuation of and elaboration on the musical and lyrical ideas he explored in that band. The title yours truly, the commuter tells it all: songs about the treks we all make, from one state to another, from inner lives to outer, and the tolls those travels take. musically, the dreamy soundscapes mirror the dramatic environment of lytle s newly-adopted montana, where the record was written and recorded, while the twang of central california farmland remains in the inflection and phrasings of the modesto native's unmistakable voice. electronic flourishes collide with acoustic guitars and soulful piano parts, recreating lytle's signature electro-lo-fi atmospheres. he wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, engineered and recorded it.

barzin: notes to an absent lover

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reflecting the highs and lows experienced by the human heart in the aftermath of a break-up, barzin’s third album, notes to an absent lover, balances the introspection of his earlier work with up-tempo orchestral arrangements that provide a richly melodic heartbeat to these glowing confessionals. personal but never indulgent, the raw honesty of the lyrics details universal themes of sorrow, regret and anger, evoking all the vulnerability and shifting emotions of a failed relationship.

jarvis cocker: further complications

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former pulp frontman jarvis cocker release his second solo album, further complications. the follow-up to cocker's 2007 jarvis debut was recorded with producer steve albini at his chicago studio.

crystal antlers: tentacles

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crystal antlers’s debut album, tentacles, on touch and go, is a stomping, slightly irrational monster of prog-metal oddity, noise rock rage, and psych-tinged dicking about. a monster with personal sound conception: bass, organ, two guitars and two drummers.

bardo pond: peri

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in early 2008 during the recorder of batholith album bardo pond had to agonize over the wealth of material that they were sitting on in constructing the ultimate tracklisting: there were too many good songs! the band approached this problem by structuring two sister albums, batholith and peri, each possessing their own musical themes and each fully capable of standing independent from the other. for this reason, peri is every bit as potent as its predecessor. his meticulous sequencing of five tracks provides a classic bardo pond experience.

wooden wand: born bad

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born bad is the product of dark days. it's chock full of songs about betrayal, doubt, disenchantment, despair, touring, nosy music journalists, abandonment, self-abuse and even one song that name-checks james jackson toth’s favorite brand of conditioner. toth concedes that a good deal of the record is not autobiographical per se, the almost comically intimate tunes are certainly more direct and personal than anything he has released during his 12 year recording career.

wooden shjips: dos

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wooden shjips creates psychedelic intensity by combining the insistent rhythms of early 70s german bands with a fearsomely primitive garage sound: hypnotic drone-rock with fuzzed-out guitar and a drum beat that stays the same for minutes and minutes. dos sounds off as the inauguration speech of a group accepting the minimalist psych bop crown that once adorned the likes of neu and loop. if possible, their brand of whipping fuzz hooks have gotten groovier.

current 93: aleph at hallucinatory mountain

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aleph at hallucinatory mountain is the most unique, most unpredictable and most powerful album yet from current 93. david tibet has brought together an amazing and bizarre array of talents from artists as varied as nurse with wounds' steven stapleton and andrew liles, rock god phenomenon andrew w.k., haunting chanteuses and composers baby dee and rickie lee jones, the beautiful hush arbor's keith wood, world famous porn-star sasha grey, pantaleimon's enchanted andria degens, guitar-hero james blackshaw and nyc legend matt sweeney and created an album unlike any other ever.

dominique a: la musique

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the godfather of the nouvelle scene française presents his tenth album. la musique opens the doors for the inlet of fresh air to add some electronic elements, but the songs continue supporting the freshness and dramatic pulse of previous albums.

joan of arc: flowers

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despite being written over the course of a year in four different sessions with four different lineups, the listen reveals the songs on fowers as a more cohesive unit than those on its predecessor album. as the record neared completion, tim knsella and the latest incarnation of jan of ac entered the studio one last time with hardly any songs written and no instruments. instead, the group simply did what felt right, using what was available to all the musicians who had recorded there previously to create a new batch of rmusic after only two days.

years: years

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years is the creation of ohad benchetrit, multiinstrumentist of broken social scene and do make say think. he had created his own instrumental sound: very relaxing and structured in a sublimely non-pop way.

double dagger: more

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double dagger is a three piece based out of baltimore that features nothing more than bass, drums and a voicet. that’s more than enough though to stir up considerably delicious racket and they are almost ready to unleash yet another helping of it here in the next couple weeks through their new label thrill jockey. more is a great lofi loud album and a testament to the power of the overdub with high energy raw sounds.

lotus plaza: the floodlight collective

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deerhunter guitarist lockett pundt presents his first album under the lotus plaza outfit on kranky label. pundt demonstrates an interest in styles beyond the common denominator of ethereal pop and he shows that there’s a lot more going on below the surface of deerhunter’s shoegazing stage sound. he has managed to produce a couple of memorably warm and artfully blurred pop gems, at least it does during its better moments, when it sounds vaguely like if the jesus and mary chain would've sounded if they'd relocated to california with a opiate tone in his music.

blank dogs: under and under

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blank dogs is one-man brooklyn act who's put out tons of music on low-quantity over the last couple of years. his melancholic but jubilant bedroom new wave/punk dance is like joy division vocal lines with the cure's synth and guitar melodies filtered through ancient submerged keyboards and eroded recording equipment. members of crystal stilts and vivian girls have contributed to the release.

the kingsbury manx: ascenseur ouvert

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fifth album from chapel hill band offers a daydream of seemingly idle pleasantries: confidential and casual croon, relaxed and easy rythms and mid-range electric guitar lead.

black moth super rainbow: eating us

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the analog electronics outfit from the magical forests of pittsburgh release their new album produce by dave fridman (mercury rev, flaming lips). 'eating us' is truly wonderful and instead provides more of the same and a few highlights.