Also from Germany,through Thrill Jockey in the USA comes this comp of beautiful purelyartificial electronic ear candy - none of which is minimal nor poses asanything else.

Back to Germany for another beat filled electronic collection.

Without the hype, this one CD/13 song collection assembles some wonderful examples of challenging electronic pieces.

Mille Plateaux has definitely mistaken minimalism for boring drawn out mindless electronica babble.

While watching The The perform on Friday night, various thoughts swimming about in my head came together and trends became more clearly understood.

They're really not playing completely random notes, right?

While the former singerof Helium gets the top billing on this record, the talented productionand playing from a young miss Christina Files (of Boston's Victory atSea) shouldn't go unrecognized.

What was allegedly recorded in a barn outside of Staffordshire UK might possibly be the summer record of 2000.

Louisville native, TaraJane O'Neil, formerly of Rodan, Retsin and The Sonora Pine has recentlyreleased her own album on Quarterstick.

Following up on Sigur Rós, I went to their website, dug up some history and purchased their back catalogue.

If you don't want reviewers to reminisce about the good old days of your band, then don't put out inferior crapola.

If you're lucky enough to catch Dirty Three in concert, you'll want to walk away with this gem.

This anti-drum n' bass, post-post-industrial product from Speedy J could be the loudest item on the noise scale this week.

This three-track/35-minute CD creeps along somewhere between stylish jazz and electronic noise.

Porn has found itself a new Pied Piper!

Rachel's gets its music spiked on this two piece extended play single. The unlikely contraband comes courtesy of San Francisco's Matmos. The Louisville-based Rachel's troupe often recruits old friends for new projects. But it seems that Rachel's merely sent tapes to Matmos' master manipulators Martin and Drew rather than convening in truly collaborative-collective fashion.

Martin Gretschmann, knobtwiddler for the Notwist and Tied & Tickled Trio part-timer, servesup a somewhat greasy yet tasty serving of '80s-lovin' retro-synthpop onhis second Console full-lengther.

Strings and acousticguitars set the opening for this charming release from the secondLouisville-based collective featured this week.

Okay, so the film's now 2 years old, but it's French and you most likely missed it anyhow.

Fat Cat in the UK bring the charming and dreamy shoe gaze o'licious Sigur Ros into more homes with the release of these two EPs.