I started keeping a list of random ideas and sounds in the newestKattoo record because by the fourth track, the record was already goingall over the place. I'm a huge fan of sample-based music and thekitchen sink approach to constructing records usuallyworks, but here it plays like a hackneyed collection of obviousinfluences that don't add up to anything greater.

Site-specific ambient and found sound pieces from Staalplaat.

Noisy hip hop, meet glitchy laptop.

Compiling rare 7" and CDR tracks, this compilation is not for the meek. At nearly 80 minutes of shambling, broken guitar riffs and inhuman shrieks, fatigue sets in pretty quick. Taken in small doses, however, it’s the perfect thing to play when something needs to be loud and angry.

Following up 2009's Sever, this double LP follows a similar blueprint to that album, here spread across four long tracks. As a piece of sound art, each of these four pieces sound completely distinct from one another, but unified by Haynes’ simply wonderful use of tactile sonic textures that make his work so brilliant.

Easily their most well-known release, partially in part due to the Steve Albini production and Godflesh/Jesu's Justin Broadrick on drums, Dustbowl lives up to its legendary status, with the band perfecting the murky, hazy sound of LP. It’s rather unfair that the album is recognized just for those two individual's contributions, because the album as a whole is what is truly praise-worthy.

No matter what a person thinks of the music of Current 93, it must be recognized that David Tibet has always been a champion of other visionaries, whether they be in the realm of music, literature, or in the case of Harry Oldfield, science and invention. The "Current 93 present" series is just one example of Tibet’s gift as a curator. In this series of discs (now out-of-print) he brings to light and showcases talents who might not otherwise have received outside their own circles. While some have been more renowned, such as Shirley Collins and Tiny Tim, others like Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, the Venerable 'Chi.med Rig. 'dzin Lama, Rinpoche and Harry Oldfield have received less notice. Oldfield’s work in the development and application of electro-crystal therapy is fascinating, and this musical artifact, created in accordance with his research is a wondrous, mutli-facedted specimen.

Lawrence English's latest release arrived at the perfect time for me, as I am in the throes of both a lengthy fascination with drone and a budding obsession with the New York Review of Book's masterfully curated publishing imprint.  The Peregrine is based on an "elegantly misanthropic" 1967 non-fiction work of the same title in which enigmatic writer/bird-watcher J.A. Baker becomes obsessed by a pair of falcons and stops identifying with humanity.  Befitting an album inspired by birds of prey, Lawrence's aesthetic here is considerably heavier and grittier than his characteristic pastoral ambiance.  In fact, this may be the first "difficult" Lawrence English album, but it is also a pretty stunning one.

This performance was commissioned for 2009's A Thing About Machines festival, an event devoted to the theme "Spaces Speak."  Such a theme is right up Janek's alley, as he has long been interested in the role that architecture plays in the listening experience.  He is also fascinated by the fact that we are constantly immersed in a sea of unnoticed waves and transmissions, so he artfully combined them by transmitting some components of the piece to radios distributed to audience members throughout the concert hall.  In album form, sadly, Janek's clever spatial and acoustic manipulations are unavoidably lost, but Phoenix & Phaedra is still an enjoyably warm and crackling soundscape by one of the world's finest sound artists.

If I have learned one thing from following Barn Owl's career, it is that I will never know exactly what to expect from them.  On this, their second full-length for Thrill Jockey, they return to "rock" mode following the drone-based detour of the excellent Shadowland EP. Happily, Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti have evolved quite a bit in that realm since Ancestral Star, showing much more focus and an increased talent for dual guitar interplay. They sound more uniquely "Barn Owl" now too.  I still prefer their more abstract long-form work, but there are enough inspired passages here to stop me from grumbling much.

Prior to hearing Golden Retriever, the idea of a bass clarinet/modular synthesizer duo would have seemed uniquely terrible to me.  That initial prejudice was not entirely wrong, as Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson can be a rather tough ride during their wilder improvisations, but this 2010 release is pretty spectacular and faultless.  As improbable as such a thing may seem, Golden Retriever have found the magic place where Tangerine Dream, impressionist classical, and free jazz influences can all seamlessly coexist and cohere into something wonderful and new.

Probably known best for Justin Broadrick's short stint as the band’s drummer, Head of David's brief career produced two of the best noise rock albums ever (LP and Dustbowl), two great EPs (Saveana Mixes and White Elephant) and one mediocre at best industrial pop/rock disc (Seed State). They were at their best here, churning out bleak, murky sounds that emphasize riffs, atmosphere, as well as a touch of pure noise.

Mamiffer, the duo of Faith Coloccia and Aaron Turner, have recorded with a slew of artists who work in similarly contrasting fields of noise and music, but this is the first true work with Pacific Northwest neighbor and the world’s loudest school librarian, Daniel Menche. A previous release, "Live" Through Menche featured him reworking Coloccia and Turner's recorded work as a performance, but Crater is the first time they have truly worked together on record. A mix of live instrumentation, processed field recordings, and who knows what (other than the artists), the resulting record is anything but boisterous, explosive noise and instead a careful meditation on both nature and music.

These two recent collaborations featuring Taylor Deupree capture two distinct extremes in his approach to creating music. Perpetual, his collaboration with legendary pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto and the duo of Illuha is a four-piece ensemble using piano, guitar, modular synthesizer, and other conventional instruments to create a delicate, complex and almost living composition. Twine, an in-studio performance with Marcus Fischer is a much simpler affair, with the two manipulating tape loops in real time, recorded live with just room microphones capturing the performance. One may be a larger production and the other an intimate performance, but both are superb documents of Deupree's (and the other performers') sense of small scale, but infinitely detailed and varied music.

This latest album is astonishing even by the high standards I would have held Michael Begg to. Combining the normally distinct worlds of theology and thermodynamics, World Fair is a formidable work that rewards careful listening and engagement with the material. The heavy and daring philosophical musings are lifted by the stunning music created by Begg and his friends (including the return of Deryk Thomas to make Human Greed a duo once more). Altogether, they have made manifest an album of rare power that feels like it has years of epiphanies buried within it.

I have been following Vessel since 2012's Order of Noise album, as Seb Gainsborough always seemed like one of the most consistently compelling and distinctive forces in Bristol’s Livity Sound/Young Echo scene.  Somehow, however, his albums always fell just short of being something I could get truly excited about.  Punish, Honey admittedly continues that trend in some ways, but it is a huge evolution in others, as Gainsborough has largely untangled himself from current underground dance trends and embraced some very unhinged, adventurous, and heavy new textures.

Nearly a decade has passed since Kompakt's Total 3—the zeitgeist-defining compilation that turned me, and scores of longtime fans, onto the Cologne label in its heyday—hit the shelves. Some things never change: the latest entry in the Total series is a reliable-as-always tour through the state of Kompakt circa 2011.

As most listeners turn to low-quality downloads, online streaming, iPod earbuds, and cheap computer speakers, a handful of record labels seem to truly care about the sound quality of their new releases. Kranky is a label that cares, and A Winged Victory for the Sullen, in particular, lives up to its legend. Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O'Halloran recorded the album primarily in Berlin on a couple incredibly fancy, 9-foot grand pianos in large acoustic spaces; added strings and horns; mixed the record in a 17th century villa in Italy; and processed the songs all analogue, straight to magnetic tape. It sounds incredible.

The Hate Rock Trio have resurfaced, following an unthinkable tragedy, to present a new full-length album which will undoubtedly be met with a degree of disagreement amongst listeners. The group, now a duo, has strengthened their sound technique, creating a listening experience undeniably original, challenging, and captivating; however, the absence of the riffs—which were an integral part of Marry Me Tonight—is noticeable and sorely missed.

While many, myself included, tend to think of New York’s Controlled Bleeding based on their harsh noise period in the mid 1980s, they always had a more multifaceted sound, and more recent works, such as Odes to Bubbler, have embraced more of a free jazz influenced rock sound. Paul Lemos and company do that genre quite well on here, though many CB fans may already own the bulk of this record.