Primarily the duo of Heather Young and Noah Anthony—though others have been dragged in along the way—Social Junk uses pounding beats and minimal synth to concoct some of the most pummeling pop this side of the sun. With drenched vocals and spare but wisely utilized parts the duo draw on tactics as far reaching as industrial, post-punk and Krautrock in their rugged and broken songcraft. This, their most recent sonic tastament, reaches even further into their warped world.

Carelessness, especially the calculated variety, has become a default pose for the indie rocker of today. The music of Dustin Wong radiates the same casual sensibility, but that comes from his art rather than his manners. His first solo album, Seasons, is lazy, lighthearted, and scatterbrained, but Wong's musicianship welds its disparate elements into a unified piece of art.

The passing of bassist Evan Farrell was enough to make Jason Molina think about breaking up the band, according to some recent interviews. Instead, Molina turned to his guitar and ended up writing what might be the best Magnolia Electric Co. record since the group's 2003 debut. Josephine finds the band looking forwards and backwards, breaking new ground and mining old territory and creating something strangely seductive in the process.

This marks an enormous progression from the Cremations compilation released earlier this year: there are no sound experiments or atmospheric interludes here, just killer noise-ravaged synthpop. Cold Cave's proper full-length debut (on Wes Eisold's own Heartworm Press) was well worth the wait.  Also, it is amusing to note that some of the most memorable and danceable indie pop songs of the year involve Dominick Fernow of Prurient.

While no one would ever call them a "singles" band, Loop certainly did put a great deal of great tracks on 7" and 12" singles and such that never made it to their albums, except as bonus tracks on hasty CD reissues.  This was originally a single disc compilation from the late 1980s of mostly Heaven’s End era singles and b-sides, but this new reissue adds in everything from the more obscure Eternal album (Fade Out era tracks), as well as a smattering of latter period singles and other unreleased tracks into a three disc compilation that serves as good of an introduction to the band as any.

As their third and final studio album, Loop had mostly excised the 1960s Technicolor psychedelia that had defined their debut, Heaven’s End, leaving only a molten orange lava of layered space rock that was entirely all their own.  Like the first two albums, here it is presented remastered and with a bonus disc of outtakes and demos from the era.  Even nearly 20 years after its initial issue, the mix of tight structures and improvisation, all pegged out at 11, can give any modern “loud” band a run for their money.

Although recorded at the point of the group’s disbanding in 2001, this album (remixed last year) is publically released to coincide with a reunion of the band.  Here aided and abetted by members of Providence’s own Landed, the band that defined Load Records’ sound continues to do so through their own brand of sonic scum.

The latest release in LTM’s Auteur Labels series makes the odd curatorial choice of focusing on just one year in the life of Factory Records and 1984 is undeniably a rather unexpected year to pick- Martin Hannett was gone, the Haςienda (FAC-51) was not yet wildly popular and was still hemorrhaging money, and most of the label’s major bands did not record anything of consequence.  Nevertheless, the gamble decisively pays off, as the rarities and obscurities compiled here showcase the freewheeling brilliance, eccentricity, and absurdity of the Factory milieu far more strikingly than any “greatest hits” compilation ever could have.

This carefully arranged and whisper-quiet record on Sedimental squeezes the time right out of life. Kyle Dunn's slow orchestral pieces emphasize tiny movements and utilize subdued instrumentation as a means of stopping the clock and highlighting minuscule developments. The result is a beautiful and flawed record, one that shares a lot with early Stars of the Lid records, but Fragments & Compositions of... is absolutely bare-bones with little dressing and no pretense.

A strange voyeristic look into the world of electro-acoustic music, this album is composed of a single 40 minute composition. It lacks some important qualities, but has some interesting moments, nonetheless.  Dogs in English Porcelain mixes instruments with animal sounds to create a flow of sound-energy which ultimately does little to entertain due to its emphasis on aesthetics rather than substance.

A 47-minute elegy to his daughter, who passed away two years before work began on the record, this disc offers a slow and meditative take on electronic composition. Combining field recordings with metallic vibrations, static hum and pure noise elements, Kahn is able to do a lot with what appears to be very little, conducting his own orchestra of sound in a piece whose emotional impact is garnered from its barren makeup.

I can't tell if Aidan Baker is releasing old material and calling it new or producing muddy sounding music on purpose. Much of Gathering Blue has a basement tapes quality to it, but the reissued material that composes the second LP of this two-LP set is mostly stunning, as is the packaging that accompanies it. Baker might be in need of some quality control when it comes to his latest work, but his back catalog continues to impress me.

The unfortunate victim of a knife attack three months before the release of this album, Wolfgang Riechmann's credentials extend far beyond this, his only solo record, which is finally getting the reissue treatment. An early collaborator with Neu!'s Michael Rother and Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Fluhr, Riechmann introduced himself as an individual voice within the broad boundaries of '70s German electronic music with a focused minimalism and clear pop sensibility.

After listening to the last few Jack Rose records religiously, it's something of a shock to hear vocals on a Rose-related record. But that's just what you get as this self-titled disc starts up: a cover of "Little Sadie" rambling and swinging hard like the rock 'n' roll cornerstone it is. Colored with shades of bluegrass, blues, and country music, this self-titled record takes American roots music and strips it until all that's left is its energy and attitude.

It's no secret that Jandek is the oxymoronic title holder for most prominent musical recluse. With over 18 albums to his name in about 30 years of work, the musician has been as prolific as he has hidden. Only recently did he reveal himself to live audiences, beginning a welcome tour schedule that nevertheless has done little to diminish the mysteries buried beneath a quarter century under wraps. This, a reissue of his second album from 1981, presents for the first time since its initial pressing a vinyl copy of the album, which finds Jandek further refining his distinctly unrefined take on blues drift.

While the previously released (and reviewed) Perfectly Flawed disc demonstrated the variety of sounds that can be generated using only an Autoharp, here the Sutcliffe Jugend/Inertia (and former Bodychoke) member takes the approach to an almost Quixotic level:  17 full length discs using only the same instrument, recorded in a limited number of sessions.  While some near 17 hours of autoharp music may sound daunting, Tomkins takes enough variation in his approach, both physically and conceptually, to deliver a vastly different array of sounds.

Mostly the solo project of guitarist Michael Bjella, this dark and violent (yet somehow atmospheric and ambient) album drunkenly stammers across genre lines in its three long tracks, combining drone, black metal, ambience, and raw noise that, while not necessarily novel in its approach, does wonderful things in its actual execution.

While unlikely to be as earth-shaking as the creative partnership of Brian Eno and the Talking Heads, the second union between these Brisbane indie rockers and electronic composer Lawrence English has nevertheless yielded some memorable and subtly warped pop gems.  Fans of their excellent 2008 debut (even Brainwashed loved it) may miss the presence of departed vocalist/songwriter Meredith McHugh though.

One of the goals of Buddhism is the obliteration of the intellectual construct of ego.  For or better or worse, Greg Davis has musically achieved that with Mutually Arising: the entity that once was once Greg Davis is now merely a vessel through which minimalist drone passes.  I, for one, will miss him.

Kreng is Belgian sound sculptor Pepijn Caudron, who is best known for providing music for the oft perverse, ritualistic, and unsettling work of the Abattoir Fermé theater company.  Appropriately, this debut compilation of those recordings is otherworldly, creepy, darkly humorous, and riddled with portentous silences.