Dukkha traffic in “true Sheffield black psychedelia” and appear to consist solely of an unnamed and enigmatic British guitarist.  However, I am deeply skeptical of both his purity (the four tracks are stylistically varied) and his degree of evilness (Buddhist author Alan Watts is listed as his sole influence).  He probably actually is from Sheffield though.  Regardless, this is some intriguing (if somewhat flawed) stuff.

Using E-bows (probably) and sculpted feedback, this guitar-based drone duo from Grenoble, France have achieved a masterful balance between womblike bliss and disquietude.  This is an understated and obscure gem.

Culled from recordings discovered by member Klaus Freudigmann, this disc represents a crucial bit of evidence in the lesser known manifestation of Kluster. Recorded live in 1971, Vulcano sees the trio of Conrad Schnitzler, Wolfgang Seidel, and the aforementioned Freudigmann engaging in far more experimental electronic excursions than their counterparts, Roedelius and Mobius, would ever delve into.

A series of improvisations based on the sea, Low Cloud Means Death sees guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, percussionist Kevin Corcoran and accordionist, pianist and general musical mastermind Christian Kiefer engaging in some sparse instrumental dialogue that falls somewhere between Morton Feldman's glacial compositions and the patient interactions of Henry Threadgill's Air while maintaining a subtle, near folksy chordal palette.

Born out of improvisations and a drawn-out postproduction, this album could have been an overworked mess. Instead, this is one of those occasions where slow and steady wins the race. After four years working together, these three collaborators have created a serene collection of gentle music. Fragile melodies and ghostly atmospheres are balanced by blissful jams, all coming together to make a truly remarkable release.

Originally released a bit over ten years ago, this third (and final) album from the Sutcliffe Jugend side project had always been one of the lost masterpieces, as far I was concerned.  It was the most fully realized work of dark, anger fueled hate rock that the band put out, and ranks up there with the best work of somewhat similar bands like Swans, Godflesh, and Big Black.  Time has been kind to the disc, which sounds just as powerful and forceful today as it was upon release, and now it is much more widely available.

A single track live collaboration between the two New York composers, this was recorded in Portugal last year and focuses on the duo's interest in the composite of piano and digital music, both in the sense of laptop processing piano, and as the two working in harmony as different instruments. The result is a beautiful collage of sounds that never sounds like to disparate technologies in competition, but working together in a complex piece of art.

Harry Smith's 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music has long been considered the Holy Grail of Americana and was an enormous influence on an entire generation of folkies (including John Fahey and Bob Dylan).  Art Rosenbaum's Art of Field Recording series also plunges deep into Greil Marcus's "Old, Weird America" but with some inspired and welcome differences.  While the impact of Smith's archival work is impossible to repeat, Rosenbaum's work is similarly essential.

The first stateside release by 4AD's Minotaur Shock is a bizarre and frustrating assemblage of disparate elements that cannot happily co-exist (Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, Italian house music, etc.).  While often garish and annoying, Amateur Dramatics nevertheless features what is easily one of the best dance tracks to be released in 2008.

Pooling members from inside the Toronto improv scene, Blah Blah 666 remain an iconoclastic outfit. Their chosen name and album title belie their relaxed spontaneity. Starting with a straightforward overture featuring soft vocals and slide guitar, their music quickly gives way to unhinged time signatures, consistently defying my expectations at ever turn. Their solipsistic approach to musical styles reminded me of staying up all night with good friends, and the slap happy feeling that comes from being sleep deprived.

As much as I enjoy the music of KTL, there is a feeling that having heard one album, you have heard them all. This album bucks this trend to some degree; there is a feeling that that parameters that Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg work within are widening. The darkness that permeates KTL's music is blacker than ever but the music has more gravity, pulling the listener in with more force than KTL have shown before.

Released in the spring of last year, this album was well received but didn’t get enough lasting credit to make it into the annual retrospectives that followed. Listeners hungry for a new take on loop based ambiance should take notice, since Ecstatic Sunshine bucks the plodding and formless conventions of lesser artists working in the genre.

Apparently the first time around just wasn't good enough. Rune Grammofon, in celebration of another five years of great music, has decided to rerelease another gorgeous hardcover art book with a two CD compilation for perusal accompaniment. Initially planned as a revision of the original and now legendarily hard to track down first edition, the second edition instead scrapes the palette clean and builds from the ground up with a new design layout and art by Kim Hiorthøy and 25 mostly exclusive tracks from many of the label's favorites.

Loren Chasse is a busy man. A founding member of the famed Jewelled Antler Collective, he also takes part in projects as varied as the delicate dronescapes of Thuja and the woodsy pop of The Blithe Sons, both of which also feature label co-founder Glenn Donaldson. When he sets out on his own though, Chasse opts for the Of moniker, and it is in this habitat that he seems most at ease. Combining ambient subtlety with a dense and immersive drone aesthetic, Chasse creates initimate sonic structures that seem to resonate from the earth itself.

Mirroring the economy, Larsen appear to be undergoing a bit of a recession following many years of seemingly unstoppable growth. On their difficult 8th album (just ask Black Sabbath about that), there is less consistency than there has been in their previous releases. There are still some fantastic moments on this album (not least some wonderful parts with guest vocalist Little Annie Bandez) but they are tempered by some lacklustre pieces which unfortunately drag the album down a notch.

Many (if not most) artists get maybe two albums out before falling into a rut and losing whatever magic they had. In the case of Stars of the Lid, the opposite occurred with their creativity only truly taking momentum a couple of albums into their recording career. This reissue of their debut shows the initial staggering steps that would eventually grow into the sure and elegant music that the duo now creates. This album may be patchy but it is here that the foundations for the unique Stars of the Lid sound are laid down.

It is little surprise that French electroacoustic composer Berangere Maximin's musical path has consisted of both conservatory studies under Denis Dufour and stints in rock and world bands. Her solo debut consists of six works that expound upon the tape manipulations of Pierre Schaefer, but whose sense of drama maintains her contact with the popular musical forms that she has partaken in.

Australian laptopper Mark Mitchell has made an insanely ambitious and hyper-literate psych-pop concept album.  Unfortunately, it is also a veritable volcano of twee.

This is space opera at its finest. (As in the subgenre of science fiction literature where tales of romance and dare doing heroes fight power hungry villains and alien monsters, all set against the backdrop of the stars.) There are no ear splitting sopranos singing in German on this record, but sultry vocals cooed into a microphone over gorgeous synth lines and hypnotic guitar riffs. This was the perfect band to sit down and listen to as I waited for my flight to arrive inside a dimly lit spaceport bar.

Colossal Yes is the quixotic side project of Comets on Fire drummer Utrillo Kushner. According to Kushner, this album was inspired by New Zealand indie rock bands like The Clean, The Verlaines, and The Tall Dwarves. Oddly, this influence appears to have had only a marginal effect on the band's sound, as they still most closely resemble the mellow '70s rock of The Band.