First in a series from Honest Jon's trawl through more than 150,000 78 rpm records stored in the EMI archive in Hayes. Originally exported to Africa, these musical letters home are exotic songs of pragmatism, resignation, warning and defiance.  

Besides this Lithops solo project, Jan St. Werner spends time in Mouse on Mars, Microstoria, and Von Südenfed in addition to few other even more obscure monikers.  While the aforementioned projects are "bands," perhaps in an unconventional sense, Lithops is his chance to act completely on his own and while traces of those other projects are evident, this is a wonderfully unmanageable beast all on its own.

Mick Harris' latest release as Lull is a quiet and stately album, the sounds at times being barely above a whisper, a state of affairs entirely in keeping with the motivating philosophy behind the Italian label Glacial Movements i.e., making us aware of the paradoxically fragile strength and crystalline beauty of the polar regions before it’s too late.

Even after the passage of 27 years of recording and releasing music, Thurston continues to map new sonic geographies. Here, his particular focus is on all-out cathartic, expansive but nevertheless gritty, crater-strewn guitar-drone and feedback terrain, ranging across vast fields and landscapes to create his works of cyclopean noise.

Despite Matt Waldron describing at least one of the performances as a "live disaster," this is an excellent collection of splendid music performed with various line ups of his ongoing surrealist project. This compilation documents shows from 2005-2007 and features not only Waldron but also the not inconsiderable talents of Steven Stapleton, Jim Haynes and others.

Important have really pushed the boat out for Kluster/Cluster fans. A brace of live albums from Conrad Schnitzler's archives and another live album from one of last year's Cluster reunion shows. Not all three releases are essential but all have been made with a lot of love and care, from the audio right down to the embossed sleeves made in the style of the original Kluster LPs.

Surely having a higher concept than just to perform public domain songs that they wouldn't have to pay royalties on, Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Christian Kiefer take a run through at some infamous and not so famous pieces of classic American folk that occasionally remain faithful directly to the mood and sound of the early 20th century, and at other times diverge wildly and brilliantly.

With their debut album following up the wildly successful A Place to Bury Strangers self-titled on Killer Pimp, All the Saints have a rather large pair of shoes to fill here.  This trio travels on similar roads as the their label mates, but with a different stylistic approach.  The love of noise and psychedelic feedback is here, but somewhat tempered by a slightly less aggressive, more accessible sound that is no less enjoyable and shows the same attention to "songs" as opposed to just "noise."

Troy Southgate possesses something of an impeccable musical pedigree, contributing his unique vocals to H.E.R.R. and Horologium, plus guesting on albums by Von Thronstahl, Survival Unit, Sagittarius, Erich Zahn, Sistrenatus, and many others, in addition to being a writer and political commentator. Now the South Londoner conspires with Kammer Sieben's Butow Maler and Herr Twiggs (plus contributions from Maria Southgate [Troy's daughter], as well as Horologium's Eustacia Vye) to add yet another name to the ever-growing list: the Anglo-German Seelenlicht ('Soul Light'); and this, Gods and Devils, is the debut album resulting from that union.

Every so often, something wafts my way, lands on my desk, and takes me completely by surprise. Such is the case with Brisbane's The Rational Academy and their debut CD A Heart Against Your Own, their eclectic mix of pop melodies, noise, and avant-pop sensibilities sweeping over me in a tsunami of warm fluffiness and bright sunshine. My natural constituency is normally nowhere near this kind of bright melodic pop-tunefulness, but it won me over with its naturally sunny disposition tempered with a bittersweetness and a noisiness that would, on paper at least, appear to be a recipe for disaster.

Detached from the goofy Renaissance Faire quality themes of post-industrial neo-classical music, the prolific producer marks a drastic, though lackluster, departure from his typically rhythmic past.  Devoid of danceability, its transuding caliginosity faux-menaces like a murky slime creeping towards an unsuspecting idyll at sundown.

Western Europe has arguably had great influence over electronic music these last few years, with rebellious artists like Justice and Boys Noize legitimizing gritty, harsher sonics in stark contrast to the overexposed slickness of meathead-friendly dance.  That trend makes this Spanish duo's latest all the more maddening and highlights the stultifying insulation of the current generation of industrial musicians.

Faust's Jean-Herve Peron joins Andrew Liles for an album full of childlike joy. From the electric colours of the sleeve to the electric performances on the disc, this is a wonderful way to spend three quarters of an hour. Both artists sound like they are having fun and the cheer definitely filters through.

While it almost seems more of an experiment than a true composition at times, this 140 minute work shows the clown prince of minimalist drone working on live improvisations using a unique instrument, a double piano.  And while sounding purely experimental at times, the work transcends the academics and is just as enjoyable to listen to as a work of art as it is a study of an instrument.

It comes as no surprise at all that this collaboration between Sunn O))) and Goatsnake's Greg Anderson and Gentry Densley from Iceburn is black and metallic.  I think anyone would be completely floored if it were to be too insane of a departure from either artist's day jobs, and the influence of their main projects definitely shows through.  But, aided and abetted by a slew of collaborators, Ascend has a style and character all its own, even with the obvious lineage from the participants, it is a very interesting work that stands on its own.

Our new, semi-regular feature of notable new dance singles continues with reviews of The Juan Maclean, Audion, Kelley Polar, Low Motion Disco, Goldfrapp and Ricardo Villalobos.

It is difficult to judge a soundtrack when listening to it in isolation from the movie it is meant to accompany. This album, roughly half and half the work of Jason Pierce (under his J. Spaceman pseudonym) and the Sun City Girls, is enjoyable by its own merits but unfortunately has moments where the music sounds incomplete, the necessary images absent.

Afrobeat has always been too far eclectic for simple classification, destined to confound those who prefer their music neatly categorized into genre buckets.  That special quality makes this compilation of previously vinyl-only remixes and reinterpretations of recent material from the renowned percussionist all the more fitting.

Scan the obsessive posts on the handful of dedicated roots reggae forums online and the name Bunny "Striker" Lee will inevitable crop up—and rightly so.  Focusing solely on his productions between 1973 and 1979, this compilation may not be even remotely exhaustive, but it provides a worthwhile if slightly forgettable gateway into the influential producer's sizeable body of work.

Another V/VM alter-ego uses analog and digital sources to create vivid impressions of a specific landscape of Northern England. The mood is akin to a wet cold late-winter trek across the harshly beautiful terrain and the rare prettier music captures precious moments when the sun breaks through.