This single track, 18+ minute improvisation by a veritable super-group of six string abuse and experimentation (including members of Wilco and Sonic Youth), aided and abetted by the No Fun Fest curator and analog electronics wizard, actually has a misleading title.  While these guitarists could be expected to create a squall of guitar noise like a bag of wet cats rolling down a hill, it instead shows an admirable level of free jazz type restraint and balance.

Recorded live in the studio over two nights, this is a double CD of jams by the ever wonderful Bardo Pond and Japan's equally loveable LSD March. The music tilts from sounding like outtakes from Bardo Pond's Selections CD-Rs to LSD March's heady live sound. All the descriptions and superlatives that have been attributed to either band apply just as well to this monster of an album that they have spawned.

Accessible, improvisational jazz is given new life at the hands of this exceptional quartet. Australian pianist Marc Hannaford leads his group through a variety of musical approaches, drawing a lively dialogue out of each of them that entertains with ease. This quartet reaches deep into their imaginative bag of tricks and pull out one stunning performance after another.

Rolan Vega's ambiguous debut on Community Library suffers from its unfocused genesis. In part a tribute to movie and television soundtracks, Documentary is an intriguing compilation of Vega's synthesizer compositions but not an entirely successful album.

Rare records are funny things; to some people the value of the record is in how many were pressed and the quirks of individual pressings. To others it is the music that counts, to hell with catalogue numbers and whether it has misprinted labels. This is a release to appeal to those in the former category, rare as hen's teeth but nothing to write home about.

This is the second release from Eamon Sprod's field recordings project and a wonderful collection of sound collages. In spite of a fairly hackneyed premise (the beauty in decay), he has created a number of fragile compositions that wander somewhere between Chris Watson's clear recording style and Francisco Lopez's disorientating approach to presenting sound.

Some nine years ago I remember hearing much about this German industrial/power electronics band, mostly about their ultra limited LPs that fetched exorbitant amounts on the then-nascent eBay, so they instantly had cult appeal.  Dear reader, remember: this was before the days of widespread file sharing, commonplace CDRs, etc,...  So I was unable to actually hear what all the fuss was about until a friend recorded me (to MiniDisc, no less), a copy of the double live LP Remember, which I instantly remember loving.  Fast forward a few years and their entire discography is online, and I remember feeling let down once I heard these original albums.  They're not bad by any means, but they didn't quite live up to the hype that had been generated.  Now, ten years after its original release, Remember is reissued on CD, with 18 minutes of extra material recorded between 1997 and 2000.

Compared to the other releases in the ARC series, Junzo's work stands out as being one that is very different in style and approach. Rather than seeming overly experimental or esoteric, it instead goes for an acid tinged psychedelic approach to folk and blues that still manages to convey its own sound. It isn't as dark as some of the previous discs in the series, so it would seem that ARC releases are ending on a slightly brighter note. However, there is a great deal of emotion and passion felt in the minimal guitar strums and chords.

Noise and power electronics is always so often heavily entrenched in fascist imagery, serial killer worship, sexual depravity, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, it just gets trite after a while. Griefer instead opts to create a thematic work based around the Internet and hacking, and the imagery seeps in from the packaging and track titles into the overall sound, giving it a very cohesive feel. Although it doesn't break any new ground genre-wise, it does offer a fresh take on the established that fans will enjoy.

Before becoming Troum, Stefan Knappe and Martin Git, plus Helge Siehl, operated as Maëror Tri, releasing a slew of strange, dark albums in limited runs on cassette. Ambient Dreams first appeared in 1990 in an edition of only 18 copies but finally gets a wider release in its CD debut. Using only natural sound sources without electronics, the group crafts an eerie and gripping recording that still sounds startlingly fresh today.

Expecting a compilation of various Iranian electronic artists from the past 40 years, I was a little disappointed to discover that this two-disc set only covers two artists, the older Alireza Mashayekhi and the more recent Ata Ebtekar, aka Sote. Even so, the music found within is as wild and vivid as anything I could have hoped for and a decent enough introduction to some of the ideas at work in avant-garde Iranian music.

The music of Zeni Geva has variously been described as heavy metal, noise rock, math rock (apparently because of their use of atypical time signatures), death metal, thrash metal, sludge metal, doom metal and industrial metal; in truth it is all of these categories while at the same time travelling far beyond the trite parameters and restrictions usually associated with them. Maximum Money Monster originally debuted in 1990 and here includes three extra live tracks as bonus material.

Roughly a year and a half after his prior album as Uusitalo, the prolific Sasu Ripatti returns with a new collection of reliable and sometimes engrossing tracks targeted for progressive underground dancefloors.  Though practically every one of its ten analogue cuts could keep a bespectacled Mutek crowd moving, his latest merely supplements his healthy catalog instead of strengthening it.

The eyeballed-ones recent foray into storytelling and radio plays has been patchy to say the least. Tweedles was disappointing and the Timmy YouTube viral videos frequently seemed to be lacking something. However, it has never been written anywhere that The Residents had to placate their audience all the time (in fact, if anything should be written it is that The Residents should not placate any of their audience any of the time). That being said, this latest album seems to work far better than its predecessors as it melds a number of musical (and other) styles in that inimitable Residential fashion.

Lithuanian conceptual artist and performer Gintas Kraptavicius manipulates minimal digital sources and acoustic vibrations in the service of narrative rhythms and electro-acoustic wand waving. Rather than merely barricading himself behind walls of atmospherics, Kraptavicius uses his tools to explore sound in ways that are both unpredictable and inviting.

Although ostensibly a remix album, there is no need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy the remix work here.  From what I gather, PureH are a successful electronic rock band out of Slovenia who invited a slew of electronic artists to rework a single track, "Signia."  Not being familiar with the original track, I purposely avoided listening to the initial song to fully appreciate the remixes, which all vary greatly and, as a whole, make for strong, diverse tracks.

Most of the discs that have been on Utech's ARC series have been consistently dark excursions in texture and noise.  Never full on harshness akin to Merzbow, but generally bleak, almost punishing works (in the best possible sense).  As it is drawing to a close, this seems to allow a bit of light to seep in, but only in the darkest shades of gray.  Former Boredoms/Zeni Geva player Mitsuru manages to take a unique spin on the series that has a greater warmth and somewhat less density, but it is by no means inferior.

Not comfortable leaving well enough alone, living legend Richie Hawtin's preeminent minimal techno label drops one final compilation at the end of a year where the imprint appeared reinvigorated with a ramped-up activity level implying a surge in newfound capital.  Contained within the eco-friendly packaging are all new tracks from seven dynamic artists on the roster, including one new high-profile addition.

Here it is! The definitive list of lists. Why? Because it's the tenth year in a row that the readers nominated and voted!  This is what you—not self-important hipsters or jaded old critics—picked, unaffected by the corporate ads and silly trends. 2007 was an amazing year for music, our poll had a ton of excellent entries, and once again, the cream has risen to the top.

This is a reissue of a reissue, the original version of consolidated Burning Witch's two releases onto one CD. This new version splits them onto separate discs and includes other tracks recorded at the time that ended up on split releases with Goatsnake and Asva. Considering Burning Witch releases are now nigh on impossible to find, it is a good job Southern Lord have made this (rather lovely looking) package. The music is heavy beyond heavy; by the end of the two discs I am left with a feeling of having pushed a boulder up a hill for eternity and thinking that eternity is not long enough.