This collects rehearsal tapes and live performances from DIJ's early days, but is unfortunately more of an interesting historical curiosity rather than a compelling listen for anyone but the most die hard fans.

Current 93 hit the hight point of their career with the album at the center of this trilogy: 1996's All the Pretty Little Horses was and is the most perfectly rendered artistic statement that David Tibet and company have created. This will sound like blasphemy to the legions who jumped aboard the apocalyptic folk train with last year's Black Ships Ate the Sky, but trust me: I know what I'm talking about. This album is much, much better than Black Ships, and I unreservedly consider it to be one of the finest albums ever recorded.

The second album from the duo of Thomas Strønen and Ståle Storløkken sees them continue the good work they started on their debut album. This cheery album is one of the better things that either of them have been involved in, a collection of music far from the chaos of Supersilent and yet more active and organic than most Norwegian electronic music.

Quellet’s approach to musique concrete and sound manipulation pays careful homage to the likes of Pierre Schaeffer and Luc Ferrari but Quellet's own mark remains distinct. His work has its own voice despite the weight of history that he is composing against. It is nice to hear a fresh take on what has become a stodgy and uninspired field of music; he clearly has a lot of talent and a good ear for sound.

Wary of the dubious hype emanating from The Wire and other pretentious, quasi-academic outlets, I've pretty much steered clear of any "heavy" album one might learn of from such sources. Yet, something about the bass/drum duo known as Big Business drew me to seek out their latest album, and having done so I'm not the least bit disappointed.

While Low are still known best for their basic three instrument arrangements, they have continuously been pushing their studio recordings to places beyond the signature sound and fan expectation. With Drums and Guns, they may have gone a bit too far. As much as I love Low and consider them one of the best rock music songwriting entities ever, no matter how much I listen to this album, I can't connect with it as a whole as much as I want to.

VP Records, the best known reggae label operating in the United States today, has gone above and beyond the call of duty with these four lovingly prepared double-disc collections of King Jammy's legendary 1980s dancehall productions. An extraordinary undertaking, this series branches off from and unequivocally surpasses last year's primer King At The Controls with an unhealthy level of meticulousness.

While some of this album is fun, there is not enough fun to go around. Many of the songs are boring, trying to counter a lack of imagination with volume. Listening to this album does get my foot tapping but so do most bar room blues and covers bands. There is nothing to engage with; I am not yearning for anything particularly intellectual but something more than rehashing the same blues scales and vocal histrionics would be nice.

I love music that forms images in my mind because the transformation from one medium to the next seems so mysterious to me. That a musician can turn sound into the most vivid photograph ever without defaulting to the ease of field recordings seems a metaphysical conundrum, but some are quite good at it and others are veritable masters of the process. Tim Hecker may be the finest sonic photographer around, the rerelease of Radio Amor being further evidence for this claim.

The three piece improv group return with their second album which is more of the same structureless music that brings to mind John Cage's prepared piano works if they were disarranged for a free jazz ensemble. This album is interesting (in a beard stroking kind of way) but the group does not challenge the listener enough for all its pretenses. The players hold themselves back more often than is necessary; the power of their music is reduced greatly as a result.

Chemism is the "mutual attraction, interpenetration, and neutralisation of independent individuals which unite to form a whole". Strangely though, the collaborations here tend not to come across as collegial, not through any enforcement or dictates by the duo, but through the strength of the chemistry between this collective's core. Black Sun Productions may have gathered a cast of like-minded souls to shape this album, but this still feels like the work is led by the distinctly European vision of the single mind of Massimo and Pierce. In this way, it seems like an ideal description of their working process.

This debut from Doueh and his group is outstanding. His playing is electric in all senses of the word; he effortlessly channels all the power of a sandstorm onto the six strings of his guitar. The recording quality may be patchy but the power of the music still comes through strong. The celebratory nature of the music combined with the skill of the players make this vinyl only release a joy to listen to.

The old saying about books and covers come to mind when I look at the sleeve of this album. Instead of austere, minimalist electronica; Per Henrik Svalastog serves up some gorgeously vibrant electronic(ish) music that uses the warm tones of traditional Norwegian instruments where normally glitches and icy synthesisers would be the first port of call. Solidly produced and performed, Woodwork is a marvelous album well worth investigating.

The third full length release from Scott "Wino" Weinrich's current band is a concept album but don't hold that against it. It is a fine collection of retro-sounding metal. Granted the songs can get a little samey—any of them could be switched around and I would be hard pressed to notice—but there is not a bad song in sight. Unfortunately, listening to them all in one go is an unrewarding experience as there is not enough variety to make this work as an album.

This two tracker (one 15 minute studio thrashing and one 20 minute live and liquifying boiler) feels a lot more organic than their debut, relying less on electrics and letting the group dynamic push further. Again featuring Giffoni on electrics (albeit on subdued form), man of the moment Chris Corsano and Trevor Tremaine (Hair Police) as a duo of drummers and Brian Sullivan (Mouthus) on Guitar, this is the sound of an irreverent collective throwing grenades into Sonic Youth's tour van.

In 2002 Steve Silverstein and Nick Forte released an album on Kranky that challenged the fractured guitars and distorted compositions of many popular and respected musicians, all of whom received far more attention for fewer reasons than I care to think about. Not to be deterred, Christmas Decorations have returned with an even more impressive record this year, their fragmented guitars and willingness to take chances in tow.

Beaming in from the limited edition cold, this tweaked-out compilation of Astral Social Club's early volumes is both an excellent introduction and a fresh perspective on the project. These eleven tracks, pulled from the first seven self-released CD-Rs releases by the head of the VHF label, weave in and out of conventional consciousness, worked into each other by the Club's sole member, Neil Campbell (now ex-Vibracathedral Orchestra).

When I first heard about these four HEAVYbreathing volumes of erotic music, I wondered what more they could possibly contribute to this already oversaturated kitsch niche. Somewhat different from others like it is that these volumes are further subdivided into themes. The series is subtitled "The Sounds of Sex," and that's pretty much what this disc is, for better or for worse.

Little Esther Phillips breathes new life into this series when she notes the time in Pete "Guitar" Lewis' "Ooh Midnight." Weary, deflated horns wheeze in the background of this raunchy teaser, recorded on a sly summer’s night in 1951. It's ultra-slow and unavoidable, starting this disc with a bang.

MCIAA are always generous with the music's technical elements on their liners, if only they'd go a little deeper with content for the head as well. This latest MCIAA release might be a sort of flipside to their Cosmic Light Of A New Millennium album, also on Important, this time exploring dark instead of light. If that is the record's aim, then it falls slightly short as Roberto Opalio's vocals are too beautiful for the black of nothingness.