The duo of Manuel Stagars and Neil Carlill make strange but for the most part not very compelling music. This album has its genuinely great moments but there is a lot of dross to sift through first. Vedette may have the potential to make a truly brilliant album but they fall short on so many of the songs that it leads to a frustrating listening experience.

Considering there are 14 different artists on this compilation it is surprising how little variation there is on offer. All the tracks are similar explorations of airy, glitchy, and formless ambience. Luckily, each contribution is quite good and the album flows nicely, which is not the norm for this sort of compilation. 

Anyone with a seemingly nuclear-powered sound system in their vehicle might consider this record handy to breach urban noise-pollution levels, while simultaneously getting a sleek dose of dub, paranoia, poetry and science fiction.

Mike Kinsella's bedroom poetry has often perplexed me. I could never figure out why someone would present the barest of lyrics in the barest of settings. Though I had always enjoyed Kinsella's American Football project (a band which I have heard that he disowns somewhat these days), I had never really bought into Owen, partly for the natural discomfort it inspired in me and partly because I just didn't understand it. But I have trouble dismissing Owen's latest effort.

Looking at the cover of this album, I imagined Selda's music to be run of the mill acoustic folk; little did I expect the huge and almost psychedelic extravagance of the songs on her self-titled debut from 1976. Some of it is surprisingly modern sounding and some of it sounds kitsch in its own old-fashioned way. Even at its most peculiar it is a remarkable sounding disc.

Mix tapes or DJ mix releases are hardly a unique concept, but it's extremely rare that one isn't a 100% 4/4 techno mix, mildly forgettable, or posing as a commercial for some record label's other releases or a resume for DJ publicity. Get a Room defies all of that and reminds me of another significant mix that defied conventions, KLF's Chill Out.

Christina Kubisch has been experimenting with sound, light and concrete/noise since the '70s, before most of the current crop of underground stopped messing themselves after a bellyful of milk. It feels like another circle has been completed with this latest aspect of her experimentalism, as it has been released by on a label co-run by a member of the experimental poster dudes Wolf Eyes (Nate Young's Aryan Asshole). As part of her Electrical Walks series this single track is a headphone record in more ways than one.

With the timing of this 7" single, this could be seen as a companion to this duo's recent and universally lauded The Radiant Mirror duo LP on Textile records. No less balls-out intense and exploratory, this rougher and more lively take on their musical pairing pins down the chemistry of this improvising drummer and Shaahi Baaja player.

After their live performances and a brace of self released demo CDs caught my attention, I have been eager to hear this band's debut. The sludgy doom presented here is as good as I was expecting but unfortunately the sound quality of the album leaves a little to be desired, especially for an album that is backed by a label and being properly distributed. That being said, Wreck of the Hesperus have offered up a noble sacrifice at the altar of doom.

One of the problems with having reached the pinnacle of composition on the album prior is that expectations are high, everyone is looking, and your songs can now be heard every Wednesday on NBC. But Explosions in the Sky marches onward, undeterred by such expectations.

This latest Birds of Delay communication shows a steelier hide than recent releases, the fluctuating red-hot treble liquefying the layers into a shimmering coating. Like 24/7 road works in your jawbone, this slow burner begins at the harsher, more dissonant end of the spectrum only for familiarity to find a sort-of melody and a kind-of arrangement.

Music that was made to illustrate a slide lecture on Hans Henny Jahnn's novel The Night of Lead, a tale of alienation and sado-masochism which was greeted with revulsion and largely forgotten. This is the first release under his own name by Hanno Leichtmann, though fans of his work with Static and Pole can listen without too much trepidation.

Last year's Sleep England, Michael Cashmore's first solo album under his own name, eschewed the verdant soundworlds of Cashmore's previous work as Nature and Organisation in favor of austere, minimal simplicity.  This new EP is somewhat of a return to form, featuring lush arrangements and guest vocals by Antony, singing lyrics written by David Tibet.

The second album from Oneida's Bobby Matador and Erica Fletcher percolates the brain with its rich variety of effects and treatments. The songs themselves are pared down pop nuggets without a whole lot of structural variation. Even though there aren't a lot of different styles on display here, the palette of sounds used on this recording often surpasses that limitation.

The group's name suggests that the music is going to be like licking white hot, blistering, celestial comet trails as I soar through the universe in a multicolored ball of pure musical ecstasy. Unfortunately I am always disappointed by the "free" folk that greets me when I press play. On their second self-titled album, things have not improved much. There is nothing here to make me change my stance on the music; I still find them entirely impenetrable.

A self-released compilation featuring lots of unreleased, rare, and reworked music, this is a must for even casual Foetus fans. I nearly dismissed this as another remix album but it is far from that (there is only one remix and it is not bad). It may be an odds-and-ends collection but it is impossible to tell while listening. This is one of the best things J.G. Thirlwell has ever put his name to.

The vibrations these two anonymous musicians produce are deep enough to cause strong sexual arousal, as alien as the technology of a visiting spacecraft, and heavy like the boot of an enemy on your throat. Special Powers is littered with a spectrum of styles, the moods shifting from cold and technological to dirty and carnal fluidly. The beats pound like war drums at times and at others they come to form simple, minimal grooves that pulse and groan with all the twitching, robotic life of a science-fiction novel.

Lullabye Arkestra sunk their talons into me pretty quickly. The album starts with slow, mournful strings and horns that build into a dramatic climax in which the floor suddenly drops out, replaced by the band in full-on assault mode. Before the song even finished, I had to go back and listen to that amazing opening again.

This blacker than black collaboration between Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg is a great piece of mood music. KTL is more subdued than the main output from both of these artists, yet together they instil a palpable sense of tension into the music to give it a captivatingly creepy result.

The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden released two fantastic records before Live at VPRO Radio upped the ante immeasurably. The comical and the sublime tendencies of Padden's previous work were married effortlessly in those recordings. Wayward the Fourth is a continuation of the musical environment showcased in those songs: a small step forward from a nearly perfect performance and a chance to hear more songs in that style.