Milwaukee's stalwart psych rock veterans F/i are back with the reissue of a 2003 album that was previously only available in a limited quantity and also marks the return of original member Richard Franecki.  Strange song titles like “Hit the Kill Switch, Eugene,” “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Daisy Cutter,” and the title track itself highlight the band's otherworldly aspirations.

Phil Blankenship’s harsh noise project remains one of the most intense I’ve had the (dis?)pleasure of hearing. 2004 saw the release of three 3" compact discs from The Cherry Point, each on a different label. Blankenship has been kind enough to round all three up into one package and it’s a good thing he did, too. The Cherry Point sound more intimidating than intense on this collection, the use of open space serves the project well.

Originally released in 1994 only on vinyl, this is the CD reissue of the first album by Alvarius B, the solo project of Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls. Despite the inclusion of over thirty instrumental tracks all performed on acoustic guitar, the album is an exercise in restraint in that the songs are brief, moving quickly from one idea to the next, and often leaving me gasping for more.

Alas the weary travelers conclude their two-month sojourn above the Arctic Circle with Final Broadcasts. Released last month at the group’s North American live debut in San Francisco, it’s an album of startling power that deserves wider distribution.

The debut album from this Boston trio is something else. It takes influence from dozens of different sources and combines them seamlessly without being an academic chore or a self indulgent amalgamation of record collections. It is just a fucking great album.

From a seed of a gentle warm up drone this single untitled track becomes a wrenching guttural live thing that just won’t settle. With all this spiky movement the track doesn’t have an overall feel to it; it’s more like a smeared splurge of sound across the disc. It works but it’s not giving anything away.

When I first heard that Current 93 and OM were releasing a split EP, I tried not to get my hopes up as I was sure I was going to be disappointed. Luckily, the final product sees both groups in fine form. OM provide a trademark hypnotic mantra while Current 93 throw a curveball with an entirely unexpected piece that is heavier and sludgier than the vast majority of the Current 93 back catalogue.

New Buffalo is the project of Australian Sally Seltmann, who not only sings but also creates almost all of the music as well. This self-titled EP, featuring a few new songs as well as an alternate version and a remix of a track from her full-length The Last Beautiful Day, includes contributions from Jens Lekman and Broken Social Scene.

Label compilations should be compulsory in some cases, a necessity imposed on those labels that release too much music for the average college student to keep up with. Unreleased tracks by Kid 606, Tarwater, Charles Atlas, Nudge, Signaldrift, Strategy, The Sems, Stars as Eyes, a killer cover of a Yes song by Grizzly Bear, and many others all help make this compilation truly great, both as an introduction and a retrospective.

Packed with far more tunes than the typical Wackies re-release through Basic Channel, this extremely accessible CD comprising two long out-of-print albums will surely satiate reggae lovers.

A record built from distorted, screaming renditions of Christian and Catholic prayers could’ve easily ended up buggering an already stiffened concept. Having already been thoroughly pillaged by bearded Norwegian sociopaths through the late eighties, this turns the concept into something beyond ineffectual ranting at the already converted. This re-released and reformatted six track disc sees Dominick Fernow spewing venom and generating tension.

The new album from Ben Reynolds is almost more of a collection of alien beeps, hums, chimes, and drones than actual songs since there’s little melodic interplay between these elements. As an interpretation of the cosmos, however, it succeeds splendidly.

The fourth Henri Pousseur CD in Sub Rosa’s Early Electronics series features two long works. Although his condensation of his own interpretation of the Faust legend has been heard infrequently, this is the premiere of "Crosses of Crossed Colors" and to me is the more intriguing and powerful of the two.

Queztolcoatl is the one man noise project of Dublin’s Timothy. All of the releases I’ve listened to from his label, Haunted Tape, are heavily indebted to anything and everything on the similarly named American Tapes run by Wolf Eyes. This holds true for The Eternal Electrical Flesh Storm. Much of the hour or so of audio could be culled from anyone of the many lacklustre Wolf Eyes releases. It sounds to me like noise done for the sake of boredom.

This is a psychedelic folk four piece that from Chicago who combine a fin de siècle chamber style similar to Rasputina but stripped of any rock and pop pretensions. Blended with eastern tones and rhythms the result is a spectacular album.

For their second album, this trio utilizes traditional and exotic instruments that are refocused digitally into airy, minimalistic atmospheres with a quasi-mystical vibe that's geared more toward darkness than enlightenment.

Inspired by the low-volume, "marginal" sounds that make up the unconscious bed music of urban living, Paiuk creates a tape collage of musique concrète for the microsound/lowercase generation.

Although Peter Wright is a talented musician who produces evocative drones, what separates his music on this album from others exploring similar territory are the field recordings underlying the mix which provide a narrative of sorts. If they don't add up to one grand tale, then it is these pockets of stories scattered throughout the album that lend it an emotional core.

Daniel Burton recruits a talented cast, including members of Black Mountain and Windsor for the Derby, to expand a track from 2002’s Let Us Garlands Bring into a touching suite of songs surrounded by emotionally charged instrumentals.

To celebrate a quarter century of great compilations and albums by many exciting artists, Touch have released this new compilation. 25 exclusive tracks featuring most of Touch’s luminaries sum up both Touch’s history and mission perfectly while at the same time showing that Touch still know how to make a great compilation (an art that is neglected by nearly every other label).