Maya Arulpragasam is one of those artists whose backstory is so uniqueand interesting that it threatens to completely eclipse the music shemakes. The press release for this, her debut album, spends far moretime talking about her childhood in civil war-torn Sri Lanka, than itdoes talking about her contributions to the modern music scene in theUK.

The rolling waves of crepuscular sounds on this disc are consumptiveand nightmare inducing. The single 62 minute track that occupies thewhole of Aranos' latest album works on several levels, each of whichcommunicate with each other and inform the shape of the music as awhole.

Aside from the not infrequent live dates, the strangest dance band on the planet hasn't been heard from since 2002's Street Dad was released to nearly unanimous praise and adulation. One Life to Leave is the long-awaited new single from Out Hud, released as a teaser for their forthcoming full-length Let Us Never Speak of It Again.

Mirror has expanded: joining Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk areTimo Van Luijk of Af Ursin and Noise-Makers Fife's and Vicky Jackman(no relation to David). Van Luijk has described himself as a "musicalbuddhist," and the connotations this carries practically melts into thespirit of this live recording.

This second album from Montreal's Harris Newman has a timeless quality,sounding modern while drawing on the traditions of acoustic guitaristsfrom the past. While he does appear to be a technically accomplishedguitarist, Newman often seems unconcerned with being one hundredpercent rhythmically accurate, such as on the opener "The Butcher'sBlock."

This is third volume examining Sumatran popular music to be released onAlan Bishop's non-authoritarian world music label Sublime Frequencies.The first was Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol. 1,which was the label's very first release, a compilation of music fromcassettes purchased in the northwesternmost island of the Indonesianarchipelago.

Of the many countries visited by Alan Bishop and his crew of guerillamusicologists, Cambodia has perhaps the musical heritage with thegreatest history of popular Western listenership.

Indian Soundscapes is a double-album collecting various fieldrecordings made during four trips to India from 2001 to 2004. Therecordings were made by Iyou, otherwise known as Charles Powne, ownerand proprietor of Soleilmoon Recordings since its inception in 1987.

It's been close to three years since graphic illustrator and Sea andCake guitarist, Archer Prewitt, released his wonderfully poppy disc, Three.In the meantime he's had a busy few years: performing with his liveband; the death of his father; recording and subsequent touring withSea and Cake. With Wilderness, his fifth recording as a soloartist, he's again picked up with his ongoing love with '70s pop/rocksensibilities, which are apparent in his compositions.

With 2002's The Creek Drank the Cradle,singer-songwriter Sam Beam established himself as a substantial talent,with a knack for performing uncomplicated, acoustically arranged songswith incredible, unforgettable hooks that stuck in my mind after asingle listen.

Scandanavian hip hop sounds pretty, feels empty.

DJ/Rupture puts on a master class on how to synthesize influences into something completely new.

A voice as beautiful, intense and unsettling as Antony's was bound toinspire an equally weird and devoted cult fan base. In the six yearssince the release of his debut album on Durtro, the legions of Antonydevotees have gradually increased, thanks to countless residencies andmonthly performances at NYC art venues such as Joe's Pub and KnittingFactory, expanding to include the patronage of Lou Reed and LaurieAnderson.

Their debut album, Dap-Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kingsturned a lot of heads toward to the rebirth of fiery raw soul/funkmovements coming out of New York, and rightfully so. The retro soulfeel permeated everything from the raw production to the artwork; theband was smokin'; and Jones' voice was raw, forceful, andunwavering—but the problem almost anybody faces when they've found abrilliant formula that works is where to go without making the samerecord again. Surprisingly enough, Sharon Jones didn't know much of theband when the first recording sessions took place.

With last year's limited concert EPs on Jnana Records and this year's How He Loved the Moon,Current 93 makes the first tentative steps outside the World SerpentDistribution umbrella that Durtro has labored under for so many years. Moon is a double LP containing nearly 80 minutes of music, a reissue and expansion of last year's Anomalous release A Little Menstrual Night Music, containing four sidelong remixes of vintage Current 93 album In Menstrual Nightundertaken by Steven Stapleton, originally commissioned as openingmusic for a pair of Current 93 shows in San Francisco.

The newest release from micro-indie label Mile 329 is a fun slab ofnostalgic oddity that anyone who's spent time furiously tapping A and Bbuttons is sure to enjoy. This is the first I've heard from NakedIntruder, and The Last Vestigeis his love letter to the musical engine inside the classic 8-BitNintendo Entertainment System.

Live albums are a tricky lot. Very few are actually representative of the live music experience. If recorded well, they can deliver a very close approximation of a band's live sound, but they ultimately by their very nature fail to deliver any sense of the band's visual performance. With Jason Molina's Magnolia Electric Co., this is perhaps not a huge loss.

Joined for the second time by Jim O'Rourke, Still Valley is much less chaotic and noisy than Die Spiegelmanufaktur.This album is a beautiful study of slowly shifting drones. As it wasproduced between 2002 and 2004, it is possible that this project wasstarted during the same sessions that produced 2002's Die Spiegelmanufaktur.

Imagine if Afrocentrist poet and playwright Amiri Baraka was born abouta half century late and instead of a pen he carried a mic.