Even though Turman began his music career in the early 1970s and co-founded NON with Boyd Rice, he has not been as prolific, nor has he garnered the same accolades as many of his contemporaries have. Recent collaborations with the likes of Jandek and Aaron Dilloway have lead to a resurgence of interest, and Beyond Painting is one of the products of this rediscovery. Presented here as a luxurious double LP reissue of a self-released CDR, Turman's work is given the recognition it deserves.

As one of the preeminent psychedelic rock/electro acoustic super groups in the Upstate New York/Massachusetts area, Twilight of the Century have not been overly prolific amongst their many related projects, with this tape representing their first actual release since their founding in 2008. The rock half, Eric Hardiman and Ray Hare, make up Century Plants and have a slew of solo guises, while the more avant garde experimentalism is the work of Mike Bullock and Linda Aubry Bullock, who largely work under their own names and as Rise, Set, Twilight. Hibernation captures the quartet carefully balancing those more aggressive, guitar focused tendencies with the subtle use of electronics wonderfully.

Originally released as an extremely limited LP on Savoury Days and recently reissued by Luke Younger's Alter imprint, this Southeast England band's second album was one of 2013's most criminally overlooked releases.  Combining post-punk deconstructionism, heavy industrial textures, and a strong bent for collage/improvisation, this enigmatic ensemble is a welcome addition to the beloved pantheon of hard-to-define, fringe-dwelling British weirdos like Zoviet France, Throbbing Gristle, and This Heat.

Listening to this EP is like being run over by a goddamn tank. Ren Schofield was one of the first harsh noise artists to take his cacophony to the dance floor and–along with Pete Swanson–he remains one of the best.  In fact, this, his first release for Mute's experimental music imprint, might be one of the finest Container releases to date.  While no dramatic evolution has taken place, aside from slightly more simple and accessible grooves, Adhesive is a perfectly distilled dose of relentless, pummeling noise-damaged techno from start to finish.

For some reason, there was a brief period in my life a while back in which every single person who learned of my early Red House Painters obsession immediately responded with some variation of "You know who else you would love? Tara Jane O'Neil."  At the time, I did not think the two artists had much in common at all, aside from the superficial traits of being both slow and melancholy, but I have always enjoyed hearing O'Neil whenever she resurfaces.  This time, after a five year solo album hiatus, she has resurfaced on Kranky–the perfect home for someone who sounds like Grouper's more sophisticated older sister.

There has been an avalanche of fine dispatches from Eliane Radigue's voluminous vault in recent years, which both pleases and overwhelms me, as I want to hear them all and cannot hope to keep up.  Adnos is one of the latest of those great albums and offers the added appeal of being a major, decade-spanning, formative work as well.  Originally composed between 1973 and 1980, these three lengthy pieces are stylistic precursors to Radigue's minimal drone epicTrilogie de la Morte (widely regarded to be her masterpiece). While Adnos is not quite on the same level as its similarly ambitious successor, it certainly comes damn close.

Much of legendary composer Asmus Tietchens' recent work has been in the form of collaborations, with other like minded artists such as Richard Chartier and Dieter Moebius, with a few solo works coming out amidst the sprawling reissue campaign on Die Stadt. Fast ohne Titel, Korrosion is one of those few new and solo works, and it just reinforces that even so far into his career, Tietchens’ is no less important, and his sly sense of humor is never far behind.

A strange spectacle murmurs unceremoniously just beneath the familiar hum of daily life. It's filled with little dramas and peculiar collisions that sneak by unnoticed—in the empty spaces of the room, out of the corner of your eye—small bits of information slip through the senses' fingers and fall into the subconscious where they become fodder for dreams. These unremembered fragments are a part of every environment and every observation, but would we recognize them if given a second chance? On Air Supply, Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet resurrect such mental refuse and put just such a question to the test. They may have pointed their microphones at computer vents or the back yard, but what they pulled from those sources is utterly bizarre, to the point of being completely alien.

At first glance, Katie Gately has a hell of a lot in common with Holly Herndon: both are CA-based and use the voice as their primary instrument and both debuted to international acclaim while still attending college.  The similarities end there, however, as Gately's latest work displays a strong pop sensibility and talent for hooks that was not especially apparent on her significantly more unhinged and abstract cassette from earlier in the year (Pipes).  While I still do not think her aesthetic is fully developed, her combination of heavily grinding and crunching field recordings and lush vocal loops is nevertheless quite promising and unusual.

After amplifying their homes and magnifying the subconscious; after reshaping kitchenware into instruments and finding voices in the buzz of computer fans, distant traffic, and the crunch of dirt; after transforming the spaces around them and constructing a space-time of their own, Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet finally turn the microphones on themselves. And not just on the noises they make, but on the places they grew up, on the people they've known, on the ideas that have driven their work, the sounds they love, and ultimately on the past and their memories. Don't come to the show expecting self-portraits though. On Photographs Graham and Jason make enigmas of themselves. We get to see a shadow of them in these pictures, but everything they do and every event they capture points to a subject somewhere outside the frame.

This reissue offers the chance to hear another obscurity from the NWW list. With perfect backing, Vian plays synths, sequencer and piano, to create an exotic, space-age soundtrack that is quite distinct from his more raucous music with Red Noise.

I know I am not the only person who has caught himself in a public situation hearing some sort of malfunctioning machinery and thought it would have sounded great on record. Obviously not, because it is that concept specifically that defines Blake Edwards' newest album, a gorgeous picture disc with accompanying CD-R of related material. It is his careful mixing and understated processing that make this shine, however.

Under his Pinkcourtesyphone guise, Richard Chartier has found a way to inject a bit of levity and humor into his otherwise serious and formal electronic compositions. These two recent releases reiterate this, but also present an evolution in PCP’s sound, from avant garde electronics to traditional and rhythmic works that have recognizable points of reference, but still stand as entirely unique in this often crowded genre.

Album of the Year

1. Tim Hecker, ""Virgins"" (Kranky)
2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, ""Push the Sky Away"" (Kobalt)
3. Boards of Canada, ""Tomorrow's Harvest"" (Warp)
4. My Bloody Valentine, ""m b v"" (self-released)
5. The Haxan Cloak, ""Excavation"" (TriAngle)
6. Autechre, ""Exai"" (Warp)
7. Grouper, ""The Man Who Died in His Boat"" (Kranky)
8. William Basinski, ""Nocturnes"" (2062)
9. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""The Gethsemane Option"" (Metropolis)
10. Wire, ""Change Becomes Us"" (Pink Flag)
11. Matmos, ""The Marriage of True Minds"" (Thrill Jockey)
12. Locrian, ""Return to Annihilation"" (Relapse)
13. Barn Owl, ""V"" (Thrill Jockey)
14. Julia Holter, ""Loud City Song"" (Domino)
15. Broadcast, ""Berberian Sound Studio"" (Warp)
16. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Code Noir"" (Beta-Lactam Ring)
17. Oren Ambarchi, Jim O'Rourke and Keiji Haino, ""Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour in All the Mystery"" (Black Truffle)
18. Chelsea Wolfe, ""Pain is Beauty"" (Sargent House)
19. Bill Callahan, ""Dream River"" (Drag City)
20. Tropic of Cancer, ""Restless Idyll"" (Blackest Ever Black)
21. Carter Tutti, ""Coolicon"" (Conspiracy International)
22. Mika Vainio, ""Kilo"" (Blast First Petite)
23. Pan American, ""Cloud Room, Glass Room"" (Kranky)
24. Wolf Eyes, ""No Answer: Lower Floors"" (De Stijl)
25. Low, ""The Invisible Way"" (Sub Pop)
26. Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld, ""Still Smiling"" (Specula)
27. Colin Stetson, ""New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light"" (Constellation)
28. The Knife, ""Shaking the Habitual"" (Mute)
29. Lustmord, ""The Word As Power"" (Blackest Ever Black)
30. Mazzy Star, ""Seasons of Your Day"" (Rhymes Of An Hour)
31. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""The Curse of Marie Antoinette"" (Rustblade)
32. Forest Swords, ""Engravings"" (TriAngle)
33. Rashad Becker, ""Traditional Music of Notional Species, Vol. I"" (PAN)
34. Cindytalk, ""A Life Is Everywhere"" (Editions Mego)
35. The Necks, ""Open"" (Northern Spy)
36. Prurient, ""Through the Window"" (Blackest Ever Black)
37. Body/Head, ""Coming Apart"" (matador)
38. Julia Kent, ""Character"" (Leaf)
39. Mogwai , ""Les Revenants Soundtrack"" (Rock Action)
40. Wrekmeister Harmonies, ""You've Always Meant So Much To Me"" (Thrill Jockey)
41. Dirty Beaches, ""Drifters/Love Is the Devil"" (Zoo Music)
42. Master Musicians of Bukkake, ""Far West"" (Important)
43. Oneohtrix Point Never, ""R Plus Seven"" (Warp)
44. The Dead C, ""Armed Courage"" (Ba Da Bing!)
45. Daniel Menche, ""Marriage of Metals"" (Editions Mego)
46. Main, ""Ablation"" (Editions Mego)
47. These New Puritans, ""Field of Reeds"" (Infectious)
48. Factory Floor, ""Factory Floor"" (DFA)
49. Föllakzoid, ""II"" (Sacred Bones)
50. Laurel Halo, ""Chance of Rain"" (Hyperdub)
51. Boduf Songs, ""Burnt Up On Re-Entry"" (Southern)
52. Phill Niblock, ""Touch Five"" (Touch)
53. Implodes, ""Recurring Dream"" (Kranky)
54. Ensemble Pearl, ""Ensemble Pearl"" (Drag City)
55. Emptyset, ""Recur"" (Raster-Noton)
56. Julianna Barwick, ""Nepenthe"" (Dead Oceans)
57. Pere Ubu, ""lady From Shangai"" (Fire Records)
58. Benoit Pioulard, ""Hymnal"" (Kranky)
59. Vatican Shadow, ""Remember Your Black Day"" (Hospital)
60. Chris Watson, ""In St. Cuthbert's Time"" (Touch)
61. Mohammad, ""Son Sakrifis"" (PAN)
62. Steve Gunn, ""Time Off"" (Paradise of Bachelors)
63. Noveller, ""No Dreams"" (important)
64. CoH, ""Retro 2038"" (Editions Mego)
65. Jesu, ""Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came"" (Avalanche)
66. Bardo Pond, ""Peace on Venus"" (Fire)
67. Jasper TX, ""An Index of Failure"" (Handmade Birds)
68. Svarte Greiner, ""Black Tie"" (Miasmah)
69. Fire! Orchestra , ""Exit!"" (Rune Grammofon)
70. *AR, ""Succession"" (Corbel Stone Press)
71. Mountains, ""Centralia"" (Thrill Jockey)
72. Roly Porter, ""Life Cycle of a Massive Star"" (Subtext)
73. Bill Orcutt, ""A History of Every One"" (Editions Mego)
74. Ryoji Ikeda, ""Supercodex"" (Raster-Noton)
75. Black Boned Angel, ""The End"" (Handmade Birds)
76. Date Palms, ""The Dusted Sessions"" (Thrill Jockey)
77. Jacob Kirkegaard, ""Conversions"" (Touch)
78. Matana Roberts, ""Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile"" (Constellation)
79. Zola Jesus and JG Thirlwell, ""Version"" (Sacred Bones)
80. Pharmakon, ""Abandon"" (Sacred Bones)
81. Pet Shop Boys, ""Electric"" (x2)
82. Aidan Baker, ""Already Drowning"" (Gizeh)
83. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Taos Hum"" (Trademark of Quantity)
84. Demdike Stare , ""The Weight of Culture"" (No Label )
85. Hacker Farm , ""UHF"" (Exotic Pylon)
86. The Stranger, ""Watching Dead Empires In Decay"" (Modern Love)
87. William Tyler, ""Impossible Truth"" (Merge)
88. Gabriel Saloman, ""Soldier's Requiem"" (Miasmah)
89. Wooden Wand, ""Blood Oaths of the New Blues"" (Fire)
90. Paul Jebanasam, ""Rites"" (Subtext)
91. Colleen, ""The Weighing of the Heart"" (Second Language)
92. Matt Elliott, ""Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart"" (Ici d'ailleurs)
93. Basic House, ""Oats"" (Alter)
94. Jenny Hval, ""Innocence is Kinky"" (Rune Grammofon)
95. Bruce Gilbert & BAW, ""Diluvial"" (Touch)
96. Daniel Menche, ""Vilke"" (Sige)
97. Duane Pitre, ""Bridges"" (Important)
98. Glenn Jones, ""My Garden State"" (Thrill Jockey)
99. Kaboom Karavan, ""Hokus Fokus"" (Miasmah)
100. The Silverman, ""Finisterre"" (Trademark of Quantity)

Single of the Year

1. Autechre, ""L-Event"" (Warp)
2. Burial, ""Rival Dealer"" (Hyperdub)
3. Demdike Stare, ""Testpressings 4"" (self-released)
4. ( r ), ""The House Of The Rising Sun"" (self-released)
5. Larsen, ""Uncruel Cool Mouth"" (Zos Kia Sounds Recordings)
6. Helm, ""Silencer"" (PAN/Alter)
7. Vatican Shadow, ""When You Are Crawling"" (Hospital)
8. Cut Hands, ""Damballah 58"" (Blackest Ever Black)
9. Pete Swanson, ""Punk Authority"" (Software)
10. Miles, ""Unsecured"" (Modern Love)
11. Nurse With Wound/Graham Bowers, ""Diploid"" (Red Wharf)
12. Khan Of Finland, ""Thin White Sinner"" (I'm Single)
13. Pye Corner Audio, ""Conical Space"" (Dekorder)
14. Songs:Ohia, ""Hecla & Griper"" (Secretly Canadian)
15. Lee Noble, ""Ruiner"" (Bathetic)
16. Pye Corner Audio, ""Superstitious Century"" (Boomkat)
17. The Fall, ""The Remainderer"" (Cherry Red)
18. Boduf Songs/Jessica Bailiff, ""Decapitation Blues / Lakeside Blues"" (Morc)
19. Edward Ka-Spel, ""The Patriot"" (Unlimited Drift)
20. Moin, ""EP"" (Blackest Ever Black)
21. The Bug, ""Filthy"" (Ninja Tune)
22. Al Cisneros, ""Ark Procession"" (Drag City)
23. John Foxx and the Belbury Circle, ""Empty Avenues"" (Ghost Box)
24. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, ""Needle Boy"" (Kobalt)
25. Al Cisneros, ""Teresa Of Avila"" (Sinai)

Live album/vault recording/reissue (or otherwise not really a ""new full-length album"")

1. Swans, ""Not Here/Not Now"" (Young God)
2. Grouper, ""Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill"" (Kranky)
3. Edward Artemiev, ""Solaris Original Soundtrack"" (Mirumir)
4. Natural Snow Buildings / Isengrind / Twinsistermoon, ""The Snowbringer Cult"" (Ba Da Bing!)
5. Songs:Ohia, ""The Magnolia Electric Co."" (Secretly Canadian)
6. Bernard Parmegiani, ""De Natura Sonorum"" (Recollection GRM)
7. Iannis Xenakis, ""GRM Works 1957-1962"" (Recollection GRM)
8. Edward Artemiev, ""Stalker/The Mirror - Music From Andrey Tarkovsky's Motion Pictures"" (Mirumir)
9. Four Tet, ""Rounds"" (Domino)
10. Chrome, ""Half Machine from the Sun"" (self-released)
11. Godflesh, ""Hymns"" (The End)
12. Sandwell District, ""Fabric 69"" (Fabric)
13. Edward Ka-Spel, ""A Pleasure Cruise Through 9 Dimensions"" (Trademark of Quantity)
14. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""9 Lives to Wonder redux"" (Trademark of Quantity)
15. Grails, ""Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 4, 5 & 6"" (Temporary Residence)
16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ""Live from KCRW"" (Bad Seed Ltd.)
17. Come, ""Eleven:Eleven"" (Matador)
18. Peter Jeffries, ""The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World"" (De Stijl)
19. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Seconds Late for the Brighton Line redux"" (Trademark of Quantity)
20. Alastair Galbraith, ""Cry"" (MIE)
21. Roky Erickson, ""The Evil One"" (Light in the Attic)
22. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""From Here You'll Watch the World Go By redux"" (Trademark of Quantity)
23. Devo, ""Hardcore"" (Superior Viaduct)
24. Drexciya, ""Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller IV"" (Clone Classic Cuts )
25. Horseback, ""A Plague of Knowing"" (Relapse)
26. Robert Wyatt, ""68"" (Cuneiform)
27. Dead Can Dance, ""In Concert"" (Play It Again Sam)
28. Eliane Radigue, ""Opus 17"" (Alga Marghen)
29. Ensemble Economique, ""The Vastness Is Bearable Only Through Love"" (Shelter Press)
30. M. Geddes Gengras, ""Collected Works Vol. 1: The Moog Years"" (Umor Rex)
31. Sun City Girls, ""Eye Mohini (Sun City Girls Singles Volume 3)"" (Abduction)
32. Fluxion, ""Vibrant Forms"" (Type)
33. Gnod, ""Chaudelande"" (Rocket)
34. Loren Connors, ""The Departing of a Dream"" (Family Vineyard)
35. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Hallway of the Gods redux"" (Trademark of Quantity)
36. Alberich, ""Machine Gun Nest: Cassette Works, Vol. 0"" (Hospital)
37. Iancu Dumitrescu, ""Pierres Sacrees/Hazard and Tectonics"" (Ideologic Organ)
38. Robbie Basho, ""Visions of the Country"" (Gnome Life)
39. The Slaves, ""Ocean on Ocean"" (Helen Scarsdale)
40. Codeine, ""What About the Lonely?"" (Numero Group)
41. Robert Turman, ""Beyond Painting"" (Fabrica)
42. Steve Hauschildt, ""S/H"" (Editions Mego)
43. Craig Leon, ""Nommos"" (Superior Viaduct)
44. Francois Bayle, ""Les couleurs de la nuit"" (Sub Rosa)
45. Muslimgauze, ""Izlamic Songs"" (Staalplaat)
46. Troum, ""Syzygie"" (Cold Spring)
47. Fela Kuti, ""The Best of the Black President 2"" (Knitting Factory)
48. Felicia Atkinson, ""Visions/Voices"" (Umor Rex)
49. Loscil, ""Intervalo: Adaptations for Piano & Laptop"" (Frond)
50. Piano Magic, ""Heart Machinery"" (Second Language)

Various Artist Collection of the Year

1. ""Touch30"" (Touch)
2. ""Metal Dance 2: Industrial, New Wave, and EBM Classics & Rarities 79-88"" (Strut)
3. ""Mutazione: Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988"" (Strut)
4. ""Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2"" (Soul Jazz)
5. ""I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-1990"" (Light in the Attic)
6. ""An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music Vol. 7"" (Sub Rosa)
7. ""After Dark 2"" (Italians Do It Better)
8. ""Change the Beat: The Celluloid Records Story 1979-1987"" (Strut)
9. ""L.I.E.S. Presents Music for Shut-Ins"" (L.I.E.S.)
10. ""The Crying Princess: 78RPM Records from Burma"" (Sublime Frequencies)
11. ""Afrobeat Airways 2: Return Flight to Ghana 1974-1983"" (Analog Africa)
12. ""20 Jahre Kompakt/Kollektion 1"" (Kompakt)
13. ""Choubi Choubi! Folk & Pop Songs from Iraq Vol. 2"" (Sublime Frequencies)
14. ""Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China "" (Sublime Frequencies)
15. ""Collision/Detection"" (Front & Follow)
16. ""Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s and '80s"" (Soundway)
17. ""Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound"" (Numero Group)
18. ""Hassaniya Music from the Western Sahara and Mauritania"" (Sublime Frequencies)
19. ""Livity Sound"" (Livity Sound)
20. ""Halh: 20 Years of Downwards"" (Downwards)
21. ""Down To The Silver Sea"" (Blank Workshop / Gecophonic Audio Systems)
22. ""Feral Grind"" (Submit)
23. ""20 Jahre Kompakt/Kollektion 2"" (Kompakt)
24. ""Studio One Ska Fever!"" (Soul Jazz)
25. ""Greek Rhapsody (Instrumental Music from Greece 1905-1956)"" (Dust-to-Digital)

 

Boxed Set

1. Eliane Radigue, ""Adnos I-III"" (Important)
2. Cabaret Voltaire, ""#8385 Collected Works (1983-1985)"" (Mute)
3. Can, ""Can"" (Spoon)
4. Natural Snow Buildings, ""Daughter of Darkness"" (Ba Da Bing!)
5. Eleh, ""Homage"" (Taiga)
6. Akos Rozmann, ""Images of the Dream and Death"" (Ideologic Organ)
7. Skullflower, ""Kino I-IV"" (Dirter)
8. The Hafler Trio, "" A Cure For Kenophobia-an Empowerment In 4 Easy Stages At Very Reasonable Rates; Recordings 87-99 "" (Vinyl On Demand)
9. My Cat is an Alien, ""Psycho-System"" (Elliptical Noise)
10. Red Temple Spirits, ""Dancing to Restore an Eclipsed Moon/If Tomorrow I Were Leaving for Lhasa, I Wouldn't Stay a Minute More... "" (Independent Project)
11. Conny Plank, ""Who's That Man: A Tribute to Conny Plank"" (Grönland)
12. Dennis Johnson, ""November"" (Penultimate Press)
13. Greg Haines, ""2006-2012"" (Denovali)
14. Half Japanese, ""1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts"" (Fire)
15. Jandek, ""The Song of Morgan"" (Corwood)

 

Act of the Year

New Artist of the Year

Overlooked Staff Picks

 

Lifetime Achievement Recognition

 

Jason Molina

 

Worst Album of the Year

1. Arcade Fire, ""Reflektor"" (Merge)
2. Vampire Weekend, ""Modern Vampires of the City"" (XL)
3. The Men, ""New Moon"" (Sacred Bones)
4. !!!, ""THR!!!ER"" (Warp)
5. Darkstar, ""News from Nowhere"" (4AD)
6. Queens of the Stone Age, ""...Like Clockwork"" (Matador)
7. Smith Westerns, ""Soft Will"" (Mom + Pop Music)
8. Chvrches, ""The Bones of What You Believe"" (Glassnote)
9. Cut Copy, ""Free Your Mind"" (Modular)
10. Majical Cloudz, ""Impersonator"" (Matador)

 

When she is at her best, Brooklyn-based experimental guitarist Sarah Lipstate is capable of creating work of almost breathtaking beauty.  On this, her debut for Important, she is at her best exactly once.  The rest of album is filled with perfectly likable, if unexceptional, forays into muted ambient soundscapes, but it is the Popul Vuh's Aguirre-meets-gnarled-guitar brilliance of the title piece that makes No Dreams an album worth hearing.  I certainly wish the rest of the album were similarly spectacular, but it feels silly to complain that Lipstate only composed one must-hear masterpiece this year.

The New Alchemy creates transformational music from simple elements: voices, guitars, organs, and saxophones. The music moves deliberately, contrasting an intense, blistering, squall one might associate with screams from human sacrifice, with an airy, spacious, psychedelia.

Mika Vainio's collaboration earlier this year with Joachim Nordwall was enjoyable, but this new release grabbed my attention immediately and did not relent for a moment. ÄÄNIPÄÄ, with Stephen O'Malley on guitar, Eyvind Kang (viola), Moriah Neils (contrabass) and Maria Scherer Wilson (cello) has more in common with Vainio's work with Pan Sonic than his recent projects, and with Alan Dubin screaming the poetry of Anna Akhmatova on two of the pieces, it surprisingly resembles a Khanate revival.

Prurient has taken a backseat in the past few years in favor of Dom Fernow's more recent high profile projects. The last major Prurient releases too were somewhat baffling: the EBM noise of Bermuda Drain and minimalist techno of Through the Window screamed out as an identity crisis compared to the harsh historical releases. This 7" is a tentative step back into the world of more abrasive, but is not quite the Prurient of the early days.

When I learned of this album, it seemed like a dream come true, as I love both Nina Simone and past Xiu Xiu covers (especially "Ceremony").  Consequently, it seemed like an entire album of Jamie Stewart interpreting Nina's songs could be amazing...if I did not think too much about it.  As it turns out, it is not amazing.  It is an interesting experiment with occasionally impressive results though: Nina sounds like Jamie Stewart making an art-damaged, wildly melodramatic cabaret album with some free-jazz elements thrown in.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does not bear much resemblance to either Nina Simone or classic Xiu Xiu.

Following the recent lavish 7.10.12 box, the enigmatic :zoviet*france: have complied another release, albeit in a more conventional package, that continues the style of that set. Lush synthesizers, infrequent and erratic rhythms, and mysterious ambiences that shift from the delicate to the demonic make for another brilliant work in their long career.