Re-master of the 1984 album, a more muscular production than Seven Songs and a pull back from the sonic tribal barrage of The Culling is Coming. Urban Gamelan comes with 12" singles “Coup” and “Language” (and their dub mix b-sides) as well as a beautiful and copious booklet.

Technically, Susanna and her accomplices have once again brilliantly reinvented a handful of internationally popular songs with a minimal amount of instruments, finely treated: piano and organ, guitar and pedal steel, and subtle drums all make way for her uncomfortably direct vocals, executed with perfect precision. Emotionally, however, this is perhaps one of the most painful releases of the year to listen to. Susanna sings with so much weight and conviction that I find myself nearly in tears, horrified during every second of these 14 songs (...and I love it).

This is the third live album from Will Oldham in as many years and out of the three, this one is the best. An excellent recording care of the BBC, Oldham and his backing band for the small tour are on fire. The original radio broadcast made its way to the Internet a while ago but like most downloads on my hard drive it remains unlistened to. I am sorry I did not listen to it as this CD has proven to be astounding in its beauty and perfection.

23 Skidoo's debut has been given another chance with this much deserved reissue. Their sinister ethno-funk industrial-dub blueprint remains an essential listen and their suspicion of commercial success seems both quaint and prophetic.

After the dissolution of the Incredible String Band in 1975, co-founder Robin Williamson relocated in Los Angeles and began writing songs for what would become his second solo album after 1972's Myrrh. Recruiting members for his Merry Band, Williamson returned to Celtic and British traditions to create songs of mood-based storytelling. In addition to the album proper, this reissue includes ten previously unreleased demos cut with Stan Schneir of latter-day ISB that are every bit as good as the album itself.

Eyeless in Gaza's latest release is a two-album set bundled in a colorful and lavish hinged box. The discs each come in an oversized, book-bound jacket and, along with a thick lyric booklet, make for an impressive package. It's a shame, then, that the music isn't nearly so stunning as the presentation.

Honest Jon's third compilation of early 78s from the EMI Hayes Archive is an eclectic survey of the collection, spanning enough time and geography to cover a lifetime of travel. The selections date from 1903 to 1957 and cross the globe many times over. No dull history lesson, this is vibrant music of uncommon beauty.

A reissue of a reissue, this newest version of the band’s original singles collection couples most of the tracks from the original vinyl issue, as well as the separate Just Like Everybody Part Two from the late 1980s to create a definitive anthology of material.  Along with the two other reissues by LTM, this not only presents the classic material, but also most of the tracks from the previous The Gospel Comes to New Guinea compilation (the remainder of witch are scattered on the other releases).  Such a sprawling track list is good in some ways, but in others feels a bit too long.

Boston-native Daniel Lopatin produces a unique and gripping, but nebulous brand of ambient-noise. His proclivities span the spectrum from hazy, drone-like tones and noise orchestras to heavily sequenced and layered synthesizer pieces reminiscent of nature documentaries and Boards of Canada. The integration of these two approaches gives Betrayed in the Octagon an uneasy feel, like a science fiction nightmare come to life.

On their much-anticipated follow-up to Cryptograms, Deerhunter are mellower but more focused than ever. A greater transparency in their songwriting reveals tighter arrangements and considerable restraint in their use of strange textures and ambient noises, instead saving them and their loud guitars for moments of maximum dramatic impact. Relying on clarity rather than obfuscation, they manage the rare feat of evolution without sacrificing their unique qualities in the process.

The two discs in this collection make up the full soundtrack to the film by CS Leigh of the same name.  As Ikeda's first film soundtrack, it comprises not only the actual musical elements, but ambient sound as well.  Even without the visual accompaniment, the music and sound create a vivid picture, but unfortunately Ikeda's work seems to be underrepresented in the overall mix.

 

As one of the co-founders of the Raster-Noton label, Olaf Bender, a.k.a. Byetone, is no stranger to the cold, clinical school of electronic music that his label is known for.  However, on this album he takes a somewhat more organic, less esoteric approach that is both danceable, and strangely dissonant.

Deer Tick's reissue has a couple of absolute gems and new cover art cleverly suggesting that they seek a rewardingly unfashionable sound midway between The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Mountain Goats.

Boston's Keith Kenniff is a frustratingly saccharine composer with plenty of talent but little equilibrium. His sober, painstakingly crafted arrangements are gorgeous hymns to the idea of beauty itself, at least in theory. In reality, some of his work is just a bit too stiff and composed for my ears.

The title of this album couldnt possibly be more descriptive:  using only audio recordings of Cosey Fanni Tutti’s voice, COH (a.k.a. Ivan Pavlov) uses her as an instrument. Small fragments of voice become melodious elements, phonemes become drums, and the smallest syllables are shaped into synthesizers.  The result is an electronic work that simultaneously manages to be beautifully organic and completely alien.

As one of the early pioneers in the industrial and noise fields, Bianchi never quite attained the same status as Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle, or SPK. This might be because of his relatively short career: beginning as Sacher-Pelz in 1979 and continuing on under his own name until 1984, his time on the scene was brief, but prolific. This reissue of one of his classic albums is augmented both with bonus tracks and a second disc of obscure/bootlegged tracks that showcase one of the bleakest, most desolate musicians of his time.

In recent years, Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley have pushed the live sound of Sunn O))) away from the typical riffs, robes, and dry ice formula. This release documents one of two site-specific performances given in Europe since 2006; here their hyper-amplified doom is played out within the confines of Bergen's Domkirken cathedral and utilizes the church's organ as well as its massive acoustics (the other performance being the Moog Ceremony concert in Brussels). Joined by some Sunn O))) regulars (as well as Lasse Marhaug), this is one of the better live albums by a group whose discography is peppered with savage live recordings.

With their new album, Digital Darkness, Somatic Responses lay down the raw anger and metallic, broken, saw-edged decay of seized-up industrial breakdown. Their use of jagged, spastic beats, quickfire stabs of rusty chainsaw buzz, and acid-oil-tinged spikiness recalls the social price that was paid when the coal-mining industry in the South Wales valleys was devastated in the last century.

There are the usual features that Masami Akita employs in his work: mastering at a face-melting volume, piercing high pitched noises, sand-blasting roars of sound, and, particularly in recent years, the obligatory Save the *insert animal here* artwork. On this last point Akita is normally very heavy handed and just slaps a picture of the animal on the cover or some less than subtle point about vivisection (but then is there anything subtle about a man who has spent his life trying to deafen the world) but on Dolphin Sonar he has made a far more concerted effort at a protest album. All of the sound here can be described as manmade violence or Akita's representation of marine life as envisaged by the dolphin; his anger is directed at where the two ideas meet.

There has been no shortage of metal-tinged instrumental bands these last few years but few can pull it off like Boston's heaviest band. The Touch Records style cover can be quite deceptive: what lurks inside is equal part rock monster and rock ogre; it starts with a bang and finishes with a louder bang.