Date Palms’ Gregg Kowalsky has been atypically quiet over the last several years, as his last solo full-length was 2009's inspired and fitfully mesmerizing Tape Chants. I am a huge fan of tape loops, so it would have absolutely delighted me if Kowalsky had spent most of the last decade secretly deepening and perfecting that side of his art. It is certainly possible that he has been, but L'Orange, L'Orange is not Tape Chants II. Instead, Kowalsky consciously set out to make an album that "felt like a human made it." He certainly succeeded at that, as L'Orange, L'Orange is a warm, drone-based twist on Date Palms' sun-dappled psychedelia. Aesthetically, it also shares some common ground with a lot of the Cluster-loving analog synth fare so much in vogue these days, yet the best moments achieve a lushly enveloping, meditative bliss that is uniquely Kowalsky-ian.

Robert Haigh’s latest piano-based album is his first for US-based label Unseen Worlds. It has a finely crafted pace with such richness and delicate variety that even the most languid and pristine tracks avoid the doldrums of melancholy.

Chartier's work is never something that could be considered "easy" to listen to, but the result is always a rich, rewarding experience. Recurrence, which is a project that was splintered off of one of his earliest works Series, follows this trend. It might be difficult at times, but he has consistently excelled in creating work that captures the intersection of music, visual art, architecture, and science, and again, Recurrence is no different.

Reto Mäder is quite a prolific artist, from his solo work as RM74, with Steven Hess in Ural Umbo to his role in Pendulum Nisum. His more metal-influenced work as Sum of R (Mäder with guitarist Julia Wolf) has a relatively small discography, with this being his second full-length work other than a few self-released CDRs. Ride Out the Waves makes for a dense, psych tinged experiment that recalls some of the best moments of early Godflesh, juxtaposed with abstract free-form experimentation.

Kang continues to show his range and vision as a composer and ensemble leader. Visible Breath is a startling album which takes many of the strands of 20th century composition and weaves them into new musical fabrics, far from imitation and full of innovation. His music hangs like a specter in the room, the notes either merging into each other like a ghost passing through a wall.

As the title suggests, this live album was recorded in London’s current hot spot for weirdo music and finds the trio taking their work further into the inner recesses of free improvisation. As expected, given their track record as a group and as solo performers in their own rights, Café Oto/London swerves between danger and calm; safety and turmoil. Every adjective ever thrown at free jazz is applicable but, more often than not, inadequate.

Across 13 tracks of sample abuse and digital detritus, the debut album from this duo is a hyper-kinetic, violent outburst of occasionally musical noise that mixes up some odd concoctions that sometimes work, and sometimes don't.

Considering Roden's recent album Proximities, an abstract, lo-fi piece of sound art, this is an odd step. Created through studio improvisations that were explicitly aimed at avoiding electronic instruments, it becomes a very different beast, which is made even more apparent once actual vocals appear, for better or worse.

Now on their third full-length, School of Seven Bells have evolved into playing a sleek, manicured style of dream-pop constructed with the live experience in mind. While I have mixed feelings on the album start to finish, Ghostory does contain some powerful moments within its palette of sounds.

Volcano the Bear continue their esoteric but quickly comprehendible sounds and structure via this lathe-cut 8" single, the debut release on the Alt.Vinyl label. This is the second piece of seven inch VTB vinyl in a many months to come out of the North East of England, and shows the band investing solid musical experiments with new labels, outside of their regular album schedule.