What are the Aesthetics? Tech rock? Noise punk? Overly distortedgarbage? I'd lean towards the latter, though there are some worthwhilemoments to speak of. First off, this is NOT the Aesthetics that youmight find by searching at Ubl.com or Allmusic.com. These are theAesthetics from New Zealand. These are the noisy Aesthetics.

Few bands have faced as tumultuous a career as Scotland's TeenageFanclub. Roster changes, label changes and arguments (Gerard Cosloy isstill peeved about the band's submission of the fully instrumental "TheKing" as their final effort for Matador), and sound changes make for avery rough career. Now on their fourth label in the US, Thirsty Ear,Teenage Fanclub return with the Byrds/Beatles/Big Star influenced soundthat has remained their staple for close to a decade, two years afterSony UK released the album across the pond.

In an act of altruism, LTM Records has begun to remaster and reissueThe Wake's albums, starting with this early record, a smattering ofearly singles and a peel session.

Possibly one of the most anticipated follow-ups is finally available. If you thought the eponymous debut double CD was mindblowing, you ain't heard nothin' yet. 'The Trial' once again sees the four core members playing songs together with strong improvisational origins, but this time it seems the emphasis has gone from astral exploration to an almost surrealistic horrific earthly adventure.

Finally, the album that's had the electronic music community on the edge of its ergonomically designed chair for over three years is out - and it sounds like...Boards of Canada. The reaction to this record can go one of two routes: you can be annoyed that Boards of Canada are stuck in their public television-esque world and that their music sounds the same as it did four years ago, or you can accept Boards of Canada as being very specific in the kind of music they make, and enjoy it for what it is. The second option makes for a more pleasurable listen.

Cybernetic:Fuckheadz is the bastard step-child of Raoul Rotation ofNoisex and Patrick Stevens of Sona Eact?/Hypnoskull notoriety. Take theharshest elements of both: Noisex's hardcore techno stylings, andHypnoskull's heavily distorted, at times undanceable, beats, and addliberal amounts of drum n' bass, and you have the most fucked up dnbrecord of the year—and it's not even on the Hands label, imagine that.

Folkstorm is one of the seemingly infinite projects of NordvargrKremator from the Cold Meat Industry band and former black metalers MZ412 (luckily the corpse paint and spiky gauntlets seem to have gone theway of the original black metal bands). Their brand of dark, cold andoften Satanic electronics have scared the crap out of people for yearsnow, but Folkstorm is pure and simple European power electronics.

I want to start off by stating that I wanted to like this record. Ireally, truly wanted to be able to say that Hefner have really bouncedback after their woefully unimpressive last album, 'We Love the City'.Sadly, it was not to be.

After straying into realms of harsh noise and power electronics onalbums like 'Obsessis', BDN returns to darker territory. The allegedlylimited vinyl-only '1890' is a good example of a minimal record—howless is more.

Having been quite impressed by the MP3 extract of Cray's 'SevenSatellites' that was up here a few weeks ago, I bought a copy of hissecond full length album. A mate of Pimmon, Melbourne resident RossHealy's fascination with the raw whoosh'n'screech of short wave radiois readily apparent in the dissonant abstractions that his hardrive hasspewed onto "Undo".