Lewd Acts Lung Patrol EP:

Color me impressed. The first song is pretty meh; good, but nothing amazing. But then the second song has an amazing build up and the pay off is damn worth it. And the final song is just great. It has a country sound that melds into hardcore very nicely. Hopefully their next album will build on the momentum they have going.

Rating: 13/15 best thing out of San Diego

Harmonic 313 When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence:

An album of synthesizer heavy beats and cool guest singers and MCs. Musically similar to El-P, but less jarring, and more prone to epic synth washes. The guest vocals range from vocoder drenched rants about a dystopian future to MC brag tracks. The balance between instrumentals and vocal tracks is pretty much perfect, giving listeners about as much as they want of either. Though not explicit throughout the entirety of the album the theme of machines conquering mankind is expressed throughout by the foreboding synthesizer sounds, and general fear and tension expressed through the beats. A really cool disk filled with good beats and cool vocals.

Rating: 13/15 cyborgs

Greg Malcom Leather and Lacy:

Jazz hating multiple guitar playing New Zealand free improv musician does an album worth of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy’s compositions. Malcolm plays the melodies quite beautifully on a conventionally played guitar on his lap. For the backing parts Lacey sets up guitars hanging by him and at his feet. He slaps or kicks the guitars, which are often fuzzed out, to create drones and percussive noises. Malcolm’s extra guitars lend each track a certain ambiance, making it sound almost as if they were recorded in various locations each with a different background noise. Malcolm is a tasteful player and each track has an arid sparseness to it that suits the compositions well. An interesting and fairly mellow disk.

Rating: 13/15 kicked guitars

Neurosis Given To The Rising:

After a bit of a nap, Neurosis come back re-energized. Thanks to some help from Steve Albini this disk is one of the most focused Neurosis albums in a while. While it’s not super heavy on experimentation, it makes up for that by being interesting and solid. Defiantly worth a listen and hopefully the next album continues in the same vein.

Rating: 13/15 pseudo-religious songs about Armageddon

Keith Rowe / Keith Rowe & Taku Unami Keith Rowe and Taku Unami / Keith Rowe:

Beeps blurps and scrapes. A very interesting very minimalist release. A cool listen, but only when you’re in the mood for it.

13/15: weird things to play a guitar with

Bad Brains Bad Brains:

Incredible riffs that flawlessly shift to other amazing riffs, get you going and some of the most intense vocals ever put on album take you over the edge. Of course thats only half the album, the other half is mediocre reggae, that no one has ever listened to more than once.

Rating:13/15 Jah!

Parliament Up For The Down Stroke:

Doo-wop vocals, funky guitars, horny horns. Lets not forget crazy lyrics, interesting song structures, and amazing improv. Though not as fully awe inspiring as they would become, this album still turns heads and can make even the most introverted wallflower want to shake their ass.

Rating: 13/15 hints of thing to come

Merzbow 1930:

Its really easy to lose yourself in this album. The frequencies, layered static and found sounds, seem balanced in such a way as to lure you in. The sounds shift frequently enough to hold your active minds interest, while boring into your subconscious.  Eventually all your brain is focusing on is the noise, which is a really amazing place to be in for an hour or so.

Rating: 13/15 effective compositional uses of static

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead The Century of Self:

Not my favorite album ever, but you can’t knock these guys for lack of passion or ambition. Every track has epic riffing impassioned vocals and lyrics which take no prisoner. A strong disk overall but the singularity of their musical attack, which probably makes them amazing live, makes it hard to get through the whole album in one go.

Rating: 13/15 tone it down once in awhile points

Paul Weller At The BBC:

A good mix of Weller’s three-chord take on soul music, and acoustic tunes. Spanning 4 CD’s one gets a feel for all of Weller’s lyrical capabilities, which are considerable, and his knack for crafting simple tunes. Weller has the fortune of having a great backing band, that completely understand the mood of each tune. Weller has aged more gracefully than most and gone through several distinct creative periods, many of which are represented here. A solid release.

Rating: 13/15 Jams

Terry Riley Requiem for Adam:

A piece performed largely by the Kronos Quartet. It features beautiful melodies and intelligently juxtaposed odd meters. Riley also lends some beautiful piano work. Overall mournful yet optimistic in mood, the only downside to this disk is the second movement where Riley uses samples of bells and metal percussion to create a big clanking mess, that sounds more than a little dated.

Rating: 13/15

Laura Barrett Victory Garden:

Singer song-writer and Kalimba master Laura Barrett drops twelve tracks as strong as they are diverse. She jumps from folk to jazz to french indie pop without breaking a sweat. Her playful voice and great lyrics weave in and out of the diverse musical arrangements effortlessly. A very strong release.

Rating: 13/15 Kalimbas

Arvo Part In Principio:

Majestic music, reminiscent of Mozart, but with Part’s signature touch as a pseudo-minimalist. Performed wonderfully by The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Choir.

Rating: 13/15 Great choral writing

Gentleman Reg Little Buildings:

A solid pop album with fairly complex clean-tone guitar arrangements. Reg’s voice takes a little getting used to, but fits the songs perfectly once you’re used to it. Every element of the disk from the lyrics to the drumming manages to be unique and inventive, without sacrificing its catchiness. A really enjoyable album.

Rating: 13/15 Canadians

Loren Connors and Jim O’Rourke Two Nice Catholic Boys

Two guitars make love, through everything from fuzzed out noise to drifting ambiance. Once in a while things get a little boring in the slower sections, but overall a fascinating display of two versatile guitarist at the top of their game.

Rating: 13/15 please collaborate again points

Ravi Coltrane Bending Times:

A good balance of funk, balladry, and near atonal bop weirdness. Coltrane glides through all easily. Coltrane and his band both have impeccable timing. Sometimes a duo will play for several minutes before the rest of the band joins in at just the right spot. A really great disk.

Rating: 13/15 Living up to legacies

Bibio writes spare acoustic country songs, with touching reflective lyrics. Though his lyrics and guitar playing are good they would not be exceptional without Bibio’s arrangements. Each track contains rhythm guitar vocals and then several tracks of highly processed guitar tracks. Sometimes it sounds like hes working with flutes, sometimes strings, sometimes synthesizers, but in reality its all guitar. A cool release.

Rating: 13/15 cool guitar effects

Arbouretum Song of the Pearl:

I have to give it to these guys for having an original idea and sticking to it. Celtic folk lyrics and melodies lilt in and out of Sonic Youth style guitar freak outs. The crazy thing is it works. This is a really strong album that I think I will find myself listening to over and over.

Rating: 13/15 feedback jigs

Harry Partch The Wayward:

Microtonal folk songs with lyrics Partch found various places while he was homeless, riding the rails during the Great Depression. Partch uses a 43 note scale, to craft strange folkish melodies horribly dissonant upon first listen, but beautiful once you become accustom to them. The lyrics portray hobo life during the depression, and being lifted from the script of actual hobo’s are extremely telling of the time period. Bizarre, but interesting listen, once you get accustomed to it.

Rating: 13/15 Home-made instruments

Motorhead Motorizer:

Same old bad ass riffs better production better lyrics. With any luck Lemmy will live forever.

Rating: 13/15 Quotable interviews

Crom Hot Sumerian Nights:

If Manowar ever played Power violence fused with sludge and added Connan samples, then this would be the album they would write.

Rating: 13/15 oiled, muscular dudes

Circle Jerks Shower of Golden Hits:

Nothing innovative here, just a solid album of LA 1980’s hardcore. Recording quality is great for the genre, and this disk may hold the test of time better than much of the work of Keith Morrison’s old band Black Flag.

Rating: 13/15 slam-dancing punks

John Fahey The Yellow Princess:

An album of finger-picked acoustic guitar where Fahey explores not only traditional folk and blues picking styles, but also integrates Indian rags and themes and ideas taken from modern classical music. Pleasant enough to put on as background music and complex enough to study and ponder.

Rating: 13/15 Irish Setters