Belly of the Lion, is David Wingo's much anticipated sophomore effort under the name Ola Podrida. Chockfull of unsentimental love songs, the album pulses with the burgeoning sexuality borne of feral adolescent summers spent in the sprawling suburbs of the South. It's hard not to be wooed, as the songs gingerly lay to rest the calamities that inevitably befall an adventurous heart.

Glass Ghost represents the birth of a new musical force distilled from myriad influences, from J. Dilla to Deerhoof. The result is something completely refreshing, and fittingly, a little scary. It's the pairing of Eliot Krimsky's fragile and haunting falsetto with the group's bottom-heavy, hip-hop influenced rhythm section that yields the crystalline world populated with ass-shakin' beats found on their debut Idol Omen. The unique world they've crafted serves as the perfect vehicle for the album's paranoid narrative, loosely following the metamorphosis of a modern businessman into some mysterious new form.

Glass Ghost represents the birth of a new musical force distilled from myriad influences, from J. Dilla to Deerhoof. The result is something completely refreshing, and fittingly, a little scary. It's the pairing of Eliot Krimsky's fragile and haunting falsetto with the group's bottom-heavy, hip-hop influenced rhythm section that yields the crystalline world populated with ass-shakin' beats found on their debut Idol Omen. The unique world they've crafted serves as the perfect vehicle for the album's paranoid narrative, loosely following the metamorphosis of a modern businessman into some mysterious new form.

Year In The Kingdom unravels some kind of galactic wilderness. Tillman's 6th album lyrically borders on mystic; proffering a transcendent union, an effortlessness. Strange and honest, this song cycle inhabits it's own idea-scape; one seemingly obsessed with wrestling death. These are afterlife dialogues of a mysterious future. Celestial badlands.YITK sounds liberated; it is far and away Tillman's most joyful work. Created with little input or context, it is seemingly disinterested in communicating much else than a meditation for the few who allow themselves to listen with an open heart.

Year In The Kingdom unravels some kind of galactic wilderness. Tillman's 6th album lyrically borders on mystic; proffering a transcendent union, an effortlessness. Strange and honest, this song cycle inhabits it's own idea-scape; one seemingly obsessed with wrestling death. These are afterlife dialogues of a mysterious future. Celestial badlands.YITK sounds liberated; it is far and away Tillman's most joyful work. Created with little input or context, it is seemingly disinterested in communicating much else than a meditation for the few who allow themselves to listen with an open heart.

Balmorhea's All is Wild, All is Silent has received praise from critics, fans, and most importantly from the band's close friends. Many of their friends are not surprisingly musicians themselves. The idea to release the All is Wild, All is Silent Remixes evolved organically as the band asked a few of their closest friends if they'd like to remix a track. To their surprise 11 of their friends jumped at the opportunity to create remixes of these wordless narratives that have become so meaningful to them..  Features remixes by Eluvium, Tiny Vipers, Peter Broderick, Bexar Bexar, Helios, Machinefabriek, and more.

Much like a handmade quilt, Sleep Whale’s music is filled with collected scraps of material, beautiful patterns and meticulous crafting. Though the possibilities for both quilts and music are many, the ultimate purpose is to keep one warm. The six songs on Little Brite conjure a universe whose ancient forbears include Steve Reich, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Eno’s looping ambiences, Brit-folk guitarist Bert Jansch, gamelan ensembles and Hindustani hand percussion, however, the wall-to-wall beauty of the proceedings is anything but reverential ear candy. Engaging, melodically rewarding, and sophisto-whimsical, Sleep Whale’s cerebrally atmospheric marriage of the luddite and techno worlds makes for essential listening.

On Pop Ooga, Shuta Hasunuma lets loose an endless array of gorgeous and restless rhythms and melodies. Throughout the album he seamlessly folds funky bass and synth lines, graceful guitar, and breathy vocal harmonies into his web of glitch-pop-concrete. The result is intellectually engaging and fervent music, that reminds us of our urgent need to celebrate our time together.  It's on the LP's bonus track "Go Pacific" that Hasunuma's impeccable balance between the technological and deeply personal resonates longest. Literally blending bells and whistles into an infectious, breezy dose of melodic sunshine, expect to be caught in an addictive, vinyl trance that will have you eagerly resetting your stylus again and again.

Peter Broderick’s Music for Falling From Trees, is a 29 minute piece, in seven sections, created for a contemporary dance by London's Adrienne Hart. Adrienne told Peter she was looking for a score of piano and strings, so he left the guitar and his voice aside and focused entirely on those two timbres. The dance tells the story of a man in a psychiatric hospital, and his struggle to maintain his identity. Beautifully utilizing piano and strings, the music evokes a melancholic and playful narrative.

Developed over a two-month period of stream-of-consciousness recording in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Luke’s self-titled debut under his new moniker Here We Go Magic is a remarkable departure from his signature singer-songwriter material.  The album opens with the trance-inducing polyrhythms and gorgeous multi-layered vocals of "Only Pieces. " What follows is an album oozing with sounds maternal and subconscious...like floating in amniotic fluid, ripe, hiccup-y and desperate to emerge. Many of the songs pulse with infectious afro-beat and kraut-rock influenced grooves, calling to mind classic albums like Remain in Light and Graceland. In contrast, the instrumental tracks conjure mystical introspective landscapes reminiscent of Popol Vuh's unforgettable ambience.

Developed over a two-month period of stream-of-consciousness recording in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Luke’s self-titled debut under his new moniker Here We Go Magic is a remarkable departure from his signature singer-songwriter material.  The album opens with the trance-inducing polyrhythms and gorgeous multi-layered vocals of "Only Pieces. " What follows is an album oozing with sounds maternal and subconscious...like floating in amniotic fluid, ripe, hiccup-y and desperate to emerge. Many of the songs pulse with infectious afro-beat and kraut-rock influenced grooves, calling to mind classic albums like Remain in Light and Graceland. In contrast, the instrumental tracks conjure mystical introspective landscapes reminiscent of Popol Vuh's unforgettable ambience.

For years Slow Six band-leader Christopher Tignor has performed with his signature software instruments alongside his fellow players, sampling and transforming their live performances in accordance with his meticulous, emotionally-charged scores. On Core Memory Unwound, he brings his unique software to the forefront alongside some of his most intimate compositions for violin and piano. A record dealing with memory, both metaphorically and literally, these tone poems for violin and piano are each presented in two forms, once in their original acoustic state, and then as a "memory portrait" through Tignor's live performances on his signature software instruments, creating new works from samples taken on the fly.

Balmorhea takes a giant leap forward on their bold and variegated new album All is Wild, All is Silent. Now a six piece, the band known for their understated simplicity and restraint has produced an album as complex as the workings of the lonely human heart.  The opening track "Settler" beams with a rural down-home aesthetic that could equally inspire whisky drinking or silent prayer. "Harm and Boon" makes sharp turns from painfully vulnerable to soaring triumph without relying upon the formulaic structures overused by so many of today's instrumental groups. The album closes with the haunting and simple "November 1, 1832," sounding like a long-distance call to a home that you can never return to.

Balmorhea takes a giant leap forward on their bold and variegated new album All is Wild, All is Silent. Now a six piece, the band known for their understated simplicity and restraint has produced an album as complex as the workings of the lonely human heart.  The opening track "Settler" beams with a rural down-home aesthetic that could equally inspire whisky drinking or silent prayer. "Harm and Boon" makes sharp turns from painfully vulnerable to soaring triumph without relying upon the formulaic structures overused by so many of today's instrumental groups. The album closes with the haunting and simple "November 1, 1832," sounding like a long-distance call to a home that you can never return to.

Madagascar uses crisscrossing accordion, saw, and glockenspiel melodies, punctuated with beautiful wordless vocals on their new album Goodbye East, Goodbye West. From playful waltzes and clanky dirges, to minimalist scrapes and drones, to their arrangement of the Chanukah staple S'vivon, this is a uniquely satisfying and mystifying collection of songs.

The push & pull of Vacilando Territory Blues veers sharply from the tone of Tillman's previous releases, which adhere to a singular mood & stylistic execution. The dynamic tension between songs like "Firstborn" & "New Imperial Grand Blues" is hard to reconcile, but the way the songs are framed herein belies a cohesion not dissimilar to classic oddball albums such as After The Goldrush. The breadth of Tillman's abilities as a songwriter emerge on VTB in an array of musical personalities bound by his lyrical existential dread & economical arrangements.

Throughout their debut Fortune Sara Lucas' voice and Ryan's Seaton's guitar are seamlessly interwoven, creating a haunting and soulful kind of magic. With the wounded perseverance of Karen Carpenter and the vulnerable, tough-as-nails courage and acceptance of Heart's Ann Wilson, Sara Lucas' voice is rich and unforgettable. Seaton's guitar work is equally engaging, using beautiful unusual chords, gritty distortion, and intricate flourishes.

Pierre Bastien is well known for his orchestra of musically gifted robots. Driven by electric motors, the machines deliver stuttering rhythmic loops. Their unsteady tempos constantly fluctuate, imbuing the songs with an emotional and honest quality not found in much of today's loop-based music. The nine tracks on Visions of Doing have been selected from Bastien's soundtracks to Karel Doing's films.

From the contented isolation of "The Winter" to the hazy heat and hopeful longing of "San Solomon," their music captures the indescribable feelings of living and growing in Texas. Mirroring the vast Texas skies, Balmorhea's music is imbued with a visceral weight and endless space.

Much like the bamboo plants that dominate Japan’s landscape, Shuta Hasunuma’s piano work on his new album OK Bamboo has an enduring, simple elegance. OK Bamboo’s title and compositions are the result of Hasunuma’s interest in the ancient relationship between Japan and bamboo. As he explains, “In Japan, bamboo is revered as a plant sharing properties of both wood and grass. It also has an enduring and remarkable strength. After bombings in times of war, when all of the people are killed and the buildings destroyed, often the bamboo plants are all that’s left standing.”

Slow Six uses amplified strings, guitars, and Rhodes piano, processed live by homegrown software "instruments" on their debut Private Times in Public Places. For a preview of their work check out Nor'ester released by New Albion (John Cage, Arvo Part, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, etc) earlier this year.

"Existing on the cusp between the hand-tooled elegance of early 20th-century European puppet theater and the unfinished DIY aesthetic of object-based performance art, and emanating a gorgeously haunting aura that will leave you speechless, House of the Sin Eater is a shockingly, audaciously beautiful film in both the scope of its creative ambitions and the execution of its craftsmanship." – David Serlin

"These ten songs are acoustic psalms; prayers, unbelievable and quaint, that haunt the conscious; unreal and empty. Yet each one, every last enduring moment of each note, hope and reverie, simply has to be… Such frailty is indescribable. Listen. Just…listen." – Silent Ballet

"Many of the songs have this feeling that's hard to describe but so satisfying to hear: like a sadness that's been buried and you're soldiering quietly on, and not making a show of it.  The spare, lovely melodies swell and recede, all with perfect precision and tremendous understated feeling. How this music can be so emotional without ever getting sentimental or corny is completely beyond me"  - Ira Glass

Rather than embracing cacophony and cold aesthetics, Et Ret's compositions achieve warmth and resonance through repetition. He compliments his confident, but restrained, guitar melodies with deeply impassioned swirls of violins and cellos.  As a final touch, the compositions are accented with sparse percussion and subtle analog electronics.

Julie Sokolow doesn't need much to express herself.  To record Something About Violins, she used nothing more than her voice, an inexpensive acoustic guitar , and the built-in microphone on her Macintosh G4 Powerbook.  In doing so, she has turned on its head the old adage that lo-fi is the provenance of analog fetishists.  She has also created a work of great and unusual beauty.

For The Swimmer the Tren Brothers created four musical selections and four quicktime videos, one to accompany each audio track. The music swoons with Jim White's perfectly expressive and sensual drumming and Mick Turner's signature guitar style. As anyone familiar with their work knows, Jim's unique drumming is the perfect compliment to Mick Turner's moody swirls of guitar and melodica. Together they've created a beautiful portrait of a character known only as The Swimmer.

Voices and Organs consists of a small core, but on this album families and friends made many contributions (with or without their knowledge) so we ended up asking lots of people for permission. Sonically it is as if only half of the album is about the fictitious orphanage itself and the rest is about us. Lyrically maybe it has been us all along... In the end we are only very small and life flows on within them and without us.

Madagascar uses crisscrossing accordion, saw, and glockenspiel melodies, punctuated with beautiful wordless vocals on their new album Goodbye East, Goodbye West. From playful waltzes and clanky dirges, to minimalist scrapes and drones, to their arrangement of the Chanukah staple S'vivon, this is a uniquely satisfying and mystifying collection of songs.

They're simultaneously the scariest band at the laughing festival or the ecstatic gypsy troupe playing Nino Rota's wake." - Baltimore City Paper

They're simultaneously the scariest band at the laughing festival or the ecstatic gypsy troupe playing Nino Rota's wake." - Baltimore City Paper

Robert Lippok’s Robot ep is a portrait of the euphoria and naivety of 20th century robot science.  Throughout the ep he uses the technology and the spirit of early 90’s techno in combination with field recordings and a sense for romantic melodies to explore and elucidate our relationship and fascination with robots.

The Getty Address is an album-length narrative inspired by Aztec mythology, the Eagles, and the 9/11 aftermath. It is a sprawling, layered glitch opera about Don Henley, leader of the aforementioned country/soft-rock group, and it was recorded over the course of almost two years, in three different states, with more than twenty-five people.

"This is scary, evocative music, like an Alan Lomax field recording of a dusty, punk troubadour from the imaginary past; Kid A covered under 80 years of dust and gloom, only exchange the robots and clones for forests and abandoned farmhouses. On The Glad Fact, Dave Longstreth is making his own fucked-up version of American music." - Dusted Magazine

This first half, Slaves' Graves, was recorded in a church in New Haven, CT.  The Ballads were recorded with guru and quaking soul man Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu at Dub Narcotic Studios, in Olympia, WA.  Witness Longstreth use GM technology to restore maize to its original, feral genetic makeup, before the advent of domestication: this is classical and pop music’s bodies-entwined, souls-commingled wedding! 

Shuta Hasunuma uses pieces of field recordings from the streets and countryside of Japan, erratic electronic textures, and emotive guitar and piano melodies to create music that feels like the broken and escaping memories of dreams.  Throughout the album he does an amazing job of using simple, sometimes child-like, melodies to evoke a feeling of melancholy that's both cinematic and intimate.

Stacte Motors continues the Stacte series started in 1998 with Ambarchi's first self-released solo recordings. Similar to the 4 previous editions of the series, which explored one idea at length, Stacte Motors is an experiment in exciting instruments with a spinning motor with strings attached. The resulting recordings are metallic walls of minimalist drones.

"Perhaps this reviewer has gazed too long into the reflection, but under its influence, When the Lower resembles one of the strangest, most creative releases of the year." - Stylus Magazine

Chas. Mtn. began in the late fall of 2003 one night in an overpriced, non-soundproofed practice space in the notorious "fens" district in the college ghetto of Boston. Core members Gary War and Ned Egg (no college) began recording bits and songs on the prestigious Tascam Porta 02 machine, and as baseball season ended the boys' sonic explorations flourished.

Nourallah Brothers was the first release by the musically gifted brothers, Salim and Faris Nourallah.  These sixteen well-crafted songs reveal a rich vignette of youth. Unlike many pop albums of the past, this is not a disparate collection.  Its success lies not in its self-consciousness, rather it comes from its ability to remind us all of our past. 

This pensive, skillfully crafted collection reveals Salim brooding on themes of mortality, aging, lost love and, refreshingly, hope as an antidote to despair.  His keen pop sensibilities shine through in songs such as “Montreal”, a McCartney-esque anthem to the joys of coupledom and “The World Is Full of People (Who Want to Hurt You)” a ballad filled with fatherly worries and love.

The melodies are impeccably well crafted and clearly the work of a songwriter in his prime, while the music strides gracefully in step with each melody, perfectly highlighting the emotion and enduring truth of the songs.

Most listeners would be surprised to hear that the album was written, played, and recorded entirely by Faris alone.  Faris takes this approach, willfully capitalizing on his studio’s limitations, while exploring his unlimited creativity.   Recording alone at home on a16-track recorder, he has developed and honed his unique sound.