A-FRAMES
Black Forest (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com)
Crazy, paranoid droning begins this album, all synths and heavy drums; so strange and disconcerting, you're not really sure where the album is going to head. Sadly, it heads in the wrong direction '“ away from the stark Coil/Current 93 vibe it could've gotten and into the (gulp) Nine Inch Nails/Marilyn Manson vein. This really saddens me, because musically, that first track had a lot going for it; however, the vocals are so overwrought and empty as to make me turn the record off almost as soon as it gets onto my player. I guess there is sort of a New Order vibe happening, but, I don't like New Order either. This album is bottom of the barrel. Listen to it for the spooky drones and clank guitars; get rid of it when the singing starts. --AG
File next to: Why is this on Sub Pop?

AKRON/FAMILY
s/t (Young God, www.younggodrecords.com)
Here is an album that I can really get on board with. Akron/Family takes the best bits of Devendra Banhart and 'œfreak-folk'?, puts them through a bunch of processing and lost blues, and comes out with a sound more or less their own (albeit indebted). And it's a surprising record, to make things even better! Surprising in that it seemed to come out of nowhere, surprising in tone and musicality (check out that time change on 'œBefore and Again'?, or the noisy interlude), and surprising in lyrical depth. If the new Angels is Michael Gira taking a step forward with his band, Akron/Family is that same band taking a few further steps forward, without Gira, finding their feet, and releasing one of the better folk albums I've heard this year. --AG
File next to: Anything but Devendra Banhart.

ANGELS OF LIGHT
Sing Other People (Young God, www.younggodrecords.com)
Michael Gira has finally made the album I've always wanted him to make. Gone are the vaguely creepy sexual innuendos of How I Loved You. Gone are the pirate-isms and annoying vocals of Everything Is Good Here '“ heck, it even one-ups the second-best Angels record, New Mother. Basically it all comes down to the fact that Gira has begun writing songs that don't strive for some literary merit, nor for the same kind of anger as his Swans stuff. Mostly he's just singing about his own shit now, and that couldn't be better. Lyrically, the album is on an entirely different plateau than its predecessors. Likewise, the backing band is much better, thanks to the help of Akron/Family, the latest Young God signing, --AG
File next to: Getting your shit together.

BARBIE BANGKOK
Oh My God (Kinky Star; www.barbiebangkok.com)
The cover of the Barbie Bangkok album has four alien-looking creatures, perhaps even humans, that are various colours, all standing in a row. This seems like the best way to describe the album. How, one might ask? Well, this album definitely plays with that cheesy Star Trek alien-like spacey sound. At the same time, each song is different in its own way, much like the varying colours of the people on the cover. 'œRoll Rockin''? has male and female vocals over the mellow guitar playing, mixed with the oh-so-popular synth. With the band's prevalent use of simplistic sounds, along with little quirky noises made for alien-rock, they're not quite like the space-rock of the '80s, but could be if they tried! With only a few parts I enjoyed, it seems as though each song was brought into a direction I didn't really understand. By the end of the album, I was neither bored nor ecstatic about what I had heard. Oh My God is not a bad album, but by the end I was a little tired of feeling like a flying saucer was about to invade the room. --JB
File Next to: A spaceship'¦with a cool alien that can sing.

F.S. BLUMM
Zweit Meer (Morr, www.morrmusic.com)
F.S. Blumm came onto the German Electronic scene as one half of Sack & Blumm, a group whose purpose seemed to be to give Mouse on Mars decent brass sections for their cutups. I'm not sure if Sack & Blumm are still around, but it seems like F.S. has struck out on his own for greener pastures. The results are mostly great '“ lots of clean-picked electric guitar over lattices of pretty electronic sounds; all very chilled out, all very good. The only problem I have with this guy is his lack of spontaneity. He seems to have found a niche that is being pretty crowded out right now in the Electronic scene (almost all of this crowding propagated by Morr Music, unfortunately), a space that he could have easily vacated had he tried some experimentation with his sound. While it's good, there are so many other bands making music that is exactly like this and better, that they're worthier of your time. However, if that stuff's your bag, then Zweit Meer is probably for you. '“AG
File next to: Too many to name.

THE BOOKS
Lost and Safe (Tomlab, www.tomlab.de)
This album surprised the shit out of me when I first heard it. Gone (mostly) are the warm cutups, replaced with a warm analog pop music whose vocals are filled almost entirely by Nicky Zammuto, one third of The Books, and, as I'd figured, one of the ones that didn't sing (I'd actually been hoping for some more of Anne Doerner's great vocals). Surprise faded to frustration which eventually revealed enjoyment '“ this record, if you're a fan of The Books, will come at first as a disappointment, but as it plays it reveals itself to be the logical extension of The Books' sound. 'œA Little Longing Goes Away'? starts the record with a thin bed of guitar and cello, overtop which Nicky sings 'œYes and no are just distinguished by distinction, so we choose the in-between'? in a voice frail enough for Conor Oberst. As much as this seems like the semiotic intellectual masturbation it probably is, it also works, and, after a few listens, you realize how well Nick's voice fits into the music. Here's to The Books, and to another great record. --AG
File next to: Unexpected surprises.

CARIBOU
The Milk of Human Kindness (Domino, www.dominorecordco.com)
Dan Snaith (formerly Manitoba, now Caribou, thanks to some bunk-ass lawsuit) has made the album he's been hoping to make since Start Breaking My Heart came out in 2001. An album that balances between the warm calm of SBMH and the spastic psych-tronic brilliance of 2003's incredible Up in Flames. And in some ways it works, but in others, it doesn't. Let me break it down: firstly, this record is all singing. And the singing is distinguishable! One of the things that made Up in Flames so great was the muffled quality of the vocals '“ Dan could have been singing about anything, it was the mood that really got you. Secondly, the mood. This album feels a whole lot more reflective than the last one did. It also work's to Dan's favour '“ while Up in Flames was a joyful bomb, this plays things down a little, extracting the happiness in little bits throughout the course of the album, mixing it in with the sadness, and making things decent. '“AG
File next to: It's still great, just not as great'¦

CROOKED FINGERS
Dignity and Shame (Merge, www.mergerecords.com)
Everyone is saying the same thing: Eric Bachmann has lost it. But, let's face it, they've been saying that since Icky Mettle came out in 1991, and since then the dude has released near ten great albums. Sure, the new CF isn't as last-call-one-more-glass-of-whiskey down, but then, people were getting down on Red Devil Dawn (the last CF album) for being too similar to the first one! I mean, what the fuck? It seems like it's a rock and a hard place situation, but the truth of the matter is, this is a really good record, closer to Calexico and southwestern Mariachi than it is to Tom Waits and California blues (by way of throat cancer? what?). This works, and really well. The songs take a long time to build, but the payoff is worthwhile. --AG
File next to: Calexico, Giant Sand, Howe Gelb, Migala, the Southwest.

JAPANTHER
Wolfenswan (Plan-It-X, www.plan-it-x.com)
I can't stop listening to this. Seriously. Japanther's got their maniac-drums/fuzz-bass/tape-loop schtick down cold for this one. Slathered in a foot of sticky four-track tape hiss, this is the wickedest positive pop record I've heard in years. Worth getting just for the amazing "Change Your Life" ("What the fuck was I thinking when I fucked up my life?"), and "Selfish Kids" ("What are you gonna do when the cops show up for you, for all that shit you did when you were just
a kid?"). '“HG
File next to: We can't wait for Japanna to move back to Toronto.