Less Bells' Mourning Jewelry is not light music in the sense of weight, but it might be light in the sense of brightness or contrast. It's an engaging little series of tropes about loss and processes of grieving.
King Buzzo's collaboration with Mr. Bungle/Fantômas bassist Trevor Dunn expands the sound of Buzz Osborne's solo oeuvre on Gift of Sacrifice.
Jim O'Rourke's Shutting Down Here is a fine piece of experimental music with a sure hand leading the way. But it's not pushing this music forward with the same propensity as Luc Ferrari or Derek Bailey.
The Bobby Lees' Skin Suit is oozing with sex, sweat and joyful abandon. It's a raucous ride from beginning to end. Cover to cover, this thing's got you by the short hairs.
The eight songs on WiiRMZ's Faster Cheaper are like a good sock to the jaw, bone-rattling, and disorienting in their potency.
Everyone's favorite noise rock curmudgeon, Steve Albini sounds off as he prepares to release an eerie score to a horror film.
On Sleep on the Wing, Bibio continues his fascination with mid-20th century British folk music that listeners heard on last year's Ribbons.
Mike Patton's Mr. Bungle release a cover of the Exploited's "Fuck the USA". But what does it mean beyond its general timeliness?
Two years after Frog Eyes dissolved, Carey Mercer is back with a new band, Soft Plastics. 5 Dreams and Mercer's surreal sense of incongruity should be welcomed with open arms and open ears.
Explosions in the Sky and Eluvium side project, Inventions are best when they are navigating the distinction between modes in real-time on Continuous Portrait.
Comet Meta is a brilliant record full of compositions and moments worthy of their own accord, but what's really enticing is that it's not only by David Grubbs but of him. It's perhaps the most emotive, dream-like, and accomplished piece of Grubbsian experimental post-rock.
SAME's debut full-length, Plastic Western, flirts with everything from Pavement to post-rock.
