Yoshida Brothers: Prism (Domo, 5/5/09)
This pair of shamisen-wielding brothers used its newest album to tackle many nontraditional styles, tapping into rock, folk, neoclassical, film scores, and more in collaboration with great guest musicians.
Yoshida Brothers: "Seven"
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El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Cryptomnesia (Rodriguez Lopez Productions, 5/5/09)
The latest in Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s ceaseless output, El Grupo Nuevo… functions as a wild Mars-Volta-meets-Hella side project, resulting in a spacey, progressive album with many overlapping rhythms.
Big Business: Mind the Drift (Hydra Head, 5/12/09)
The frenzied beats and bass of Big Business take a breather on Mind the Drift, an epic new direction for the duo/trio that adds guitar, bits of organ, bizarre vocal moments, and restraint. Singalongs "The Drift" and "Ayes Have It" are instant favorites.
Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra: Take Off! (Alien Transistor, 5/12/09)
Led by 25-year-old German composer Daniel Glatzel, this 20-piece modern classical ensemble created one of the year's most beautiful and dazzling albums, romping through playful orchestrations, big-band swing, foreboding soundtrack cues, sad string arrangements, and more.
Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Strings: Renegades (Delmark, 5/19/09)
As a smaller incarnation of Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, BES combines modern jazz sounds and African rhythms via an acoustic quartet.
Skeletonbreath: Eagle’s Nest, Devil’s Cave (Ernest Jenning, 5/19/09)
The fiery fiddle of O’Death violinist Robert Pycior leads Skeletonbreath, a trio that combines Pycior’s strings with the low-end rumble and punishing, straightforward rhythms of mid-’90s alt-rock. Pycior’s violin work combines progressive rock leads with discordant keys, neoclassical melodies, and worldly flavor.
Flat Earth Society: Cheer Me, Perverts! (Crammed, 6/2/09)
This vibrant, upbeat big-band jazz ensemble entwines circus, burlesque, lounge, and Cirque du Soleil sounds in its quirky mix — one that counts on 23 regular members.
Flat Earth Society: "Vole Sperm Reverie"
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Secret Chiefs 3: Traditionalists: Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini (Mimicry, 6/9/09)
With its latest album, Trey Spruance’s unparalleled Secret Chiefs 3 set its sights on the Italian giallo horror/erotica genre of the 1960s and ’70s. This masterful album encapsulates 30 brief, often abstract film cues that sonically invoke images of bloodcurdling terror — as well as moments of passive tranquility.
Coalesce: Ox (Relapse, 6/9/09)
After 10 years, multiple reunions, and talk of resurfacing as a new entity, the hardcore maelstrom that is Coalesce returned with a full disc of sonic punishment — while also edging into bits of acoustic melancholy, heavy blues, harmonized vocals, and Italian western.
Jerseyband: Beast Wedding (6/11/09)
An incredible unsigned septet that weaves furious horn/guitar riffs atop a syncopated, polymetered math-metal foundation.
