Brooklyn's Famous Class label has recruited noise rockers A Place to Bury Strangers and punk band Ceremony to contribute unreleased tracks for the first installment of its new seven-inch series, Less Artists More Condos. LAMC, which launches April 10, carries on the tradition of late label partner Ariel Panero, who started the concert series of the same name.

Portishead's Geoff Barrow and film/television-soundtrack composer Ben Salisbury have teamed up to bring to life the massive, ever-changing fictional city-state of Mega-City One, the setting for the long-running Judge Dredd comic 2000AD. The soundtrack, titled DROKK, will be released May 8 via Invada Records.

LA noise-rock outfit HEALTH will compose the soundtrack and in-game score to Rockstar Games' latest chapter of its Max Payne story, Max Payne 3. View the official trailer and hear a sample of the score here.

Following recent releases for his ambient project Goldmund and Mint Julep (the shoegaze duo with his wife Hollie), composer / multi-instrumentalist Keith Kenniff has composed scores for the upcoming documentary Blood Brother and the short film Losers. Also on the way, in light of last year's devastating earthquake in Japan, is For Nihon, a compilation album including Kenniff, his wife, and such friends as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Rafael Anton Irisarri (Orcas, The Sight Below), Ulrich Schnauss. All proceeds go to the Japan Earthquake Fund.

Quakers — a 35-strong hip-hop collective built around producers Fuzzface (Portishead), 7-Stu-7, and Katalyst — will release its self-titled 2-LP / 2-CD debut on March 27 via Stones Throw. The eclectic mix of contributors includes Prince Po, Dead Prez, and Phat Kat as well as label-mates Aloe Blacc, Guilty Simpson, and MED.

Yakuza vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Bruce Lamont will perform with a plethora of musicians this month around the Midwest, including appearances at SXSW. He's slated to perform songs off his acclaimed solo debut, Feral Songs for the Epic Decline, as well as alongside the likes of Andrew WK, Alcest, Rwake, and Zoroaster.

Punk/hardcore supergroup OFF! — founded by Black Flag / Circle Jerks front-man Keith Morris — will release its first full-length on May 8 via Vice Records. Like the band's First Four EPs debut, the album contains 16 tracks and clocks in at about as many minutes. You can catch the band at SXSW this year and in various cities supporting the album.

Twenty years since the release of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti's final studio album, New York's Knitting Factory is prepared to release the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist's Live in Detroit, 1986 on May 8. You can hear an excerpt off the live album, "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense," here.

Songwriter / violinist Emily Wells will bring her signature blend of folk, hip hop, and classical music this spring with her latest LP, Mama, out 4/10 on Partisan Records. She also recently collaborated with producer Dan the Automator, providing vocals for his latest project, Pillowfight — that album's due out sometime this year as well. Last but not least, her talent has captured the attention of renowned DJ Kid Koala, who remixed her song "Passenger," which you can hear over herex.

Bringing together three wildly different perspectives, S / S / S — the alliterative collaboration between Sufjan Stevens, Serengeti, and Son Lux — will release a four-track EP titled Beak & Claw on March 20 via Anticon. Also featured on the album are guests Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and Doseone of Subtle and Themselves.

This spring, NYC electro-rockers Battles will release Dross Glop, which will feature remixes of every song off its 2011 album, Gloss Drop. The band hand-picked each artist for the record, including the likes of The Alchemist, Hudson Mohawke, Shabazz Palaces, Gang Gang Dance, and Gui Boratto, among others. The album is out April 17 via Warp.

This spring, heavy-rock heavyweight The Melvins will debut its latest formation as Melvins Lite, featuring founders Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover with Tomahawk / Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn. Their album together, Freak Puke, is out June 5 via Ipecac. But if you can't wait that long, get your Melvins fix with its five-track EP The Bulls & the Bees, available for free download via Scion A/V's Facebook page on March 13.

In a profoundly WTF? move, Epic Records has signed Sacramento experimental hip-hop outfit Death Grips and will release two new albums 2012. The Money Store, due out April 24, will be the first of the new releases and the follow-up to the group's acclaimed 2011 mixtape, Exmilitary.

Shortly after returning from Europe later this week, blackened post-metal band Deafheaven will embark on a US tour beginning March 9 with several West Coast dates with Whirr and Marriages. On March 20, the band will join French shoegaze outfit Alcest in New Orleans before they both head east. And after just a few days off, Deafheaven will head back to Europe on April 5, for a 38-city tour supporting Chicago post-metal trio Russian Circles. Find the massive list of tour dates here.

Featuring Aaron Turner of Isis and members of Finland's underground (including Circle and Steel Mammoth), intercontinental hardcore/crust band Split Cranium has announced its self-titled debut, out March 20 via Hydra Head. Stream the band's first two singles here.

Yesterday, Christopher Reimer, guitarist for Calgary indie band Women, died in his sleep. The cause of death has not yet been reported. He was 26 years old. Reimer's sister, Nikki Reimer, has created a memorial website in his honor.

LA post-hardcore power trio Philm — comprised of Slayer's Dave Lombardo, War's Pancho Tomaselli, and Civil Defiance's Gerry Nestler — has announced a May 15 release date for its debut album, Harmonic, on Ipecac. Right now, the band is only slated to play at San Diego's Ruby Room on April 28, but expect more dates to come.

Brooklyn trio Violens has announced the release of its next album, True, out May 15, 2012 via Slumberland Records. Though the band continues to blend '60s guitars, synth pop, and entrancing vocal harmonies, True takes a decidedly more toned-down approach. The first single off the album, "Unfolding Black Wings," is available for download now.

Louisville punk super-group Black God recently announced its new EP, II, due out March 20 on No Idea Records. You can stream the first single off the album, "Everyone's a Friend," here.

In case you missed it this week, here's a link to "Banished," the first released track from the forthcoming JJ Doom album (Jneiro Jarel & MF Doom). Key to the Kuffs is out this May via Lex Records.

Gaining popularity for its indie-chamber renditions of hip-hop songs like Kanye West's "All of the Lights," the Portland Cello Project will release a studio album in the same vein. Aptly titled Homage, the album (due 5/1 on Jealous Butcher) will include covers of Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Andre 3000, among others.

Zammuto, an experimental four-piece led by Nick Zammuto of The Books, will embark on its first US tour in the days following the release of its self-titled debut, out 4/3 on Temporary Residence. Beginning in Boulder, CO on 4/5, the band will tour the western US in support of labelmates Explosions in the Sky before concluding in San Antonio, TX on 4/24. Tour dates are listed here.

Sacramento-based math-rock trio Tera Melos will join forces with the newly reunited fIREHOSE this April, supporting the band for six dates on its reunion tour. Both bands will begin the tour on 4/5 in Sacramento; Tera Melos is set to perform until 4/11 in San Francisco. Follow Tera Melos' tour dates here.

Poland's annual OFF Festival — an eclectic rock-based festival that's set in Katowice — has announced its second wave of artists for the early-August event. Swans, Battles, Kurt Vile, and more will join the first wave of Colin Stetson, Matthew Herbert, Iggy and The Stooges, Suicide, and a handful of others. Watch a 30-minute documentary on last year's festival here.

Brazilian electronic composer / producer Amon Tobin will take his larger-than-life multimedia experience "ISAM Live" to Barcelona's Sonar Festival this year, alongside such acts as The Roots, Squarepusher, Austra, and James Blake, among others. Check out complete lineups here, including the festival's stops in São Paulo, Tokyo, and Cape Town.

Polish avant-grindcore outfit Antigama has announced its return to Selfmadegod Records. The band is in the studio crafting two new releases due out this spring: a three-way split with Noisear and The Kill, and a single tentatively titled Stop the Chaos. A full-length is slated for release later this year.

LA psychedelic-doom rockers Ancestors are set to release a new album, In Dreams and Time, on April 10 via Tee Pee Records. Along with the new album, the band has recently announced the latest addition to its roster, drummer Daniel Pouliot (Horse the Band, Bleeding Kansas). The band also is confirmed for performances at this year's Desertfest and Roadburn festivals.

This Spring, Chapel Hill-based psychedelic drone outfit Horseback will release its new full-length Half Blood — the Relapse followup to 2010 album The Invisible Mountain. The album, which explores an array of musical traditions, will feature cover art by Moscow-based symbolist painter Denis Forkas Kostromitin.

On April 27, Pat Grossi will take his choral-based electro-pop project Active Child on the road for a North American tour, which will kick off at The Glass House in Pomona, CA. See official tour dates here, and check out the music video for his latest single "Hanging On."

Serengeti super-fan persona Kenny Dennis has unveiled "Shazam," a Shaquille O'Neal dis track that's taken from his forthcoming Kenny Dennis EP, out 3/20 on Anticon. Listen here.