Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: Rome (Capitol)

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi: "Two Against One" f. Jack White

After meeting in the mid-2000s, eclectic producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi began work on a new project — part pop collaboration and part homage to the classic Italian film scores of the 1960s and '70s.

The two met in Rome to begin recording nearly five years ago, laying down tracks with studio musicians who recorded on some of Ennio Morricone's most famous scores (by American standards).  Now, after a number of trips back to Italy and the addition of guest vocalists Jack White and Norah Jones, the project has finally been released to anxious ears.

Though at least 50% instrumental, Rome falls closer to elaborate pop than Morricone mimicry, with basic foundations allowing for romantic tinges and sweeping strings to flavor the surroundings.  (Think of a less-digitized and more-heavily layered sister album to Air's Virgin Suicides soundtrack.)

There are only minimal doses of reverberating Western guitar leads; tracks such as "The Gambling Priest," with six-string twang and wandering keyboard melodies, are less common than the verse-chorus-verse arrangements, instrumental or otherwise.  Each track is short and sweet, with none clocking in over three-and-a-half minutes, resulting in a beautiful old-school pop album that doesn't overstay its welcome.

Nader Sadek: In the Flesh (Season of Mist)

Nader Sadek: "Petrophilia"

Born in Egypt and residing in New York, visual artist Nader Sadek has become a leading purveyor of extreme-metal imagery, creating backdrops, videos, installations, masks, and more, often for music-related purposes.  Now he has called on many of his metal brethren to help create a collaborative concept album of pummeling death metal with black-metal undertones and brooding interludes.

Credited as a writer and producer, Sadek is the key creative component, but he doesn't play the music.  Instead, that's left to a super-group trio of vocalist Steve Tucker (ex-Morbid Angel), guitarist Rune Eriksen (ex-Mayhem), and drummer Florent Mounier (Cryptopsy) as well as a small army of high-profile guests, including Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Sunn O)))), Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), Nick McMaster (Krallice), Mike Lerner (Behold…The Arctopus), and others.

Musically, In the Flesh is a bombardment of speed picking, dive-bombing guitar leads, blazing double-bass beats, and deathly growls, but it always demonstrates a sense of balance, avoiding the listening fatigue that's common to the genre.  In addition to the varying riffs and tempo shifts, the album benefits from percussive outros, interjections of dark ambience, and finishing touches such as choir vocals on "Of This Flesh."

The concept is based on the life/death cycle of petroleum (and the animals that turned into it over the course of millions of years).  Sadek draws parallels between this cycle and petroleum's present effect on countless lives around the world.  The music fits the dark theme — one that will be further explored as Sadek rolls out videos for each song on In the Flesh.

13 & God: Own Your Ghost (Anticon)

13 & God: "Old Age"

In 2005, the members of American indie-rap group Themselves and German experimental post-rockers The Notwist combined for a side project called 13 & God. The self-titled release meshed the nasally delivery, super-fast rhymes, and synthesized production of the former with the gentle singing, acoustic guitar, and piano melodies of the latter — while retaining both groups’ affinity for uncommon sounds.

On Own Your Ghost, the successor that’s been six years in waiting, the group is joined by Themselves collaborator Jordan Dalrymple (also known as Antonionian). This addition, on top of further musical maturity, helps 13 & God to become more than the sum of its parts — and more than a collection of beats and melodies with alternating vocalists.

If you missed 13 & God the first time around, now’s a great time to check it out.

The Fierce & The Dead: If It Carries on Like This, We Are Moving to Morecambe

The Fierce & The Dead: "10×10"

A proponent of building listener-ship via social networking and "name your price" sales models, British guitarist Matt Stevens has used 21st Century conventions to build a buzz about his melodic, instrumental works.

The Fierce & The Dead, Stevens' latest endeavor, was spawned out of collaborative improvisations during the writing of his second solo album. With the aid of bassist Kev Feazey and drummer Stuart Marshall, Stevens' song sketches morphed into structured yet improvised post-rock jams, 10 of which comprise the trio's full-length debut, If It Carries on Like This, We Are Moving to Morecambe.

Like much of Stevens' solo work, the guitars here are looped and layered to create a much denser and harmonized sound. His guitar is the most likely instrument to explore spur-of-the-moment directions, thanks to the steady rhythm section, but it never goes on meandering free-time tangents.

Many songs, in fact, might sound entirely composed if not otherwise known. But no matter the method of creation, The Fierce & The Dead's debut engages while keeping things simple. From the slowly building circles of "10×10" to the glitch-y effects and sax cameo on "Daddies Little Helper" to the buzz-saw rock of "Landcrab," this is a promising addition to the post-rock landscape.

Starlicker: Double Demon (Delmark)

Starlicker: "Double Demon"

The members of jazz trio Starlicker are each a mainstay in Chicago's dynamic, intermingled improv scene.  Cornetist Rob Mazurek, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, and percussionist John Herndon all have a long history with each other — including in Mazurek's otherworldly hard-bop extravaganza Exploding Star Orchestra — and each is involved in a good half-dozen projects at any given time.

Double Demon is the latest creation by Mazurek as a bandleader.  In the past, the veteran composer and soloist has utilized Adasiewicz in a variety of capacities, but none has found the two balancing duties quite as much as in Starlicker.

Adasiewicz alternates between rapid single-note runs and pounding chords, walking the line that a bassist normally does between melody and rhythm.  Mazurek takes the traditional lead more often than not, but he often syncs up with either the vibes or the drums before the three split for polyrhythmic improvisation.

More often than not, jazz fans will need to appreciate the genre's "free" variety to dig Starlicker, but even if they don't, there's plenty of superb musicianship on display to warrant interest.

Honorable Mentions

Altar of Plagues: Mammal (Profound Lore)

Animal Farm: Culture Shock (Focused Noise)

Austra: Feel it Break (Domino)

Bachelorette: s/t (Drag City)

Bonnie "Prince" Billy / Phantom Family Halo: The Mindeater EP (Sophomore Lounge)

J Rawls: The Hip-Hop Affect [sic] (Nature Sounds)

A Storm of Light: As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade (Profound Lore)

Tokimonsta: Creature Dreams EP (Brainfeeder)

Chad VanGaalen: Diaper Island (Sub Pop)

Weekend Nachos: Worthless (Relapse)

Hank Williams III: Hillbilly Joker (Curb)

Supermachiner, the haunting, mostly instrumental side project from Converge members Jacob Bannon and Kurt Ballou, will soon have its complete 30-track, two-disc collection, Rust, available through Deathwish Inc. Listen to a few tracks here.

Big Business has announced the release of its new album, Mind the Drift, for April on Hydra Head. Listen to a new track, "Gold and Final," on the group's MySpace page.

Japanese post-rockers Mono have a new album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind, being released on March 24 on Temporary Residence. The album boasts guest contributions from a 28-member orchestra.

Seven Signs, the Southern culture documentary by J.D. Wilkes of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers, is now available on DVD.

Following the release of Old Money via Stones Throw on January 26, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez takes his group to Europe in March. Click here for a list of dates.

A new alt-metal super-group called Shrinebuilder is recording a debut album for Neurot Recordings, due this summer. The group consists of Wino (The Hidden Hand), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep), and Dale Crover (Melvins) and will be in the studio with Toshi Kasai (Big Business).

Orange Tulip Conspiracy, the exceptional multi-genre new group led by Estradasphere guitarist Jason Schimmel, will play a full US tour in May. If you're involved in setting up shows, you can help Schimmel fill in dates — head here for details.

Grandaddy singer/songwriter Jason Lytle has a solo debut album, Yours Truly, being release on Anti- on May 19.

Finger-tapping indie-rock specialist Kaki King is playing a "solo guitar and no other bullshit tour" in California from January 21-31. Head here for the dates.

Post-rock/jam keyboardist Marco Benevento plays a weekly residency in February at Yoshi's in Oakland in the middle of a handful of other West Coast dates. During the stint, Benevento will be joined by special guests that include Scott Amendola, Billy Martin, Reed Mathis, Jeff Parker, and Skerik.

California math-rock trio Tera Melos has a new EP of cover songs available to download for free. Band member Nick Reinhart also has new band with drumming wiz Zach Hill, called Bygones, that has a debut album set for release in March on Sargent House.

Starting today, the new Cattle Decapitation album, The Harvest Floor, is streaming in its entirety on buzzgrinder.com. The stream will run through January 19.

Thrash/punk four-piece Trash Talk has announced a handful of shows that span Japan, California, and Georgia (the state). The shows include performances with Fucked Up, Pig Destroyer, Converge, Torche, Mastodon, and Neurosis.

Hardcore tough guys Hatebreed have posted a cover of Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist" on their MySpace page. The cover is included in the soundtrack to Punisher: War Zone.