Kevin Hufnagel: Transparencies (Nightfloat)

Kevin Hufnagel: "Ever Rest"

When he's not lending his blistering fretwork to Dysrhythmia and Gorguts, or working on ambient pieces as half of Byla, guitarist Kevin Hufnagel finds the spare moment to work on his growing solo catalog.

Though his first solo release was self-issued back in '97, he reemerged in 2009 with Songs for the Disappeared, a masterful collection of percussive acoustic-guitar pieces. Transparencies is just as beautiful but entirely different, bridging the gaps between his electric and ambient sides.

Melodies carry nearly every moment of these 11 tracks, but most are bathed in fuzz, feedback, reverb, and glistening effects. Though some pieces edge toward post-rock territory and Hufnagel makes good use the guitar, there are plenty of minimalist repetitions and loops, often building atmosphere for each track's many layers. "Soundscape" might be an overused descriptor for this style, but with Transparencies, it's entirely applicable, representing a world of sonic depth.

Stream Transparencies in its entirety on Hufnagel's Bandcamp page.

- Lauren Zens & Scott Morrow

Kayo Dot: Gamma Knife

Kayo Dot: "Mirror Water, Lightning Night"

Last year, avant-rock outfit Kayo Dot and its multi-instrumentalist leader, Toby Driver, delivered the 20-minute Stained Glass EP, a single track that combined the band's many elements but leaned on atmosphere.

Gamma Knife (streamed here in its entirety) is Driver and company's latest, calling upon sax-infused noise metal for the majority of its 25 minutes. The recording itself is unconventional — a partial live recording with overdubs added in the studio, providing a strange balance and distant feel to much of the music.

More importantly, however, Gamma Knife is the usually unusual balance of Kayo Dot styles. "Lethe" opens with a classically influenced (and Gregorian-tinged?) piece that almost — almost — could resemble Christmas music. The skronky, progressive track that follows, however, conjures no thoughts of sugar plums. It's abrasive and hard to follow, with all sorts of ghoulish vocals bubbling under the layers — resulting in a swirling (and uncomfortable) cauldron of sound.

There's plenty more unholy noise and rhythmic prowess (see "Mirror Water, Lightning Night"), but the title track closes the album with its prettiest moments, in a melancholy piano-and-guitar duet behind Driver's troubled vocals. As always, it cautions to expect the unexpected with Kayo Dot.

- Scott Morrow

TriBeCaStan: New Deli (EverGreene Music)

TriBeCaStan: "One Day His Axe Fell into Honey"

Though its music only has been available since 2009, the quizzical “ethno-galactic” duo TriBeCaStan spans centuries with its incomparable blend of traditional folk styles with rock, jazz, and other modern styles. And though its two founding members, multi-(multi-multi-)instrumentalists Jeff Greene and John Kruth, hail from lower Manhattan, their origins, naturally, seem spread across the globe.

With its third album, New Deli, the duo (along with the eight-piece TriBeCaStani FolklOrkestra) continues its spirited, genre-bending expedition with such unlikely sonic pairings as surf rock alongside avant-garde jazz and Afghani folk. Indeed, TriBeCaStan is a strange place where East meets West and old meets new.

- Meaghann Korbel

Honorable Mentions

Keepaway: Black Flute (Greedhead)

Kronos Quartet: Music of Vladimir Martynov (Nonesuch / Warner)

My Brightest Diamond: All Things Will Unwind (Asthmatic Kitty)

My Brightest Diamond: "Reaching Through to the Other Side"

Detroit-based singer/songwriter Shara Worden has long made a career as an indie-pop mercenary. Over the past decade or so, she has lent her talents to Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoisemakers, collaborated with The Decemberists, covered Radiohead for an OK Computer tribute album, appeared on numerous compilations (including her excellent cut on Dark Was the Night), and contributed to the chamber ensemble yMusic (which also includes Bon Iver, Antony & The Johnsons, the New York Philharmonic, and Rufus Wainwright).

Clearly, Worden has no problem keeping busy. But even in the midst of her many endeavors, Worden has found time for her indie-pop pet project, My Brightest Diamond, without ever skimping on musical quality or integrity.

Such is the case on All Things Will Unwind, My Brightest Diamond’s third effort on Asthmatic Kitty, as Worden’s talents are as focused and as strong as ever. Swaying between sweet, soft-edged crooning (“She Does Not Brave the War”) to full-on, forceful belt-outs (the latter half of “Be Brave”), Worden knows exactly what she’s doing. The songs swell and sway, kept adrift — and often take flight — thanks to Worden’s cosmic vocal work.

The album is suspended by quirky arrangements and orchestrations, serving as a backdrop to Worden’s ever-present voice. And Worden — an educated composer who has turned out several scores for off-Broadway productions — intertwines vocals and music together flawlessly, devising a kind of majestic, orchestral masterpiece.

- Text by Michael Danaher. Read the full review here.

Rob Crow: He Thinks He's People (Temporary Residence)

Rob Crow: "Sophistructure"

Rob Crow doesn't like to be pigeon-holed. As a musician, he's built numerous additions onto the foundational Pinback, which he cofounded in 1998 with Zach Smith. Those side projects have spanned math rock (Heavy Vegetable), doom metal (Goblin Cock), and indie pop (Optiganally Yours), and that diversity shows up immediately — albeit in pop form — on Crow's latest effort, He Thinks He's People. The intellectual songwriter offers five sounds in the first five tracks, which leaves eight more tracks to explore eight more sounds. He almost does it.

The diversity works because the tracks are short, but if there's a drawback to Crow's willingness — and ability — to play whatever style comes to him, it's that the album struggles for cohesion. Fortunately, Crow gives us the simple and driving drum beat that's typical of Pinback, which grounds the record and keeps it from floating away. The array of pop styles also means that listeners have to give the album more than one chance, which might be a fool-proof way to build a fan base. You've got "This Thread" for Mark Kozalek fans, "Build" for math nerds who like to play with time signatures, and everything else for those folks who like Crow for Crow.

The other common thread on He Thinks He's People is Crow's rather flippant approach. The art consists of a Microsoft Paint-style illustration of a stick figure in a doghouse. Songs are titled things like "Pat's Crabs," "Tranked," and "Locking Seth Putnam in Hot Topic." The music recalls Benji Hughes in that it's music that seems to say, "Who gives a shit?" even when you know it's giving a shit.

- Text by Timothy S. Aames.

Freestyle Fellowship: The Promise (Decon)

Freestyle Fellowship: “Step 2 the Side”

In the early ’90s, LA rap group Freestyle Fellowship burst on the scene with an innovative blend of jazzy/funky hip-hop production and dizzying rhymes. Though the group only had two albums before reuniting for Temptations in 2001, its members — Aceyalone, Myka 9, PEACE, Self Jupiter, and J Sumbi — have gone on to notable solo careers and collaborations (including with Haiku D’Etat and Abstract Rude), and Fellowship has maintained a legendary status ever since its inception.

The Promise is the Fellowship’s first album in 10 years, and it reflects a modernized sound. Though Temptations was more nuanced and reflected stylistic growth — and less of that early-’90s style — The Promise leaps into the synthesized world.

The group’s diverse samples and unconventional hooks, as usual, keep things fresh from track to track, while still retaining the characteristics that were adopted by contemporaries such as A Tribe Called Quest and successors such as Jurassic 5 and Blackalicious. “Gimmie,” about a handout-seeking acquaintance, is one of the album’s best examples of the group’s matured sound, working a fat synth sound and boom-bap beat over a neoclassical string melody and piano tinkling.

There’s just enough of new and old for old-school fans and newbies alike. Whether or not you’ve been initiated to the Fellowship, pick up The Promise.

Electro Quarterstaff: Aykroyd (Willowtip)

Electro Quarterstaff: "Waltz of the Swedish Meatballs"

Hailing from the urban wilds of Winnipeg, Electro Quarterstaff is an instrumental tech-metal quintet in the vein of Dysrhythmia and its ilk. Whereas other progressive outfits with a zillion riffs opt for smaller lineups, Electro Quarterstaff rounds out its sound with a triple guitar assault, maximizing its potential for harmonies and solos.

Though there's always a lot going on, the guitars typically don't overload the listener, and the axe-men try to avoid getting in each other's way. If there's a complaint, it's that the band doesn't stretch into its cited (personal) influences, outside of Gorguts (which includes two members of Dysrhythmia). The MO of Electro Quarterstaff is not one of a genre-hopping metal band, but it would be interesting to hear the group touch on the non-metal influences, which include Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, and Béla Bartók.

Five years after the band's last album, Aykroyd is not a departure; it simply finds Electro Quarterstaff refining its riff-intensive style. Don't let the album's beautiful minor-key intro fool you: Aykroyd is all riffs all the time, displaying masterful skills without coming off as self-indulgent.

Sandro Perri: Impossible Spaces (Constellation)

Sandro Perri: "Love and Light"

Over the course of five side projects and countless collaborations, Toronto-based producer Sandro Perri has dabbled in many styles, offering touches of indie pop, Western music, and more to his folk-based style.

Impossible Spaces, his third solo album, fully steps outside of Perri’s categorical boundaries. The indie-folk foundation is augmented by elements of electronica, jazz, and bossa nova, made possible by a diverse palette that includes guitar, flute, oboe, brass, synths, and samples. Many of the musical elements transform mid-song, through crescendos or the entry of bass, but Perri’s soulful voice remains as the album’s constant, softening any stylistic alterations.

- Text by Lauren Zens.

Sahy Uhns: An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings (Proximal)

Sahy Uhns: "Anticipation of the Night"

Sahy Uhns (pronounced "science") is the solo moniker of electronic/hip-hop producer Carl Madison Burgin, whose debut CD comes as part of a 5" x 5" book with photographs of dilapidated homes in the California deserts. The deserts are said to have inspired the album, but the glitchy, beat-ridden sounds therein are more the soundtrack for robots break-dancing than cactus needles rustling in the wind.

Though at times it simply resembles another detailed IDM album, An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings stands out with highly melodic phrasings and nuanced differences in timbre. "I'mage" is one of the album's best examples, as its blipping 8-bit sounds lead into twangy, squirming melodies that seemingly are from sequenced kora or lute samples. Huge break beats then drop back in the mix to optimal effect.

Falling somewhere between the styles of Warp recording artists (Chris) Clark and Harmonic 313, Sahy Uhns' debut is a beautiful, danceable sound collage that's good for the car or the dance floor.

- Text by Scott Morrow. Read the full review here.

Honorable Mentions

Class Actress: Rapprocher (Carpark)

Cradle of Filth: Evermore Darkly… EP (Nuclear Blast)

Guantlet Hair: s/t (Dead Oceans)

House of Low Culture: Poisoned Soil (Taiga / Sub Rosa)

Jonti: Twirligig (Stones Throw)

Kuedo: Severant (Planet Mu)

M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming! (Mute)

Moholy-Nagy: Like Mirage (Temporary Residence)

Puscifer: Conditions of My Parole

Trayer: Afterlife an Abandoned Theme Park (Porter)

Jarboe: "The House Of Void"

It’s mid-August, and it’s cold in Denver. It’s been raining for something like 34 hours straight. I spent the bulk of that time locked in my condo, listening to Jarboe and her myriad projects, incarnations, and collaborations with buddies and underground metal all-stars such as Swans, Justin K. Broadrick of Jesu, and Neurosis.

My mood has been affected accordingly. The creaks in my house have taken on a menacing air; there’s intelligence in the light around me; I’m seeing colors; I’m remote-viewing back to weird, old-world landscapes; I just awoke from a dream about choking, and I’m deep in the throes of a particularly penetrating sweat. I need to get out of here. I think that my neighbors will be the largest beneficiaries of that move; my walls are thick, but they’re not Jarboe thick.

Following this kind of strangeness, it helps to think on some touchstones that are grounded in the commonality of it all. It’s 2008, and the Olympics are on; the Democratic National Convention will be rolling into town soon; war is not yet obsolete; mankind is still uncovering new ways to hate our differences with medieval aplomb; Jarboe is right back in the thick of a wicked, resurgent metal scene.

The avant-garde songstress says, with palpable excitement in her voice, that “throwing myself into the void, pushing myself hard, pushing myself to exhaustion — that’s what drives me. That’s why I like loud, aggressive music. That’s how I’m wired!”

She is a woman who seems hyperactively aware of those moment-to-moment changes that shape her consciousness, which extend past her art and music. She is straight-edge, practices extreme boxing, and her hands are callused from carrying her own equipment. She has refused to accept the role of novelty act in the very masculine world of metal.

"My artistic base is grounded in Swans. It’s how I was refined; it’s how I adjusted; it’s how I developed. It was such a big part of my life. I could never turn my back on that.”

But perhaps most telling are the actions that led her into the grips of the early ’80s New York no-wave scene. Upon hearing Michael Gira’s band, Swans, she set out for New York City with the sole intention of joining the band. Gira started her off on bass, but she was quickly recognized as an artistic force, and with vocal, keyboard, and songwriting contributions, she helped to shape the unique, heavy sound in one of that era’s most important underground metal acts.

Gira and Jarboe closed shop on Swans over a decade ago, but Jarboe remains lightning-eyed and howling. Her sounds are best not described from any clinical standpoint, as one could get lost in a string of descriptive words that don’t necessarily do justice to the tactility of her work (Old Testament-informed post-industrial dirge, a cross between yodeling and church-worship chorusing, etc.).

Jarboe’s works are temporal, as heavily influenced by current experience as they are informed by her Swans days. As such, it’s better to swoop in from above with general ideas about what she’s doing in the present that continues to drive her towards the extreme ends of multimedia art and music.

The physical representation of her sound is a good place to start; Jarboe has a history of intense cover art and intimidating album names. Her 2004 release, Anhedoniac, featured edgy, limited-edition, Wal-Mart-repellent nudes taken by Richard Kern. The most accessible of these depicts her naked and devoid of pigment, holed up in a cell and clawing at the bars on a window. As she explains, “It’s what I’ve done as a performance artist that led to my work with audio experimentations, feedback, and multi-track delays. It cracked me open to hear sounds in a different way; it shifted things to where I didn’t need a traditional melody.”

Her second release of 2008, Mahakali (following J2, a collaboration with Broadrick), continues in this vein, although the concept contributes heavily to the depth of the album. The cover is an animation-enhanced photo of Jarboe posing in a particularly threatening portrayal of the Hindu goddess Mahakali. Though traditional portraits show the goddess with a lolling tongue, Jarboe assured me that every muscle in her head contributed to the considerable tongue length in that shot, quipping through her faded Southern drawl that “it definitely gives you a greater appreciation for the talents of Gene Simmons.”

Mahakali herself lends a weighty contextual element to the sound of the album. The goddess is associated with the dichotomies of annihilation and creation, time and change. For Jarboe, this is an apt symbol for the state of the planet — politically, environmentally, and otherwise. It’s alternately a tragic concession of what needs to happen to move forward and a condemnation of those events that got us here. The goddess is often depicted as having many faces — a concept that flows volcanically through Jarboe’s work and life.

She uses the term “flexible reality” to describe the different phases, faces, and personas of her post-Swans act as The Living Jarboe. Sonically, she seems to toe the line of every diagnosable personality disorder as she weaves easily digested harmonies, Swans-esque industrial churn, a string section, and most notably, an arc of rangy vocals into her unique vision of black metal (“rangy” is perhaps not the word here, but I defy you to tell me what that word is).

Like some Wiccan version of Tom Waits, she uses her voice as an instrument that can be bent across the full spectrum of sound and style. The opening track on Mahakali, “Mahakali, of Terrifying Countenance,” has a techno-erotic paganism that bares no resemblance to the smoky sound that opens “The House of Void.” Somewhere in that track, her voice cuts sharply through the fog, only to become indistinguishable from what could be either a squealing guitar or her own manic shriek.

This awareness of her multifaceted personae is a condition that might explain her propensity to collaborate. As a serial collaborator, her sound tends to ricochet as it bumps up against the experiences of other artists. On Mahakali, Jarboe has recruited an impressive roster of talent to help shape the different faces of the album.

In a manner completely opposite of the across-the-ocean, file-sharing collaboration with Broadrick, she brought into the studio members of Dysrhythmia, Neurosis, Antony and the Johnsons (not Antony), Unsane, Amber Asylum, former Swans drummer Vinny Signorelli, Attila Csihar of Mayhem, and most strikingly, Phil Anselmo of Pantera.

She had the idea to insert Anselmo into an environment that is seemingly caustic to his black-metal personae. It works. His vocals on “Overthrown” are the howling, emotional core of the album. Anselmo’s voice here is as raw as red meat, but a cello is layered underneath, and a soulful harmony surfaces from beneath his otherwise tough sound. Backed by some aggressive acoustic bullying, the track is a rugged, Southern-gothic roar.

For all her faces, Jarboe remains existentially rooted in those days spent pioneering with Swans. In fact, Child of Swans was the working title for this new album. “The Swans were my education,” she says. “It altered the way I hear sound permanently. My artistic base is grounded in Swans. It’s how I was refined; it’s how I adjusted; it’s how I developed. It was such a big part of my life. I could never turn my back on that.”

Fast-forward to present day Queens and one will find that not much has really changed. Yes, the shops and styles may be different. The roads are wider and the air is dirtier. The “cacophony of rebellion,” as it was described in the 1940s, still looms in the air, albeit often without brass and woodwinds.

“I am not so knowledgeable about the world of jazz,” admits Colin Marston, guitarist for the black-metal band Krallice. “I grew up listening to King Crimson a lot.” Despite the lack of fervor for the music of old Queens, Marston — along with bandmates Mick Barr (vocals/guitar), Nick McMaster (bass), and Lev Weinstein (drums) — has sure-footed knowledge about where the band’s singular sounds have originated.“Classical music, especially 20th Century, which is another influence on how I think about music," he says. "A lot of ambient music, especially ambient guitar music, has been important to me.”

Krallice’s self-titled debut album quickly shot the band to the apex of what has become the US black-metal sound, combining classic blast beats with ethereal atmospherics. This wildfire can be mostly attributed to word of mouth, a staple in the metal world via messages and music trading. For Krallice, this was especially important because the band rarely tours or plays shows outside the New York area.

“[We put] less of an emphasis on playing out and touring than most other bands," Marston says. "It is just not a priority for Krallice. We are playing a few shows for the record… five days or something, all around New York.”

But a question undoubtedly comes to the foreground. With the members’ roots and influences in non-black-metal bands (members are and have been in such acts as math-metal trio Dysrhythmia, punk-jazz act The Flying Luttenbachers, progressive death-metal band Astomatous, and melodic death-metal group Solecism), was the self-titled debut a one-off? Something to do for the hell of it? With the band’s second full-length, Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore, 2009), any and all doubts have been put to rest.

Dimensional Bleedthrough takes the power and atmosphere of Krallice’s debut and pushes it further, louder, and longer. The opening title track lays the foundation for this sprawling, violent collection with its unflinching power and sweeping crescendos from movement to movement. Barr’s vocals are at times in your face and other times seemingly part of the entire atmosphere.

The production, both a seamless blend of clarity and a blinding fog of rage, can be attributed to Marston’s other endeavor: he owns and operates the Thousand Caves recording studio in Queens. Along with Krallice, Marston has recorded electro-grind masters Genghis Tron, avant-garde artist Jarboe, and the scarier-than-hell, now-defunct Khanate.

Though New York City accepts all kinds of art, both outsider and mainstream, Marston feels that the city is not a metal town. “I’ve gone through periods where I think that New York has a decent metal community,” he says. “I go back and forth, though. I mean, there are some pretty influential death-metal bands like Suffocation and Immolation, but they’re really from Yonkers and Long Island, I believe. As far as from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and so on, there aren’t that many that I can think of.

"There is a lot of experimental music here, which can be exciting even though it is not in the traditional sense [for] a metal band. But, really, I can’t think of a single American city where there are five awesome bands coming out at the same time. When I think of a scene, I always think of the [1980s] Bay Area thrash scene where a lot of bands came from this one area all at once.”

Even though the reemergence of black metal has generated a buzz, just as when any genre becomes more popular, an underground still lurks away from the Internet. Marston says, “I’m not sure I’m convinced of any more interest in extreme metal now than there has been in the past. It seems to me that that just happens every now and then [when] there’s a band from a more extreme-metal background that ends up on a major label. That’s fairly common.”

Safe in the spoken-word world of friends and critics alike, Krallice has achieved a notable following around the world based solely on its two-album catalog. Krallice may very well, and unintentionally, bring the American style of black metal to a wider audience and continue the legacy that the jazz greats of yesteryear did before them without big money or big business, and only with a big heart for what its members love to do: play music.

“I just love acoustic guitar and the combination of heavy guitars and acoustic thumbing,” Hufnagel says. The guitarist’s style is a big reason why this record sounds so dynamic and compelling after more than one listen. Critics have dubbed the band as everything from technical post-rock, which doesn’t jibe with Dysrhythmia’s jarring immediacy, to prog metal, which again would suggest the music puts on airs that it simply doesn’t.

In the past, the band’s approach to recording has been to bring the forceful energy of its live show to a 50-odd-minute album. Throw in high-profile producers Steve Albini, who produced the band’s highly acclaimed 2003 Pretest (Relapse) album, and Martin Bisi, whose bona fides include working with Brian Eno and producing scores of classic underground artists (Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, John Zorn, Sereena Maneesh), and you have the structure that birthed the band’s last two records.

But this time was different. Although the band would’ve loved to work with Bisi again, he had retired. Thankfully, they had a ready solution to the question of who would produce the new album in bassist Colin Marston, a sound engineer who has worked with the likes of Genghis Tron and Child Abuse. The band decided to hole up in their Brooklyn apartment and record the album on their own.

The relative freedom of being able to take their time to record led the band to explore new directions. “It allowed me to do more things guitar-wise as far as adding a lot of orchestral embellishments, more guitar layers,” Hufnagel says. “There’s lots of stuff to listen to in the mix. I wasn’t concerned with it sounding exactly like we do live; that can get boring.”

Although their intensity never wavers, playing live and recording are definitely two different things for Dysrhythmia. Hufnagel is happy to start using the studio as a more exploratory stage to craft songs that the band has played for sometimes up to two whole years before recording.

The lapse in time could be partially explained by the band members’ own hyperactive involvement in other projects. Hufnagel recently released a full-length solo album entitled Songs for the Disappeared; Hufnagel and Marston are new members of recently reformed Canadian metallers Gorguts; and Marston was, until December of 2008, still working with his former band Behold…the Arctopus.

“We all have so many different things now. So rather than try to throw it all into one band and end up sounding like Mr. Bungle or something, we’d rather really focus our energy elsewhere,” he says.

And right now the energy is focused on Dysrhythmia. Where contemporaries such as Mastodon and Isis have taken off in the past few years thanks to a burgeoning interest in independent metal, Dysrhythmia is still lurking in the shadows, nursing a fan base that’s been created during a decade of touring.

Hufnagel sighs heavily when I remind him of his band‘s age — it’s not a sigh of defeat, of course, but simply one of amazement. This is a band that has earned its following, not gained it overnight; and Hufnagel knows that in many ways, that’s the following that you want to have.

ALARM leaves no genre unloved in our round-up of 50 albums that didn't receive enough attention in 2009.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Old Money (Stones Throw, 1/27/09)

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: "Family War Funding"

The first of many releases in 2009 from prolific guitarist/composer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Accessible and centered on rock, sounding spacey, funky, progressive, psychedelic, a little jazzy, and a little Latin.

Kevin Hufnagel: Songs for the Disappeared (self-released, 2/3/09)

Kevin Hufnagel: "Tres"

Musical themes come and go, covering swaths of Spanish and Gypsy guitar before reverting back to haunting rock melodies, on this solo acoustic album from highly technical Dysrhythmia guitarist Kevin Hufnagel.

P.O.S: Never Better (Rhymesayers, 2/3/09)

P.O.S.: "Drumroll"

Likely the year's best hip-hop album, Never Better draws on Stefon Alexander’s background in punk and rock music (he plays most of the live instrumentation on the record), making this is an album that categorically defines the indie in indie rap.

Zu: Carboniferous (Ipecac, 2/17/09)

Zu: "Ostia"

Sludgy alt-metal with complex repeated rhythms and free-jazz freakouts. Features Mike Patton on two killer tracks.

The Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo: s/t (2/24/09)

The Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo: "Shadow Thief"

A Balkan-influenced classical guitarist joins an ethically inspired finger-tapping guitarist for a disc of skill and beauty.

16: Bridges to Burn (Relapse, 2/24/09)

16: "Throw in the Towel"

Dubbed the "Unsane of the West Coast" by ALARM's Jamie Ludwig, 16 issued another hard-hitting riff fest in 2009 with Bridges to Burn, the band's best album to date.

Umlaut: s/t (3/10/09)

Umlaut: "Kitty Puppy"

Mr. Bungle's Bär McKinnon, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, issued one hell of an album for this new project — one that filters meticulous melodies and asinine vocals through the lens of a whacked-out lounge group.

Jono El Grande: Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon, 3/16/09)

Jono El Grande: "Oslo Coty Suite"

Fanciful music that's different around every turn. Art rock that weaves through theatrical, progressive, classical, and absurdist styles with influences from Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson and Igor Stravinsky.

Kylesa: Static Tensions (Prosthetic, 3/17/09)

Kylesa: "Scapegoat"

Down-tuned dirge metal that rumbles with crust punk, sludge, metal, hardcore, and psychedelia, often laced with atmospheric samples. To date, Static Tensions is Kylesa's most powerful album.

(MF) Doom: Born Like This (Lex, 3/23/09)

Doom: "Cellz"

Dropping his “MF” prefix, the incomparable rapper and Marvel-inspired supervillain delivered another nearly impenetrable wall of rhymes and flow, dizzying listeners with his ever-shifting, slowly delivered lyrics.

Dysrhythmia

As the members of Dysrhythmia have taken time away from their assorted outside responsibilities, these tech instrumentalists grace us with another disc of melodic yet discordant and frenzied yet soothing songs.

Though fans have had to wait another three years for this full-length, they've been tided over in the meantime by guitarist Kevin Hufnagel's outstanding acoustic debut and a Dysrhythmia split EP with Rothko in 2007.  On Psychic Maps, per usual, each song is a powerhouse journey, often pushing into mind-bending territory.

Dysrhythmia: "Festival of Popular Delusions"
Dysrhythmia: \"Festival of Popular Delusions\"

Cage: Depart from Me (Definitive Jux)

Now as well known for having a Shia LaBeouf biopic in the works as for penning hip-hop narratives of personal destruction, Chris Palko returns with the long-anticipated successor to Hell's Winter, the 2005 album that marked a departure from his early lyrical focus.

Depart From Me is a compelling hip-hop/rock/electro fusion with production by El-P, Aesop Rock, Blockhead, Sean Martin of Hatebreed, and the late Camu Tao.  Cage's vocals do detract at moments — particularly some of the quasi-sung passages — but there's no denying that Palko is a talented MC who is making unique arrangements over fat beats.

Cage: "Look at What You Did"
Cage: \"Look at What You Did\"

Zs: Music of the Modern White 12" EP (The Social Registry)

Brooklyn avant-garde trio Zs plunges head first into the murky, amorphous waters where rock, experimental, free jazz, noise, and ambient music meet.  The lineup — Sam Hillmer on tenor sax, Ben Greenberg on electric guitar, and Ian Antonio on drums — isn't a new configuration of instruments, but you'd be hard pressed to find another group that sounds just like this.

A vinyl (and MP3) release, Music of the Modern White splits the group's wild and diverse sounds into two halves, which are each split into three parts.  The music barely cracks 20 minutes, but the depth of style achieved here is remarkable.

Oneida: Rated O (Jagjaguwar)

Arriving as a massive triple-disc (/triple-LP) release, Rated O continues the aural triptych that Oneida began with Preteen Weaponry.

The group has since expanded to five members, and its music is as electronic and experimental as it's ever been. To give you an idea of how epic these tracks are, three of them clock in at more than 10 minutes, and another tops 20.

But as "Bobby Matador" explains on the Jagjaguwar page for Rated O, these are far from extended jams that lean on loops and samples.  To the contrary, the album is constructed in a very traditional sense, and fans of Oneida are sure to hail Rated O as the group's finest effort to date.

Oneida: "Saturday"
Oneida: \"Saturday\"

In support of Beacons of Ancestorship, out June 9, Tortoise has announced a handful of summer tour dates around the USA and overseas.  Head here for the list.

The Dillinger Escape Plan will release its next album, which is due in early 2010, on Season of Mist in conjunction with the band's new label, Phonogetic Records.  The band is touring much of the US and Europe in June and July.

Issuing its first album in five years, MC-and-DJ duo Eyedea & Abilities is unveiling By the Throat on July 21 on Rhymesayers.

Genghis Tron is contributing to a track on the new Converge album, which is being recorded this month.

On its MySpace page, Dysrhythmia has posted "Festival of Popular Delusions," the first track on its upcoming album, Psychic Maps.

Featuring Marcel and Manfred Rodriguez-Lopez, psych-groove outfit Zechs Marquise will release its debut full-length, Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare, on Rodriguez Lopez Productions this fall.  The label is run by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Marcel and Manfred's famous brother from The Mars Volta.

The Beastie Boys have announced the name of their new album,  Hot Sauce Committee, which will be out sometime this fall.

Múm is releasing a new album, Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know, on August 24 on Morr Music.

Jón Birgisson of Sigur Rós is working on a "sort of solo record" that will feature the work of experimental composer Nico Muhly.

CDbaby.com, online home of self-released CDs and digital tunes, has decided to add single-song downloads.

Singer/songwriter Jay Bennett, formerly of Wilco, passed away on Sunday, May 24.  More tests are needed to determine the cause of death.

Whirlwind guitarist Kevin Hufnagel, one third of math-metal trio Dysrhythmia and half of atmospheric duo Byla, has released a beautiful, melancholy collection of solo tunes centered on acoustic guitars and percussion.

On Hufnagel's new album, Songs for the Disappeared, musical themes come and go as quickly as he works his frets, tossing around swaths of Spanish and Gypsy guitar before reverting back to haunting rock melodies. Prepared guitar gives tracks like "Hunter/Hunted" (heard below) a distorted, effected, and percussive feel, making use of a simple method to create relatively rare sounds.

Online editor Scott Morrow catches up with Hufnagel to discuss his recent drought of solo material, his upcoming projects, and his unusual recording techniques.

Kevin Hufnagel: "Hunter/Hunted"
Kevin Hufnagel: \"Hunter/Hunted\"

How long have these songs been around? What caused the lengthy period between solo releases?

All of the songs on the new album were written during the summer of 2007. Everything came to me very quickly in a burst of much-welcome inspiration.

The lengthy time between solo releases was a combination of a few things. I had been quite busy with my main band Dysrhythmia and some other projects…and also felt a lack of inspiration as well as frustration every time I tried to work on my solo material. It was easy to start ideas but hard to finish them, and I would just end up throwing everything away.

Suddenly that one summer, it all just came pouring out. The good thing is that it's continued. It shouldn't be another 12 years before I put out my next solo record.

Can you tell us about the unusual techniques that you used when recording this album?

There are some songs that use a technique called "prepared guitar."  That is when you stick an object between the guitar strings to change its timbre; the object, in my case, was a nail file. It creates an amazing percussive effect, and you can get all sorts of cool overtones and notes to ring out under it.

My main inspiration for that came from composer John Cage's works for prepared piano. I also ran my acoustic through an Echoplex [delay processor] and created a bunch of loops that Colin [Marston, album engineer] and I ran through an army of guitar amps with ambient mics placed all around the rooms.

I think that this effect really came out well towards the second half of "Will They Find Me." I wanted it to sound like a choir.

Will Nightfloat Recordings be an avenue for your own releases, or will it become a full-fledged record label?

I started the label for my own music only.

Other than the upcoming Dysrhythmia album, what are you working on right now? Does any acoustic material reappear in Dysrhythmia or Byla songs?

Right now I'm writing more solo guitar music and will be rehearsing and recording soon with a top-secret project that should be announced soon, but I don't think that I can say anything about it yet.

We just finished recording the new Dysrhythmia album, Psychic Maps, and there is indeed a bit of acoustic guitar on the record. That is something I've been wanting to incorporate more of in our music for a while, and this time the material really called for it.

- Scott Morrow

Kevin Hufnagel: www.myspace.com/kevinhufnagel
Dysrhythmia: www.dysrhythmiaband.com
Byla: www.byla.net
Relapse Records: www.relapse.com

On March 18, Malian guitar fusionists Tinariwen begin a 10-show tour of the UK with British electro-folk artist Tunng.

Prefuse 73 has a new album, Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian, that will be out April 14 on Warp.  Prefuse also has a new project with Zach Hill called Diamond Watch Wrists.  The duo's album will be out on May 4, also on Warp.

Melodic punk outfit Lifetime will have Hello Bastards and Jersey's Best Dancers reissued by No Idea Records. The albums were originally released on Jade Tree.

The third album from African/rock standouts Extra Golden, titled Thank You Very Quickly, will be out on March 10 via Thrill Jockey. After a European tour in early March, the band spends much of April touring the East Coast and Midwest.

Black Moth Super Rainbow has uploaded a video for "Happy Melted City" from its Drippers EP. Watch the video here.

Instrumental doom rockers Pelican have signed to Southern Lord Recordings. The band currently is recording an EP that will be its first release on its new label.

Party-time dance duo Woodhands has released a new digital EP of remixes of "Dancer" from its Heart Attack album. Paper Bag Records has also posted a Woodhands cover of Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue."

NPR has posted its interview with experimental jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson (Mary Halvorson Trio, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant). The New York musician speaks about her debut solo album, Dragon's Head, released last year on Firehouse 12 Records.

The US Department of Justice is reviewing the just-completed merger of Ticket Master and Live Nation.