Son Lux: We Are Rising (Anticon)

Son Lux: "Rising"

Composer / pianist / electronic artist Ryan Lott writes music for a post-production company, for dance productions and the arts, and, when he finds the time, as Son Lux, where he joins the worlds of classical orchestration and hip-hop pastiche.

For his second full-length album, We Are Rising, that spare time was in especially short supply, as the eclectic musician took a challenge from NPR (inspired by The Wire) to write and record the entire thing over the course of the shortest month of the year.

Given the album's level of craftsmanship and production, listeners would never guess the impulsive dare that set it in motion.  Its nine songs are even more meticulously arranged than the Son Lux debut album, At War With Walls and Mazes, and they achieve a remarkable range of sounds, from traditional (woodwinds, brass, strings) to modern (synthesizers, guitar effects, collected sounds).

The combination of styles makes Lott something of a Sufjan Stevens for the beat crowd (Anticon releases his albums, after all).  We Are Rising finds him moving further in Stevens' direction — fewer beats and more neoclassical orchestrations behind the indie balladry.  But these songs still bear a distinct Son Lux stamp, and they're a down payment on an ever-promising future.

Graviton: Massless (Translation Loss)

Graviton: "Mu Lepton"

Featuring guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Sacha Dunable of progressive-metal outfit Intronaut, psych/space/post-metal trio Graviton makes its recorded debut with a husky 10-track full-length.

Moments of elongated singing and slow, deep riffs draw comparisons to Isis and its ilk, but the band as a whole sounds very different. With intermittent piano melodies, synthesizers, 12-string acoustic guitar, and programmed beats — not to mention sonic accessories such as lap-steel guitar, field recordings, and "Celloblaster" — Massless is a new brand of spacey post-metal.

Throughout the album's 45 minutes, Graviton strikes a healthy balance between melody and dissonance, accessibility and complexity, and past and future.  Three-part vocal harmonies coast over plummeting canyons of riffage, only to segue to extended acoustic interludes or spoken-word samples about particle physics.  Post-metal lovers may have a new favorite band, and everyone else has something exciting to discover.

NOW Ensemble: Awake (New Amsterdam)

NOW Ensemble: "Burst"

In 2008, New Amsterdam Records opened shop to release and promote music by boundary-breaking classical musicians. The NOW Ensemble, a melodically inclined chamber quintet, launched the label with its previous album, and Awake ever so slightly expands the group's timbres for another dynamic collection of melodic and rhythmic interplay.

Featuring compositions by NOW guitarist Mark Dancigers, New Amsterdam co-founder / NOW composer Judd Greenstein, and New Amsterdam label-mate Missy Mazzoli, the album finds the ensemble's arsenal of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, upright bass, and piano dancing together in an arresting display of harmony and counterpoint.

Throughout Awake, simple and complex repetitions are deftly woven together, forming patterns that engage listeners while urging their ears to dig deeper, layer by layer.  Even a distant touch of dark, distorted guitar and ominous accents complement "Velvet Hammer" and "Magic with Everyday Objects," and perhaps future albums by NOW Ensemble will share traits with more of the New Amsterdam roster.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Despise You: And On and On… (Relapse)

Agoraphobic Nosebleed: "As Bad As It Is"

Despise You: "Bereft"

Short, fast, and to the point. That's the MO of Despise You, a no-nonsense hardcore outfit from California whose first material in 10 years comprises half of this split release with grindcore masters Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

With 18 tracks that average just a minute each, Despise You packs as much into its half as possible, offering terse exclamations over basic riffs, distorted low end, and push beats.  ANb introduces itself with a sludgy down-tempo track — a style that swerves from Agorapocalypse, its last album of assailing tempos, squealing guitar leads, and lightning-quick fret work. Its second track, however, returns those familiar sounds, and the following two "songs" challenge Despise You for the album's shortest durations (25 and 27 seconds).

Bill Frisell: Sign of Life (Music for 858 Quartet) (Savoy Jazz)

Bill Frisell: "It's a Long Story (1)"

Over the span of his 30-year career, guitarist Bill Frisell has shifted further away from jazz and experimental styles and further toward country, western, and folk instrumentals.  Sign of Life, his latest with the string-based 858 Quartet, is another in the instrumental folk vein, albeit one whose group was borne of improvisation.

The 858 Quartet is Frisell plus three esteemed string players — violist Eyvind Kang (Secret Chiefs 3, Sunn O))), John Zorn), violinist Jenny Scheinman (Vinicius Cantuaria, Marc Ribot), and cellist Hank Roberts (Tim Berne).  In 2005, they created an improvised take on works by German artist Gerhard Richter, but they've since grown into a regular unit, and Sign of Life marks a decided shift to composition.

Written during a composing retreat, the album has soloing and apparent moments of improv, but it's markedly closer in style and spirit to Frisell's Disfarmer project or Beautiful Dreamers trio (which also features Kang).  The Richter 858 album, which is much more dissonant and whose beauty is more subjective, might be best considered a musical caterpillar — eventually morphing into something more striking and graceful.

Honorable Mentions

Blue Sky Black Death: Noir (Fake Four)

Boxcutter: The Dissolve (Planet Mu)

Daedelus: Bespoke (Ninja Tune)

Deafheaven: Roads to Judah (Deathwish)

Steve Earle: I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (New West)

Explosions in the Sky: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence)

Jefferson Friedman (w/ Chiara String Quartet & Matmos): Quartets (New Amsterdam)

Jookabox: The Eyes of the Fly (Joyful Noise)

Kambar Kalendarov & Kutman Sultanbekov: Jaw (Cantaloupe)

Klang: Other Doors (Music of Benny Goodman) (Allos Documents)

Daniele Luppi: Malos Hábitos soundtrack (Ipecac)

Nine 11 Thesaurus: Ground Zero Generals (The Social Registry)

Primordial: Redemption at the Puritan's Hand (Metal Blade)

Small Brown Bike: Fell & Found (No Idea Records)

Tindersticks: Claire Denis Film Scores, 1996-2009 (Constellation)

Adebisi Shank: This Is The Second Album From A Band Called Adebisi Shank (Sargent House)

Adebisi Shank: "Micro Machines"

Released to European acclaim in 2010, the aptly titled second album from Irish electro/math rockers Adebisi Shank has now achieved North American release thanks to the peerless Sargent House.

The record label / management company describes the trio as a blend of Fang Island’s shredding riffs with Battles’ electronic quirkiness and rhythmic playfulness. That description isn’t off the mark, but readers won’t get a sense of the band’s real abilities until they hear its hyper-melodic, polyrhythmic, and — most importantly — jubilant songs in full.

Over 40 minutes — a self-described "double album" given the band's riff-intensive style — Second Album delivers a maelstrom of zany electronics, unusual distortions, and triumphant, rapidly ascending scales mixed with vintage synths, marimba, horns, and other accoutrements.  This is all packaged between and around gloriously catchy and powerful rock riffs.

It's a manic and buoyant sophomore effort.  Simply put, Adebisi Shank is a revelation.

Trap Them: Darker Handcraft (Prosthetic)

Trap Them: "The Facts"

Originally conceived as a side project to Backstabbers Incorporated, riotous hardcore quintet Trap Them became a full-time endeavor half a decade ago and has been perfecting its sound ever since.

For Darker Handcraft, its third full-length album and first for Prosthetic, the band continues expanding, ever so slightly, its grindcore style to present more assailing D-beat rhythms and impossibly heavy sounds.  The production, again courtesy of Kurt Ballou, draws understandable parallels to the producer's main gig in Converge.  But Trap Them's low tunings, dark chord progressions, and noodling high-string riffs are more responsible for the comparison, even if Trap Them is less about diversity and more about straight-forward fury.

This time around, vocalist Ryan McKenney has a crisper but equally brutal delivery, often recalling former Refused front man Dennis Lyxzén.  It might be one of the album's best evolutions — outside of "Drag the Wounds Eternal," the melodic, mid-tempo penultimate jam.  In all, Darker Handcraft is top-notch modern hardcore, meshing punk and metal with equal aplomb.

The Dead Kenny Gs: Operation Long Leash (Royal Potato Family)

The Dead Kenny Gs: "Devil's Playground"

Fans are long used to seeing the names Skerik, Mike Dillon, and Brad Houser in the same sentence.  Together, the three multi-instrumentalists comprised three quarters of genre-hopping groove merchants Critters Buggin (along with percussionist/keyboardist Matt Chamberlain); Skerik and Dillon have worked in Garage a Trois and a few outfits with Les Claypool, and Houser has again joined forces to create The Dead Kenny Gs, a trio of musicians who "listen to Bad Brains and Art Ensemble of Chicago."

Operation Long Leash is the group's second album, and though it isn't freewheeling punk jazz, it shares that marriage of rock aggression, funky hooks, and left turns.  Call it heavy acid swing — or something completely different — but it shares just enough elements with the trio's previous projects while exploring new territory.

After a cohesive, rhythmic blend of dueling saxophones, Dillon's glistening vibraphone, and freak-out effects, the middle and tail end of the album get into more heavy rock grooves, including distorted bass on "Black 5" and pounding tom hits and sax bleeps on "Sweatbox" — which quickly transforms into a jazzy jungle groove.  The thuds soon return for more of the album's wildest and loudest sounds, almost resembling some of Zu's most recent "sludge jazz" album.  From there, the soothing outro of "Jazz Millionaire" proves that The Dead Kenny Gs' moods can swing as much as its music.

Mamiffer: Mare Decendrii (SIGE)

Mamiffer: "We Speak in the Dark"

Led by pianist and graphic artist Faith Coloccia, Mamiffer is a project born from the ashes of a similar if more loosely structured group, Everlovely Lightningheart.  With a rotating cast of guests and permanent members — now including ex-Isis front man, Hydra Head honcho, and SIGE partner Aaron Turner — the group surrounds down-tempo, minor-key piano melodies with eerie, ambient soundscapes of assorted instrumentation.

Though strings, guitars, drums, and slowly unfolding vocals are all regular elements of the group's music, Mare Decendrii — its sophomore full-length — amasses another collection of semi-decipherable sounds.  There are moments of minimalist classical beauty and others of echoing tangents to post-metal, as is the case with the sprawling 20-minute track "We Speak in the Dark," a microcosm of the whole.  It begins with minutes of building dissonance before a lead piano/string line turns into emotive vocal harmonies and a churning post-rock passage with a nearly Nine Inch Nails melody.

And though the album's breadth and reach are to be expected from what Mamiffer has previously delivered, it's fueled further this time thanks to guest spots by violist-and-vocalist duo Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kinney, bassist Don McGreevy (Earth), bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles), violinist Timb(a) Harris (Estradasphere), drummer Aaron Harris (Isis), and many others.

Honorable Mentions

Antonionian: s/t (Anticon)

Disco Doom: Trux Reverb (The Static Cult Label)

Does It Offend You, Yeah?: Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You (The End / Cooking Vinyl)

KEN Mode: Venerable (Profound Lore)

J. Mascis: Several Shades of Why (Sub Pop)

Mi Ami: Dolphins 12” (Thrill Jockey)

Sin Fang: Summer Echoes (Morr Music)

V/A: Those Shocking, Shaking Days (Now-Again)

Bongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom 2xLP (August 13, 2010)

Bongripper: "Hail"

Morrow: Chicago's Bongripper makes the type of music that you might glean from its name — bleak, crushing doom metal that's built on stoner riffs and down-tuned guitars.  I will preface this by saying that I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but the band already has two strikes in my book for the lame pot-related name and the (presumably tongue-in-cheek) Satanism.

Hajduch: A decidedly juvenile aesthetic (bong name, crazy metal titty-demon artwork, hailing Satan at every opportunity) may not be Morrow's bag, but it's hard to fault a band who does instrumental stoner/doom metal in such a solid fashion.

The four tracks — yes, they are titled "Hail," Satan," "Worship," and "Doom" — each take up an entire side of a lovingly crafted two-LP set.  Each gradually spans styles, from bluesy riffs to down-tuned sludge stomp, with occasional flourishes of synthesizer and even a little bit of blast-y black metal.  It's ridiculously effective, and you can't stop head-banging, ever, and then you seriously wind up worshipping Satan.

Morrow: Ha! Well, unfortunately, this album only makes me want to rip off a mean nap.  There just isn't enough to sustain these songs, let alone for 11–13 minutes each.  The riffs are dull — often just 2-3 notes — and it's just minutes and minutes of the same thing.  I know that's the point of doom metal, but they don't add other layers or anything.  It's just the usual metal-band instrumentation.

I was into it for the first few minutes, but as is often the case with the genre, it got stale.  There are bands who do similar things well – Sunn O))), Khanate, Bloody Panda, even “lighter” bands like Cavity and Torche – and Bongripper, to me, isn’t doing anything different or better.

Hajduch: Khanate are cool if you like feedback, and Sunn are interesting if you think it's cool that a dude who played on the hottest Herbie Hancock records contributed (Julian Priester, trombone on Hancock's Mwandishi trilogy and bandleader for the insanely great 1973 album Love, Love).  But too much stoner metal went up its own ass listening to My Bloody Valentine and died there.

It's cool to hear a band that just wants to crush you with riffs.  I hear you that metal-band instrumentation could use a little fresh polish (KTL deserves to be a household name), but I think that years of horrifyingly dour and terrible orchestral metal (how can you be so gaudy and so boring?!) has scared everybody back to guitar/bass/drums monotony.  Nobody criticized this formula when Pelican rode it all the way to the top, and their drummer didn't even know how to play.

Morrow: For the record, I criticized Pelican!  (And I will defend orchestral metal — at least something like Sigh, not Metallica playing with a symphony.)  Also, yes, it’s awesome that Julian Priester and people like Eyvind Kang (Secret Chiefs 3, Bill Frisell) are all over the last Sunn album.  They called in the proverbial big guns, and it paid off.

Digressing, I’m all about riffs – big, massive riffs – but I don’t think that these are very good.  And though I’m glad that they didn’t add vocals just for the sake of it, having something else would have been nice.  The second track, “Satan,” is a nice tempo change from the opener, but at more than 11 minutes, it’s still way too long.

Hajduch: I think this album is a lot more well thought out than prior Bongripper releases, and I have no complaints. I could see why somebody else might find this type of stuff repetitive, but I don't, and I'm sure that there's plenty of people out there like me who like basic bread-and-butter doom metal.

The first-press vinyl was limited to 300, and the upcoming colored stock is sure to be gone after they add the sticker onto the front with Morrow's glowing praise ("big, massive riffs…very good…a nice tempo change!" – Scott Morrow, ALARM).

Morrow: Normally, the Morrow seal of approval is a kiss of death, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief and guarantee them a good 5-6 sales.  Besides, it's better than your press quote ("I have…complaints." – Patrick Hajduch, ALARM).

There's little ground that guitarist Bill Frisell hasn't covered in his 30-year career, which has spanned country, folk, jazz, blues, film scores, and experimental music.  And though each subsequent release is exciting and often unexpected, this new ensemble — featuring violist Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston — gives Frisell the chance to spread his reach ever that much further.

Beautiful Dreamers presents the three splicing together Frisell's melodic phrasing, Kang's amorphous talents, and Royston's soft jazz drumming for a unique batch of originals and reinterpretations of classics, including takes on tunes by Benny Goodman, Stephen Foster, and Blind Willie Johnson.

Kang has worked with Frisell for 15 years, so his ability to mesh in this setting is hardly surprising.  But he also has made a career of fitting any recording, whether it's for Secret Chiefs 3, Sunn O))), Mr. Bungle, Animal Collective, or Lou Reed.  Royston has spent less time on the East Coast, but he has already established a chemistry with Frisell and co., and it's evident here.

Bill Frisell: "Beautiful Dreamer (for Karle Seydel)" (Stephen Foster)

Cephalic Carnage: Misled by Certainty (Relapse)

It's been more than three years since a release from tech-death-grind masters Cephalic Carnage, this time with no extended single to satiate fans.  The group's complex brand of dissonance and punishment, however, makes the wait understandable and worth it.

Misled by Certainty is another jolting dose of death metal and grindcore, built on blast beats, tech riffs, breakdowns, breakneck double kick and tom fills, lightning-fast finger tapping, and alternating growls and rasps.

The band's quick jaunts into other genres aren't as pronounced, and the new material isn't quite as fast and frantic as on previous albums — but that's like saying that a hurricane isn't as fast as a tornado.

Yakuza saxophonist Bruce Lamont appears on the prog jam "Ohrwurm" and adds a bit of skronky wailing on "Repangaea," which also features a piano-and-feedback outro and a pretty minor-key melody (before, naturally, another crushing dose of metal).  The latter may be the band's most epic creation, and perhaps it will spawn a new direction of its own.

Cephalic Carnage: "Warbots AM"

Portico Quartet: Isla (Real World)

In 2008, London's Portico Quartet was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for its debut album, an amalgamation of composed and improvised jazz with rock and other contemporary styles.

With that album, Knee-deep in the North Sea, the group also became known for its use of the hang, a Swiss percussive instrument that is just 10 years old and that sounds like a steel pan mixed with gamelan.

Isla is Portico's sophomore full-length, and it finds the four-piece growing into its own.  Like its predecessor, Isla features improvisation over strictly composed backdrops, but it strikes a balance between calm, circular cadences and wild soloing.

The rest of the lineup's instrumentation remains — with soprano sax, upright bass, and a drum kit to play with the hang — and the result is a disc of slowly building, trance-inducing grooves that make way for a few wailing leads.  Most importantly, the musicians don't overstep their bounds on Isla, resulting in an album that knows when to heat up and when to cool down.

Portico Quartet: "The Visitor"

Honorable Mentions

Film School: Fission (Hi-Speed Soul)

Jon Hopkins: Remixes single (Domino)

Ion Dissonance: Cursed (Century Media)

Vijay Iyer: Solo (ACM Music)

Madlib: Medicine Show No. 8 (Stones Throw)

Quest for Fire: Lights from Paradise (Tee Pee)

Philip Selway: Familial (Nonesuch)

Tub Ring: Secret Handshakes (The End)

Slated for release on August 31 by Savoy Jazz, jazz/Americana guitarist Bill Frisell’s new album, Beautiful Dreamers, will feature original compositions alongside reinterpretations of the work of other music greats.

Produced by Lee Townsend (Songline / Tone Field Productions) and engineered by Adam Muñoz at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, and mastered with Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in New York, Beautiful Dreamers showcases musicians Eyvind Kang (viola) and Rudy Royston (drums) lending their talents to present an engaging and seamless dynamic between the band mates and their instrumental voices.

Perhaps the poster group for its genre, Sunn has spent the past 10 years experimenting in epic, doomy sound and noise.

Now, with Monoliths & Dimensions, the core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson teams with guests galore to create, in the words of the group, "the most musical piece we've done."  Guest musicians Eyvind Kang (John Zorn, Bill Frisell), Jessika Kenney (Eyvind Kang, Asva), Oren Ambarchi (Burial Chamber Trio), Dylan Carlson (Earth), Julian Priester (Sun Ra, John Coltrane) and others help make that so, while retaining the creeping, end-of-the-world vibe that persists thoughout Sunn's work.

Khanate: Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head)

As the belated swan song for the super-group collaboration between Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))), James Plotkin (Phantomsmasher), Alan Dubin (OLD), and Tim Wyskida (Blind Idiot God), Clean Hands Go Foul is a fitting endgame for Khanate's aural presentation of desolation and despair.  Evil ambience crests and falls, working with ominous chords and soul-shredding screams; naturally, fans of O'Malley's other work will love this.

Khanate: "Wings from Spine" (excerpt)
Khanate: \"Wings from Spine\" (excerpt)

Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest (Warp)

Unconventional indie darlings Grizzly Bear have pushed three years since their last full-length release, and the passage of time hasn't diminished the band's creative stroke.

On Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear's trademark vocal harmonies and layered orchestrations are still present, but the album features a slightly heavier touch of electronics and chamber elements.  By and large, however, this is the same Grizzly Bear, and preexisting fans won't feel alienated by this disc.

Sir Richard Bishop: The Freak of Araby (Drag City)

In his solo creations and many collaborative endeavors, ex-Sun City Girls guitarist Richard Bishop weaves through Arabic, Indian, flamenco, African, and Gypsy influences in both composed and improvised settings.

With his new album, he employs a clean, reverberated electric guitar in place of his usual acoustic sound, and he adds a bit of percussive assistance. For spring and summer tour dates, Bishop will perform with a full ensemble, which should make his ethnic creations even more compelling.

Master Musicians of Bukkake: Totem One (Conspiracy)

Milky and Don McGreevy of Earth, producer extraordinaire Randall Dunn (Secret Chiefs 3, Sunn O)))), Bill Horist of Ghidra, and other noted Northwest musicians comprise this collective that designs psychedelic, ethnically inspired folk freak-outs.

With Totem One, the group begins a musical trilogy while expanding and maturing its expansive sound.  The album's guests include Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls and Timb Harris of Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3.

Vieux Farka Touré: Fondo (Six Degrees)

The son of musical Malian icon Ali Farka Touré, guitarist/singer Vieux Farka Touré has garnered international distinction since the release of his self-titled debut album, issued the year after his famous father’s death.

That disc, which was remixed later in the same year, featured kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate on a pair of tracks and combined Mande and Sonrai folk styles with pop and a touch of reggae.  Diabate is back to help with Fondo, which finds Vieux taking more of a distinctive direction while improving his songwriting chops.

Mr. Lif

Beginning as a project to release a song every three weeks, I Heard it Today marks a new beginning for hip-hop hero Mr. Lif.  In addition to being self-released, this new work finds Jeffrey Haynes seeking to inspire others and taking a greater reflection on the political landscape.

There's no drop in production, and Lif's rhymes remain as heady and unique as ever.  Throughout the album, he hits on themes old and new, including the disillusionment with capitalism and the corporate workplace on "Collapse the Walls" and his take on the housing crisis with title track "I Heard it Today."

The disc's shining moment, however, is his piece regarding the nation's first black president — one that acknowledges the sad truth that Obama, though likely a good person, can't change the ways of the word.

With slight embellishment, Lif raps, "195 countries on the globe; 191 governments under American control. …  You think they're gonna let Obama stop the flow of dough? I think no — or we'll be witnessing an overthrow.  Bankers run this shit; don't get it twisted.  Ain't nothing personal here; it's just business."

Herculaneum: Herculaneum III (Clean Feed)

Led by three horns and members of Chicago's jazz, experimental, and indie scenes, Herculaneum specializes in grooving mid-tempo jazz licks and cool tones.  Improvised solos flow over steady foundations, presenting graceful and swinging brass work from trombonist Nick Broste, trumpeter Patrick Newbery, and saxophonist David McDonnell.

Drummer Dylan Ryan, who adds vibraphone to great effect, is also of pop experimentalists Icy Demons, and Broste is a performer in the quirky 30-member marching band Mucca Pazza.  Though the group has been around since 2002, this is just its second full-length album and first since 2006 disc Orange Blossom.

Venetian Snares: Filth (Planet Mu)

A man who never hurts for new material, electronic producer Aaron Funk now issues another album under his popular Venetian Snares moniker.  Like his recent Detrimentalist and Cavalcade… releases, Filth focuses on straight electronic mayhem — but this time without the glitchy breaks that have marked much of his catalog.

There are no string samples like My Downfall (Original Soundtrack) or Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, and it won't win over anyone that needs melodies, but Filth should hold over Funk's fans until the next release sets about feeding his insatiable appetite.

Venetian Snares: "Deep Dicking"
Venetian Snares: \"Deep Dicking\"

Robert Burger: City of Strangers (Tzadik)

A founding member of Tin Hat Trio, multi-instrumentalist Rob Burger tackles a plethoric load of musical devices and genres on this solo release of 31 brief film cues.

Burger left Tin Hat five years ago, but here he gets a bit of guest assistance from the group's other two founding members, guitarist Mark Orton and violinist Carla Kihlstedt. Viola virtuoso Eyvind Kang and violinist Maxim Moston make larger cameos, and guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Kenny Wollesen also make brief appearances.

But Burger handles nearly all of the instrumentation on his own, deftly weaving through chamber music, neoclassical, piano scores, twangy bluegrass and slide guitar, melodic pieces of percussion, waltzy accordion numbers, and much more.  The result is a beautiful disc of tunes perfect for those with short attention spans and vital for soundtrack enthusiasts.

Lucky 7s: Pluto Junkyard (Clean Feed)

Comprised of seven all-star talents in or affiliated with the Chicago jazz scene, this septet captures the abilities of each esteemed member while creating an intriguing mix of motifs.

A horn-heavy frontline leans on the double trombone talents of Jeb Bishop and Jeff Albert, the cornet of Josh Berman, and the tenor sax of Keefe Jackson.  As always, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz establishes a masterful blend of harmonies, and bassist Matthew Golombisky and drummer Quin Kirchner keep the tunes moving but also drop out for pensive brass exchanges.

Led by Bishop and Albert, the group takes a bit of a double identity — one that is welcomed and fun.

Before recording a new album this spring, Converge will play a handful of shows, mostly during a week in March. Head to Deathwish Inc. for the full list.

Norwegian jazz/Balkan/surf group Farmers Market will perform with the Stravanger Symphony Orchestra for the country's MaiJazz festival in May.

A seventh album from Sunn O))), titled Monoliths & Dimensions, will be released May 18 on Southern Lord. The album includes guest appearances from Eyvind Kang, Julian Priester, Oren Ambarchi, Jessika Kenney, and Dylan Carlson.

Ethnically inspired electro-acoustic arists Balkan Beat Box are issuing a remix album, Nu Made, through JDub Records on April 7.

Tombs has posted its entire Relapse debut, Winter Hours, online to be streamed at www.winterhours.info.

Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas will release a new album with his Brass Ecstasy group, titled Spirit Moves, later this spring.

The Brooklyn studio of Daptone Records, home of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and The Budos Band, was robbed on Monday. A list of stolen or damaged items can be seen here, and if you see this stuff online somewhere, holler at Daptone.

Brutal hardcore group Ed Gein is practicing again after a year and a half of inactivity. The group plans to start writing new material and play some scattered shows.

Long-form UK rock experimentalists Crippled Black Phoenix will tour the US for two weeks at the beginning of April.

Jaguar Love is no longer playing with drummer Jay Clark (former guitarist of Pretty Girls Make Graves). The band currently is a two-piece with a drum machine and will debut this new lineup for an Australian tour.

An Albatross still needs a guitarist to tour this summer! Get in touch if you're talented, friendly, and can travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless and Witch begin a nine-day tour of the Northeastern US and Canada today.