Head to Spruance's Web of Mimicry site to order the record, which includes a revamped and Italian-westernized version of the Chiefs' "The Exile" (now "The Western Exile") as the B-side.

Shining: Live Blackjazz album and DVD (Indie Recordings / Prosthetic Records)

Shining: "Fisheye"

With its 2010 album, Blackjazz, Norway’s Shining completed a transition from jazz experimentalism to classically informed prog-fusion to sinister electro-industrial metal. The transformation seems extreme, but when heard linearly, it feels surprisingly natural. Much of that transformational fluidity, in fact, is owed to the band’s hyperkinetic live show, where old and new tunes alike are delivered with equal parts precision and punishment.

A combined DVD and live album, Live Blackjazz documents Shining’s cathartic stage show in stunning quality while bordering on sensory overload. Live recordings generally aren’t recommended for first introductions — but, as you might have guessed, Shining isn’t your average band.

- Scott Morrow

Liberteer: Better to Die on Your Feet than Live on Your Knees (Relapse)

Liberteer: "Build No System"

As the new solo moniker of Santa Cruz grind veteran and multi-instrumentalist Matt Widener, Liberteer has delivered a maiden opus that might truly justify using the words “grindcore” and “opera” in the same breath. It’s an epic and unorthodox debut — one that plays essentially as one continuous song while marrying D-beat crust to horns, flutes, banjos, and marching snares.

As expected, the album contains plenty of bellowing, ultra-low B-tuned guitar and blast-beat bury. But from the very first banjo plucks and bugle-horn strains on the introductory track, it’s obvious that Widener’s over-the-top militarism is meant as a parody of patriotic fervor.

- Saby Reyes-Kulkarni

Jono El Grande: The Choko King (Rune Grammofon)

In late 2010, the eccentric Norwegian guitarist and avant-garde composer known as Jono El Grande (born Jon Andreas Håtun) released Phantom Stimulance, a collection of previously unreleased tunes from his archives and songs that he transformed beyond recognition, demanding to be heard.

This year, Jono reached even further into his stash to bring us The Choko King, another compilation of unheard music dating back to 1995 — four years before his debut as Jono El Grande. Though the album lacks a certain cohesiveness present in his other releases, the songs serve as rough sketches illustrating his strangely brilliant mind.

For the uninitiated, Jono’s avant-garde compositions may seem either absurd and inaccessible or merely a cacophony of random sounds. Tracks like “Türbø Meuz,” however, exemplify the amount of time and labor that goes into every quirky detail: in his “insanely nerdy details” about the album, Jono explains the song’s 12-year evolution from a 20-minute orchestral piece to the two-minute art-rock composition on The Choko King.

Though some of the early pieces are interesting to hear as bizarre ideas unfolding, “Türbø Meuz” and the other later ideas showcase the more fully realized, Frank Zappa-esque era of Mr. El Grande. Certain tracks may rub you the wrong way, but given that the majority are under one or two minutes, it doesn't take long for the album to cross back into mad genius.

- Meaghann Korbel

Honorable Mentions

Buxton: Nothing Here Seems Strange (New West)

Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Columbia)

Gotye: Making Mirrors (Universal)

Hospitality: s/t (Merge)

Imperial Teen: Feel the Sound (Merge)

Lana Del Rey: Born to Die (Interscope)

Novalima: Karimba (ESL)

Zeena Parkins: Double Dupe Down (Tzadik)

Gregory Rogove: Piana, performed by John Medeski (Knitting Factory)

John Zorn: Mount Analogue (Tzadik)

At nearly 400 pages of full-color artwork and editorial, Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music is a dynamic print presentation of independent musicians and artists who are using or exploring color in unorthodox ways. It’s a highly saturated, prismatic presentation of some of today’s most adventurous underground artists, including Sonny Kay, Seripop, John Zorn, Daft Punk, Sigur Rós front-man Jónsi, Blue Man Group, The Zhou Brothers, Ratatat, Holy Fuck, Damon Locks of The Eternals, Rob Mazurek, NewVillager, Andy Gilmore, and many others.

Order a regular edition today ($40) and secure free domestic shipping, or snag a copy of our limited-edition hardcover ($60, also with free domestic shipping), which is limited to 200 signed and numbered copies and 200 unsigned.

Over the course of Chromatic's 12 chapters, readers are introduced to:

- Performers who saturate their stage shows in vibrant shades

- Musicians who create concept albums based on color

- Kaleidoscopic, polychromatic cover art

- Composers and other famous musicians who experience musical synesthesia, the involuntary intersection of senses where someone might “see” notes as different colors or shapes

- Special guest editors and featured artists who share their inspirations

- The concept of audible color

- Wild illustrations of musical notes translated into hues to create elaborate geometric works of art

- Bands photographed in their favorite hues

The Book of Knots: Garden of Fainting Stars (Ipecac)

The Book of Knots: "Microgravity"

Garden of Fainting Stars is the third installment in the "By Sea, By Land, By Air" trilogy of The Book of Knots, a collaborative studio project that's built around the quartet of producer/musician Joel Hamilton, bassist Tony Maimone, drummer Matthias Bossi, and violinist Carla Kihlstedt.

As on the previous two albums, the band delivers a dissonant yet melodic mix of pitch-bending, alien effects, and textured, metallic tones, and an all-star stable of guests again helps narrate the album's tales, this time relating to aeronautics.  Garden of Fainting Stars, however, feels the most cohesive of the three albums, as the core group comes closer to perfecting its brand of disconsolate rock experimentation.

But as expected, there's plenty of variety from track to track.  After the crunchy guitars and ascendant vocals of album opener "Microgravity," a brooding backdrop is set for "Drosophla Melanogaster," which includes narration by Blixa Bargeld of Einsturzende Neubauten.

The rest of the album's guests, consisting of extended musical family, include Mike Patton, Trey Spruance of Secret Chiefs 3, Mike Watt, Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables.  Patton's soft croons introduce "Planemo" before sonorous synthesizers darken the horizon, and shortly thereafter, potentially post-apocalyptic radio ramblings close the album on "Obituary for the Future."  It ends the trilogy in pessimism and mystery — fitting for an album that is self-described as a "wormless, rusty hook into the lifeless seas of the music industry, expecting to reap only sorrow."

Bosco Delrey: Everybody Wah (Mad Decent / Downtown)

Bosco Delrey: "Baby's Got a Blue Flame"

Bosco Delrey is one curious cat, one whose debut album is a Jon Spencer-esque roots-rock revival that incorporates strong elements of electronica and psychedelia.  Following a pair of seven-inch releases earlier this year, Everybody Wah is that debut, marking the arrival of a dynamic 21st Century songwriter.

In addition to the traditional rock elements, the album uses a plethora of modern sounds, from fuzz bass to drum machines to synthesizers.  "Archebold Ivy" is one of more genre-blended songs on the album, combining a classically flavored harpsichord melody with dance-fueled synth lines and Delrey's throwback vocals.  That's immediately followed by "Afterlife," a soulful yet futuristic faux-string-tinged amalgamation.  "Cool Out" borrows some Venetian Snares-style drum and bass over a simple sweeping backdrop, and "Insta Love" follows with a romantic rock-and-roll ballad.

If you haven't heard Bosco Delrey's name yet, introduce yourself.  And if you have, prepare to hear more of it.

Arkona: Stenka na Stenku (Napalm)

Arkona: "Stenka na Stenku"

Based in Moscow, Arkona is a raucous Russian folk- and pagan-metal band led by the alternately harmonious and growling vocals of Maria "Scream" Arhipova.  The Stenka na Stenku EP, which follows five full-length studio releases, is a fun, brief blast of tunes that mix power metal with wind instruments such as bagpipes, flute, and ocarina.

The result, though jarring for the uninitiated, is a mix that doesn't grow tiresome over the six tracks.  "Valenki" has an upbeat yet blazing delivery, pairing speed picking with rapid bass kicks, wily accordion riffs, and guttural folk chants.  But Stenka na Stenku also reels it back, offering an acoustic rendition of "Goi, Rode, Goi!" — the title track from Arkona's 2009 album — for something haunting and wailing, anchored by cello strikes, throat singing, and layers of old-world vocals.

Erik Friedlander: Bonebridge (SkipStone)

Erik Friedlander: "Beaufain Street"

Cellist/composer Erik Friedlander long has been associated with John Zorn and the downtown New York City scene, but his considerable abilities have made him known as a bandleader as well as prolific sideman, counting collaborations with musicians as diverse as Kaki King, Ikue Mori, John Vanderslice, Vinicius Cantuaria, and Kelly Clarkson.

Bonebridge is Friedlander's latest as a leader, weaving a melodic blend of Americana and jazz with guitarist Doug Wamble, bassist Trevor Dunn, and drummer Mike Sarin.  This time around, Friedlander emphasizes pizzicato playing on his cello as he balances melody and feel with technical prowess.

This plus Wamble's Southern slide guitar are the defining characteristics of the album — yet the rhythm section is never lacking.  Dunn's upright-bass grooves root the album for leads from Friedlander and Wamble, although he is free to roam from time to time.  On occasion, Wamble's twangy tones nearly resemble a sitar; when less the focus, his guitar drifts in and out with soft murmurs.

Bonebridge actually began as material for Friedlander's Broken Arm Trio, which includes Dunn and Sarin.  But it quickly became more in Friedlander's mind, and Wamble was invited to expand the timbral possibilities.  The sonic destination is ground that Friedlander had yet to tread, which gets increasingly harder as his catalog grows ever larger.

Marissa Nadler: s/t (Box of Cedar)

Marissa Nadler: "Baby, I Will Leave You in the Morning"

After garnering a greater following with a pair of releases on Kemado Records,"dream folk" singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler has had to self-release her latest, self-titled album, made possible by a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The album being self-titled seems to signify a new starting point, which is reflected by her Box of Cedar label name and the fact that the album only features two players, Nadler and Carter Tanton.

As in the past, however, the music features healthy accompaniment to Nadler's airy, multi-tracked vocals and cavernous reverberations.  This time they come in the form of bells and glockenspiel, pedal-steel guitar, synthesizer, marimba, light drumming, and more.  Nadler calls the collection her "most honest and natural," and that's hard to dispute.  Each track offers a new direction without forcing it, and the entire album is unified by Nadler's idiosyncrasies and songwriting skills.

The Dear Hunter: The Color Spectrum condensed CD & 9-EP collection (Triple Crown)

The Dear Hunter: "Deny It All"

The Dear Hunter, begun as simply a side project, has since blossomed into a theatrical prog-pop band that now has multiple multi-album concept cycles. The group’s newest completion is a nine-EP project called The Color Spectrum, inspired by the colors of the rainbow (plus black and white).

Released as individual 10-inch records and as a single CD with limited selections, the music is as assorted as its inspirations. Black is sonorous, martial, deep, and reverberating; White is ethereal and hymn-like in places, but also doggedly cheerful. Blue is playful, youthful, and driven, churning and giddy; Green is ebullient, relaxed, and expansive; Red is sexy and insinuating as well as aggressive.

- Text by Summer Block. Read the full story in Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music.

Honorable Mentions

Aaron Goldberg & Guillermo Klein: Bienestan (Sunnyside)

Diskjokke: Sagara (Smalltown Supersound)

Elysian Fields: Last Night on Earth (Ojet)

Isis: Live II 03.19.03

John Shannon & Wings of Sound: Songs of the Desert River (Creek Valley)

The Mattson 2: Feeling Hands (Galaxia)

This Morn' Omina: L'Unification des Forces Opposantes (Ant-Zen)

Terakaft: Aratan N Azawad (World Village)

Vetiver: The Errant Charm (Sub Pop)

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)

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: January 25, 2011 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

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This Week\'s Best Albums: January 25, 2011

John Vanderslice with The Magik*Magik Orchestra: White Wilderness (Dead Oceans)

John Vanderslice with The Magik*Magik Orchestra: "Sea Salt"

White Wilderness, the newest full-length from John Vanderslice, is a first for the indie singer/songwriter, recorded in collaboration with Minna Choi and The Magik*Magik Orchestra.  A malleable ensemble that bills itself as a “modular orchestra” of 18-35 people, the MMO performed live with Vanderslice a few years ago, and it has a résumé that includes collaborations with lots of other great rock and neoclassical musicians, including Jonny Greenwood, Tin Hat Trio, Hauschka, and Ben Johnston.

The group's addition here has really elevated Vanderslice’s material, which now breathes with a cinematic quality while backed by string, horn, and percussion sections. The material is replete with spare, delicate moments of respite — the result of Choi’s adaptable arrangements.   From its stirring and delicate opener, "Sea Salt," White Wilderness is an incredibly layered album that shows the depth of Vanderslice’s writing.

Phil Manley: Life Coach (Thrill Jockey)

Phil Manley: "Make Good Choices"

As a founding member of post-rock/dance-punk trio Trans Am – and as a recording engineer and member of The Fucking Champs and Oneida – guitarist Phil Manley has become endeared to fans and fellow musicians alike.  Now, after two decades of work, he has released his first solo album, Life Coach, and it’s unlike anything that he’s done prior.

The music, by and large, is a group of long-form instrumentals that build and swell with loops, effects, and overdubs.  Both electric and steel-string acoustic guitars are at the fore, with a handful of synthesizers and a touch of drum machine in the background.  Life Coach showcases both technical talent and melodic musicianship, and in the process, it reveals a side of Manley not frequently seen in his other projects.

Andre Afram Asmar: Harmonic Emergency (Mush)

Andre Afram Asmar: “Onward Farword”

Back in 2003 and 2004, Palestinian-American dub musician Andre Afram Asmar made waves for his unorthodox blend of hip hop, reggae, and Middle Eastern music. His debut for Mush Records and his subsequent full-length collaboration with MC Circus garnered critical acclaim, and Asmar made other notable associations, including work with rappers Busdriver and AWOL One and reggae singer Majek Fashek.

But as he was preparing for a big tour in late 2004, Asmar suffered a serious brain aneurysm, and his recovery since that time has been a slow and arduous process.  As a result of the aneurysm, Asmar lost ability in the left side of his body and lost vision in his left eye.  But he remained undeterred in his musical journey, and he has since had some help to complete Harmonic Emergency, the follow-up to Racetothebottom.

Originally begun being tracked in 2001, Harmonic Emergency is a strange and trippy dub creation, with sung, half-sung, and spoken-word vocals bouncing off rubbery thuds and beats.  Electronics and breakbeats get things moving, and plenty of Middle Eastern melodies and timbres maintain that “world fusion” vibe.

Bruce Lamont: Feral Songs for the Epic Decline (At A Loss)

Bruce Lamont: "2 Then the 3"

From the psych- and jazz-tinged metal band Yakuza, to the industrial homage Circle of Animals, to local improv jams, and even to fronting a touring Led Zeppelin cover band — saxophonist/singer Bruce Lamont has lent his assorted skills to a boatload of notable projects.  Now the multitalented frontman has unveiled his long-stewing solo debut, Feral Songs for the Epic Decline, on At a Loss Recordings.

Composed of seven free-flowing tracks, the album features more acoustic guitar, synthesizer, and unearthly vocals than some might expect.  The album’s foreboding atmospherics are its most consistent attribute, as it unfolds almost as a long-form singer/songwriter experiment.  Dark folk refrains give way to distorted tribal percussion, wailing sax lines, and noise-filled passages, but they’re all united by Lamont’s elongated – and surprisingly potent – chants and croons.

Monotonix: Not Yet (Drag City)

Monotonix: "Give Me More"

Hailing from Tel Aviv, Israel, the garage-rock trio Monotonix has attained surprising amounts of exposure in the Western hemisphere.  Much of that is due to the group’s wild live shows, which have caused consternation at venues in Israel.  As a result, the band hit the road and played hundreds of shows in Europe and America before it even had an EP out in the States.  But clearly, the band has connected with audiences thanks to its loud, raw, and unpolished sound, and now it has released Not Yet, its second full-length album for Drag City Records.

Previously, Monotonix has recorded with American musicians/engineers such as The Fucking Champs’ Tim Green and Shellac’s Steve Albini, and the latter was again tapped for work on Not Yet.  With extra fuzz and low end, it’s another disc of aggressive, straightforward, three-minute rock tunes with wailing, off-pitch vocals and errant solos.  To say that the base riffs are minimalist might be assigning too much complexity to it; some of them are built around just two chords.  But regardless, Not Yet is another musical fireball, achieving its appeal with rock energy rather than expertise.

Talib Kweli: Gutter Rainbows (Javotti Media / Duck Down)

Talib Kweli: "Cold Rain"

Following a handful of underground releases in the mid-‘90s, Talib Kweli burst on the national stage a few years later as part of Black Star, his highly successful hip-hop duo with Mos Def.  The two parted ways after one album, but Kweli went on to countless other collaborations and a series of acclaimed solo efforts. Gutter Rainbows is his fifth and newest solo release – his first since 2007 and first in a long time to be released without the aid of a major label.  It’s out now but only digitally in North America; it’s available elsewhere on CD thanks to Duck Down Records.

Compared to his last album, Eardrum, the music has a much fuller sound while striking a nice balance between soulful, funky, and bassy styles and a harder edge. It doesn’t have the big-name producers of Eardrum – which included Kanye West, Will.I.Am, Pete Rock, and Madlib – but it sounds like a more realized album.  Whether it’s with a diversity of instruments and samples, great backing performances, or just Kweli’s relentless flow, Gutter Rainbows is an exciting addition to his catalog.

Honorable Mentions

Banquet of the Spirits / Cyro Baptista / John Zorn: Caym: The Book of Angels, Vol. 17 (Tzadik)

Bill Frisell and Vinicius Cantuária: Lagrimas Mexicanas (E1)

Charles Bradley: No Time For Dreaming (Daptone)

Caroline: Verdugo Hills (Temporary Residence)

Deerhoof: Deerhoof vs. Evil (Polyvinyl)

Destroyer: Kaputt (Merge)

Ensemble: Excerpts (Fat Cat)

Lia Ices: Grown Unknown (Jagjaguwar)

Iron and Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean (Warner Bros.)

Kodo: Akatsuki (Otodaiku)

Georgia Anne Muldrow: Vweto

Thank You: Golden Worry (Thrill Jockey)

Sidi Touré: Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)

Zs: New Slaves Part II: Essence Implosion! (The Social Registry)

As usual, ALARM leaves no genre unexplored in our list of this year's overlooked gems.

Sigh: Scenes from Hell (The End, 1/19/10)

Sigh: "The Summer Funeral"

With a history of fusing other revered genres to a doomy combination of black metal and thrash, Japan's Sigh used its eighth studio album to deliver symphonic, epic metal that calls upon classical instrumentation to top its rock foundation.

Brass, woodwind, and string instruments — as well as organ and piano — accent as well as lead sinister melodies that take surprising turns through fanciful themes. Raspy, menacing vocals coat each track, resulting in a dramatic presentation that isn't much at odds with its complex backdrop.

RJD2: The Colossus (RJ’s Electrical Connections, 1/19/10)

RJD2: "Games You Can Win"

Following a divisive album that saw the introduction of poppy, soulful vocals, producer RJD2 returned with something of a split release — an album that leaves no shortage of accessible, vocal-driven tunes but that emphasizes some inventive instrumentals.  Whether or not you dig the soulful RJ, there's no doubt that the music on The Colossus is some of his best to date.

Chicago Underground Duo: Boca Negra (Thrill Jockey, 1/26/10)

Chicago Underground Duo: "Spy on the Floor"

For 15 years, the Chicago Underground Duo (and Trio, Quartet, and Orchestra) has been an avant-garde jazz outlet for prolific Chicago musicians Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra, Isotope 217) and Chad Taylor.  Boca Negra is an interesting dichotomy, as spiraling vociferation leads to upbeat grooves, shifting piano chords, harmonic electronics, and ambient samples.

Algernon: Ghost Surveillance (Cuneiform, 1/26/10)

Algernon: "Broken Lady"

The brainchild of guitarist Dave Miller, Algernon walks a thin line between melodically driven post-rock and instrumental unconventionality.  Ghost Surveillance places greater emphasis on synthesizers and sprawling song structures, but at its core is the combination of accessibility and technicality that has defined Miller's style. Noisy, circular rock riffs transform to tranquil, wandering passages. "Timekiller," the album's fourth track, is a beautiful, buoyant number — and one of the band's best creations to date.

Bei Bei & Shawn Lee: Into the Wind (Ubiquity, 1/26/10)

Bei Bei & Shawn Lee: "East"

In the hands of a marvel, the guzheng — a gorgeous Chinese zither — resonates with tactile beauty as its many strings are plucked with precision.

Bei Bei, a native of Chengdu, China, is one such musical technician. And this collaboration with Shawn Lee, a prolific producer who can man as many genres as he sees fit, is undoubtedly one of the year's finest albums.  Together, the two use Into the Wind to navigate through funky down-tempo jams, Kung-Fu flavor, hip hop, soul, and driving grooves.

Daníel Bjarnason: Processions (Bedroom Community, 2/1/10)

Daníel Bjarnason: "Bow to String I: Sorrow Conquers Happiness"

Best known as a conductor and arranger for indie groups such as Sigur Rós, composer Daníel Bjarnason also holds a lofty classical résumé. Processions, his proper debut, is, at many points, a challenging classical work.  Powerful cellos scale and race with crackling percussions before settling into gently bowed and pizzicato string accompaniments; easily half a dozen strings battle for dominance in a sorrowful, harmonic piece that resonates long after hearing it.  Undoubtedly, Processions is a daring and original debut.

Shining: Blackjazz (Indie Recordings / Distribution, 2/2/10)

Shining: "Fisheye"

Beginning as an experimental acoustic jazz ensemble, Norway's Shining — the brainchild of saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby — transformed to a progressive jazz-fusion outfit before delving into its darker side for a collaboration with black-metallists Enslaved.

Blackjazz pushes deeper into the band's dark recesses, forging a progressive industrial sound for the young century.  Big, complex rock riffs, twisted through gnarly distortion, form the foundation and support a mass of frantic, whirring synth lines and gut-wrenching black-metal screams.  In all, Blackjazz is a new epic — and perhaps the best metal album of 2010.

Pillars and Tongues: Lay of Pilgrim Park, LP + download (Endless Nest, 2/9/10)

Pillars and Tongues: "The Center of"

With just three members, Pillars and Tongues manages to craft powerful folk abstractions and interwoven, trance-inducing vocal dynamics. Both composed and improvisational, these shifting forms evoke spiritual vibes in their soulful essence, heavenly harmonies, and repeated patterns.

Dessa: A Badly Broken Code (Doomtree, 2/9/10)

Dessa: "Dixon's Girl"

The only female member of Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree, Dessa is a spoken-word vocalist, singer, and MC whose awaited full-length was finally released earlier this year.

On A Badly Broken Code, her true solo debut, Dessa's vocal diversity is matched by its underlying music, ranging from hard-hitting beats and rhymes to lilting harmonic overdubs.

The Bastard Noise / The Endless Blockade: The Red List (20 Buck Spin, 2/16/10)

The Bastard Noise: "Mutant World of Shame / Underworld"

A spinoff of treasured "power-violence" hardcore group Man is the Bastard, The Bastard Noise is approaching its 20th anniversary of creating noisy electro-doom brutality.  For this split release with hardcore/punk experimentalists The Endless Blockade, the group utilizes the trademark drum-and-bass style of Man is the Bastard in combination with its far-out sounds.  The Endless Blockade contributes three tracks to the release — one 14-minute epic and two avant-garde remixes.

Freeway & Jake One: The Stimulus Package (Rhymesayers, 2/16/10)

Freeway & Jake One: "Know What I Mean"

Continuing his life after Roc-A-Fella Records, former freestyle star Freeway now makes his debut on Rhymesayers, a fitting new home — if only temporary before a move to Cash Money.  Fellow Rhymesayers standout Jake One provides a funky, malleable backdrop for Freeway's fiery delivery and lyrics that are alternately personal and light in content. And though Freeway deserves his accolades, Jake One's production is the MVP of this collaboration.

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch, 2/16/10)

Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Hit 'Em Up Style" (Blu Cantrell)

Beholden to the traditions of Americana and early African-American folk, the string trio Carolina Chocolate Drops continues blurring the lines of old and new. On Genuine Negro Jig, the group's fifth album, a few original numbers and a trove of traditionals take root in banjo, fiddle, and percussion. Three-part harmonies shimmer on the famous folk tune "Trouble in Your Mind," and simplicity shines on gripping renditions of "Why Don't You Do Right?" by Kansas Joe McCoy and "Trampled Rose" by Tom Waits.  Most surprisingly, Genuine Negro Jig includes an enjoyable rendition of "Hit 'Em Up Style," an unintentionally farcical pop hit by Blu Cantrell.

Mako Sica: Dual Horizon LP (La Société Expéditionnaire, 2/16/10)

Mako Sica: "I'Itoi"

A translation of the phrase "land bad," Mako Sica has more than a nominal Native American influence; the trio's distant vocal reverberations and dirge-inspired tunes recall the spirituality of America's original inhabitants.

Between the vocalizations of Brent Fuscaldo, the melodies of guitarist Przemyslaw Krys Drazek, and the rhythms of drummer Michael J. Kendrick, Mako Sica maintains a strong balance of abilities — with a brooding combination of jangly guitars, reverberated vociferation, and instrumental dynamics.

High on Fire: Snakes for the Divine (E1 Music, 2/23/10)

High on Fire: "Snakes for the Divine"

Stoner-metal trio High on Fire has built a devoted following over the past dozen years as fans fell in love with Matt Pike's gruff vocals and thunderous guitar riffs. On Snakes for the Divine, Pike uses his throat to channel Lemmy Kilmister; meanwhile, the band has picked up its pace and crafted an album that isn’t as outstretched. Hard-hitting riffery leads an effort that, though diverse at times, may be the band’s most driving release.

Jaga Jazzist: One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune, 2/23/10)

Jaga Jazzist: "One-Armed Bandit"

Five years have passed since we've heard the powerhouse melodies of Norway's Jaga Jazzist, the post-rock/"nü-jazz" conception of brothers Lars and Martin Horntveth.

One-Armed Bandit, immediately the group's best album, resembles symphonic prog rock, arguably a few steps removed from parts of Frank Zappa's expansive catalog and closer to countryman Jono El Grande's diverse and theatrical style.  This album, however, is much more cohesive than either of those comparisons suggest, and at times it is nearly overwhelming with grooves and harmonious refrains.

Rob Swift: The Architect (Ipecac, 2/23/10)

Rob Swift: "The Architect"

Turntablist/DJ Robert Aguilar, formerly of the X-ecutioners, has long utilized his love of jazz, R&B, and other musical movements to create compelling hip-hop instrumentals while displaying his tight beat-juggling skills.

The Architect is Swift’s foray into the classical world. In addition to a multitude of sampled styles and sounds, classical cuts comprise a substantial chunk of this Ipecac debut. Rearranged strings, organ, and horns often make the foundation of a given track, occasionally evoking high-tension Italian Westerns, as Swift’s scratches dance atop banging beats.

Rotting Christ: Aealo (Season of Mist, 2/23/10)

Rotting Christ: "Aealo"

For more than 20 years, Athens' Rotting Christ has traversed different directions on the metal path.  With its previous release, Theogonia, the group released a striking, original album that fused its dark sound to the ethnic sounds of its ancestors.

Like its predecessor, Aealo features female Benedictine chants, lingual pipes, and a medieval feel. Combined with dueling high-pitched harmonies and powerful guitar work, these new elements highlight an album that should be among the most original metal releases of the year.

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: Ali and Toumani (Nonesuch, 2/23/10)

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: "Ruby"

As two of Africa's most internationally renowned musicians, guitar legend Ali Farka Touré and kora phenom Toumani Diabaté have displayed impeccable abilities while integrating the styles of other cultures into their ethnic sounds.

Each Malian, the two collaborated for the acclaimed In the Heart of the Moon in 2005, shortly before Farka Touré's passing in 2006. Fortunately, the two set aside time to record new material before touring for In the Heart of the Moon, and the result is another beautiful set of duets that sees a posthumous release.

Throughout Ali and Toumani, Farka Touré roots each creation in melodious African-blues pieces. Diabaté's virtuosity accents each track in the form of fanciful scales, which at times evoke classical harpsichord passages, perhaps most notably on "Sabu Yerkoy."

Fang Island: s/t (Sargent House, 2/23/10)

Fang Island: "Sideswiper"

Mostly comprised of ex-Daughters, the good-time rock quintet Fang Island was one of the most quickly ascending bands of 2010, jumping onto tours with The Flaming Lips and Stone Temple Pilots following the release of its first full-length album.

The self-titled release is chock full of palm-muted and speed-infused indie-prog anthems, with über-layered vocal harmonies to go with a triple-thick guitar assault and distorted-bass bludgeoning.  It's one of those rare releases that feels absolutely radiant and thrashing at the same time.

B. Dolan: Fallen House, Sunken City (Strange Famous, 3/2/10)

B. Dolan: "The Reptilian Agenda"

Going way back with Sage Francis, rapper B. Dolan is a like-minded MC and slam poet whose style isn't terribly dissimilar to that of his long-time friend. Fallen House, Sunken City is Dolan's second full-length for Strange Famous, and it's full of the sociopolitical themes (if often in quick blasts or asides) and contentious delivery for which he's known.

In addition to some seemingly personal lyrics, Dolan takes passing shots at big business, taxation, the pharmaceutical industry, the concept of ownership of natural resources, the Israeli razing of Palestinian developments, and, among many other things, the so-called New World Order — dropping clips of Dick Cheney and George H.W. Bush in "The Reptilian Agenda."  On top of Dolan's socially conscious rhymes, A-list production by Alias makes this one of the year's top hip-hop releases.

Archie Bronson Outfit: Coconut (Domino, 3/2/10)

Archie Bronson Outfit: "Shark's Tooth"
Archie Bronson Outfit: "Shark's Tooth"

With its warbled vocals and driving percussion, British psych-rock trio Archie Bronson Outfit is like a more adventurous Wolf Parade — as comfortable burning up the dance floor with clean, bouncy riffs as it is turning up the reverb and rocking in a garage.

Coconut is the band's first LP in nearly four years, and it kicks off with a crunchy, swirling guitar line and a hypnotic bongo-laden beat. Produced by DFA's Tim Goldsworthy, Coconut gets spaced-out and drone-like at times, but it always offers a hint of pop accessibility amidst the static and haze.

The first time that Ben Goldberg heard a clarinet being played, he was struck by an unfathomable quality that he still hears to this day, even after spending decades playing the instrument. “I don’t know if other people hear it this way,” he says, “but to me, a clarinet has no end. It’s like it just disappears into…”

Goldberg trails off as he attempts to find words to describe the sensation that the sound of a clarinet gives him.

“It’s very deep,” he continues. “It has no bottom to it. And it always strikes me this way, no matter who’s playing it: that there’s something down in there that you just can’t reach. When you find something like that, you just start wandering towards it.”

"I realized that I had come up in a world where there was an axe to grind. That was an essential part of New Klezmer Trio: ‘God damn it, we can do this in an avant-garde way; watch this!’"

One of the principal forerunners of a musical movement that John Zorn dubbed “radical Jewish culture,” Goldberg blazed a new trail in the late ’80s by blending traditional Jewish folk music with avant-garde jazz, and he also has found new shades of expression for the clarinet in a jazz and experimental context. When he founded the New Klezmer Trio in Berkeley, California in 1987, Goldberg experienced what he refers to as the “musical big bang” of his career.

Ben Goldberg Quartet / John Zorn: Baal

At that time, Goldberg had already studied klezmer music for years in college and was heavily steeped in its tradition thanks to a rigorous itinerary of bar mitzvahs, weddings, and various social events. “I honed my style,” he laughs, “playing a thousand bar mitzvahs.”

Those types of gigs, Goldberg soon discovered, came with a hefty reward of instant social approval. “My choice to study it definitely had something to do with identity,” he explains. “Plus, you get a lot of praise. If you’re Jewish and you start playing klezmer at weddings, it’s like you’re an automatically esteemed member of the Jewish cognoscenti or something! They really treat you that way, like, ‘You’re doing such a good thing for the Jewish people.’ And that pleased me.”

But, despite the cultural affinity, Goldberg started to feel an acute sense of disconnection — a kind of generation gap, if you will — between klezmer’s old-world underpinnings and his own life experience. “Sounding authentic was beginning to feel pretty inauthentic to me,” he writes in his essay "New Klezmer Trio and the Origins of 'Radical Jewish Culture.' "

A lifelong jazz aficionado, Goldberg wondered why klezmer hadn’t evolved and branched out into a variety of modern permutations along the same lines as jazz had — and he wondered how it still could. Simultaneously, Goldberg wanted to use the clarinet as a vehicle for jazz. (If it’s a mystery as to why klezmer, itself a vibrant polyglot fusion of music from several different parts of the world, hadn’t continued to develop once it was transplanted into an American setting, it is perhaps an even more compelling mystery that the clarinet still hasn’t achieved the same visibility in jazz as, say, the saxophone or trumpet.)

So, after reaching a high degree of fluency brought on by year after year of intensive practice and analysis, he set about looking for ways to reinterpret Jewish folk music so that it might sound truer to himself and speak to contemporary sensibilities. One of his solutions was to apply the improvisation of jazz to klezmer’s heavily codified rules and parameters. Another was to, in a sense, crack the music open by attempting to dig deeper into the rich bedrock of Eastern European rhythms and uncover an essence that could be used as a living musical style.

Tin Hat: Foreign Legion

Revisiting how he felt back then, Goldberg wonders aloud: “Why is it that very few musical traditions are consciously involved with the idea of evolution?” It’s a rhetorical question, but Goldberg is less concerned with finding the answer these days, and he no longer feels as pressed to invent new languages as he once did. In a poetic twist to a career that spans work with individualist visionaries like John Zorn, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, and Trevor Dunn as well as several of his own groups, Goldberg became a full-fledged member of Tin Hat in 2005.

The brainchild of violinist Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard) and guitarist Mark Orton, Tin Hat (originally named Tin Hat Trio before the group reconfigured with the inclusion of Goldberg) weaves together chamber music, jazz, Gypsy folk, experimentalism, and pop into a sound that gives Goldberg room to feel at ease, at least in terms of the ethical considerations of his creative decisions. In a sense, Tin Hat, which released its live album, Foreign Legion, this spring on Goldberg’s own label (BAG Production), represents the fruit of all the time that Goldberg spent questioning the integrity of his innovations.

“In some ways,” Goldberg muses, “Tin Hat fits like an old glove. But when I first started playing with them as a guest in 1997, there’s something that really impressed me about them and, at first, even confused me a little bit: they didn’t have an axe to grind. I’m a little bit older than those guys, and when I first started playing with them, they really showed me something. I realized that I had come up in a world where there was an axe to grind. That was an essential part of New Klezmer Trio: ‘God damn it, we can do this in an avant-garde way; watch this!’ There was a sense of ‘look out, everybody, we’re really going to fuck with this song.’

"Mark and Carla were another generation. They just found the beauty in all this different music — whether it was avant garde, traditional, this style or that style. If you listen to ‘Waltz of the Skyscraper’ on the live record, it starts off as a waltz. And then all kinds of strange things start happening and it turns into — I don’t know what you’d describe it as — new music or free improvisation or a free-for-all, but it sounds like all those things are what belong there. It doesn’t at all sound polemical. In a way, it’s taking the next step. It’s saying, ‘Look, these musical ingredients that seemed antithetical to each other can live together happily!’ But it’s no less a concerted and well-considered and brave musical statement to make that step. Different generations have to take different steps.”

Ben Goldberg: Go Home

Goldberg stresses, however, that Tin Hat’s uncanny ability to craft accessible music out of what are often presented as highbrow forms belies the group’s musical sophistication and depth.

“It totally kicked my ass joining that band,” he says. “They have a very high standard of composition. In their world, it’s not just the idea of writing a tune. Partly because of the instrumentation — there’s no drummer or bass player — the emphasis is on compositional thoroughness. And I feel like my own ability to write had to be stepped up a notch or two. That had a huge effect on me — the way that I think about what a song is, and also orchestration, form, what’s required, and what a piece of music can be.”

In addition to the new Tin Hat live album (which consists of performances from 2005 and 2008), Goldberg also recently released an album as a leader, Go Home, again on his BAG Production imprint. Go Home features guitarist Charlie Hunter and showcases Goldberg in a decidedly more groove-oriented setting. Despite the fact that it has the word “home” in the title, the album represents anything but a final destination or resting place for Goldberg’s art.

Go Home follows 2009 release Speech Communication, a new album on Zorn’s Tzadik label from a reactivated New Klezmer Trio. Yet having let go of the “mission” that New Klezmer Trio once represented for him, Goldberg feels free to venture well outside the very paradigm that he helped create. And as he continues to cover more disparate territory, Goldberg is proving himself to be a rare musician — one who hits a comfort zone while simultaneously stoking his inspiration.

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: November 23, 2010 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: November 23, 2010.

Killing Joke: Absolute Dissent (Universal)

Killing Joke: "In Excelsis"

Over the past 30 years, England's Killing Joke has helped shape the industrial-rock and post-punk landscapes.  The band's trademark sound was formed in no small part by keyboardist Jaz Coleman's raspy singing and massive growls — as well as his slight orchestral flourishes — and the muscular riffs of guitarist Geordie Walker.

Absolute Dissent is the band’s first new album in four years, but remarkably, it's Killing Joke's first with its original lineup since 1982.  The album is another great mix of heavy riffs, synth-rock influences, and epic choruses, and at least in terms of songwriting and production quality, it has to rank near the top of the band's catalog.

The music doesn’t incorporate some of the disparate elements of albums past, and it doesn’t have as many dance-rock moments or the unpolished charm that some of the older albums do.  But it’s a solid mix of rock aggression and sing-along accessibility – and more importantly, it’s more protest music, with themes about omnipresent surveillance, microchipped populations, shadowy international powerbrokers, and never-ending wars.  Like the band’s 2003 self-titled album, it’s another powerful return to form.

The deluxe edition includes a collection of Killing Joke songs previously covered by bands such as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Helmet, Fear Factory, and Foo Fighters.

Gangrene: Gutter Water (Decon)

Gangrene: "Chain Swinging"

Gangrene is the new hip-hop duo of The Alchemist and Oh No, each an esteemed producer-slash-rapper. The Alchemist has produced for Dilated Peoples, Nas, Eminem, and many other huge names, and Oh No, the younger brother of Madlib, has released a handful of great albums for Stones Throw.

Gutter Water is their first collaboration.  It calls upon a number of friends and guest MCs too, including Raekwon, Evidence, Planet Asia, and others, but the album is much more than a bunch of great guest spots.  The material has ample rawness, with hard-hitting beats and rhymes, but there’s an underlying sophistication, whether from string, piano, and flute samples or from quick references to conspiracy theories.

The album does suffer from a lot of self-aggrandizement and a little tough-guy syndrome, and a few lines are crass for the sake of being crass.  Overall, though, it’s not particularly offensive, and it’s an exciting new project.

Fred Frith: Eye to Ear 3 (Tzadik)

At first glance, the catalog of guitarist/composer Fred Frith is seemingly endless.  Many know the genre-hopping experimentalist from his collaborations with John Zorn, including the avant-jazz-punk Naked City outfit, but his recorded output goes back more than 35 years.

Eye to Ear III is Frith's third and newest collection of film music, and it’s nearly as eclectic as his regular catalog.  The music covers a lot of ground over what mainly are two- to four-minute rock instrumentals, with big roles played by the violins of Ada Gosling and Carla Kihlstedt.

Later on the disc, in the "Water Music" suite,  an Indian bansuri and a Chinese guzheng provide an Eastern inflection.  A few ambient tracks are built around distant guitar tones and simple keyboard lines, and others present a sort of quirky jazz rock.  There’s even a spell of Italian western in the song “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” a tribute to Ennio Morricone.

In all, it's another eclectic and beautiful album by one of music's most daring guitarists.

Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore)

Agalloch: "The Watcher's Monolith"

Portland's Agalloch has already spent 15 years as a band, drawing praise for its infusion of neofolk, post-rock, and dark atmospherics into its black-metal base.

Though the band's lengthy EPs make up for the gaps in long-playing releases, Marrow of the Spirit is only the band's fourth official full-length, and it presents the most epic song durations of the band’s career.

With the exception of the intro track, every song is more than nine-and-a-half minutes.  “Black Lake Nidstang” sprawls over 17 minutes, and it uses a slightly Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar line as well as glockenspiel, other atmospherics, and delayed/dueling clean-channel guitars.  There's a grand 10-minute outro track, with a slight classical influence and string backdrop, and it's proof of the band's continued maturation.

If you love moody black metal but tire of constant screams and blast beats, pick this up.

Brandt Brauer Frick: You Make Me Real (!K7)

Brandt Brauer Frick: "Bop"

Only using organic instruments, the members of Brandt Brauer Frick, a German avant-garde acoustic dance trio, create an incomparable take on techno that's filtered through a classical lens.  With any number of layers in a given song, the music is based on textures, as every instrument becomes part of the overlapping rhythms.

You Make Me Real, the trio's debut full-length, exudes the influence of minimalist composers like John Cage and Steve Reich – including a bit of “prepared piano,” which Cage made famous – but undoubtedly, it wants you to dance.  In addition to the piano, there is a small army of instruments making this happen, including pizzicato strings, bass clarinet, tuba, timpani, and other percussive objects, and each builds in a mess of polyrhythms that always keeps a steady dance beat.

The group’s video for “Bop” gives an interesting glimpse of the process, visualizing every looped layer as they’re introduced.  Going forward, the group will tour as a 10-piece ensemble to accurately replicate the album, and that figures to be just as engaging.

Honorable Mentions

Broughton's Rules: Bounty Hunter 1853 (Relapse)

Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain (Fire)

Killing the Dream: Lucky Me (Deathwish)

Southern Culture on the Skids: The Kudzu Ranch

William Tyler: Behold the Spirit (Tomkins Square)

V/A: Revelation 150: Past Present, Breaking Out the Classics (Revelation) [50% of profits go to Human Rights Watch]

John Zorn: Ipsissimus (Tzadik, 10/5/10)

John Zorn: "Warlock"

Morrow: In 2006, indefatigable composer John Zorn launched another of his countless ensembles — Moonchild, a sludgy power trio built around vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn, and drummer Joey Baron.  In the four albums that began with Moonchild: Songs without Words, Zorn has used the group to explore heavy and spastic improvisations amid composed riffs and directed song structures.

The lineup has expanded a bit for a few releases, but that wild trio is the group's heart, with Patton offering wordless shrieks, chants, and vocal spasms over Dunn and Baron's distorted notes and progressive rhythms.  Ipsissimus is the group's fifth release in less than five years, and it's the first to prominently feature the guitar work of Marc Ribot, who appeared on one track of the 2008 release The Crucible.

Hajduch: In description, this sounds like a whole lot of John Zorn's projects (in the case of Naked City, you sub out Mike Patton and add Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms, but the description still fits to an extent).  In practice, it's very different.  Patton feels extraneous to an extent — like Attila Csihar's work with Mayhem, it can seem sort of like there is just this guy, making noises.  But also like Attila/Mayhem, there are moments where it just fits perfectly and feels exactly right.

The other notable thing about the music here is how fluid Baron's drum work is.  He slips from push beats to half-time to triads in a way that doesn't seem wanky or ridiculous, but that shifts the groove of the music seismically.  There are also moments where Patton's shriek and Zorn's bleat are near-indistinguishable, which brings to mind some sort of terrifying Mike Patton-with-saxophone-head chimera nightmare — a walking saxophone with slicked-back hair that is way shorter in person than you imagined.

Morrow: I hear what you're saying about Patton, but I wouldn't say that he's superfluous.  I think that because much of what he's doing is improvised and wordless, you can get that feeling of "oh, I've heard this before."  But yeah, there are moments when he fits perfectly with what's happening, like on the nearly Native American chants and wispy falsettos of "The Book of Los" (which, again, precede total vocal freak-outs).

Ribot's guitar plays a key role in broadening the Moonchild palette here, even if it's not as diversified as on Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, which utilized keyboardist Jamie Saft, electronics maven Ikue Mori, and a handful of vocalists.  But Ribot's skills can't be understated, and it's nice to hear a little high-end complement to Dunn's mammoth bass notes.

Hajduch: Ribot's guitar work is illuminating and adds a lot to these songs.  He's comfortable with a more dissonant style that slots nicely between Zorn and Patton and the more melodic, understated playing that he's used with Electric Masada.  Maybe "superfluous" was the wrong word for Patton's contributions — they often fit in nicely enough — but sometimes they're ridiculous enough that they completely distract from the music as a whole.

Overall, Ipsissimus is a great listen, threading many of Zorn's seemingly disparate sounds together and showcasing some excellent performances (Dunn's bass workout "The Changeling" is huge).  And if you like a more dissonant take on modern music, you'd be wise to give it a listen.

Morrow: Definitely, and after Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, which offered a little more variety, this might be my favorite Moonchild release.  But we should put that big "experimental" disclaimer on this, because it's not for the faint of heart.