Anomie Belle: "Inky Drips"

Anomie Belle: "Inky Drips" (Atropolis remix)

Anomie Belle: "Inky Drips" (Damiak remix)

Anomie Belle: "Ain't No Sunshine"

In advance of her sophomore album, electro-pop musician Toby Campbell — better known as Anomie Belle — today issues a brand-new single, "Inky Drips." The four-track release includes the title track (which appears on the upcoming album) and two remixes, given a slightly worldly flavor by Atropolis and Damiak. It closes with a trip-hop rendition of "Ain't No Sunshine," the soulful Bill Withers classic.

Today we have all four tracks in their entirety. Whet your appetite now and check out Belle's next full-length, The Crush, which will be out September 13 and features guest spots by Mr. Lif and Jon Auer (The Posies, Big Star).

Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Beileid (Ipecac)

Bohren & Der Club of Gore: "Zombies Never Die (Blues)"

With a mutual background in hardcore, grind, and other forms of extreme music, the members of Bohren & Der Club of Gore formed to begin a new "doom/horror jazz" experiment.  But when the German quartet came into its own in the early 1990s, its sounds weren't the types of brooding metal or bloodcurdling film scores that one might imagine.  Instead, ominous bass lines, spooky organ tones, guitar reverberations, and somber, elongated melodies formed the bulk of the band's "doom" elements.

Beileid, the group's latest, continues in the tradition of Twin Peaks- and Angelo Badalamenti-esque creepiness with deliberate tempos and jazzy intonations.  Vibraphone, Mellotron, and sax again build the slow-moving atmosphere in three lengthy tracks, the second of which is a darkened take on the song "Catch My Heart" by 1980s German hair-metallers Warlock.  At two-and-a-half times the length of the original, "Catch My Heart" is the balladic middle section of this 35-minute triptych, and it finds the incomparable Mike Patton turning the tones of Warlock lead singer Dorothee Pesch into deep vibratos.

The two originals stand out as well, but with melodies that feel like they're at quarter-speed, listeners require either patience or a love of unfolding ambience.

Pillars & Tongues: The Pass and Crossings (Endless Nest / Empty Cellar)

Pillars & Tongues: "The Making Graceful"

Led by interwoven, trance-inducing vocal dynamics and spiritual folk/chamber instrumentation, Pillars & Tongues achieves a surprising amount of power for merely a trio.  And thanks to the Chicago group's tireless touring schedule, underground explorers around the country have taken to its style, one that produces a great number of sonic textures.

With The Pass and Crossings, the trio again builds from the bellowing vocals of singer/percussionist Mark Trecka, the swirling melodies of violinist Beth Remis, and the bowed swells of upright bassist Evan Hydzik.  Harmonies, long-form repetitions, and sparse beats are crucial to the album's moments of buildup and release.  The result is a sonic spell, waiting to enchant those who hear it.

Thievery Corporation: Culture of Fear (ESL)

Thievery Corporation: "Culture of Fear" f. Mr. Lif

DJs Rob Garza and Eric Hilton comprise Thievery Corporation, a politically outspoken dub/lounge duo that has built a name for itself in Washington, DC with its world- and trip-hop-infused sounds.

Over the years, the two have incorporated a slew of politically minded collaborations into their albums.  The first on Culture of Fear features rapper and Def Jux alum Mr. Lif on the title track, which derides a never-changing security-alert system, the widening reach of the digital world, and shady bank loans.

Most of the duo's political messaging is left to interviews and guest spots, but song titles often hint at deeper issues or themes, and Culture of Fear does so with "Tower Seven" and "False Flag Dub."

Musically, the album is a bit more focused than some of its far-reaching predecessors, leaning on airy jams and minimalist bass grooves.  But it's still a down-tempo and occasionally funky and jazzy lounge mix, with sultry dub and trip-hop concoctions for other guest vocalists.  It's a mixture that doesn't grow tired despite the duo's many years together.

Ancestors: Invisible White EP (Tee Pee)

Ancestors: "Invisible White"

Ancestors has a flair for the epic. You likely won’t find the progressive LA band making a standard 12-track record full of four-minute songs with traditional song structures. Its 2008 debut, Neptune With Fire (profiled here), wove together the fantastical storytelling of a band like Rush with modern doom metal.

And though its new album, Invisible White, adheres to that same slow-burning, long-form formula, it marks a distinct departure into more mellow, experimental territory, à la Pink Floyd. The three-song EP kicks off with the title track, a lilting, acoustic-guitar-and-piano dirge that introduces each new instrument with measured deliberation — violin, drums, organ — and culminates in a moving lament of the elusive “Invisible White.”

Ultimately, Ancestors is driven by the credo “play the kind of music you’d want to hear,” and venturing into previously unexplored territory seems as effortlessly rote as putting a new record on the turntable.

- Text by Kyle Gilkeson.

Honorable Mentions

The Atomic Bitchwax: The Local Fuzz (Tee Pee)

Ramin Djawadi: Game Of Thrones soundtrack (Varèse Sarabande)

Arnold Dreyblatt: Resonant Relations (Cantaloupe)

Handsome Furs: Sound Kapital (Sub Pop)

Jolie Holland: Pint of Blood (Anti-)

Isis: Live III 12.17.04

The Laureates: Spells

Sbtrkt: s/t (Young Turks / XL)

See-I: s/t (Fort Knox)

White Wives: Happeners (Adeline)

YACHT: Shangri-La (DFA Records)

Anomie Belle: "How Can I Be Sure"

Seattle-based electro-pop musician Anomie Belle, a.k.a. Toby Campbell, released her debut album of soulful trip hop, a record entitled Sleeping Patterns, in 2008. One track in particular from that record, the sauntering, sultry, down-tempo "How Can I Be Sure," has proved its staying power. It was featured on the soundtrack for Alan Wake, a dark-thriller video game from Xbox. The song was also featured in the award-winning short film Dark Material. And now, it's the title track of Belle's new single.

With a new album called The Crush due out this summer (guest musicians include Mr. Lif and Jon Auer [The Posies, Big Star]), Belle is dropping How Can I Be Sure as a teaser. Along with the aforementioned title track, the four-song release also sports a live version, a Björk-esque cover of Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place," and an Azeda Booth remix of the song "Cascade."

Grand Pianoramax: Smooth Danger (ObliqSound, 5/3/11)

Grand Pianoramax: "Roulette" (radio edit)

Morrow: Conceived as something of a live piano-and-drums experiment, Grand Pianoramax is the principal project of pianist Leo Tardin.  Once "a New Yorker from Switzerland" and now "a Berliner from America," Tardin uses a small arsenal of instruments — grand piano, Fender Rhodes, K-Station, harmonium, Phillichorda — to achieve a diversity of sounds for his duo's spacey, funky, classically infused music.

Smooth Danger is the duo's third and newest album; released overseas last fall, it sees a US release in a few months.  Though it doesn't depart much from its predecessors, it cuts back a bit on guest vocalists, allowing the duo's music to better stand on its own.  And it deserves to, thanks to its combination of killer melodies, synthesized grooves, and classical piano that overlay tight, rapid rock and boom-bap beats from new drummer Dominik Burkhalter.  (The former drummers, by the way, were no slouches: Deantoni Parks [The Mars Volta, Meshell Ndegeocello] and Adam Deitch [Talib Kweli, John Scofield].)

Hajduch: There are moments, such as on "The Queen," when the spastic nature of the instrumentation threatens to overwhelm the songcraft.  But more often than not, the tics and hiccups of the music stay out of the way.  Most tracks stick to a simple "bass groove + drum workout" formula that's hard to beat.  The vocal cuts are the weakest; they just don't seem necessary, and Black Cracker and the eternally overrated Mike Ladd don't really overwhelm with personality (though Ladd's spoken-word piece is infinitely better than either of Black Cracker's).

Some of the instrumentals sit on the outer-wonky end of the dubstep spectrum (think Slugabed), with the type of pitch/stutter tricks ascribed to fidget house.  Others, like "Clairvoyance," wouldn't sound completely out of place on a prog album (think Yes' "Five Per Cent For Nothing") once the drums get going.  There's little on this album not to like; if anything, the vocal tracks could be jettisoned.

Morrow: For the most part, I agree about the vocal tracks, but to be fair, I haven't heard much of Grand Pianoramax's older guest spots, which include Mr. Lif (possibly my favorite rapper).  And I like the Ladd track, but I worry that the first track with Black Cracker ("Sleepwalk") might give listeners the wrong idea about the rest of the album.

As for the rest of the music, there also are moments of quasi-8-bit audio, such as the beginning to "Roulette" that sounds like the old Atari game Combat, and there are even tinges of cinematic drama, like the low, pounding piano notes of "Domestic Bliss," a track that nicely fits the echoing words of Ladd.  Karsh Kale also provides a few great tabla spots.

In all, I think that we were both pleasantly surprised by this, even if we'd change a few things.

[Have you pledged yet?  Don't forget to visit the Kickstarter page for Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music, our next book that profiles independent musicians and artists who explore color in unorthodox ways.]

El-P: Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 (Gold Dust)

It's almost strange to think of Jaime Meline as a solo artist, but his bitter rap intonations, sci-fi rhymes, and dark hip-hop productions as El-P have become as beloved as his work for others.

Meline may still be best known for fronting Company Flow, heading Def Jux Records, and producing Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Nine Inch Nails, and other big names.  But his last (and essentially sophomore) full-length solo album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead, garnered more acclaim and proved that El-P offers something that few others do.

This collection is his third "mega mixxx," but unlike the first two that were released at shows, Mixxx3 is a different beast — a collection of full-length and vignette-length instrumentals, with a pair of remixes of Kidz in the Hall and Young Jeezy.

El-P has cited J. Dilla's Donuts as an inspiration, noting, "I didn't want anyone to listen to this record and at any point get bored."  Mixxx3 is being treated as something of an official release while he works on his followup to I'll Sleep When You're Dead, and it works on its own.

Naturally, it doesn't feel as complete his next rap-filled album likely will, but many of the same elements carry Mixxx3 — from dirty synth leads to ominous effects and big beats.  Seeing that it's been nearly three and a half years since I'll Sleep…, this is a welcome treat to tide us over.

El-P: "Meanstreak (in 3 Parts)"
el-p_meanstreak

Autolux: Transit Transit (TBD)

After a noteworthy debut six years ago on a major-label subsidiary, LA's Autolux was on the precipice of a promising pop career.  Touring with Nine Inch Nails and Secret Machines, playing All Tomorrow's Parties, and late-night TV appearances all followed, and the future was bright.

But slow-developing new material and record-label legalities got in the way, and now Transit Transit finally sees the light of day on TBD.  Saby Reyes-Kulkarni documented the story on alarmpress.com a few months ago, describing a band that  "shuttles seamlessly between space rock, psychedelia, and shoegaze and developed a penchant for honing effects-borne noise into pop hooks."

Transit Transit expands the eclectic pop sounds of Future Perfect, the debut — combining soft vocal and forthright melodies with unorthodox arrangements and noisy effects.  It calls upon dissonance and harmony, not only contrasting the two but often combining them.  Listeners who forgot about Autolux or are just discovering the group will find something to enjoy on Transit Transit.

Autolux: "Audience No. 2"
audience_no_2

Horseback: The Invisible Mountain (Relapse)

As the one-man operation behind Horseback, multi-instrumentalist Jenks Miller channels equal parts shoegaze, stoner rock, and black metal to create dark, hypnotic rock jams.

On The Invisible Mountain, Horseback's second official full-length, each song eclipses six or seven minutes and is built around the same part, subtly building and layering over lengthy passages.  Slow, moderately fuzzy riffs lay beneath clean guitar accents, keyboards, and other complements, all as Miller rasps evil, low-volume vocals that sound like a black-metal David Yow on downers.

Extra layers phase in and out, and slowly meandering guitar lines provide an appreciated foreground fix. Hitting 38 minutes with only four songs — thanks to a beautiful and eerie 16-minute closer — The Invisible Mountain will be a stoner's new best friend.

Horseback: "The Invisible Mountain"
Horseback: "The Invisible Mountain"

Vox Arcana: Aerial Age (Allos Musica)

Veterans of Chicago's jazz and improv scenes will quickly recognize the members of Vox Arcana, a trio that combines the best elements of each into a wild whole.

The group's second recording features more quirky, circular cadences from clarinetist James Falzone, noisy improvisations and low-end rooting from cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, and amorphous drumming from percussionist Tim Daisy.  Daisy, the multi-talented bandleader, switches between faint brush strokes, quick-twitching snare hits, and oddly timed marimba melodies.

Like a good deal of Falzone's catalog, Aerial Age falls under the broader "chamber" umbrella, but its alternating improvisation and strict, rapid-fire progressions put it in a category all its own.  Some of the best moments are when Falzone and Lonberg-Holm's parts are wound together tightly, such as on the quickly prancing 7/4 refrain of "The Number 7."  Lonberg-Holm's contributions can be the noisiest, but at other times, he takes a more restrained role, playing the trad-jazz walking bass line.

Aerial Age isn't for minimalists or jazz purists, but fans of intricate scripting and wild improvisation will love it.

Vox Arcana: "The Silver Fence"
Vox Arcana: \"The Silver Fence\"

Dax Riggs: Say Goodnight to the World (Fat Possum)

Though Say Goodnight to the World is only his second "official" full-length album, Dax Riggs has been delivering powerful, blues-infused rock balladry for a decade.

Following his time crooning and screaming in Southern metal quintet Acid Bath, Riggs led Agents of Oblivion and Deadboy & The Elephantmen before operating under his own name.  His first such album, We Sing of Only Blood or Love, was eye-opening if considered a debut — but those familiar with Riggs' work weren't surprised by its forceful charm.

Say Goodnight to the World doesn't quite have a standout like "Night is the Notion" from We Sing…, but it reflects a more integrated approach to songwriting, with tracks that aren't as rigid in their structure.  A slow, intoxicating rendition of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" — more in tune with the suicide-inspired tune written by Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton — is just one of many highlights.

Dax Riggs: "Say Goodnight to the World"
Dax Riggs: \"Say Goodnight to the World\"

Honorable Mentions

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (Merge)

Four Tet: Angel Echoes Remixes 12" (Domino)

JJ: JJ No. 2 (Secretly Canadian)

Loden: Buggy (Mush)

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Where the Messengers Meet (Dead Oceans)

Versus: On the Ones and Threes (Merge)

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.

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.