Kevin Hufnagel: Transparencies (Nightfloat)

Kevin Hufnagel: "Ever Rest"

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

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

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

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

- Lauren Zens & Scott Morrow

Kayo Dot: Gamma Knife

Kayo Dot: "Mirror Water, Lightning Night"

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

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

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

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

- Scott Morrow

TriBeCaStan: New Deli (EverGreene Music)

TriBeCaStan: "One Day His Axe Fell into Honey"

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

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

- Meaghann Korbel

Honorable Mentions

Keepaway: Black Flute (Greedhead)

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

The Black Keys: El Camino (Nonesuch / Warner Bros.)

The Black Keys: "Lonely Boy"

The Black Keys has come a long way from its modest start in Akron, Ohio. Ever since the early 2000s, the band has been one of the most consistent acts around, churning out album after album of gritty, blues-infused garage rock. But with recent appearances on The Colbert Report and Saturday Night Live, as well as a North American tour featuring numerous arena stops, the band has refined its sound to adapt to its new surroundings and mounting exposure. And El Camino, the band's latest effort, showcases that adaptation, as the band has cultivated a bigger, more varied sound.

Guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney once again teamed up with Danger Mouse to oversee the production, and the result is one of the band’s most instrumentally diverse offerings. Though the songs are firmly fixed in the classic Black Keys style (tactile distortion, clamoring drums, bluesy vocals, and noodling guitar solos), El Camino builds on the band’s recent exploration of musical diversity and experimentation. The excellent “Dead and Gone” sounds like a ’60s jamboree, chocked full of xylophones and layered, harmonized vocals; “Gold on the Ceiling” features a variety of synths and new guitar sounds that integrate seamlessly into the duo’s signature rock-outs; “Little Black Submarines” starts out with a heartfelt, acoustic folk arrangement before colliding with a wall of grunged-out guitars and crashing cymbals.

The Black Keys may be getting bigger, but that hasn’t hindered the duo’s creative energy. If anything, it’s gotten stronger on El Camino.

- Text by Michael Danaher.

The Roots: Undun (Island / Def Jam)

It’s rare when an album asks deserving questions yet doesn’t let the message overshadow the music. But that’s what The Roots has done with its tenth studio album, Undun, which does for Philadelphia what The Wire did for Baltimore — portraying the dark and ruinous underworld of a drug trade that preys disproportionately on certain races and classes, especially their young.

The record traces the last hours in the life of Redford Stephens, a fictional Philly man whom Roots drummer ?uestlove says was inspired in part by The Wire’s Avon Barksdale. A low-level drug dealer, Stephens is a protagonist but not quite a hero. Over funk-fueled bass lines, ?uestlove’s signature beats, and a tasteful sprinkling of soul, the story is unraveled — backwards from the time of death — by MC Black Thought and a handful of guests, including Aaron Livingston, one half of Icebird.

It’s hardly a holiday record, though it does include a cameo by indie darling Sufjan Stevens, whose “Redford (for Yia-Yia and Pappou)” also helped inspire the Roots’ character and comprises the final four tracks of the album, interpreted in various styles. The third of these segments, “Will to Power,” is the most compelling, showing ?uestlove battling avant-garde pianist DD Jackson in a frenzied duel that owes more to free jazz than R&B.

It’s not untruthful to say the music on Undun stands alone — it doesn’t need its narrative any more than Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life needed its — but the words add a weight that transforms it from a solid hip-hop release into a powerful record. Musically, it ventures into some surprising territory, and lyrically, it communicates an urgent message.

- Text by Timothy A. Schuler.

Jacaszek: Glimmer (Ghostly International)

Jacaszek: "Dare-gale"

Polish composer Michał Jacaszek has made a specialty of moody, atmospheric ambience using a classical palette, with bowed strings, operatic voices, and chimes to construct a brooding build. His new album, Glimmer, is his first for Ghostly International, and though it might be misclassified as an electronic album — partly due to its affiliation with Ghostly — it's almost entirely an ambient classical release.

There's enough digital treatment and rearrangement to warrant a partial electronic tag, but it's otherwise a very organic album. Jacaszek wrote and recorded the acoustic-guitar and mellotron passages, and then he enlisted a number of other Polish musicians to play the harpsichord and clarinet parts. It's all a very stirring mix, with the harpsichord, bass clarinet, guitar, and vibraphone — not to mention the washes of fuzz — creating a richness of texture.

The album's inconspicuous complexity and professional performances make it a gem among ambient releases. Those factors also help explain why it's been a bit since Jacaszek's last release, and Glimmer was worth the wait.

- Text by Scott Morrow and Patrick Hajduch. Read the debate here.

Keep Shelly in Athens: Campus Martius EP (Planet Mu)

Keep Shelly in Athens: "Campus Martius"

Hailing from Athens, Greece, Keep Shelly in Athens (whose name is a play on the Grecian suburb Kypseli) is a down-tempo/chill-wave electronic two-piece that has garnered steady 'Net buzz since last year. The hype, to this point, might be a tad undeserved, but the duo's recent In Love With Dusk EP demonstrated potential across a spate of digitized genres, even if it was heavy on the Ibiza influence.

The major appeal here is the interplay between singer Sarah P and producer RPR, whose styles seem to be coming into their own. With Campus Martius, the duo's first release on Planet Mu, there's less of the beach-y nightlife and '80s cheese; instead, there's an urban, industrialized, and ambient vibe to better fit Sarah's elongated and reverberated vocals.

The EP also includes bits of spazzy Aphex Twin drum-and-melancholy, deep bass lines, vocals that would sound at home on a Sneaker Pimps record, and of-the-moment pitched vocal slicing. These elements hang together in a way that seems familiar and yet revelatory, and as a result, Campus Martius occupies a pleasant, bassy corner of the dubstep/post-dubstep/synthesizer continuum.

- Text by Scott Morrow and Patrick Hajduch. Read the debate here.

Loka: Passing Place (Ninja Tune)

Loka: "Sam Star"

In 1999, Liverpool residents Karl Webb and Mark Kyriacou began an exciting studio collaboration as Loka, merging psychedelic, classical, groove, down-tempo, and jazz elements in a daring but foolproof fusion. The project quickly signed to Ninja Tune, but the duo's first full album wasn't released until 2006, and Webb retired from the project in the following year. But now Loka is back, led by Kyriacou and the live Loka band, and the results were worth the wait.

Like that debut full-length (Fire Shepherds), Passing Place is a hybrid of the aforementioned elements. Here, however, a calmness meets the subdued tempos, and celestial vocals are part of a multilayered mélange. In fact, the oft-mentioned down-tempo feel of Fire Shepherds seems lively in comparison to Passing Place, which, despite its active moments, achieves a rare balance of beats and serenity.

“Entrance,” Passing Place’s opening track, almost tricks the listener into thinking that this album will be just like Loka’s first, with the heavy, haunting bass rumblings. But just as the song seems ready to launch into a break beat, a beautiful wordless vocal solo sets the mood of the album’s remainder. The vocal additions (by live-band members Lido Pimiento, Eleanor Mante, and Jaci Williams) weave through the keyboards, drums, and guitars and often determine the haunting, melancholy, or calming feel that each track transmits. It's a wonderful new direction, helping Loka to reestablish itself as a forerunner in classical psychedelia.

- Text by Lauren Zens.

Honorable Mentions

Anomie Belle: Machine EP

Czar: Vertical Mass Grave (Cracknation)

Eastern Blok: Underwater

Goldmund: All Will Prosper (Western Vinyl)

Sunn O))): øø Void reissue (Southern Lord)

Björk: Biophilia (Nonesuch)

Björk: "Crystalline"

There’s a reason that Björk, the Reykjavík-born queen of avant-garde pop, is a household name and also remains respected as an artist. It’s because she’s adamant that music is an art and be seen as such. Art isn’t always looking to be liked, and Björk’s music — characterized by a vivid and stubborn imagination since the beginning of her solo career in 1992 — is hardly snuggly. There’s always been a chill to it, an intensity we don’t always know what to do with. Biophilia is no exception.

The much-hyped release is as ambitious as anything before it. For weeks, geeked-out music critics have been drawn like moths to a porch light thanks to Biophilia's extra-musical elements, which include an iPad app, featuring graphic explorations of each track; live shows that use custom-made instruments like the Gravity Harp or twin musical Tesla coils; and a laser-laden video by French director and longtime Björk collaborator Michel Gondry. But it would be a shame if people forgot that beneath the chatter is an album. Biophilia may be unique because of its multiplatform release, but that’s not what makes it good.

Musically, it’s expansive, dramatic, and remarkably accessible. “Crystalline” is a pulsing, glowing sleeper that erupts into a hammering drill-’n’-bass salvo. “Virus” uses the hang masterfully, its warm metallic tones being a suitably alien backdrop for Björk’s iconic voice. These intrasong dynamics are great achievements, as is the subtle emphasis on melody. But the most important thing about Biophilia seems to be its subject matter. In the compositions, the lyrics, and — most noticeably — the album art and apps, the central theme is our physical universe. Björk embarks on a meditative musical exploration of nature, science, and technology, and we’re fortunate to be invited. There should be plenty to explore alongside her.

- Text by Timothy S. Aames

Icebird: The Abandoned Lullaby (RJ's Electrical Connections)

Icebird: "Charmed Life"

With his 2007 album The Third Hand, crate-digging DJ RJD2 took a decidedly soulful and organic turn, transforming into a funk-pop singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His newest project, Icebird, is another advancement, joining forces with soul singer Aaron Livingston to craft groove-heavy electro-acoustic jams.

Livingston, who may be best known for an appearance on The Roots' album The Tipping Point, leads each track with his raspy, powerful croons. Though RJ is no slouch on the mic, Livingston's vocal presence allows RJ to entirely focus on production for Icebird, and it shows. The songs and range of sounds are, respectively, some of the best and most diverse of RJ's career; each track bursts with hooks and harmonies but never goes too sugary.

In fact, nearly any given track on The Abandoned Lullaby could serve as a lead single. Mid-album tracks such as "Spirit Ache" — which shines with its harpsichord and glockenspiel tinges alongside synth and bass grooves — are every bit as infectious as the choruses to "Charmed Life" and "Going and Going. And Going." Any fan of RJ's recent works will love Icebird.

Mayer Hawthorne: How Do You Do? (Universal Republic)

Mayer Hawthorne: "A Long Time"

As the soul revival sound goes, Mayer Hawthorne is in a league of singers who strike the proper balance between old school and new school. Yes, the singer’s act takes greatest influence from the early Northern soul era, but there’s more to Hawthorne’s music than a game of name-that-classic-45.

For this sophomore effort, Hawthorne reaches deeper into the late-'60s, early-'70s reference bag to make a no-frills record packed with tolerantly addictive soul hooks. How Do You Do? covers a lot of ground and shows some new sides to Hawthorne’s musical palette with cleaner and more robust production and instrument arrangements. Whether or not his jump to Universal Republic from Stones Throw has anything to do with it is arguable, but Hawthorne finds a way to use time-honored soul maxims to forge an individual sound.

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

São Paulo Underground: Trés Cabeças Loucuras (Cuneiform)

São Paulo Underground: "Jagoda's Dream"

Fifteen years after the creation of his Chicago Underground workshops and groups, prolific composer/cornetist Rob Mazurek continues to expand his boundaries in exciting new directions.

Trés Cabeças Loucuras is his third album with the São Paulo Underground, an intercontinental quartet that formed in 2000 with the aid of some talented Brazilian multi-instrumentalists. Though Mazurek's Underground incarnations have been more concerned with grooves and melodies than many of his other projects, Trés Cabeças Loucuras presses further into the melodic traditions of his second home.

The music here very much bears Mazurek's style, but it also combines the experimental jazz traditions of Sun Ra to create a type of "cosmic tropicalia." The "miniature guitar" plucking of the cavaquinho combines with deep, buzzing synthesizers, noisy effects, and Mazurek's effortless cornet fluctuations, allowing listeners to enjoy melodies as well as timbral depth. Chicago jazz stalwarts Jason Adasiewicz, John Herndon, and Matthew Lux give "Just Lovin'" and "Six Six Eight" another dynamic layer.

Myrath: Tales of the Sands (Nightmare Records)

Myrath: "Merciless Times"

“Symphonic prog metal” and “North Africa” may not yet be synonymous, but Tunisian metal band Myrath has found its own voice by infusing its compositions with Oriental and Middle Eastern flourishes.

Musically, Myrath (Arabic for “legacy”) writes almost directly from the modern prog-metal playbook, right down to the harmonized keyboard/guitar runs and full-band mid-song showdowns. But Zaher Zorgati’s power/hair-metal vocals reach for a sound more evocative of the ancient Middle East: higher registers, huge vibratos, and inflections that make the band’s sound reflect the pain, confusion, and longing of which Zorgati sings.

Despite the obvious temptation to link Myrath’s music with the upheaval that its homeland witnessed in the early part of the century, the band’s lyrics almost exclusively look inward. Sonically, the group could pass for a roaring war drum, but upon closer inspection, Myrath simply uses big sounds to tackle timeless questions.

- Text by Andrew Reilly. Read our interview with Myrath in Assault of the Earth: Metal Bands from Around the Globe, coming in 2012.

Honorable Mentions

Bill Laswell, Raoul Bjorkenheim & Morgan Agren: Blixt (Cuneiform)

Scott H. Biram: Bad Ingredients (Bloodshot)

Casiokids: Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen (Polyvinyl)

Emika: s/t (Ninja Tune)

Future Islands: On the Water (Thrill Jockey)

Joe Henry: Reverie (Anti-)

Marketa Irglova: Anar (Anti-)

Murs: Love & Rockets Vol. 1: The Transformation (DD1)

Rustie: Glass Swords (Warp)

Trash Talk: Awake 7” EP (True Panther)

John Zorn / The Dreamers: A Dreamers Christmas (Tzadik)

[Chromatic, our 400-page exploration of musicians and color, is out now. Order here!]

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.

AfroCubism: s/t (World Circuit / Nonesuch, 11/2/2010)

AfroCubism: "Jarabi"

It was 1996 when British producer Nick Gold and American guitarist Ry Cooder arrived in Havana, intending to make a certain record that placed Malian and Cuban musicians together to explore the roots of Afro-Cuban music.  But as passport and visa problems stranded the West African musicians in Paris, Gold and Cooder made the decision to move on and revamp the project because the studio in Havana was already booked.

What transpired was a completely different recording that paid homage to a music popularized by the elitist Buena Vista Social Club notorious to Havana in the early half of the 20^th Century.  The alternate sessions, recorded with a collective that would be known as the Afro-Cuban All Stars, single-handedly revived the Cuban musical styles of this bygone era.  Buena Vista Social Club became one of the most definitive “world music” albums of all time, spawning Wim Winder’s documentary film of the same name, selling over six million copies worldwide, and forever changing the world-music market.

But now, nearly 15 years later, Gold has revisited the Afro-Cuban project never made, bringing together the original line-up to record AfroCubism.

At the core of the project are lead guitarist and vocalist Eliades Ochoa, whose voice is remembered on the celebrated Buena Vista theme “Chan Chan,” and the two original Malian invitees, ngoni lute master Bassekou Kouyate and legendary Rail Band guitarist Djelimady Tounkara.

Recording the Buena Vista sessions at age 50, Ochoa was the younger of the older veteran Cuban musicians who were brought back from obscurity. As many of the key players have passed, most notably Compay Segundo in 2003, Ibrahim Ferrer in 2005, and most recently Orlando Lopez last year, Ochoa still carries the torch for the elder-statesmen generation.  Though he may be getting older, the work done with the AfroCubism collective brings a fresh, new perspective to his native music.

Recorded in Madrid over the course of four days, the album has an electrifying liveliness that stems not only from 15 years of pent-up collaborative energy but more than 100 years of crisscrossing cultural histories.  Like the rest of the Caribbean, Cuba’s island music takes cue from a mixture of African and Spanish origins.  African slaves were highly influenced by the baroque music forms that made their way to Cuba via Spain in the late 1500s.

As the African slave population was assimilated into Cuban culture, learning the language and practicing the religion of their masters, their musical heritage followed suit.  Over a slow and steady course that took several hundred years to evolve, the intersection between Spanish and African cultures created the wealth of rhythms found in the distinct music of Cuba.

The record’s opening track, “Mali Cuba,” composed by kora master Toumani Diabaté, pays respect to the musicians’ interwoven history.  Capturing the “Latin rhythm” so closely associated with Cuban music, the track is a celebratory conversation between Ochoa’s guitar and Toumani’s 21-string harp lute.  The musicians go back and forth, trading melodic phrases, complementing each other’s distinct but similarly rooted styles.

Working between several language barriers, the beauty of this particular collective is how individual skills speak to a larger whole in a natural and impulsive collaboration that transcends language. Culminating with an improvised version of the Cuban classic “Guantanamera,” Kouyate, Ochoa, and Diabaté demonstrate how the two cultures are very much closely tied to one another.

Afrocubism’s artistic vision is fully realized when listeners are able to hear the two cultures fuse.  Kouyate’s ngoni (Malian ancestor of the banjo) takes on a peculiar vibrancy on tracks like “Karamo” as he adopts a Cuban motif with his ancestral instrument.  The vocals of Kasse Mady Diabaté stem from the oral tradition of the griot.  In essence, Diabaté is the West African historian, sharing his knowledge of history through song.  It is a seamless integration of quite diverse elements: Diabeté sings about the importance of hunters in Western Mali, the back-up vocals evoke an island harmony, and the percussion and rhythm from Ochoa’s Grupo Patria maintain a pace that entices involuntary dancing.

The project, after all, is called AfroCubism, a play on Cubism, the 20th Century avant-garde art movement whose artists deconstructed and analyzed objects only to reassemble them back in abstract forms.  If looking at a work by Pablo Picasso or George Braque, the viewer is looking at a subject from a multitude of angles.  As surfaces intersect at strange angles and the sense of depth is lost, the work comes to represent the subject in multitudes, or in its greater context.

In a similar sentiment, this is what the AfroCubism musicians are doing with music.  The project deconstructs West African and Cuban music in various ways — language, rhythms, intonations, and instrumentations — and pushes them all into one musical plane.  Although the outcome may not be as jarring as a Cubist painting, the result still represents the two genres in their greater context.  In the end, music lovers will appreciate AfroCubism for its nuances and ability to reflect two musical styles meeting and fusing at once.

Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Hit 'Em Up Style"

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Genuine Negro Jig

Carolina Chocolate Drops knows a thing or two about blending in. On the cover of the trio’s 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, Rhiannon Giddens makes camouflage out of a bright-red dress. Draped on the sofa like a blanket, she matches her surroundings (a red velvet curtain and Oriental rug) so well that she almost disappears. That's no small feat.

Maybe she's remembering the old days of the band's home base of Durham, North Carolina, where until the '60s, black faces occupied the backs of buses and the margins of their local community, even though they'd created a thriving center of industry, culture, and especially music.

Or maybe she's channeling the spirit of writer Mary Mebane, who likened her 1930s Durham childhood to an elaborate game of dress-up. Mebane described this Durham as a place where "black skin was to be disguised at all costs" and where those with the darkest faces drowned their insecurities in makeup and whiskey.

Though Appalachian tunes have become the music of all Americans, there's another truth lurking in the shadows: the story behind the music has been whitewashed.

So perhaps standing out is an even larger feat for Giddens and her bandmates, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson. They can't help it, given their musical chops, but they don't just accept it. They embrace it. And they get their gusto from the ghosts of North Carolina's past, the black folks who pioneered much of the Appalachian music that launched the careers of white guys like Bela Fleck, the New Lost Ramblers, and the Avett Brothers.

Surprisingly, it was Fleck and the Ramblers who helped Giddens, Flemons, and Robinson find one another at the 2005 Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, NC. The three expected to learn about the instrument's African and African-American roots, not come away with a globetrotting ensemble and a record deal.

The timing must have been just right. Fleck had recently returned from an African tour, and Mike Seeger of the Ramblers had left New York for a southern sojourn. Flemons traveled all the way from Phoenix just to learn from them. But it was an 86-year-old fiddler named Joe Thompson who sealed the deal, transforming three wandering souls into a tight-knit ensemble.

Now 91, Thompson is thought to be the last living performer from the golden age of Piedmont string bands. In the early 20th Century, he and his family were playing socials and square dances for black and white families alike. At the time, it was one of the rare instances where the racial divide softened, if only for a few hours.

Many people are familiar with the white fiddle-and-banjo music of the southern Appalachian region, but the Piedmont tradition is slightly different. Unlike other Appalachian music, it gives the leading role to the banjo, which sets the tone and tempo of the tunes. The fiddle tends to come second, providing backup along with instruments such as the jug and spoons. This unique combination was pioneered by families of black musicians. Although the banjo was created in the USA, it was inspired by a few lute-like West African instruments. Banjo music was often passed from one black family to the next, and it eventually made its way to other ethnic groups. Until the early 20th Century, young white musicians usually befriended an older black musician if they wanted to learn it.

Learning the banjo also helped the Drops find its identity as a band. Though the group is an old-time string band steeped in Piedmont's unique blend of folk and blues, it’s a melting pot of other influences as well: some hip hop here, some bluegrass there, with rock and jazz essences filling the gaps. But the three musicians didn't meld together until Thompson entered the picture.

Somebody had to figure out how to integrate the styles of Giddens, an opera singer with a soft spot for Irish jigs and jazz, with those of Robinson, a classically trained violinist, and Flemons, an Arizona native with a background in folk, jug bands, and old-fashioned country and blues. A Piedmont fiddler through and through, Thompson decided that the best way was to teach them to accompany each other in music and in life.

"We'd go down to his house on Thursday nights and learn how to back him up," Flemons says. "He'd tell us about some of the older ways of [Southern] living, things like tobacco auctions and frolics, which are square dances in the black community. We really learned about the social functions of the music."

Pretty soon the band was swapping melodies and instruments, do-si-do style. Now Robinson takes the lead on fiddle, adding banjo, autoharp, and jug as needed, while Flemons lends his skills on various banjos, plus the jug, quills, and harmonica. Giddens plays fiddle, banjo, and kazoo when she's not wowing the crowd with her vocals.

The audience has added instruments to the lineup too. One fan gave Flemons a set of bones, which also spice up the rhythm of minstrel songs, zydeco, and bluegrass.

"She insisted that I learn how to use them, then showed me how to play them," he says. "There have been a lot of interesting and wonderful experiences where people have shared songs, instruments, and memories with us. For some reason, our music has opened that up inside of them. Being able to do that is truly amazing."

Though the group's goal is to make great music and build a bit of community, it comes with a side of history, especially at its live shows, where Carolina Chocolate Drops is interested in telling the history that history books left out. The trio isn’t breaking out Howard Zinn's books on stage, but it’s telling it like it is: black people pioneered much of the traditional folk music that spawned country songs. And the banjo wasn't invented by Bo Duke and The Balladeer. It evolved from several types of African lutes, thanks to the ingenuity of slaves — a fact that banjo players themselves often are surprised to learn.

In other words, though Appalachian tunes have become the music of all Americans, there's another truth lurking in the shadows: the story behind the music has been whitewashed. We tend to remember the white banjo students but not their black teachers. As a result, much of tradition's richness is buried, along with the bones of those who played the minstrel shows of the 1880s and the hoedowns of the 1920s and '30s.

Carolina Chocolate Drops makes music that breaks down cultural barriers and brings together people from various walks of life, but it's making those black musicians and teachers stick out — in a good way. It's also helping them gain their rightful place in history and in the imaginations of those listening to the music today.

This theme of rewriting history is heavy one moment and lighthearted the next, much like the songs of Genuine Negro Jig. At least half of the album is good, old-fashioned hoedown fare. There's hooting and hollering and crazy kazoo solos. There's more banjo than the Dukes of Hazzard theme song and plenty of material for stomping, swinging, and square dancing.

The other half has some frank messages: advice on how to treat a cheatin' man and exorcise one’s inner demons. It's the kind of stuff that gets you talking after passing out from moonshine and dancing. You can't help but get to know your neighbor.

This is a novel concept for people who spend most of their time on Facebook and iPhones. Yes, the Internet is great at bringing people together, but you can't dance with it. That's why Carolina Chocolate Drops blends the whimsy of eras past with the stuff that makes people human today: getting drunk, making out, showing off, and screwing up.

Flemons says that the group marries old and new with the West African concept of Sankofa, which means "go back and fetch it." It takes good ideas from the past, brings them to the present, and gives them new life.

"We're not trying to bring the old times back, but we're using them to help people enjoy themselves," he says. "Building community by getting people to sing and dance together at a concert makes sense in the modern world."

But there's more to it than that. They're creating something new as well.

Most recently, the music opened the doors of Nonesuch Records, the label that the Magnetic Fields, Brian Wilson, and David Byrne call home. This, in turn, unlocked a Pasadena mansion that once belonged to President Garfield's widow — and where producer Joe Henry now lives. It was the perfect place to record an album built upon American history.

These sessions led to a haunting rendition of Tom Waits' "Trampled Rose" and a fiddle-hop take on Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style." On the latter, Giddens' vocals create shivers as she alternately sets the track on fire with her fiddle. Underneath, Flemons' beat boxing conjures the streets better than a cranked-up bass and a set of chrome rims. Then on the old Charlie Jackson tune “Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine,” the band traces the blues back to its roots and gives them a Vaudevillian twist, while the Carolinian standard "Trouble in Your Mind" creates the insanity of which it warns with an out-and-out hootenanny. It's hardly the way to blend in with the crowd.

Flemons says that the album is more of a genre-bender than the band's earlier releases, but don't expect Carolina Chocolate Drops to change its tune anytime soon.

"We're proud to be who we are: an old-time black string band," he says. "We don't need to turn into a '60s girl group or a hair band to stand out."

Five years have passed since we've heard the powerhouse melodies of Norway's Jaga Jazzist, the conception of brothers Lars and Martin Horntveth. Though the band is much closer to elaborate post-rock or "nü-jazz," a few of the group's winding passages and pieces of its instrumental setup reflect the genre for which it is named.

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. Though there is no shortage of talent, there also is no shortage of accessibility.

After an instantly hummable call-and-answer melody, the album's title track shifts to a trio of passages that sound as though they were designed for the slot-machine artwork that accompanies the album. Marimba, harpsichord, fuzzy bass, and slide guitar steal much of the show on this first standout on a disc of standouts, and the group's noted assortment expands from there.

If you're already a fan or have never heard Jaga Jazzist, One-Armed Bandit is not to be missed.

Jaga Jazzist: "One-Armed Bandit" (edit)
Jaga Jazzist: \"One-Armed Bandit\" (edit)

Rob Swift: The Architect (Ipecac)

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.

A few pieces are separated into movements as certain sounds act as themes, and guest MC Breez Evahflowin (the album’s only vocalist) continues the homage while rapping about the album’s concept on tracks “Principio” and “Ultimo.”

Though some may pigeonhole The Architect because of its direction, the truth is that it's an eclectic instrumental album — a dynamic DJ disc that certainly should be experienced live. Pick this up.

Rob Swift: "The Architect"
Rob Swift: \"The Architect\"

High on Fire: Snakes for the Divine (E1 Music)

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.

The production by Greg Fidelman (Metallica’s Death Magnetic) is getting a lot of attention, and rightfully so — the kick drum often sounds like a popping thud, and the vocals are too high in the mix. But overall, the mix is beefier and conveys a sense of urgency; High on Fire hasn't sounded quite like this before.

High on Fire: "Snakes for the Divine"
High on Fire: \"Snakes for the Divine\"

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: Ali and Toumani (Nonesuch)

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."

The album most certainly will garner major accolades in world-music circles. More importantly, it will stand as a final remembrance for Farka Touré.

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: "Ruby" (excerpt)
Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: \"Ruby\" (excerpt)

Valgeir Sigurðsson: Draumalandið (Dreamland) soundtrack (Bedroom Community)

Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurðsson has worked with a host of high-profile artists: Björk, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Nico Muhly, Múm, and many more. But despite nearly a decade of noteworthy production work, it wasn't until 2007 that he released his first official solo album, Ekvílibríum, a dreamy electro-acoustic work.

Now Sigurðsson has released the soundtrack to Draumalandið (Dreamland), a documentary about the exploitation of Iceland's natural resources. The score, a gentle and mini-orchestral work, is a much more elaborate affair — but one that manages, despite its layers, to feel as sparse as much of the Icelandic landscape.

Swelling and crackling electro-folk turns into uneasy chamber pieces. Often, the score is circular and dramatic, as in the title track, based on a simple up-scaling piano progression that is complemented by a glockenspiel or xylophone. The tempo of "Dreamland" picks up and slows at key spots, capturing an important dynamic.

Muhly and countrymen Sam Amidon, Ben Frost, Daníel Bjarnason, and a host of others lend their talents to Dreamland, a score that proves Sigurðsson capable of much more than augmenting the work of others.

Valgeir Sigurðsson : "Dreamland"
Valgeir Sigurdsson: \"Dreamland\"

Rotting Christ: Aealo (Season of Mist)

Despite the shock-value name, Greek black-metal quartet Rotting Christ is much more than a sacrilegious aggro band.

For more than 20 years, the Athens band traversed different directions on the metal path. However, with its last 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.

Rotting Christ: "Aealo"
Rotting Christ: \"Aealo\"

Honorable Mentions

Cindy Blackman: Another Lifetime (tribute to Tony Williams) (Four Quarters Entertainment)

Johnny Cash: American VI: Ain't No Grave (American)

Eluvium: Similes (Temporary Residence)

Quasi: American Gong (Kill Rock Stars)

Terry Riley: Autodreamographical Tales (Tzadik)

Jack Rose: Luck in the Valley (Thrill Jockey)

The Bastard Noise / The Endless Blockade

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.

To its credit, The Bastard Noise continues to push boundaries, and 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.

Death-metal growls and demonic shrieks cover doom riffs and crushing bass chords, which quickly shift into progressive leads. Squealing, whirring electronic sounds further the ominous style — one that fans of the genre surely will love.

The Endless Blockade contributes three tracks to the release — one 14-minute epic and two avant-garde remixes. In "Deuteronomy," the marathon jam, hardcore/punk aggression gives way to circular, high-pitched effects and sludge breakdowns.

The first remix, "Advanced Directive," is an interpretation by Noah Creshevsky, a peerless patchwork composer/re-arranger who just released his own disc of inspired creations. The result, to say the least, is wild.

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

Freeway & Jake One: The Stimulus Package (Rhymesayers)

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.

Jake One's capabilities are on display from the get-go, as the party jam "Throw Your Hands Up" follows a soulful R&B intro track. A few tracks later, "Never Gonna Change" presents one of the most unique tracks on the album with a shifting rhythm (4/4 to 3/4 and back), glockenspiel, harmonized backing vocals, and sampled strings.

If you dig the music, be sure to pick up a physical copy. The Stimulus Package comes complete with awesome monetarily themed packaging.

Freeway & Jake One: "Know What I Mean"
Freeway & Jake One: \"Know What I Mean\"

The Souljazz Orchestra: Rising Sun (Strut)

Ottawa's Souljazz Orchestra, now with a quartet of expertly delivered albums, is much more than just another Afro-jazz ensemble.

With just six core members, the group uses its newest full-length — its first all-acoustic effort — to twirl through funk, Latin, African, down-tempo jazz, and big-band bits.

After a stirring piano-led intro and the full-blown Afrobeat of "Agbara" (heard below), "Negus Negast" vies for the title of album's best with a grooving marching-funk foundation that supports a dazzling Asian flavor.

Rising Sun is challenging but accessible, and it never loses sight of its inherent mission: to get listeners moving. When 2010 comes to a close, this should stand among the best jazz-crossover discs of the year.

The Souljazz Orchestra: "Agbara"
The Souljazz Orchestra: \"Agbara\"

Mako Sica: Dual Horizon LP (La Société Expéditionnaire)

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.

Though this is just the trio's debut, Mako Sica already has been featured on NPR's acclaimed world-music program, Radio M — and it won't be the last time if the band continues what it started on Dual Horizon.

Mako Sica: I'Itoi
Mako Sica: \"I\'Itoi\"

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch)

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, a multi-talented producer who is best known as an early-2000s one-hit wonder. Easily the most mainstream cut on the disc, the song (reenacted with beat-boxing) describes the shopping-spree revenge of a woman who gets back at her unfaithful man by snatching his credit cards.

Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Hit 'Em Up Style" (excerpt)
Carolina Chocolate Drops: \"Hit \'Em Up Style\" (excerpt)

Honorable Mentions

Dday One: Heavy Migration LP reissue (Crosstalk Int.)

The Seven Fields of Aphelion: Periphery (Graveface)

V/A: Next Stop Soweto: Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga (Strut)

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.

Lymbyc Systym: Shutter Release (Mush)

Brothers Jared and Mike Bell have kept busy since 2007, releasing their heavily layered electro-acoustic jams on two full-length albums, a remix album, a re-released debut EP, and a split EP with This Will Destroy You.

With Shutter Release, the two showcase their continued musical development, laying tape to a new set of densely packed, melodically driven creations that lean on reappearing refrains and crescendos.

The album opens with a circular, cascading beat that gives way to one of the album's most noted additions — a clean-channel electric guitar that presents the first of innumerable melodies to follow. A glockenspiel and synthesizers join, and soon the duo's familiar brand of post-rock is in full effect.

Shutter Release succeeds with the familiar, but it expands Lymbyc Systym's catalog with mellow moments and does well to capture its live energy. Don't sleep on this release.

Mr. Chop: For Pete's Sake (Now-Again)

Coz Littler, also known as the multi-instrumentalist producer Mr. Chop, has begun making a name for himself in the States with an EP on Stones Throw and production work on MF Doom's Born Like This.

Littler can handle most of his albums' instrumentation by himself, but for his newest release, he again calls upon more studio vets for funky, jazzy, effects-fueled renditions of the beats and productions of critically acclaimed producer Pete Rock.

For Pete's Sake stands on its own as a funky good time, but for those familiar with Rock's catalog, it should prove to be doubly enjoyable.

Nile: Those Whom the Gods Detest (Nuclear Blast)

On the heels of a haunting solo album, cultural fusionist and guitarist Karl Sanders leads a new album from Nile, his extreme metal quartet with influence from ancient Egyptian themes and imagery.

A traditional Middle Eastern vocal passage makes a strange (but effective) complement to an otherwise brutal, shredding opener, but much of Those Whom the Gods Detest consists of Nile's relentless guitar fury, blazing double bass, vocal ferocity, and slowly churning chugs.

Beginning with more of Sanders' worldly influence, the title track shortly transforms to a harrowing assault of lightning-fast riffs and blast beats before working to an epic chorus. Ultimately, the track vies for title of the album's best, and it comes to typify the stylistic convergence that has separated Nile for the past 15 years.

Honorable mentions:

Bill Frisell: Good Dog, Happy Man reissue (2xLP + bonus CD, Nonesuch)
The Gift of Gab: Escape 2 Mars (Cornerstone RAS)
Lateef the Truthspeaker: Truth is Love (Dread Piper Sounds)
Nirvana: Bleach deluxe edition (Sub Pop)
Rita J: Artist Workshop (All Natural)