Skipp Whitman: Skipp City (self-released, 11/1/10)

Skipp Whitman: "Famous"

Rappers’ careers live and die on image. So when a rapper is born of middle-class artist parents in the swanky suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, he’ll inevitably have to deal with being an anomaly in the genre. Compound that with said rapper being a white boy who goes by Skipp Whitman, and it takes effort simply not to be seen as a novelty. Luckily for Whitman, his 2010 record, Skipp City, deftly avoids stereotype and proves that his music deserves to be taken seriously.

This record, Whitman’s debut LP, represents the culmination of years of paying dues on the underground hip-hop scene, a fact that he cleverly lampoons on the opener, “Release Dates.” In a genre where albums are pushed back almost as often as they are released, Whitman finds humor and heart in his honesty, deciding to own up to his record’s delays rather than pretend that they didn’t exist. “Everybody’s been asking, when’s your album dropping? / You ain’t copping nothing, cheapskate,” he raps, continuing in the chorus, “I’ve been waiting my whole life, you’ve been waiting two years,” and “perfection is a bitch, but so is not being clear on release dates.”

Whitman’s tongue-in-cheek self-effacement is one of the album’s brightest qualities. He doesn’t try to hide the embarrassing mundanity of his roots. “I know that I could get nice things doing some other shit, so why am I chasing this fame?” he raps on “Good Morning,” admitting that his middle-class origins could likely have taken him to financial success much faster than hip hop. This willingness to consider and reject the easy route makes him a much more sympathetic and charismatic figure.

“Never Told a Lie” is a surprising look inward at both Whitman himself and the rap world in general, turning a critical eye to the genre. Lyrics like “PR is gold, Pete Rock is old / oh, no disrespect, I’m just saying young’ns know / only what they been shown” shine a light on the uncertain future of a genre still in relative infancy, where the legends of the past fade into irrelevance.

Whitman’s rapping ability is competent, but his flow is not likely to dazzle with its technical depth. He occasionally runs into trouble with awkwardly enjambed lines, with artificial pauses inserted mid-sentence as new lines begin. Rhymes are often stretches — it takes quite an effort to get “bitches” to rhyme fluidly with “pictures.” But what he lacks in vocal skills, he makes up with the inventiveness of his lyrics. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Skipp City is Whitman’s readiness to put his own insecurity, comfortable origins, and desire for attention on full display. He becomes less of an oversized persona, like the kind that so many rappers work to cultivate, and more of a relatable human being.

Skipp City features no vocalists except Whitman and is entirely self-produced and self-released. The production is varied in instrumentation and mood, and suitably catchy and booming. However, each individual song features little variety in its own beat — usually a 10-second snippet repeating endlessly. The result is production that is serviceable but not mind-blowing. Still, it’s impressive that Whitman created a record as intriguing as Skipp City with little assistance. Maybe it had some trouble with release dates, but now that the LP is out and available, those problems are irrelevant, and the world is left with an unusually personal slab of solid rap music.

Son Lux: "Rising"

Chances are that you’ve heard compositions by the classically trained Ryan Lott more often than you think. His day job at Butter Music and Sound finds him writing 30- to 50-second tracks to be used for television ads, often cranking out two in a day. He composes original pieces for dance and theater troupes, his work has been featured at New York's Guggenheim Museum, and he has participated in multimedia installations.

But despite the percolating buzz around his name in the art scene, his talent remains unknown on a greater scale until 2008, when Lott made his debut as Son Lux, his first major foray into releasing music for himself. His first album, At War With Walls and Mazes, introduced the world to a nigh-uncategorizable work, a blend of hip-hop beats, electronica, delicate vocals, neoclassical flavor, and both melodic and chaotic instrumentation.

It was an arresting and unique debut, released by the indie-rap Anticon collective, but his newly released sophomore album, We Are Rising, is as notable for its quality and diversity as it is for its method of creation. Essentially on a dare from National Public Radio, Lott wrote, recorded, and arranged the album entirely in the 28 days of February 2011.

To most, a task like that would be unfathomable. Especially considering Lott’s usual method of composing, it seems unthinkable that he would be able to complete this challenge.

“What I normally do is come up with an idea and drill it into the ground for a few days," Lott says. "Then I leave it and let it sit for sometimes months. By the time I come back to back to it, if I still think it’s magic, I’ll keep it and I’ll keep going — I’ll keep experimenting, pull it apart, try it from all different angles.”

But Lott knew that despite the restrictions that such a time limit would put on his primary method of creating music, the opportunity — and the publicity — were once-in-a-lifetime chances. Luckily, he has experience in composing under short notice due to his professional work as composer (and if a musician has to have a day job, hey, you could do a lot worse). And though he has received commissions for longer pieces, the time constraints were never nearly as tight — an hour of music would be expected in five months, a breeze compared to completing an LP in four weeks. In the end, it was the project’s seeming impossibility that made it so enticing.

“I really had to do it,” Lott says. “It’s not going to happen again — this imposition of force that could really bring out something wonderful.”

The resultant album, much heavier on orchestral flair, is nine tracks of otherworldly musical mosaics bursting with fragility and introspection. “Chase” finds percussion alternately rumbling and pattering, with swelling trumpets and strings coexisting with haunting synth lines, and eponymous “Rising” mixes stuttering flute lines and gently played strings with crashing percussion and distorted harpsichord-sounding synthesizer, with a catchy vocal performance above it all. The languid “Leave the Riches” features a steadily ticking beat overlaid with chiming and droning synthesizers (and also features vocal assistance from Jace Everett, of True Blood theme fame, organized and recorded on the same day). The songs sound fully formed, as if they were swimming in Lott’s mind for weeks before he let them flow out in the studio. The truth, however, is far different and exemplifies the mind-bending composing, arranging, and performing that goes into creating a piece of Son Lux music.
 

“I’m a samplist. I’m a collagist. Yes, I’m a composer in a classical sense, but I’m also a hip-hop producer. And those two, in Son Lux, they get along. They get along great.”

“I decided ahead of time that no matter what, I was going to do all my tracking in the first two weeks,” Lott says. Rather than write songs completely, he came up with 10 kernel ideas for songs (one of which was left off for sounding like “a bad Philip Glass film score”) and recorded instrumental tracks with the intention of creating a palette of samples. Never mind, of course, that Lott had not completed composing the songs at the time of recording.

“I essentially plan to sample myself, and in the process of sampling myself, create my arrangements,” Lott explains. So though each instrument played a composed part, the part itself was never intended to be used in a track as recorded. After the first half of the month was spent gathering raw sonic material, Lott chopped up his recorded passages and mashed up the sounds — some intentionally off-key, some recorded with three mics that were each manipulated separately — until Son Lux songs emerged. With only parts of the songs being conceived during recording, it’s easy to think Lott would get lost in uncertainty and confusion, but to him, this new way of making music opened new creative doors.

“It’s another limitation that helps me come up with more creative things I wouldn’t normally," he says. "If I wrote out every note in advance, it probably wouldn’t have been as good as the results of experimenting with the audio after the fact.”

A first-time listener likely won’t hear Son Lux’s self-described hip-hop influences, despite the act’s inclusion in the venerable underground rap label Anticon, and understandably so. Lott sports a vocal style that's more in line with the indie rock of Sufjan Stevens and others, and his percussion is far from the 4/4 boom-bap beats that are virtually synonymous with the genre. But though Son Lux may not seem born of hip hop to the ear, ideologically, Son Lux can fit comfortably next to Pete Rock and Prince Paul as a producer. Lott refuses to let his music be stagnant, changing his sounds and sampling himself relentlessly to construct his songs. Discovering new avenues of creativity and beauty by sampling and juxtaposing existing sounds is one of the cornerstones of the philosophy of hip-hop production, and We Are Rising does that splendidly, creating cohesive, beguiling melodies out of the sound fragments he arranged on the track.

“I hated piano lessons all the way through college," Lott says. "The moment that I realized that I could sort of change what was on the page and maybe come up with my own ideas — that’s when music happened for me. I’m a samplist. I’m a collagist. Yes, I’m a composer in a classical sense, but I’m also a hip-hop producer. And those two, in Son Lux, they get along. They get along great.” The unique mixture of a lifelong student of music and an unabashed sampler also brings an emphasis on percussion and rhythm to Son Lux. Theoretically, it might be easy for a Son Lux song to drift away from listen-ability into a formless morass of sounds, but Lott’s rhythms keep them anchored.

“Rhythm is, from theoretical perspective, the most important thing about my music," he says. "I think in rhythm before I think in anything else, and I will winnow out texture and melody through experimentation and hard work, but I hear rhythm and feel it in my body.” The aforementioned “Chase,” for example, was built on its percussion track — in fact, an unused improvisation by Mutemath’s Darren King and Midlake’s McKenzie Smith from two years ago. Lott’s favorite track on We Are Rising, the closer “Rebuild,” is so cited due to its rhythm, which opens the track with skittering, clanging percussion before being replaced with staccato bursts of synthesizer and trumpet. None of the beats are overtly propulsive, but they create an essential structure — in Lott’s words, to keep the songs so that “you can, for the most part, bob your head to it.”

Lott was already in the midst of an album, one he had been working on for years, when the challenge came to record We Are Rising. After this album’s inability to support open-ended compositional processes, Lott is curious about where his songwriting and composing will go. Though he seemed convinced that the time limit precluded experimentation, it instead opened a new avenue, one where split-second decisions colored entire songs and the pressure of obligation forced out ideas. Turning his eye back to his “paused” album, Lott recognizes that some of the things he wanted to do for that record were already accomplished in We Are Rising. However, he is currently back to work on the record, reassessing where he will take it and what self-imposed limitations will bring out the best results.

Meanwhile, the cult of Son Lux is growing. Choreographers continue to commission Lott to write original music for dance performances, but some are beginning to ask for Son Lux material. (The Atlanta Ballet just premiered 20 minutes of new Son Lux music for the "Flux" portion of Ignition, its newest performance.) The NPR challenge has led to press from the public-broadcasting stalwart as well as from major newspapers and independent-music publications, and the blogosphere is buzzing. Though Ryan Lott doesn't have trouble in getting his music heard, Son Lux is well on its way to sharing the same luxury.

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

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: January 25, 2011.
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)

If you missed it last week, check out ALARM's list of 100 Unheralded Albums from 2010.

Ghostface Killah: Apollo Kids (Def Jam)

Ghostface Killah: "2getha Baby"

Just one of the seemingly endless number of MCs from the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah has served as executive producer of many Wu releases, and he’s also had one of the busiest solo careers of all the members.  For his own material, his coarse vocal style has meshed with a more-soulful style, and it’s that combination of edginess and accessibility that has furthered his success.

Apollo Kids is his ninth studio album and first of three new albums in the works.  It’s another hard but funky mix with assorted production, including a track by Pete Rock, one by Jake One, and a few by Frank Dukes.  Naturally, there are plenty of guest spots from the Wu crew, with appearances by GZA, Cappadonna, Raekwon, and Method Man, and there other big-name cameos by Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, and Black Thought.

The production is on point, but it’s really unfortunate that many verses fall back into the homophobic and misogynistic stereotypes of gangster rap.  Hopefully, his anticipated collaboration with MF Doom, called Swift & Changeable, won’t fall victim to the same trappings.

Royal Thunder: s/t EP (Relapse)

Royal Thunder: "Hotel Bend"

Royal Thunder is an Atlanta trio that mixes together elements of classic rock, psych rock, and garage rock – as well as the slight metal influence of other presently prominent Georgian bands.  Late last year, the group self-released and recorded a self-titled EP that, at 33 minutes, doesn’t run much shorter than a lot of contemporary “long players.”  Now the EP is being re-released through Relapse, exposing it to a much wider audience.

The music works but is sort of standard issue, so for the time being, the main draw is the elongated, overdubbed vocals of bassist Miny Parsonz.  Her parts on the song “Hotel Bend” could be transposed into an indie or pop song with negligible difference, and it’s nice to hear that vocal style succeed with a harder brand of rock.  The band is working on a full-length for an expected 2011 release, and with that, perhaps we’ll hear Royal Thunder really come into its own.

Whatever your opinion of its music, there's no question that Das Racist wears its cultural and political awareness on its proverbial sleeve. With that in mind, we asked Ashok Kondabolu of the Brooklyn-based trio to name his favorite political rap songs.

Das Racist: "hahahaha jk" (Sit Down, Man, Mishka / Mad Decent / Greedhead)

Das Racist: "hahahaha jk"

1. Public Enemy: "Shut 'Em Down" (Pete Rock Remix)

My favorite remix of all time. Pete's short verse is ill (and sort of hilarious), and the beat's insistence over and under Chuck D's screaming-ass voice is incredible. The clipped rapping on here serves really well as some "movement music."

"I testified
My mama cried
Black people died
When the other man lied"

I mean, that's an awesome way to start a song about corporate redistribution of wealth!

2. El-P: "Patriotism"

This song brings together a lot of the disparate and bitter elements into a seemingly full feeling of depression I ran with for most of high school. El's on extra grind with the wordiness and loathing that appealed to me much more than an Immortal Technique song about United Fruit or something (fuck Chiquita Banana). AND ALL BEFORE 9/11! I think it's finely paired with "Accidents Don't Happen" off El's first solo jam Fantastic Damage, which is run through the paranoia scrubber with a fine hell-wash at the end.

3. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: "1st of tha Month"

Chris Rock once accurately described this song as a "Welfare Carol." While one could easily trot out a neat little argument about how this is a De Certeau-ian celebration of the mundane as a tactic of human-scale resistance to the various oppressions of poverty and the condescending nature of bureaucratic aid to the poor, the simple fact remains that five black men cashed welfare checks, bought drugs and alcohol, had a cookout, and then wrote a beautiful song about it that EVERYBODY loves, that peaked at #14 on the charts, went gold, and launched a two-decade long musical career.

4. The Coup: "Fat Cats, Bigga Fish"

I remember in 7th grade, my dude Loren (shout out New Earth Creeps) was like, "My cousin is in this rap group called The Coup," and he played me this track off its second album, Genocide and Juice. The line "The streetlight reflects off the piss on the ground, which reflects off the hamburger sign that turns 'round, which reflects off the chrome on the BMW, which reflects off the fact that I'm broke, now what the fuck is new?" was probably one of my first "run that back" moments.

In this five-minute story rap, Boots gets on the bus with a stolen bus pass, intimidates a white woman, pickpockets a dude, flirts with a girl at the burger stand for a free burger, refers to a mall cop as a rent-a-pig, puts on a tuxedo, and serves hors d'oeuvres at a cocktail party where he overhears a Coca-Cola executive talking to the mayor of Oakland about manipulating media connects and using corporate lobbying power to help create public consent for turning low-income housing into condos. The track is seamless, filled with punchlines, and manages to speak with nuance about class without coming off as preachy.

5. Waka Flocka Flame: "Fuck This Industry"

Pretty straightforward. A classic take on the "industry vs. the streets" dichotomy first proposed by Foxy Brown on "Oh Yeah" with Spragga Benz. The dopest thing about this song is after talking a little bit about the industry ("Make sure your lawyer know what he doing," "Don't get a 360; that shit ain't 100"), it becomes clear the song is mostly about loving your family and friends. The video is weird too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g-suzna5Rg

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)

Flat Earth Society

This vibrant, upbeat big-band jazz ensemble entwines circus, burlesque, lounge, and Cirque du Soleil sounds in its quirky mix — one that counts on 23 regular members.

The title of this second album for Crammed Discs is an anagram of the group's leader, Belgian composer/clarinetist Peter Vermeersch.  It's a fitting title for an album that sounds joyous and debauched — an album that should vie for best jazz disc of 2009.

Flat Earth Society: "Vole Sperm Reverie" (excerpt)
Flat Earth Society: \"Vole Sperm Reverie\" (excerpt)

Prefuse 73: The Forest of Oversensitivity (Warp)

Rounding out his full-length release from April, Prefuse 73 releases five revised tracks, heavy on sampled/tweaked vocals, from Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian.  As a result, each track on this 22-minute EP ends with "Choir," including two straight-up remixes.  If you enjoyed Ampexian, you'll want to add this as a pleasant compendium.

J Dilla: Jay Stay Paid (Nature Sounds)

Influential producer J Dilla knew how to keep busy, even doing so while battling lupus and a blood disease in a hospital room.  Now another partial collection of his work is issued posthumously, this time with beats by Dilla and arrangements by Pete Rock.

High-profile cameos by Black Thought of The Roots and (MF) Doom are among a number of guest MC spots, and the release unsurprisingly works as a virtual mixtape/compilation.  Fans will enjoy it, but first-timers should probably start elsewhere.

Venetian Snares: Horsey Noises EP (Planet Mu)

Continuing the theme of über-prolific beat-related artists who can't (or couldn't) stop making music, this Venetian Snares EP/single falls on the dancey end of Aaron Funk's spectrum, complete with an airy refrain in the title track.  The four songs do take a few left turns, including the weirdo-rock and synth breakdowns of "Horsey Vag Island" below.

Venetian Snares: "Horsey Vag Island"
Venetian Snares: \"Horsey Vag Island\"