Trash Talk: Awake (True Panther, 10/11/11)

Trash Talk: "Awake"

Most bands are content to squeeze a couple of songs onto a seven-inch slab of vinyl. With its new release, Awake, Sacramento-based hardcore band Trash Talk manages to pack five tracks into that same space. Its raw, aggressive sound lends itself to shorter songs; the four-piece gets in your face and then hightails it like a seasoned stick-up gang.

In our feature story on Trash Talk (ALARM 34), the band had just cut a new record with Steve Albini, established its own label and added a new drummer, Rashod Jackson. Now, two years later, the drummer is different (Sam Bosson), but the thrash-heavy vision remains the same.

Initially, the Awake seven-inch was available in three varieties: 100 black-and-white flip-flop, 400 white, and 916 solid black. With the flip-flop version sold out, we recommend either white or black; both are guaranteed to rip.

Trash Talk: "Dig"

"I’m the new guy in the band,” says Rashod Jackson, drummer for Sacramento’s Trash Talk. Though he has been in the band for less than a year, it’s been a particularly busy time for the thrash-spiked hardcore four-piece, which also includes guitarist Garret Stevenson, vocalist Lee Roy Spielman, and bassist Spencer Pollard. After releasing its Plagues… EP on Malfunction Records in January 2008, the group wrote and recorded its second release of the year, a self-titled album that also served as the debut record on its newly established Trash Talk Collective label.

For many rising bands wishing to leave their day jobs behind forever and support themselves purely off of their music, breaking away from a label could appear counterintuitive. Jackson agrees: “It was a bold thing to do, but sometimes you have to take risks.”

Pollard explains that the motivation for starting the label was to have complete control over the group’s creative vision. The process of cutting ties with the group’s former label was stressful, but Jackson says that things have been great lately, and he wants to make it clear. “No matter what you hear about Trash Talk and record labels,” he says, “we don’t have beef with anyone.”

Since forming in 2005, Trash Talk has chosen a lifestyle that has found its members practically living on the road. In fact, Jackson estimates that he’s only been home for a total of six weeks since joining the band. Though they uniformly enjoy the whirlwind pace, it did add some particular complications to the process of releasing an album on their own. Jackson credits Stevenson for dealing with the band’s business operations while on tour.

“There were days when he was super stressed out, and he couldn’t really talk to anyone,” Jackson says. “He was literally doing band business all day and all night. We’d wake up at nine in the morning after getting back late from a show the night before, and he’s still awake trying to get things done so the record could come out. He is the mastermind behind it all. I don’t know where the record would be without him.”

The results proved to be worth the struggle. Pollard says, “Luckily, we were able to lasso distribution through Revelation Records, gaining us equal distribution to that of our former label. So in the end, our efforts paid off, and we didn’t have to compromise anything in the process.” For now, Trash Talk Collective will focus exclusively on Trash Talk music, but Pollard says that the idea of releasing other projects in the future has come up.
 

“There’s no such thing as peace anymore. It’s not even just about the government. People in general are at war with themselves. This is pretty much saying there is no peace anywhere.”

Business aside, a listen to Trash Talk indicates that the split was the best decision for the group’s creative side. The band spent two days at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago with recording engineer Steve Albini, who proved to be a great match for Trash Talk’s extreme, grinding sounds. Recorded straight to tape, Trash Talk captures all the grittiness of the band’s chaotic live show. With 12 songs clocking in at just over 14 minutes, like a car crash, it’s over in the blink of an eye but leaves a glut of destruction in its wake.

Trash Talk’s newfound aesthetic was further signified beyond its DIY mindset — and beyond creating its most brutal record to date — by the artwork that was chosen for the self-titled album’s cover. That art is based around the upside-down peace sign that the band adopted long ago, Pollard says, as a way of creating “an iconic image that our fans would be able to associate with us.” Jackson explains that for the band, the image is a way of expressing that “there’s no such thing as peace anymore. It’s not even just about the government. People in general are at war with themselves. This is pretty much saying there is no peace anywhere.”

At times, though, the band’s use of the emblem has been misconstrued. “The first time we were in Europe, people were saying it was some kind of racial imagery. Then they see three black dudes get on stage and they think, ‘Wait, this doesn’t make any sense!’” Jackson says. “We got asked about it numerous times. It means what it means to us, and as long as people know that, that’s what matters to us.”
 

The cover art, designed by Sammy Winston and Alex Capasso, takes this idea of independence one step further. Featuring a chalkboard-black background with a white upside-down peace sign scrawled in its center, the lines making up the “tree” formation bust through the circle like the “A” in an anarchy symbol. Trash Talk, it wordlessly says, will resist any boundary or limitation placed in front of it.

Upon its release, Trash Talk elicited a mixed reaction from some longtime fans, largely due to its grimy, cutthroat sound as opposed to the relatively cleaner Plagues… (bringing to mind another Albini client, Nirvana, whose earlier Nevermind album sounds like a delicate flower next to the rawness of Albini-engineered In Utero). Nevertheless, Jackson contends, “We don’t care who likes it or who hates it. We love it.”

But along the stops of their never-ending tour, the members of Trash Talk have learned that they’re not the only ones. “The first time we went to Europe, we played our first show at a festival and kids knew the words and were going apeshit. We were looking at each other, saying, ‘Wow, is this for real?’ Punk and hardcore, no matter what anyone says, is alive and well all over the world.”

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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)

Crossing the lines of minimalist performer and powerhouse artist, Scout Niblett is one of the strongest voices to emerge in recent years. With each successive album, Niblett emboldens her material with a hypnotic and stirring display of honest emotion and inspired will. Acting as an introspective one-woman force of nature, she eschews superfluous support and production without sacrificing an already demanding sound.

Born in Staffordshire County, near the city of Birmingham in central England, Emma Louise Niblett grew up within the duality of the rural and industrial state. At a young age, she was trained on the piano and violin, and raised on music from the Top 40 countdown, from which she regularly taped her favorites to listen to over and over again. Her artistic roots and an English tradition of emotional repression clashed within her. Though Niblett had begun writing songs on her classically trained instruments, they never acted as an emotional or creative outlet.

When the grunge movement reached English shores, a 17-year-old Niblett discovered acts like Nirvana and Sonic Youth. Kurt Cobain’s powerful voice and raw emotion especially captured her attention, compelling her to move to guitar and becoming a major influence in her burgeoning songwriting. As soon as she got that guitar, she learned a few chords and immediately began writing material. With a stockpile of ideas from her youth on the piano, Niblett began building with simple melodies and heart-pounding vocals.

In college in Nottingham, Niblett split her time between music and performance art. She first took to a stage, but not to sing. Her performance art included multimedia monologues and an almost Cabaret-style exploration of music and images. However, it would not be long before she shared her songwriting with the intimate audiences. “I didn’t want to do anything else,” she says of her advent into performing. “I was pretty stubborn about it.”

For her stage name, Niblett turned to Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the spunky narrator from To Kill a Mockingbird. “The character almost reminded me of myself, but a very free version of myself as a child,” she says. “I didn’t really express myself in the way that she did. I didn’t do that. And I felt that I should have, like that was a part of me that I really repressed. I think music is a way of expressing myself fully.”

From the beginning, Niblett was a solo artist. “I’ve never had a band,” she says. “I never learned other people’s songs. That didn’t interest me.” But that’s not to say that she’s an isolationist. She has contributed to a broad range of friendly collaborations and the odd duet, only to remain a predominantly lone figure throughout her work.

Niblett released her debut LP, Sweet Heart Fever, on Secretly Canadian in 2001, introducing listeners to her minimalist yet powerful and resonant songs. The album also introduced Scout Niblett the percussionist, as some songs were just her stark voice over a rumbling beat. This too would become a signature aesthetic.

Turning an ironic ear to her material, Niblett kept up an irreverent and enigmatic front. In her early shows, the musician would act out in odd yet comforting ways, like donning a blonde wig or engaging in morbid sing-a-longs. After building a reputation as a bold live presence, Niblett began touring Europe. She soon decided to pick up and move to the United States, where her music was being discovered by fans of PJ Harvey and Cat Power. Her constant touring led to a restless lifestyle, as she explored the country while living in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Oakland before landing in Portland.

The year 2002 saw the release of the I Conjure Series EP, where again Niblett played the entire album and captured a sparse, moving atmosphere often with only guitars and vocals. Her subsequent releases, starting with I Am in 2003 and Kidnapped by Neptune in 2005, feature the songwriter working with producer Steve Albini, after they met during recording on a mutual friend’s album.

In 2007, Niblett opened her world slightly by experimenting with folk and country lines and even inviting Will Oldham to collaborate on the album This Fool Can Die Now. By this time, Niblett also had gotten into the habit of bringing a drummer on tour with her, rather than flying solo. The new dynamic didn’t change the intimacy of the performance, nor did it lighten the brooding, raw emotion lying at the center, but it did allow the songwriter to focus on bringing a more refined and contemplative approach to her music, one that has expanded her creative outlet.

The latest offering from the artist is her most challenging and heavy work yet. The Calcination of Scout Niblett (Drag City) poses tough questions to our protagonist. The process of calcination is the first step in turning lead into gold, a metaphor that suits the album well. A cathartic and reflective journey, The Calcination… carries an unbelievable weight with strained resolve that explores many of the all-too-often taken-for-granted moments and memories. From the blazing opening seconds, and throughout the intensely personal record, Niblett’s energy never falters.

As always, Niblett’s inner voice speaks and informs her songwriting. A dedicated astrologer as well, she takes subconscious mysteries and lures them right to the surface. “To me, songs really are kind of messages from my subconscious,” she says. “I don’t sit down and try and write something with a concept. I can’t really do that. I just start playing, and then something will emerge that wasn’t there when I started. I can’t say I want to write a song about this and do it.”

She admits that the messages are not always so clear. Sometimes a song written years ago will suddenly become relevant, immediate even. Such is the case with “Pluto.” Written initially over a decade ago, this track only now is featured on her newest album, observed in new light, with new purpose. And it’s not the only one. Niblett hints at scores of works remaining perhaps as live performance only, or even kept further out of reach, until their meanings becomes clear.

Niblett’s raw torrent of emotion is anchored in her deeply sensitive and mature outlook. She takes subconscious mysteries and lures them right to the surface. Looking straight at what most people spend years ignoring, the depth that Niblett’s songwriting taps into is matched only by her staggering resilience, offering respite for the rest of us.

Cisneros has been a prominent figure in underground metal for years, but his gentle, unassuming demeanor is a far cry from what many would expect from a musician associated with what is typified as an aggressive, macho genre.

Om, the intense, hypnotic bass-and-drum duo that he founded with drummer Chris Haikus in 2003, has been reinventing the way that many people perceive heavy music. Its songs are cerebral but accessible, spiritual but unreligious. Om’s music could be used to excite the apathetic as much as it could serve as a meditative soundtrack for the hyperactive.

In a live setting, Om takes on another dimension. The walls rattle under the colossal vibrations from Cisneros’ bass cabinets, fuelled by his carefully selected custom amps; the huge, warm sounds that come out of them seem to enter the body, resulting in a feel that is like being caught in the eye of a storm.

“I feel really safe sometimes, if that’s the right word, when the speakers [fuzz out] like that,” Cisneros says. “Descriptions [of music] can be stereotypes. It’s very peaceful.”

When Haikus amicably left the band in the spring of 2008, Cisneros sought out Grails drummer and Holy Sons mastermind Emil Amos to take his place. Things have been good ever since, as the title of Om’s fourth studio album and first featuring Amos on drums, God is Good (Drag City), suggests.

“It’s just true,” Cisneros says of the title, which, true to form, decontextualizes religious iconography from its traditional meanings. “We’re in the journey right now, and we wanted to sing about it. It’s the word symbol we came up with. You can’t explain it. The more you try with words, the more you try to explain what it means.” As each word passes, Cisneros sounds vaguely frustrated at trying to communicate such esoteric thoughts out loud. “You can feel it,” he continues. “Everyone can feel it.”

Amos is more direct about the title. “It makes me think of a really hellish LSD trip,” he says, “where at the end of the whole thing, you meet this sobbing resolution that things actually are okay—the fact that you know, in some Jungian sense or in a Carl Sagan book, [that] the creation of this universe came from the first moment of good winning over evil.”

Cisneros began exploring the depths of heavy metal as a teenager in the late ’80s, when he and Haikus formed punk/metal hybrid Asbestosdeath. The band added second guitarist Matt Pike (now guitarist/frontman of High on Fire) and by the early 1990s morphed into Sleep—a riff-brandishing psychedelic power trio, a band that owed more to the bluesy grooves of Black Sabbath and Pentagram yet whose sound was filtered through a set of musicians that had also been exposed to Bay Area hardcore and thrash.

“We all dropped out of high school—I think every one of us,” Cisneros recalls. “We were all having hard times, and we were friends through music.” For the young friends, music became more than just a hobby. “[It was] our lifeline,” he corrects. “I wouldn’t have made it through those times without it.”

Sleep grew a following, and with the release of its second album, Sleep’s Holy Mountain, many believed that it had the potential to cross into the mainstream. The band signed with London Records to release its third album, tentatively titled Dopesmoker, a single, hour-long epic song that had taken the band years to perfect.

The label, rather than appreciating what it had, saw it as “noncommercial” and toyed with remixing it and dividing the song into pieces. The band was horrified and eventually broke up under the strain, but the album later surfaced as the segmented Jerusalem on Rise Above Records, and eventually, an unabridged version of Dopesmoker was released on Tee Pee.

Sleep left a legacy not only because of its primal, heavy sounds that have influenced others, but also because of its unwavering commitment to its vision of its art, no matter what the stakes.

In the aftermath of Sleep, Cisneros stopped playing music for seven years. “I just took the time to go back to school—and live, really,” he says. “I didn’t want people to tell me that I had to do Sleep. I wanted to know what I wanted and what was right to me.

"I used that time to find it and to cultivate it. In finding that, the songs that I had already been hearing were able to be treated with the respect that they deserved, and I was able to document the ones that really stuck with me. It was time to play; I needed to heal, though, first. When Sleep had broken up, I felt like I had died. It meant so much to me. It meant my entire life. When it went the way it did…I never knew that there would be a return to playing.”

As the songs began to accumulate, Cisneros called Haikus, and the two teamed up as Om. “From that point forward, we were going to do it,” he says. “It was like being able to live over again with a different appreciation, being able to be connected.” Beginning with 2005 experimental album Variations on a Theme through the awe-inspiring Pilgrimage (Southern Lord) in 2007, Om impressed listeners with the intense yet organic feel of its music.

It bucked convention with minimal, droning sounds that were punctuated by Cisneros’ staccato, mantra-like vocals in pieces that could last upwards of twenty minutes. “It is all about the feel and the duration of the art, how it needs to be, and the distance it needs to be,” Cisneros says. “I’d be fighting myself thinking about wanting to write a song a certain length.”

That same intuition on which Cisneros relies for writing music came into play when he asked Amos to join his band. The two had recently met when Om and Grails played a short string of shows together, but otherwise they were virtual strangers.

“We knew only enough about each other that we knew that we got along,” Amos says. “We knew that we both worshipped [prolific jazz and fusion drummer] Billy Cobham, Pink Floyd, and dub. We had some heated late-night discussions [about music], and that was about it.”

Amos, as one might imagine, was caught off guard. “I didn’t know what to say,” he recalls. “My life was in disarray at the time.”

A grueling schedule of music and production projects had left him burned out and reevaluating his way of life. “I became a machine,” he says. “I gave myself to music completely for the first time. I’d avoided it my whole life; I never wanted to make it a job.” To cap it off, “I had gotten out of an eight-year relationship, and the girl left the country on the day that Al called me. My life completely changed in one category, and literally a couple of hours later he called me. My head turned from one reality to another reality.”

With that, Amos joined, and Cisneros’ instinct proved to be dead on. In preparation for a European tour, Cisneros flew from his California home to Portland, where he and Amos spent two days practicing before recording their first piece of music together, the Gebel Barkel 7” (Sub Pop), which cemented a new era for the band. “It’s pretty unreal for a band to assume that they could form like that,” Amos says, “and record their debut two days later and expect that it will be fine. And we did that.”

With the addition of Amos, Om has not done away with its signature style, but both fans and critics have recognized a distinct freshness to the duo’s performance (illustrated on Live Conference, a live rendition of Conference of the Birds [Important Records, 2009]), a reflection of the energy that transpires between the two musicians.

Amos, who cut his teeth on hardcore growing up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina before branching into more worldly styles, describes the lineup (“crudely,” he admits) as “a hardcore kid and a metal kid coming together,” noting that their musical partnership has opened the gates for what has become a unique friendship. “We’ve needed each other on a level that we couldn’t have seen,” he says. “There are an odd number of coincidences of how we think. We just flow so well; the whole thing has this serendipitous, odd synchronicity to it. The way we came together just worked.”

The two share a similar aesthetic that goes beyond the actual craft of making music. “I look at music as a very serious form of spiritual discipline,” Amos says. “It’s the same thing for Al. The artistic template is the way to pursue your own sanity. … It’s not like a job, but it is a format in which to live. It’s a spiritual work. Work is sort of all we have as humans. We apply ourselves for life as making music, and that keeps us happy. Without that, we would be lethargic and confused. It’s a form of finding yourself and a strata of values within the world.”

“The music happens because it has to, and that’s essential,” Cisneros says. “It can’t be forced at all, or it’s not worth participating in. I’ve seen people sit at a guitar for ten hours, and it’s like, ‘Dude, water’s not going to come out of your rock.’ I don’t even understand it—does that person have to play? If they’re going through all of that, what’s the whole idea?”

Continuing, he muses, “Songwriting seems to be more of a job as an editor rather than a writer. It’s more a process of negotiation and building and learning what not to do. When you have a part that seems right in your heart, you ask yourself, ‘How do I stay there? How do I not go away from that?’”

With Amos, Cisneros stays right in the thick of it. He describes their creative output as a flood, with parts of God is Good coming so suddenly that “We’d record it on our cell phones just so we could have it documented.”

The album, recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, showcases Om’s penchant for creating music that is as genuinely emotive as it is heavy, best illustrated on opening number “Thebes,” which begins serenely, building into a rollicking thunder before coming down again.

And though the core of the duo remains the focal point, subsequent tracks weave in other sounds and moods, such as the rhythmic handclaps leading the way on “Cremation Ghat Pt. 1.” (it’s actually danceable) and the help of friends such as flutist Lorraine Rath and Lichens / 90 Day Men member Rob Lowe on tamboura at key points throughout the album. “It’ll always be the bass and drum, but we’ve been using different instruments to lead the songs,” Amos says. “It’s important for the trajectory of where the records are going to find new ways to say things. Live, we haven’t worked [it] out…the band will always be the two guys.”

Designed by Grails’ Alex Hall, the album’s cover art depicts a gold-leaf halo-adorned angel against a stark black backdrop, echoing the softer but nearly identical imagery of Pilgrimage. And like the art, God is Good represents another step in the journey for Om—a heightened sense of focus and wellbeing that doesn’t lose sight of the original goal.

Likewise, this newfound positive energy has given way to a tidal wave of new music that extends outside of the band as well. In January 2009, Cisneros joined Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Neurosis’ Scott Kelley, and Melvins’ Dale Crover in a “masters of underground rock” super-group, Shrinebuilder, whose upcoming self-titled album has been touted as one of the most anticipated heavy albums of the year.

In May, he joined former Sleep bandmates at All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in the UK for a highly anticipated reunion that marked the first time the legendary trio had performed together since it disbanded more than a decade ago. Amos has been busy as well; among other projects, he has edited and produced Grails’ Acid Rain DVD (Temporary Residence), released Holy Sons’ sixth full-length, Drifters Sympathy (Important), and begun work on yet another Grails album.

This multitude of other projects has served to heighten the duo’s enthusiasm for Om. “One of the things that we’ve been able to do is to start using more areas of the canvas,” Cisneros says, hinting that the best is yet to come. “It has deepened what preexisted, and it has opened what was once contained. It has let in light and energy, and I am totally, totally thankful. The rate that Emil and I work…there is a lot there. We’re so excited with the outcome [of the new albums], but it’s really just beginning.”

Quoting another prominent figure in the genre, Amos concludes, “Dylan Carlson from Earth said it well: ‘I don’t want to make more noise. The world is noisy enough.’ Al and I are trying to create a cohesive sum of what we’ve learned, rather than just noise pollution.”

Trentemøller: Into the Great Wide Yonder (In My Room)

Anders Trentemøller has built his name in the Danish electronic scene since 2003. After remixing some high-profile artists (Röyksopp, The Knife, Robyn, and Moby to name a few), he decided to expand his production talents to a full-length album.

The year 2006 saw the release of The Last Resort, an ambitious double-disc collection that showed off his ability to split the difference between headphone-friendly grooves and dance-floor burners.

His new album, Into the Great Wide Yonder, is a dramatic departure from his previous work. The songs are more complex and heavier, with layer upon layer of robust orchestration that includes mandolins, Theremins, vibraphones, strings, synths, and acoustic and electronic drums playing a game of king of the hill.

But those instruments, most of which are performed by Trentemøller, fall to the wayside when confronted by the tremolo-swollen and overdriven guitar riffs. The guitar work, again performed by Trentemøller, sounds like surf rock during a hurricane, dark and immensely powerful, with the shudder of the whammy bar sending trembles through the music.

Tracks grow and mutate in a much less sequenced manner than his previous material. Additionally, the album is much more vocal-centric than The Last Resort, which featured a few distorted and chopped vocal tracks and used them more rhythmically than melodically.

On “Sycamore Feeling,” the new album’s first single, Trentemøller lets guest vocalist Marie Fisker’s smoky voice run free across his placid guitar strumming. The track marries the heartbeat of minimal techno with the meditations of an acoustic guitarist, creating a full band sound that hasn’t been heard in his music before.

English singer Fyfe Dangerfield (Guillemots) and Danish singers Josephine Philip (Darkness Falls) and Solveig Sandnes also add enrapturing vocals on a few other tracks, and the result is no less stunning.

Trentemøller: "The Mash and the Fury"
Trentemoller: \"The Mash and the Fury\"

Trash Talk: Eyes & Nines (Trash Talk Collective)

With its sophomore "full-length" album — just more than 22 minutes — Sacramento quartet Trash Talk has come into its own as a hardcore powerhouse.

An assailing 2008 full-length, recorded by Steve Albini, put the band on the map after jumping ship from Deathwish Inc. And though that self-titled disc churned out potent thrash riffs, push beats, gruff vocals, breakdowns, and the occasional sludge part, Eyes & Nines is a much stronger exercise in songwriting.

Stoner riffs make a few appearances, most notably in the four-minute, Christianity-assailing "Hash Wednesday," but most durations are cut in the classic punk/HC mold — with one track ("I Do") clocking in at 40 seconds. Over a few passages, guitar effects provide a new-found psychedelic aspect as well as a full-blown rock-and-roll aesthetic.

The style isn't groundbreaking, but the band executes it powerfully. Trash Talk will make you fall in love with hardcore all over again.

Trash Talk: "Explode"
Trash Talk: \"Explode\"

The Waitiki 7: New Sounds of Exotica (Pass Out)

As an offshoot of lounge music, exotica gained mainstream appeal in the 1950s as a romanticized soundtrack to Hawaiian and Oceanic life.

Though devoid of the ukuleles and slack-key guitars that may be most commonly associated with Hawaiian music, The Waitiki 7 — based on the island of Oahu — excel in capturing the "exotic" sounds that Martin Denny helped popularize.

The septet's gorgeous melodies, however, do more than renew a bygone genre. Its radiant brand of exotica crosses into Latin jazz with just as much poise and dexterity, often melding the two with a lineup of vibraphone and xylophone, upright bass, flute, piano, violin, saxophone, vocal and bird calls, drums, and assorted percussion.

The Waitiki 7: "Similau"
The Waitiki 7: \"Similau\"

Integrity: The Blackest Curse (Deathwish Inc.)

Integrity is one of the forebears of the "metal-core" sub-genre, but the band's sound might be best recognized for its vocals — the hellish, pained screams of Dwid Hellion.

And Dwid, after all, has been the one fixed piece in Integrity, which hadn't issued a full album since To Die For in 2003. Five years in the making, The Blackest Curse is another return to form, albeit with another new lineup.

As usual, there are loads of shredding, speed metal, and chugging to go with wailing, runaway rock solos and Dwid's monotone intensity. A few tracks, as on albums past, offer sullen acoustic-guitar melodies, this time accompanied by a few lone cello notes and dark, whispered words from Dwid.

Fans will love The Blackest Curse, and younger metal-core addicts will discover a band that has influenced many of their contemporary favorites.

Integrity: "Simulacra"
Integrity: \"Simulacra\"

Konono No. 1: Assume Crash Position (Crammed)

Founded by Mawangu Mingiedi in the 1970s, Konono No. 1 is a dance-inspiring group from Kinshana, Democratic Republic of the Congo that had all but disappeared until the sudden exposure of Congotronics 1 in 2005 brought global recognition.

Its eclectic array of instruments, heard again this summer with Assume Crash Position, centers on the likembe, a small wooden box with metal tines that are plucked with the musician’s thumbs in order to mimic the region’s traditional horn polyphony.

Konono uses several in its lineup — each one handmade by Mingiedi — that weave back and forth, helping transition call-and-response choruses into electronic jams and filling out the band’s style of "Bazombo trance" music that garnered it a spot on Björk’s Volta and Herbie Hancock’s upcoming The Imagine Project. (Also known as Zombo, the Bazombo are an ethnic group with roots near the Angola border.)

Assume Crash Position is another fine collection of cross-cultural dance tunes. More importantly, it's a testament to the band's longstanding and international appeal.

Konono No. 1: "Mama Na Bana"
Konono No. 1: \"Mama Na Bana\"

Honorable Mentions

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Before Today (4AD)

Ólafur Arnalds: …And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness (Erased Tapes)

Chali 2na: Fish Market Part 2 (Decon)

Fela! Original Broadway Cast Recording (Knitting Factory)

The Funeral Pyre: Vultures at Dawn (Prosthetic)

Kingdom Of Sorrow: Behind The Blackest Tears (Relapse)

Leng Tch'e: Hypomanic (Season of Mist)

Light Pollution: Apparitions (Carpark)

Nachtmystium: Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2 (Century Media)

Nina Nastasia: Outlaster (Fat Cat)

Early last decade, iconic vocalist Mike Patton moved to Italy and did his best to blend with the locals. He picked up Italian, fell in love with Bologna, and, at some point, realized that he needed to add something else to his never-ending list of projects.

That addition turned into Mondo Cane, a full-scale orchestral homage to Italian cantautori (singer/songwriter) tunes of the 1960s and '70s.

Originally planned only for live performances, the covered oldies — roughly two dozen — are now being released from carefully assembled pieces of three separate concert recordings. Mondo Cane is the first of two such installments, and it presents mostly faithful recreations — with certain new flavors and tinges — of powerful pop songs.

Cantautori crooners Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco, and Fred Bongusto are honored with potent and colorful renditions of "Il Cielo in Una Stanza," "Quello Che Conta" and "Ore D'Amore." Film-scoring guru Ennio Morricone is recognized with one of his pop numbers, the theme for Danger Diabolik, which barely edges out "Il Cielo…" as the most stirring of the disc's first half.

Patton's comprehensive range isn't tested too much, but his vocal intensity is on display in "Urlo Negro," a poppy psych-rock track seemingly about a former slave's grief. "L’Uomo Che Non Sapeva Amare," Nico Fidenco's version of the theme to The Carpetbaggers, soon follows, and Patton delivers one of the album's most beautiful covers.

Fans of Patton's wild exploits may be disappointed if they're expecting something akin to the Fantômas Director's Cut album, but lovers of emotion-packed ballads will embrace this disc of orchestral pop.

Mike Patton: "Il Cielo in una Stanza"
Mike Patton: \"Il Cielo in una Stanza\"

Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (Warp)

Electronic producer Steven Ellison, known as Flying Lotus, made waves two years ago with his Warp debut full-length, Los Angeles, an atmospheric psych-hop affair that was augmented with white noise, blippy sci-fi scales, and a deep bass underpinning.

Its immersive sound was built around endless samples and a love of texture. That MO holds true for Cosmogramma, Ellison's brilliant new collage, but the endowments of Los Angeles have been surpassed by an ever-burgeoning skill for composition.

Beautiful and wild runs of harp, bass, and classical guitar are present from the start, contrasting but not conflicting with cuts of sharply buzzing guitars, train whistles, and deep-space synths. String swells and chopped vocals slide in and out of the mix, layering atop glitch, dance, and drum-and-bass beats; rubbery dance-floor passages disappear into symphonic swaths.

A guest spot by Thom Yorke will garner some appropriate attention, but make no mistake: Cosmogramma marks Ellison's ascension to being one of the top minds in electronic production.

Flying Lotus: "Computer Face / Pure Being"
Flying Lotus: \"Computer Face / Pure Being\"

The Austerity Program: Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn EP (Hydra Head)

Two guys and a drum machine — The Austerity Program proves that it doesn't take more to power out brawny alt-rock with brainy rhythms.

Though the duo has operated under this moniker for more than a decade, it didn't release its first full-length until Black Madonna in 2007. Everything else since that time has appeared on an EP or compilation, generally titled "Song [insert number here]."

Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn follows the same tried-and-true Austerity formula: distorted, down-tuned bass guitar teams with the drum machine's deep kick hits and rapid-fire triplets, forming a muscular frame for guitarist Justin Foley's high-register riffs, feedback squeals, and Steve Albini-esque vocals.

The band's basic premise hasn't changed, but its skills are being honed to realize its full potential. Backsliders… is another firm step in that direction.

The Austerity Program: "Song 26"
The Austerity Program: \"Song 26\"

Rudi Zygadlo: Great Western Laymen (Planet Mu)

One of Planet Mu's latest signings, Rudi Zygadlo is a young Scottish songwriter who fuses electronic music with pop structures and classical aspirations. Raised by artist parents who helped nurture an early interest in music, Zygadlo has created a brilliant debut album that touches, however lightly, on themes of church and religion.

Great Western Laymen takes the mid-tempo lurch and chunky bass lines of dubstep and marries them to glossy, mutating pop songs. Zygadlo sings on almost every track, and his voice, which he claims is "there more for its instrumental value rather than its poetic value," features prominently as a lead instrument.

The vocals are omnipresent, panning everywhere, usually multitracked, pitch-shifted, timestretched, vocoded, and tweaked beyond intelligibility. They fight with wonky basslines for supremacy in a crowded (but never cluttered) midrange. Though many of the tracks would play well in a club setting, Great Western Laymen also makes for excellent headphone dubstep.

Most dubstep albums don't have half as many hooks, and most pop albums don't have this level of head-nodding funk. Zygadlo set forth to combine what he loved about dubstep and IDM with song structures that borrowed from jazz, pop, and classical, and he's succeeded marvelously.

Rudi Zygadlo: "Manuscripts Don't Burn"
Rudi Zygadlo: \"Manuscripts Don\'t Burn\"

Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)

Somewhere over the past decade, Toronto's Broken Social Scene became a shining example of both indie-rock success and excess.

With its diversity of sound and buoyant energy, 2002 album You Forgot It In People was a slow-building breakthrough, and tracks such as "KC Accidental," "Stars and Sons," "Almost Crimes," and "Pacific Theme" have made countless cameos ever since.

But all the band's creative input, whether from its main songwriting sources or from contributors, has led to greater interest in or commercial viability of side projects, and Forgiveness Rock Record is its first album in nearly five years.

Co-produced by Tortoise’s John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, the album is one of the band's most vocally driven recordings. Album opener "World Sick" sounds right at home in the BSS catalog, but the next track, "Chase Scene," expands its reach with a vintage synth sound evocative of Goblin's gentler moments. The song adds a wafting violin line, wah-pedal guitar chords, and a driving high-hat cadence — recalling, fittingly, a chase sequence from an '80s film.

There are plenty of other highlights over 14 tracks, including "Forced to Love" with its churning electric bass, sparkling electronics, and pizzicato and strings, or "All to All" with its mounting effects and vocal harmonies. Fans will have no reason to be disappointed, and even though they may refer the uninitiated to You Forgot It In People, this is a fine introduction to an acclaimed catalog.

Broken Social Scene: "Chase Scene"
Broken Social Scene: \"Chase Scene\"

Honorable Mentions

Ben Goldberg Quartet: Baal: Book of Angels vol. 15 (Tzadik)

Dimlite: Prismic Tops (Now-Again / Stones Throw)

Jason Ajemian’s Daydream Full Lifestyles: Protest Heaven (482 Music)

Marching Band: Pop Cycle (U&L Records)

Minus the Bear: Omni (Dangerbird)

Ufomammut: Eve (Supernatural Cat)

“I just love acoustic guitar and the combination of heavy guitars and acoustic thumbing,” Hufnagel says. The guitarist’s style is a big reason why this record sounds so dynamic and compelling after more than one listen. Critics have dubbed the band as everything from technical post-rock, which doesn’t jibe with Dysrhythmia’s jarring immediacy, to prog metal, which again would suggest the music puts on airs that it simply doesn’t.

In the past, the band’s approach to recording has been to bring the forceful energy of its live show to a 50-odd-minute album. Throw in high-profile producers Steve Albini, who produced the band’s highly acclaimed 2003 Pretest (Relapse) album, and Martin Bisi, whose bona fides include working with Brian Eno and producing scores of classic underground artists (Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, John Zorn, Sereena Maneesh), and you have the structure that birthed the band’s last two records.

But this time was different. Although the band would’ve loved to work with Bisi again, he had retired. Thankfully, they had a ready solution to the question of who would produce the new album in bassist Colin Marston, a sound engineer who has worked with the likes of Genghis Tron and Child Abuse. The band decided to hole up in their Brooklyn apartment and record the album on their own.

The relative freedom of being able to take their time to record led the band to explore new directions. “It allowed me to do more things guitar-wise as far as adding a lot of orchestral embellishments, more guitar layers,” Hufnagel says. “There’s lots of stuff to listen to in the mix. I wasn’t concerned with it sounding exactly like we do live; that can get boring.”

Although their intensity never wavers, playing live and recording are definitely two different things for Dysrhythmia. Hufnagel is happy to start using the studio as a more exploratory stage to craft songs that the band has played for sometimes up to two whole years before recording.

The lapse in time could be partially explained by the band members’ own hyperactive involvement in other projects. Hufnagel recently released a full-length solo album entitled Songs for the Disappeared; Hufnagel and Marston are new members of recently reformed Canadian metallers Gorguts; and Marston was, until December of 2008, still working with his former band Behold…the Arctopus.

“We all have so many different things now. So rather than try to throw it all into one band and end up sounding like Mr. Bungle or something, we’d rather really focus our energy elsewhere,” he says.

And right now the energy is focused on Dysrhythmia. Where contemporaries such as Mastodon and Isis have taken off in the past few years thanks to a burgeoning interest in independent metal, Dysrhythmia is still lurking in the shadows, nursing a fan base that’s been created during a decade of touring.

Hufnagel sighs heavily when I remind him of his band‘s age — it’s not a sigh of defeat, of course, but simply one of amazement. This is a band that has earned its following, not gained it overnight; and Hufnagel knows that in many ways, that’s the following that you want to have.

In Tune is the second solo release by cellist Alison Chesley, a founding member of Verbow who has appeared as a guest on albums by Mono, Anthrax, Broken Social Scene, and others.

Like the first, self-titled Helen Money album, In Tune is a collection of minimalist, a-percussive creations that excel through overdubbed harmonies, dirty rock effects, and brooding melodies.

An absence of accompaniment leaves the focus on Chesley, who continues finding her voice as a solo artist. The songs on In Tune are darker, fuzzier, and well balanced. With the high-quality engineering of Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio, In Tune reflects an original rock cellist who is reinventing her musical career.

Honorable mentions:

Vladimir Horowitz: Complete Original Jacket Collection box set (Sony Classics)
Mi Ami: Cut Men 12" (Thrill Jockey)
Nadja: Belles Betes (Beta-Lactam Ring)
Trans Am: What Day is it Tonight? live 2xLP (Thrill Jockey)

Om: God is Good (Drag City)

Following the amicable departure of drummer Chris Haikus in early 2008, hypnotic bass-and-drums duo Om found a chiefly suitable replacement: Emil Amos, a key component of visceral, worldly, genre-defying quartet Grails.

Amos joins bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros, a long-heralded piece of stoner-doom band Sleep who has used Om to channel discarnate vibes.  The result is a further worldly bent, with the help of friends such as flutist Lorraine Rath and Lichens / 90 Day Men member Rob Lowe on tamboura.

Recorded with Steve Albini at Chicago's Electrical Audio, God is Good showcases Om’s penchant for creating music that is as genuinely emotive as it is heavy, best illustrated on opening number “Thebes,” which begins serenely, building into a rollicking thunder before coming down again.  And like the art, God is Good represents another step in the journey for Om — a heightened sense of focus and wellbeing.

Om: "Cremation Ghat II"
Om: \"Cremation Ghat II\"

Ben Perowsky: Moodswing Orchestra, Vol. 2 (El Destructo)

For this second installment of down-tempo jams and improvisations, drummer/producer/composer Ben Perowsky joins forces again with turntablist / electronic performer Markus Miller and keyboardist Glenn Patscha, who all began the Moodswing Orchestra in a live improv setting in 2002.

Gathering a cast of all-star guests for this installment, Perowsky instructs his musical brethren away from the jazz idiom — in his words, "less Herbie, more Eno."  The result is an eclectic disc full of elastic grooves, sultry and low-key vocals, and atmospheric improvisation.  Smooth bass sounds meld with computerized tones, flute, oboe, theramin, saxophone, and the trio's regular armaments to create a seductive sonic alloy.

Big-name collaborators Bebel Gilberto, Jennifer Charles (Elysian Fields), Steven Bernstein (Sex Mob), and Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto) join lesser-known but equally vital guests in the form of Pamelia Kurstin, Marcus Rojas, Joan Wasser (Joan as Policewoman), Doug Wieselman, and others.  For soothing jams with striking originality and exceptional musicianship, pick this up.

Ahleuchatistas: Of The Body Prone (Tzadik)

With its proper Tzadik debut, Ahleuchatistas issues one of its most well-rounded albums, mixing improvisational and math-rock madness with refined (though still measurably impenetrable) rhythms.  There's a greater emphasis on melodies and repeated patterns this time around, and new drummer Ryan Oslance proves capable of appropriate accompaniment.

Tzadik, which last year re-released the band's 2004 album (The Same and the Other), should be a suitable home for Ahleuchatistas, which appeals to fans of math rock, prog rock, and experimental rock and even draws in some jazz heads.

Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown: Varmint (Cuneiform)

Vibraphone virtuoso Jason Adasiewicz has some of the most dexterous chops in Chicago's thriving jazz scene, capable of creating motion blur for concertgoers.  But Adasiewicz also slows it down, and his effort as a bandleader, Rolldown, combines the two worlds in a deft interplay between composition and improvisation.

For this sophomore effort, Rolldown treats listeners to more of its wandering, melodic passages, rife with cool ambience, fiery solos, sharp snare accents, and clicking chemistry.  Cornetist Josh Berman, alto saxophonist and clarinetist Aram Shelton, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Frank Rosaly round out the expert quintet.

Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown: "Hide"
Jason Adasiewicz\'s Rolldown: \"Hide\"