The video pairs deeply religious and spiritual themes — complete with images of Christ (if he were a Ken doll) — with its unorthodox musical style.

Check out the video below.

Porras' cover art is below, and you can pick up the new album on April 17.  While you're at it, check out Barn Owl's last album, Lost in the Glare.

For us, 2011 was another year of taking in as much as we could and sharing the best with you. Next year, however, will be a homecoming of sorts, a return to rock-'n'-roll roots. We'll soon be able to share the projects that we have in store — across multiple mediums — but for now, dig into this rock-focused list of must-own albums.

And for more, revisit (or simply visit) our lists from 2010 and 2009:

100 Unheralded Albums from 2010
50 Unheralded Albums from 2009

Steven Drozd: The Heart Is A Drum Machine (The Score) (Twinkle Cash Co., 1/18/11)

Steven Drozd: "Born"

A multi-instrumentalist and the third-most-tenured member of The Flaming Lips, Steven Drozd marked his first official solo release early this year with the nearly instrumental accompaniment to the documentary The Heart is a Drum Machine.

The music shares a lot of characteristics with the Flaming Lips of the past dozen years – synthesized grooves, big rock beats, fuzz bass, airy keyboards, and different instrumental flourishes weaving in and out. But listeners are unlikely to confuse the two, and the score succeeds as a standalone album as well as a film accompaniment.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: Tao of the Dead (Richter Scale Records / Superball Music, 2/8/11)

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: "Weight of the Sun"

There has been no shortage of grand themes and allegories in the canon of Austin post-punk quintet …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. The band’s newest album, however, better matches its ambitious themes with its music, presenting an epic pair of pieces for Tao of the Dead.

The album recalls progressive albums of yore, from the likes of Rush and King Crimson, but channels them into easily digested movements. Stretches of heavy distortion and drum thrashing will appeal to the more metal-minded Trail of Dead fans, but there’s also plenty of hook-laden, radio-ready alternative rock.

Wires Under Tension: Light Science (Western Vinyl, 2/8/11)

Wires Under Tension: "Electricity Turns Them On"

Light Science is the exciting debut from Wires Under Tension, a duo comprised of violinist/multi-instrumentalist Christopher Tignor and drummer Theo Metz. With help from a few friends, including Jared Bell of Lymbyc Systym, the two combine live performance with electronic manipulation, sounding something like a progressive Dirty Three with horns, hip-hop beats, and post-rock guitar swells.

This seven-track release is a dense, fluid collection that retains consistency thanks to Metz’s steady rhythms. Electro-mechanical piano, clavinet, and synthesizers mesh with loops and samples to round out an impressive first release.

Pitom: Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes (Tzadik, 2/22/11)

Pitom: "Head in the Ground"

Combining heavy, fuzzy rock jams with Jewish melodies, Pitom is one of many projects from guitarist, bassist, and composer Yoshie Fruchter. Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes, the quartet's second release on Tzadik, follows the same path as its predecessor, but it does so with a bit more cohesion and restraint.

Built from the ground up with distorted bass and violin, the band's music carries similarities to that of Skeletonbreath and Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses. Whether driving a song with an infectious melody, commingling with the violin in the high end, or simply taking over a track with raw ability, Fruchter knows when to go full throttle (the punk power of "An Epic Encounter") or pull back (the dark slow jam of "A Resentful Repentance").

The Psychic Paramount: II (No Quarter, 2/22/11)

The Psychic Paramount: "RW"

Though relatively silent for the past six years, New York noise-rock trio The Psychic Paramount returned in February to release its first full-length since 2005. Effected guitar loops, devastating low-end grooves, and bashing rhythms again form the core of the band's sound, but II is a direct yet dynamic rock explosion.

Between the guitar, the cymbals, and the effects, the mid-range gets a constant workout. Those who are turned off by this kind of music may find it to be an exercise in patience, but the lengthier durations are a testament to the trio's skills at climax and denouement.

DeVotchKa: 100 Lovers (Anti-, 3/1/11)

DeVotchKa: "100 Other Lovers"

Following the fame from its Oscar-winning soundtrack for Little Miss Sunshine in 2006, Denver multi-instrumental quartet DeVotchKa has playfully tinkered with its sweeping, emotive sound. Though it already tossed together elements of folk, rock, Mexican, and Gypsy music, it remained united by the sullen croons and songwriting of frontman Nick Urata.

That unifying factor remains, but its newest album, 100 Lovers – its second post-Sunshine full-length – continues to expand the band’s scope. The material adds new and often subtle flavors to DeVotchKa’s repertoire. Uninitiated listeners might hear more of the same, but 100 Lovers is perfect for content fans – moving in new directions without a radical departure.

Stateless: Matilda (Ninja Tune, 3/1/11)

Stateless: "Ariel"

Matilda, Stateless' second full-length, showcases the British electro-rock group's continued maturity. Lead singer Chris James hits an impressive range of notes, from reverb-cloaked backing croons to soulful leads, atop an amalgamated mix of styles, sounds, and beats.

With contributions from The Balanescu Quartet, DJ Shadow, and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), Matilda is stylistically inventive, with familiar worldly touchstones reworked into new contexts.

Grails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence, 3/8/11)

Grails: "I Led Three Lives"

With cinematic soundscapes, Westernized Indian melodies, film-noir mystique, 1960s psychedelia, and crushing heaviness, Grails is an instrumental rarity. The Portland band's newest offering, Deep Politics, is an engaging and epic mix of acoustic intonations, indigenous sounds and melodies, spaghetti-western motifs, somber piano balladry, and more doom-filled, Eastern-infused stylistic transcendence.

And thanks in part to arrangements by Timba Harris, the mighty violinist from unparalleled genre annihilators Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3, Deep Politics vies to be Grails’ best album yet.

Parts & Labor: Constant Future (Jagjaguwar, 3/8/11)

Parts & Labor: "Constant Future"

After establishing itself early last decade as an interesting new name in noise rock, Parts & Labor delivered a flurry of releases over the span of just a few years. Since then, the band has scaled back to a trio built around the fuzzed guitar, bass, keyboard hooks, and tight rock rhythms.

Featuring some of the band's sturdiest songs yet, Constant Future is direct, potent, and catchy. Behind Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw's echoing, harmonized vocals are dirty, thick grooves that power the overlaid electronic freak-outs.

Adebisi Shank: This is the Second Album from a Band Called Adebisi Shank (Sargent House, 3/15/11)

Adebisi Shank: "Micro Machines"

Released to European acclaim in 2010, the aptly titled second album from Irish electro/math rockers Adebisi Shank achieved North American release this year thanks to the peerless Sargent House.

The management company / record label describes the trio as a blend of Fang Island’s shredding riffs with Battles’ electronic quirkiness and rhythmic playfulness. That description isn’t off the mark, but readers won’t get a sense of the band’s real abilities until they hear its hyper-melodic, polyrhythmic, and — most importantly — jubilant songs in full.

Second Album delivers a maelstrom of zany electronics, unusual distortions, and triumphant, rapidly ascending scales mixed with vintage synths, marimba, horns, and other accoutrements. This is all packaged between and around gloriously catchy and powerful rock riffs, resulting in a manic and buoyant sophomore effort.

Man Man: Life Fantastic (Anti-)

Man Man: "Knuckle Down"

When we last left Man Man, the quirky and peerless pop five-piece was drawing high marks for Rabbit Habits, an album that better refined its oddball melodies and gruff balladry while retaining the range of sounds and styles that listeners love.

With stronger musical chops and a greater feel for melody and structure, the album helped to expand the band's critical reach.  Now Man Man has hit new heights with Life Fantastic, its fourth album and second for Anti-.

This new batch is the band's first recording to feature a professional producer, and it shows.  Though the compositions themselves are Man Man's best to date — punctuated by twisting melodies and off-the-wall lyrics — Life Fantastic gets a boost from string arrangements by Bright Eyes multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott.  His resonant accompaniments and pizzicato plucks give the album a new element and infuse it with even more life.

On top of the accordion and tropical-horn additions to the lounge-tinted "Haute Tropique," there's also a heavy dose of squiggly synthesizers this time around to pair with the band's zany mixture of marimba, whammy guitar, piano, horns, and woodwinds.

Rabbit Habits was a huge step forward from its predecessor.  But Life Fantastic achieves equal progress, and it easily takes the mantle as Man Man's best album.

Spindrift: Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1 (Xemu)

Spindrift: "When I Was Free"

Mixing influences from Italian-western composers like Ennio Morricone with elements of psychedelic rock, Spindrift has pioneered its own brand of western music. Its style is manifested through a diversity of sounds, including guitar, organ, pedal steel, flute, autoharp, sitar, tabla, and bass, but its musical résumé is more than merely instruments.

The band's latest, Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1, is an album of unreleased movie themes and new material that captures its eclectic nature and cinematic tendencies.  From the trippy tones of "Theme from Confusion Range" to the otherworldly aura of "Space Vixens Theme," each track visits a new land or tells a new tale.  The twangy, reverberated, psych-effected guitars are a staple in nearly every sonic journey, but with the assorted accents — glockenspiel, Theremin, quasi-Cambodian backing vocals, and even howling wolves — you never feel like you've quite been there before.

- Text by Jenn Beening. Read the Spindrift Q&A here.

Liturgy: Aesthethica (Thrill Jockey)

Liturgy: "Returner"

Since its debut full-length in 2009, Brooklyn-based quartet Liturgy has helped to steer black metal into a bold new direction.

On Aesthethica, the group's sophomore effort, Liturgy comes armed once more with Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s mostly indecipherable howl and quasi-anthemic guitar lines blasted with co-pilot Bernard Gann, both positioned over Greg Fox’s machine-gun drumming and Tyler Dusenbury’s frenetic bass lines.

Odd-pattern tremolo picking gives “Tragic Laurel” a progressive feel that leaves the door open for the sucker punch of its main section, and “True Will” stacks layers of screams over a seesaw chord progression, interrupted only by a skipping-CD breakdown.  Between brief moments of ambience and hypnotic chanting, the music hits with full force, as with the out-of-left-field sludge of “Veins Of God” or the persistent “Returner.”

Aesthethica, however, also can be taxing due to its unconventionality, notably on tracks such as on the seven-minute, one-riff “Generation,” a song that plays with rhythmic dynamics.  But with its special emphasis on unorthodox instrument application (the static opening on “High Gold” or the waterfall effect of so many guitars on “Glory Bronze”), it gradually becomes apparent that Liturgy, despite its upside-down-cross artwork and full-metal sound, really stands closer to Sonic Youth or The Boredoms than to Black Breath.

- Text by Andrew Reilly. Read the full review here.

Other Lives: Tamer Animals (TBD)

Other Lives: "For 12"

After releasing one album under the name Kunek in 2006, Oklahoma quintet Other Lives changed names and presented a striking "debut" that landed somewhere between indie folk and chamber pop.  It was both melancholy and melodic, sparse and dense — and it was a portent of greatness to come.

Tamer Animals, the group's sequel on TBD Records, is a profound advancement.  Whereas the group's previous album placed a greater emphasis on singer-songwriter song structures, this collection intersperses more moments of instrumental prowess between the verses and choruses, giving the vocals more room to breathe and resulting in elongated intros, outros, and bridges.

The album is replete with vocal harmonies (some evoking classics like The Beatles' "Because"), and it's just as packed with instrumental timbres — quickly twitching and slowly sliding string clusters, tinkling piano flourishes, acoustic guitar strums, western guitar licks, vibraphone accents, neoclassical woodwind repetitions, and many others.  Though the band is roughly placed in the "indie rock" category, Other Lives proves to be much more, and Tamer Animals demonstrates a mastery of melody, harmony, and balance.

Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres (Constellation)

Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter One excerpt

Chicago native and New York / Montreal resident Matana Roberts has spent much of her career exploring the outer limits of free jazz, offering her alto-sax talents in collaboration with legends such as Fred Anderson and contemporary greats such as Jeff Parker, Vijay Iyer, and Nicole Mitchell.  She also has worked with experimental rock darlings such as Godspeed! You Black Emperor and TV on the Radio, providing an extra layer of musical dexterity.

As for her own projects, Roberts carries a belief that her music should comment on the world's many inequalities, and her latest is no exception.  Coin Coin, her newest effort as a bandleader, is an ongoing narrative that's based on the history of a dynamic black woman who went from being a slave to an established businesswoman, giving refuge to people of color such as Roberts' great grandfather.  For the project, Roberts uses the trajectory of its namesake — Marie Thérèse Coincoin — as a starting point for a live music piece that's fused with performance art.

The first chapter, which has been performed around the USA for a few years, now sees release as a live disc.  With the help of an expanded ensemble, the music is all over the map, from somber to noisy to radiant and from ragtime to bebop to modern.  But no matter where it goes, it's tied together by the narrative, a moving fictionalization that reminds us how despicable humankind can be — and that great strength can manifest in the face of oppression.

Zombi: Escape Velocity (Relapse)

Zombi: "Shrunken Heads"

Channeling the horror-infused synth vibes of Goblin and John Carpenter, space-rock duo Zombi has made a commendable career of 1970s nostalgia — but with a bit more punch and dance-ability.

Escape Velocity, the band's fourth full-length album, pulls back a bit from the epic melodies and distorted low end of Spirit Animal, its 2009 release that preceded a split LP with Maserati.  With fewer dramatics and atmospherics, this album gets straight to work building grooves.

Just like its predecessors, Escape Velocity is five tracks of long-form synth-rock jams, but it's significantly shorter overall.  At 33 minutes, it's roughly 2/3 the length of an average Zombi full-length, but ironically, this may be a benefit; the songs feel more concise and don't ramble quite as long.

Honorable Mentions

Africa Hitech: 93 Million Miles (Warp)

Bill Gould & Jared Blum: The Talking Book (Koolarrow)

Le Butcherettes: Sin Sin Sin (Rodriguez Lopez Productions)

Chrissy Murderbot: Women’s Studies (Planet Mu)

Empty Space Orchestra: s/t (self-released)

Helado Negro: Canta Lechuza (Asthmatic Kitty)

Horseback: The Gorgon Tongue: Impale Golden Horn + Forbidden Planet (Relapse)

Jesu: Ascension (Caldo Verde)

Mexicans with Guns: Ceremony (Innovative Leisure / Friends of Friends)

Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony (Type)

Mountains: Air Museum (Thrill Jockey)

Okkervil River: I Am Very Far (Jagjaguwar)

Oxbow: King of the Jews (Hydra Head)

The Sea and Cake: The Moonlight Butterfly (Thrill Jockey)

Ben Sollee: Inclusions (Thirty Tigers)

Liturgy: Aesthethica (Thrill Jockey, 5/10/11)

Liturgy: "Returner"

For a moment, Brooklyn-based quartet Liturgy seemed poised to steer black metal into a bold new direction. Renihilation, the group’s debut full-length from 2009, showed that even while employing the classic tenets of black metal, it was possible to push the genre forward and put it in a more efficient package. Yet whereas that album made a statement, the band's follow-up, Aesthethica, turns many of those tactics into a mere reminder.

Liturgy comes armed once more with Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s mostly indecipherable howl and quasi-anthemic guitar lines blasted with co-pilot Bernard Gann, both positioned over Greg Fox’s machine-gun drumming and Tyler Dusenbury’s frenetic bass lines. But rather than let its pieces work alongside each other, Liturgy places its components atop each other, turning its formidable wall of sound into an unfiltered onslaught.

By most standards, Liturgy still has a fairly forward-thinking vision of what black metal can be, reaching out of the genre playbook at will. Odd-pattern tremolo picking gives “Tragic Laurel” a progressive feel that leaves the door open for the sucker punch of its main section, and “True Will” stacks layers of screams over a seesaw chord progression, interrupted only by a skipping-CD breakdown.

However, Aesthethica ultimately is not just demanding but, in many ways, taxing. The seven-minute, one-riff “Generation” turns an otherwise hypnotic instrumental into a test of the listener's patience, and by the sixth time that it comes to define a track, the aforementioned tremolo picking morphs from signature to standby. The group certainly knows how to hit full-force, as with the out-of-left-field sludge of “Veins Of God” or the persistent “Returner.” At the same time, Liturgy undoes itself with a handful of throwaway moments, such as the half ditty of “Helix Skull” and over-and-over-again chanting of “Glass Earth.” What might otherwise act as an intermission or breather instead becomes an aural chore.

With its special emphasis on unorthodox instrument application (the static opening on “High Gold” or the waterfall effect of so many guitars on “Glory Bronze”), it gradually becomes apparent that Liturgy, despite its upside-down-cross artwork and full-metal sound, really stands closer to Sonic Youth or The Boredoms than to Black Breath (or any other thrash/black-metal crossover groups, for that matter). In that light, Aesthethica might best be seen less as a flawed metal album and more as an extremely aggressive art-rock album. Viewed in these terms, Liturgy can be forgiven for swapping unusual for experimental and abrasiveness for boldness.

As you wait for a new Tortoise full-length, check out photographer Drew Reynolds' captures from the performance, and then click on over and revisit guitarist Jeff Parker's late-2010 show with Andrew Bird right here.

Thank You

Thank You: "1-2-3 Bad"

Thank You's third album, Golden Worry, proves that the Baltimore trio is a band worth rooting for, and one that's a step closer to making clear what it wants.

Like a few other recent albums to come out of Baltimore — namely, Pontytail's Ice Cream Spiritual and Dan Deacon's Bromst — Golden Worry stages a good-faith meeting between experimental impulses and an enthusiasm for amiable hooks. This hasn't always been the case with Thank You. On the band's last album, Terrible Two, its obsession with rhythm threatened to dry up the guitars, keys, and vocals into a tuneless murk.

Thank You has a compact feel that sometimes works for it and sometimes against it. The drums clamber actively on top of the song, often taking the lead but not always filling up the low end, and the guitars work up a noise-rhythm complement that, while often aggressive, doesn't pursue a lot of fun back-and-forth with the percussion. As for vocals, only sometimes there and only sometimes coherent, they're another constant variable in an open-ended format. It might help to know that Thrill Jockey's bio for Thank You credits each member simply with "everything."

Unlike those Ponytail and Dan Deacon records, Golden Worry runs the risk of sounding a bit stringy. To continue an admittedly arbitrary comparison, Ponytail's Ice Cream Spiritual draws out its moments of climax for as long as possible, pounding and whipping those moments into ever-higher states of beaming tension. Thank You seems more interested in what goes on under, behind, before, and around the climax.

"1-2-3 Bad" starts the album off at a gallop, yet soon the dual guitars are picking apart the beat and melody, continually driving the song to calmer places instead of crazier ones.  New drummer Emmanuel Nicolaidis' playing on "1-2-3 Bad" has all the assertive hyperactivity of previous Thank You drum workouts, but it does a much better job of actively playing to the melody that the guitars are setting down. In their turn, the guitars keep giving him something solid with which to play.

In fact, even during the most scraggly bouts of fast picking on "Birth Reunion," the guitar parts keep it together, grounding the whole album in both accessibility and discipline. The chords on "Pathetic Magic" are a little more dissonant, and they still hammer into the drums with a punchy sense of purpose. Half of the time, it's exactly what a noisy post-punk song should be, and for the rest it's building on mid-tempo, refreshingly open-sounding tumbles through syncopation. The flow between the song's intro and its middle is a credit to the control and collaborative instincts that Thank You brings to its beat-tweaking ambitions.

The record is at its best, though, when challenging its own palette of sounds. The lead synth melody of "Strange All" squelches and wobbles on and off the beat, putting just the right amount of drag on the song and making its overall progression more rewarding. Halfway in, the track slows down and reconfigures, giving the drummer more room to display some wit — playing twitchy patterns against a calmer mood, or flinging his fills against a second, chromatically crawly synth hook.  At times, "Strange All" recalls Parts & Labor's brilliance at channeling hooks through half-decayed sonics.

It's not that Thank You is always going right for excitement — again, the album explores plenty of other moods — but one thing that dulls the excitement of its progress on Golden Worry is the vocals. Just like everything else here, the singing has a new-found focus, adding extra layers of both rhythm and harmony, especially the crisscrossing and overlapping vocal parts on "1-2-3 Bad." The problem is the actual sound of the voices, which seem hesitant to take on much tonal character. They're also hesitant to annoy or to hog the attention, thankfully, so it's not as if this points to some deep flaw in the band.

Golden Worry is yet another well-rounded bout of sweaty art rock that, if anything, should take more chances with its vocals. This is hardly a damning factor in this genre, just something that really could use some work. The vocals on Clipd Beaks' 2010 album To Realize can come off as thin and groggy, but they don't pull down the album as a whole. It'd be nice to hear the vocals match the ambition and character of all the other elements in the mix.

Of course, the usual expectations of character and beefy dynamics can lead you astray on Golden Worry. Thank You not only takes a clearer approach to songwriting here, but makes it hold up across all six tracks. Some of us more traditional-minded rock listeners will have to adjust our internal EQs for a bit for this record — and really not that much. More often than not, we'll be glad we did.

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)

This week's video premiere features slowly scrolling script, crashing waves, and a sunset — all scored to the raucous sound of an acoustic firestorm from Phil Manley. Manley is known for his work as guitarist of DC rock band Trans Am, as well as production on records by bands like Mi Ami and Wooden Shjips.

As the video indicates, Manley isn't taking the Tony Williams-esque name of his debut solo album too seriously. Life Coach is due 1/25/11 on Thrill Jockey and features tunes composed, performed, and recorded entirely by Manley.

Sidi Touré: Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey, 1/25/11)

Sidi Touré: "Bon Koum"

It has been 13 years since Malian folk artist Sidi Touré released a solo album. Touré’s 1998 debut, Hoga, is a bluesy, foot-stomping, electric-overdrive kind of record. At the time, Touré and many of his Malian contemporaries were on the cutting edge of the evolving Afro-pop sound, just before its revival hit the West by the turn of the century. Now at 51, Touré’s sound has definitely changed, but it’s as powerful and provocative as ever.

Sahel Folk, the West African musician's debut on Thrill Jockey, is informed by the people and places most important to him, making for a record that comes off naturally introspective. Direct from the stunning red-dirt roads of Bamako, Mali, Touré and his unmatched guitar playing have made an album that's nothing short of inspirational.

Performing a refined style called "Songhai blues," Touré plays loose driving notes — semi-picked, semi-strummed — in an ethnic style where the pentatonic scale use will remind listeners of American blues. Fashioned and mastered by the late Ali Farka Touré (no relation), who single-handedly introduced the highly distinctive style to the world, Sahel Folk is yet another strand to Mali’s musical offspring.

In its repetitious nature, Sahel Folk is meditative. From the first note in “Bon Koum,” there’s an immediate sense of belonging, as if the gently plucked notes are the only things that would make sense in the moment. Met by Touré’s vocals in the Songhai language, the song has a mysterious simplicity, a kind of minimalist brilliance that only a few musicians can pull off. Touré does it well, crafting simple songs with moments of innate poignancy that are delivered with implicit confidence.

Recorded in a live “field recording” style at Touré’s sister’s house, the songs on the album simply let the players and instruments speak for themselves. In other words, Sahel Folk is basically a home-recorded album with every track featuring a different friend. Though the musicians only allowed themselves two takes to retain the spontaneity of the recording (after one day of arranging), the casual sessions are reflected in the final product.

From the soulful vocals of Jiba Touré in “Adema,” to the 10-minute track “Taray Kongo” that features Jambala Maiga on vocals and kuntigui (the mono-chord guitar known as the cosma in Niger), Sahel Folk is filled with perfect guest performances that keep things interesting. Though the fret-less kuntigui makes switching notes seamless, Maiga creates rapid melodic reverberations that give great weight to Touré’s sharp guitar flourishes.

As much as Sahel Folk is rooted in Touré’s friends, it is very much informed by the Sahel, the stretch of land that lies between the Sahara desert and the Sudanian savannas. A strip of land that covers Senegal to the West and Ethiopia to the East, the climate is dry in some areas, lush green in other areas, but always vast and encompassing.  It is also the site of the the Songhai empire, or present-day Gao, Mali, the ancient city in which Touré was born.

Lyrically, Touré sings simple proverbs, ancient Songhai folklore tweaked for modern audiences. Though some audiences won’t be able to understand the words, they will feel the emotional resonance from not only the beautiful intonations of the language but also the tones of the instruments.  Earnest in delivery and uplifting in approach and ascent, Sahel Folk masterfully reintroduces Sidi Touré to the global music scene.