Named after synth pioneer Dr. Robert Moog, Moogfest gathers some of the biggest and most exciting names in electronic music and beyond. In addition to the copious amounts of music being offered, there will also be panel discussions, Q&As, interactive experiences with Moog instruments, art installations, and film screenings.

Some ALARM favorites include Amon Tobin, Battles, Flying Lotus, Holy Fuck, Tobacco, The Flaming Lips, Brandt Brauer Frick, St. Vincent, M83, Causing a Tiger, and Shahzad Ismaily. A full lineup and schedule can be found here.

To enter to win, fill out the form below. By entering your information, you’ll also be signed up to receive ALARM’s biweekly E-mail newsletter, The ALARMIST.

Update: Contest has ended.

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

Black Moth Super Rainbow: "Jump into my Mouth and Breathe the Stardust"

“PR people have said that I’m killing my band.”
– Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow

Since their group’s inception five years ago, the members of Pennsylvania’s Black Moth Super Rainbow have mostly kept to themselves. Over the course of three full-length albums, one split album with Austin guitar oddball The Octopus Project, and a new EP, Drippers (released on Chicago’s Graveface Records), few publicity photos have surfaced, and those that you’re likely to find have been carefully selected, with nary a glamor shot to be found.

The members go by names like Tobacco, Power Pill Fist, and Father Hummingbird. They’ve only done a handful of interviews, and though they’ve been hand-selected to tour with such high-profile acts as Aesop Rock and The Flaming Lips, their live shows keep stage banter to a minimum, instead allowing creepy, homemade animation to act as a spotlighted face.

When they do speak, Tobacco speaks for them. For our purposes, it’s his show, though one would be foolish to doubt the talent and input of his band-mates; just check out Power Pill Fist’s latest offering, Kongmanivong, also from Graveface, if you need evidence. But even with such scant information available, this is not a James Ellroy-novel, late-night parking-garage kind of meeting.

“It seems like now I have to do interviews to get the message across that it’s not important that we do interviews,” says Tobacco on the subject of the band’s built-in ambiguity. “I didn’t start making music so I could pose for pictures and talk about myself.”

But fans of the band are left with few context clues to patch together the enigma. Though there were some distinct vocal sections on the band’s 2005 debut, Falling Through a Field, the group has since abandoned words for eerie, distorted, voice-like patterns that bring to mind a Speak ’n’ Spell that needs new batteries or Peter Frampton’s amazing talking guitar.

“I never wanted to sound like something from the past, but maybe something that could have existed in the past — or any time, really."

“I feel like a lot of bands use vocals to showcase a singer,” Tobacco says. “I prefer the way that colorful, almost-human sounds can be interpreted by the listener. You’ll come up with your own lyrics, and that’s a lot more powerful than anything I could come up with.”

This impressionable dynamic inherent in Black Moth Super Rainbow’s songs could be what lends its music such an unnerving air of surreal, childlike nostalgia. Without lyrics, interviews, magazine covers, or trading cards, the group’s fans are left with nothing but strange, new sounds and their imagination — two things decidedly lacking in today’s music industry.

The music feels like childhood, but it sounds fresh, modern, and anything but “retro.”

“I never wanted to sound like something from the past, but maybe something that could have existed in the past — or any time, really,” Tobacco says. Like unexpectedly waking up in a sunny field and shaking off the last bits of a strange dream, there’s a hint of what was, but nothing is overt.

Points of comparison fall far short of doing justice. The music sounds electronic, but also organic and natural, as if it could have grown out of the forest floor. It’s happy and danceable, but with a thick, creepy, candy coating. It’s “trippy,” but there’s something much more subversive going on than mere hallucinogens.

But that sound is constantly changing. The band’s last album, Dandelion Gum, favors laid-back, organic melodies over the percussive dance-floor crush of previous albums. “There’s always a plan for an album,” Tobacco says. “Then it changes, and it keeps changing until something resembling an album exists.”

Likewise, the members of Black Moth Super Rainbow seem to shift shape at will and have their own intents and purposes. Their albums come together organically over time at the random whims of an oddly named group of forest dwellers.

“My new solo record, as Tobacco, is the only thing I’ve made that I’m happy with right now,” the front man says. “So that’s where you’ll find me these days. I like change, so if there is another Black Moth Super Rainbow album, it’ll probably be a lot different.”

Beans: "Mellow You Out"

You probably know longtime indie rapper and producer Beans from his work in Antipop Consortium, a hip-hop group that he formed in 1997 with High Priest, M. Sayyid, and Earl Blaize. You might also know him from his extensive list of collaborations with artists like Vernon Reid, Holy Fuck, and DJ Shadow. Or maybe it's his recently released album, End It All, featuring contributions from the likes of Four Tet, Son Lux, Sam Fogarino of Interpol, and Tobacco, among others.

What you probably don't know him from is your local book club. But maybe you should. Beans loves mystery novels.

Why I Love Mysteries and Crime Fiction
by Beans

ALARM, I don't know what it is, but there's something about reading how an author can depict someone getting cleverly murdered that really fascinates the shit out of me. Ask anyone who has ever toured with me, and they'll probably say that I drink too much, but I'm also a voracious reader of mysteries and crime fiction.

The more gruesome and menacing, the merrier, I say. Bring it on! Personally, I don't even remember how I got started reading mysteries. My father was the same way about reading, so I guess it runs in the family. As I was growing up, my dad used to read a book a night, but his genre of choice was science fiction. At the end of the day, I'd kill for a great whodunit.

In my reading taste, I tend to follow various authors and characters in a series that they've created. Currently, I've been reading Lee Child's ex-military, policeman-drifter Jack Reacher series. The series is both exciting and a constant page turner, as the character's past is always catching up with him.

I was put on to Reacher by my man Malik. He loaned me the Reacher book 61 Hours, and I put him on to another favorite series of mine. I loaned him the first Parker book by Richard Stark, The Hunter.

Richard Stark is a pseudonym for author Donald Westlake. His novels follow the exploits of Parker, an immoral thief. I love all of the Parker books. University of Chicago Press recently re-issued all of the Parker books that have been out of print for a number of years, so you can image how disappointed I was to find out that Malik spilled wine on my book when he left it in his backpack. Sucks!

One of the grittiest series characters that I read is the Burke series, written by former child-protection lawyer Andrew Vachess. Seriously, the subject matter of all of the Burke novels is hardcore. Burke is a complex individual and self-appointed protector of children against freaks: child abusers. One of the Burke books, Sacrifice, is about the rescuing of a 9-year-old child who becomes a murderer after being sold to a Satanic cult by his parents, and then develops a split personality that strangles babies. The events that transpire in the pages are quite grim. I find myself sometimes not being able to finish, but the bright side to all of the Burke novels is that the villain always get his in the end — brutally.

Overall, I have a lot of authors that I really enjoy, such as: Chelsea Cain and her series featuring female serial killer Gretchen Lowell and her fractured love affair with Det. Archie Sheridan; Phillip Kerr, writer of the Berlin Noir series that follows honest detective Bernie Gunthur during World War II Nazi-occupied Germany; Linda Castillo and her creation, detective Kate Burkholder in Amish country; Nick Stone's Max Mingus righting the wrongs of Haitian child slavers and zombie assassins. I'm faithful to Michael Connelly's LA detective, Hiernomymus Bosch, and Jeffery Deaver's paraplegic forensic scientist, Lincoln Rhymes. Chester Himes' hard-hitting uptown detectives Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones are classic. Lawerence Block is one of my favorite authors.

Hard Case Crimes also is a series of books featuring various writers of the mystery genre writing standalone stories. So far, I've read everything they've ever been published. I get really upset without a good book in my hand. I fiend for a good book like sex, and look forward to exploring new books in this genre at every turn.

Truth be told, I have a desire to write my own book someday. Maybe I'll call it Navigation To Nowhere. Maybe it will be about a musician who becomes a mass murderer. You know, the same old story, right? Maybe it will be about boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and then turns around and kills many, many people.

Who knows? I guess we'll both have to wait and see.

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

“It adds an element,” says Justin Pearson, bassist /vocalist for San Diego sci-fi grind-punk four-piece The Locust, a band that dons hooded, skintight, full-body uniforms. “It’s hard to say how you feel when you do it; you’re walking on stage with three other people with absurd outfits. We’re part of the show, and part of the live performance is the energy, negative or positive. It adds a level of intensity.”

“It’s all about using your imagination,” says Tom Fec, who performs under the name Tobacco as a solo artist and as a member of dreamy psych-hop outfit Black Moth Super Rainbow. He employs masks as tools to obscure his persona, rather than The Locust’s edgy, over-the-top approach. “I think that’s a really important piece to making an impact,” he says. “When you know everything about a person, then it’s like watching someone you know up there, and it becomes something else completely. The more you know, the less you care about knowing.”

RJ Krohn, better known as soulful hip-hop artist RJD2, is a performer who has experimented with masks and costumes on stage as much for his own amusement as for the audiences at his concert. “I have always felt that theatrics,” he says, “or at least dressing up, was an obvious way to say, ‘At least I’m trying here, folks,’ to a crowd. Just walking on stage in a T-shirt and jeans is cool if you are a genius. I, however, have questionable talent, which needs to be deep fried, slathered in a tasty barbecue sauce, and dressed up like real talent.”

Krohn’s first experiment with costumes was as an alter ego that he named “Mo’ Buttons,” in a costume decked out with tons of buttons with a sampler strapped to his chest, in order to highlight that on stage, he plays the device like a keyboard or drum machine rather than simply pressing “play.” The sampler proved to be too heavy to wear comfortably every night, but when Krohn discovered that he could incorporate a MIDI controller to run the equipment rather than the entire unit, he took the premise and his sense of comedy to the next level, introducing crowds to his latest persona.

“When I had [the equipment techniques] down, I realized that it needed a way to differentiate itself from the rest of the show,” he says. “A guy just putting on and taking off a wireless spinning MIDI controller is just dumb. So the alter ego became ‘Commissioner Crotchbuttons,’because I had built the thing into a belt that spins (à la ZZ Top), and when you have a musical instrument planted on your crotch, the jokes just write themselves.”
 

“When you know everything about a person, then it’s like watching someone you know up there, and it becomes something else completely. The more you know, the less you care about knowing.”
– Tobacco

Like Krohn, The Locust’s uniforms are rooted in a sense of humor but also an equally strong sense of rebellion. Formed in 1994, The Locust began wearing costumes by the late ’90s as a reaction to what it felt was unusual backlash from the underground press, which focused more on the band’s clothes than its music. “We were just wearing our street clothes,” Pearson says. “We were poor punk kids. Somehow that became the topic of the conversation instead of our music. It was sort of a pointless round-table discussion, and people seemed really agitated with us. We weren’t a racist band. We weren’t fighting people. We were playing music, and for whatever reason, they criticized us beyond the music.”

Its first costumes, fuzzy vests and goggles, were created to be tongue in cheek. Surprisingly, as The Locust developed as a band, the costume concept stuck. “We never really thought about it,” Pearson says. “We wrote music and we played music — jagged, funny, quirky parts. We started figuring out things to do musically that coincided with us doing a visual element. It happened by chance, and then it evolved. We look ridiculous, but we’re totally serious. Maybe it’s hard for a band to achieve that? It became very honest. We’re not fucking around or being influenced by this other thing. It wasn’t self-conscious.”

In turn, the uniform concept has affected The Locust’s performance style, which Pearson says also plays off the rambunctious stage antics and overt masculinity of many of its peers in the hardcore scene. “We found ourselves with this borderline homoerotic, nerdy, sci-fi thing,” he says. “We look like robots; we move jaggedly. We don’t have breakdown parts. We’re stationary, and you can’t run or jump. It was very technical and confined to a spot. We decided, ‘Let’s do the complete opposite [of many tour mates] and stand there and not move. And we’ll stop and be completely still.’ There is a physical edginess to it beyond the fact that we looked like these science-fiction creatures.”

Though The Locust has grown an overall aesthetic from both its musical and visual components, and Krohn is happy to poke fun at himself for the sake of the show, the reality for many musicians is that a costume or mask is a form of armor, granting them space from the watchful eye of the crowd. Take San Antonio DJ Ernest Gonzales. Under his own name, Gonzales creates music that is chilled and collected, often combining elements of indie rock, pop, and hip hop.
 

“I’m an introverted kind of person. A mask enables you to be whatever you want to be on stage…like getting drunk without having to drink."
– Mexicans with Guns

When he began toying with a more bass-heavy dance sound, he opted to present it under a different name. He created an alter ego that he called Mexicans with Guns, topping off the character with a Mexican wrestling mask. “It’s branding, in a sense,” Gonzales says. “If I’ve been doing a different sound, then coming out of left field with a different sound could be positive, or it could be negative. For me, it felt like two separate projects and sounds. The sounds are so different; I realized [that] I’d be playing to different venues and crowds.”

Having an alter ego enabled Gonzales to overcome his apprehensions about testing new musical waters, and specifically, wearing a mask allowed the introverted Gonzales to bring out a different side of his personality. “When I’m on stage and I have the mask, I’m able to be more loose,” he says. “I’m an introverted kind of person. A mask enables you to be whatever you want to be on stage…like getting drunk without having to drink."

“With the mask, it could be anybody up there,” he adds. “Also, the idea of the mask is very important to Mexican culture. El Santo (Mexican wrestler Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta) has been in 80-plus films. The wrestlers come out and they never reveal their face. It’s very political too; I wanted to bring out the mask and build up [the character] as a hero.”

Like Gonzales, others create cultural discourse by tying themselves to an era. For LA DJ Alfred Darlington, who plays under the name Daedelus and dons full Victorian suits on stage, the decision to perform in costume had its origins in the philosophy of his music. “I have a big interest in invention,” he says. “I felt that the Victorian period was a period of great invention. Now I’m pretty committed to it, and it feels more appropriate to me than wearing my street clothes.”

In Darlington’s meticulously constructed electronic music, every sound is deliberate; there are no improvisations and no room for extraneous noise. Sonically, it could be seen as an answer to Dandyism, a philosophy that Darlington finds particularly inspiring. “Beau Brummell was the prototypical dandy,” he says. “He was the first person to adopt attire as a full-time religion. Performance art didn’t exist at the time, so this was revolutionary. I liked the idea that that everything he did was deliberate. It took him four hours a day to get ready because every gesture he made was artistic. Philosophically, I related in the sense that in my music, every sound is planned. Dressing up like that helps me get into the mindset.”

Darlington describes the dedication to his costumes as “masochistic” in some ways. “I’m committed to my music and my art, and it does feel like I’ve taken on the burdens of the role,” he says. “I sweat through my clothes, but the idea of stripping it down seems ludicrous.” The Locust’s Pearson echoes his thoughts, saying,“There have been times when you’re like, ‘This is so stupid.’ Sometimes it’s been pretty brutal — mainly your face, because some of the masks haven’t had a mouth opening and were attached to our shirts. You could drink through it, but you couldn’t spit. One time I was sick on tour and threw up in the mask and had to swallow it. [Our drummer] Gabe [Serbian] has flipped his mask up, and he’d throw up if he’d overexerted himself. Sometimes with singing, I’ll get vertigo or tunnel vision if I hold the note until the end of the measure.”

Darlington doesn’t wear an actual mask, but wearing the 19th Century attire accomplishes the same goal for him. The same can be said for hip-hop artist Javocca Davis, a.k.a. Vockah Redu, a prominent figure in New Orleans’ bounce community. Davis incorporates face paint, theatrical costumes, and lavish sets into a subgenre of hip hop that is notorious for its energy, overtly sexual dancers, “triggerman” beats, and party-like atmosphere.

“I have a big imagination, and I bring that to the stage,” he says. “I don’t just want to be a rapper on stage with a chain. This is the theater part of me. I love to paint my face; it goes with my music. Why wear a T-shirt when I can demand the stage?”

Davis studied theater and performance arts at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, but until the past year or so, he kept his two passions separate. “I wasn’t being open minded,” he says. “I thought a rapper was supposed to look this way or that way. It was limiting. Now I’m more mature. I’m representing me as a person.”

As Vockah Redu, Davis follows a tradition of artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna — as well as contemporaries like Saul Williams — who have toyed with sexuality and larger-than-life stage personas. Others like Tom Fec, however, are content to let their legends grow from speculation.

This includes atmospheric electro-pop trio Castratii, an Australian act that only performs in a mask of complete darkness to become anonymous or even invisible. Convention often dictates that having the right look to accompany one’s music is a key factor in launching a successful career in the entertainment business. Ironically for Fec and Castratii, not having an image has resulted in more attention from the press and music lovers.

“People are definitely more interested in not knowing right now, in particular as everything is so easily found online,” Castratii’s Jonathan Wilson says. “We like to make our own judgment on artists or musicians. We don’t need them to be real. We prefer the myth of the artist.”

“The usual stuff that comes along with being in music seems irrelevant to me,” says Fec, who gives few interviews and fewer (and often obscured) photo shoots, and who uses effects on his vocal recordings. “If I was a guy with a guitar singing about my life, it might make sense, but I have this fucked-up world that I want people to interpret for themselves. It really shouldn’t be about me.”
 

“I don’t just want to be a rapper on stage with a chain. This is the theater part of me. I love to paint my face; it goes with my music. Why wear a T-shirt when I can demand the stage?”
– Vockah Redu

Recently, Fec has invited a mask-wearing friend to join him on stage, and due to this lack of a visual public persona, audience members often walk away thinking that the masked figure is Fec. “I’ve always liked confusing people,” Fec says. “It makes everything more fun when you’re not sure what’s going on. If they mistake him for me, then I’ve done my job.” At first glance, Fec’s approach may appear as if he is having fun at the expense of his audience, but he maintains that his anonymity has given his listeners more room to interpret the music.

The members of Castratii, meanwhile, have found creative satisfaction in complete darkness — despite their visual- arts backgrounds in sculpture and installation. “Darkness is so much better for many things,” Wilson says. “It can be creepy and frightening or soft and sensual. It encompasses so many different good and evil connotations.

We also like the idea that we can barely see each other while we play. Our only link is the music.” Without the ability to actually “watch” the band, Castratii’s audience leaves its shows with a unique experience.

“We find that the sound can consume a person in a completely new way if the performer is left in the dark,” Wilson says. “It becomes about the sonic and not how it is made. When seeing a rock show or even a classical performance, most people walk away with an idea [that] they were closer to that performer as a person. They may also have an insight as to how those particular sounds are made. This is something we want to keep to ourselves — our sounds and our persons. This way it can retain a little mystery.”

Darlington, who believes that costumes and masks also can be protective forces, adds, “We live in an era where people regurgitate media. You are under this possible gaze, and it goes up on Flickr; it goes up on You- Tube. Everybody has a part and takes a role in forming your media presence. You always have to be prepared to be scrutinized.”

Although music as an art form is first and foremost for the ears, the fact that so many artists take on the additional task of elaborate visual schemes, whether masked, costumed, or otherwise disguised, is telling of its multi-sensory qualities. Perhaps thinking of music and art as separate forms is erroneous. “It tells a story,” Davis says. “Every show tells a story.”

Over the course of 240 pages, Invisible features Mike Patton, Konono No. 1, Matmos, JG Thirlwell, The Locust, Liars, Trentemøller, Mark Jenkins, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Trans Am, Tobacco, Phantogram, RJD2, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Daedelus, Tim Barry, Wu Fei, and much more!

The Singularity is the second full-length album from Divinity, a Calgary-based extreme-metal quintet that combines machine-gun beats, impossibly fast harmonizing guitar scales, Meshuggah-ish syncopations, and alternately death-metal and epic vocals (akin to Strapping Young Lad).

Like the band's first album, The Singularity was self-released before being picked up for European and American distribution.  The wait between release and distro was much longer this time around, however, due to Nuclear Blast (seemingly) inexplicably dropping the band after its debut.

This one is a thoroughly crushing and assailing effort, and it should appeal to many metal fans on the "extreme" end of the spectrum.  It would be great to hear more moments like the start to "Embrace the Uncertain," when a melodic piano intro and synth accent lead into metal chaos, but it's hard to argue with The Singularity as it is.

Divinity: "Monsters Are Real"

Dreamend: So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite (Graveface)

Dreamend is the work of Ryan Graveface, the man behind Graveface Records and the guitarist/bassist of Black Moth Super Rainbow.  Unlike the solo efforts of BMSR staple Tobacco, though, the sounds of Dreamend are markedly different than Graveface's "full-time" band.

Graveface has been releasing solo material for the better part of a decade, and So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite continues the direction of his 2008 album The Long-Forgotten Friend, which had the least emphasis on shoegazing guitars.

Melodic, bluegrass-infused instrumentals and singer/songwriter pieces comprise the majority of this one, again using banjo, bells, guitar, organ, and overdubbed vocals to establish a warm, low-key vibe.  A companion album is expected in 2011, and it will be interesting to see how that complements this one.

Dreamend: "Magnesium Light"
Dreamend: \"Magnesium Light\"

The Budos Band: III (Daptone)

Self-described as "afro-soul," The Budos Band is one of the instrumental staples of the Daptone roster.  Afro-beat, heavy funk, and soul are the tentet's main influeces, as deep horn grooves, wailing organ riffs, and funky percussions pave the way for dance-floor gyrations.

Like its predecessors, III delivers more danceable Budos jams with a few slow-tempo numbers mixed in for good measure.  Bouncy bass rhythms, guitar hooks, and flute solos all complement the baritone sax and other horned members of the front line.

III doesn't tread much new ground for The Budos Band, but it's another solid entry in the band's catalog.

The Budos Band: "Unbroken, Unshaven"

Street Sweeper Social Club: The Ghetto Blaster EP

When Tom Morello and Boots Riley released Street Sweeper Social Club's debut last year, it was the closest thing to Rage Against the Machine to appear from Morello since the political rap-rock group disbanded.

Riley's sociopolitical lyrics — a staple of his work in The Coup — made the comparison pretty apt, even if he didn't have the same fiery urgency as Zack de la Rocha.

However, with a stated mission to make "anthems for the revolution," the vibe has been one of partying mixed with anti-establishment messages (like "every banker is a fucking thief" in "Everythang").

The Ghetto Blaster EP is not as overly anthemic as the self-titled debut, and it feels like a stronger rock effort.  But the release is being pushed with a few radio-hit cover songs, most notably an uninspired hard-rock take on MIA's "Paper Planes."  It's strange that the band would be pushing this as a single so shortly after the original left the airwaves, but it's stranger coming from Morello and Riley, who have established musical voices.

A rendition of LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" is better, but it lacks the power or immediacy of a cover like Anthrax and Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise."  But it does have a killer dueling harmony from Morello's overdubbed guitars midway through, and we can only hope that SSSC captures this full potential going forward.

Street Sweeper Social Club: "Ghetto Blaster"

Honorable Mentions

Lost in the Trees: All Alone in an Empty House (Anti-)

Guillermo Klein: Domandor De Huellas (Sunnyside)

Memmaker: How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising, deluxe edition (Artoffact)

Negura Bunget: Virstele Pamintului (Aural)

Yaotl Mictlan: Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac (Candlelight)

Each orbiting the musical genius of Trey Spruance, the Secret Chiefs 3 satellite groups each represent a different sonic dimension of the band's expansive, undefinable sound. Following Traditionalists' full-length take on Italy's giallo movement, Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 mostly collects seven-inch material from SC3 subgroups UR, Ishraqiyyun, and Electromagnetic Azoth.

This is far from a simple digital conversion, however; all of the material here was rerecorded for the release, with many tracks adopting different sounds and passages. UR, the Chiefs' "suprasensory surf" squad, presents three tracks of heavily tremolo-ed rock guitar surrounded by synthesized sounds, Eastern instrumentation, and epic motifs.

"Kulturvultur," one of the three, might be the group's most upbeat tune since "The 4," a sunny Ishraqiyyun tune from Book of Horizons that is irresistibly danceable. Spruance's most Eastern-infused ensemble, Ishraqiyyun retains a masterful balance between each side of the globe, as psychedelic and electronic elements are entangled with the Indian sarangi and an electrified Persian setar.

With the diverse palette that is typical of SC3, Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 is excellent for the uninitiated, and it's just enough to tide over diehard fans until Book of Souls finally is released later this year.

Secret Chiefs 3: Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 album preview
Secret Chiefs 3: Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 album preview

Chrome Hoof: Crush Depth (Southern)

Try to imagine gnarly doom funk from another planet, performed by a nonet that is dressed like a death cult at a space disco. That imagination in practice, London's Chrome Hoof, is every bit as dark, wild, and fun as it sounds.

The brainchild of brothers Leo and Milo Smee, Chrome Hoof is built around an intuitive rhythm section: drummer Milo’s pounding pulses and overlapping time signatures and bassist Leo’s heavy, cataclysmic riffs. With just its third album in ten years as a group, Chrome Hoof delivers its most boisterous and complete release, full of dance-floor jams as well as cinematic math rock.

Vocalist Lola Olafisoye uses a brash, regal delivery to command attention amid the organized chaos, but it's the infectious grooves of Crush Depth that steal the show. Chrome Hoof has few performances and fewer contemporaries, so if you get a chance to check out the band live, don't miss it. And, naturally, pick this up.

Chrome Hoof: "Crystalline"
Chrome Hoof: \"Crystalline\"

Qua: Q&A (Mush)

Melbourne resident Cornel Wilczek might be an apt representation of today's electronic artist, calling upon buzzing effects, analog synths, and field recordings as much as guitar, live drums, and acoustic instruments.

As Qua, he combines these sounds into a fun, blippy style that can hit hard, scale it back, or get bodies moving. Q&A, his third full album, was first released back in '08 on a local label before being distributed by Mush.

Now with its official US release, the album marks Wilczek's progress as a musician — while adding its name to the ever-expanding list of great electro-acoustic works. Key guest spots include James Cecil (Architecture in Helsinki) and Laurence Pike (Savath & Savalas, Pivot, Triosk).

Qua: "Circles"
Qua: \"Circles\"

Rosetta: A Determinism of Morality (Translation Loss)

With a style that is as themed to space travel as metaphysical exploration, Philadelphia's Rosetta specializes in delayed, echoing melodies, often over steady snare cadences, that build to powerful mid-tempo metal.

Despite vocal brutality, this brand of metal owes more to post-rock guitars and hefty song durations, with certain aspects akin to Irepress and other Translation Loss label mates. Many also will draw comparisons between Rosetta and groups like Isis and Neurosis, but Rosetta retains its own special idiosyncracies.

Rosetta: "Revolve"
Rosetta: \"Revolve\"

Tobacco: Maniac Meat (Anticon)

Maniac Meat is another 16 tracks of warped synth hop, pop hooks, and effected vocals from Tobacco, one of the key pieces of Black Moth Super Rainbow.

Like Fucked-Up Friends, his 2008 solo debut, Maniac Meat features harpsichord-flavored electronics that are awash in hip-hop beats, vocoders, and fuzzy and glistening analog synthsizers.

Two appearances by Beck add a new dimension to Tobacco's style, one that admittedly grows old from song to song and album to album due to similar sounds and melodies. Nonetheless, his contributions are unique, and Maniac Meat is proof that he hasn't run out of steam.

Tobacco: "Sweatmother"
Tobacco: \"Sweatmother\"

Honorable Mentions

Black Tusk: Taste The Sin (Relapse)

Damien Jurado: Saint Bartlett (Secretly Canadian)

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band: The Wages (SideOneDummy)

Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet: Live At The Triple Door (Royal Potato Family)

Solvent: Subject to Shift (Ghostly)

Instrumental(-ish) Boston group Irepress has completed its sophomore album, Sol Eye Sea 1, which will be released February 17 on Translation Loss (a new song can be heard here). The group's mathy, melodic, chugging, epic songs can be heard on a five-week US tour that begins March 4.

Les Claypool has announced a four-week traveling mini festival, scheduled to begin in early March, that is officially titled The Oddity Faire: A Mutated Mini Fest. The fest's outstanding lineup is different depending on the city; guests include Secret Chiefs 3, Saul Williams, DeVotchKa, Yard Dogs Road Show, O'Death, and The Mutaytor.

And speaking of Secret Chiefs 3, the incomparable Indian/surf/metal group has a concert DVD being released in March on mastermind Trey Spruance's Mimicry label.

Hardcore trio Young Widows has announced a major list of tour dates that run from February through April. See the list here.

Dan Deacon has announced a six-week tour, starting April 3, that will feature a full ensemble in support of Bromst, his new album due March 24 from Carpark.

Marking its final recording with long-time member Reed Mathis, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has made a new studio album, Winterwood, available for free downloading on its website.

Next Tuesday, February 3, Tibet House US hosts a benefit concert and dinner at Carnegie Hall. Performers include Philip Glass, Antibalas, Keb' Mo', Vampire Weekend, The National, and more.

Nile linchpin Karl Sanders has another solo album in the works, this time to be released through The End Records. Titled Saurian Exorcisms, the album will be out April 14. Some awesome preview tracks are already posted on Sanders' MySpace page.

Despite comments from main member Tobacco that the group was on indefinite hiatus, dreamy hip-hoppers Black Moth Super Rainbow have a new album, Eating Us, that will be released on May 26 via Graveface.

New York jazz group Dred Scott Trio has a live album being released via Ropeadope on February 3.

Hardcore group Pulling Teeth has a new album, Paranoid Delusions | Paradise Illusions, that takes a crushing and despairing direction. The album is available today to preorder from Deathwish Inc. and its official release date is March 31. Hear a preview track, "Foreshadowing," here.

Grindcore group Agoraphobic Nosebleed will release its fourth full-length album, Agorapocalypse, through Relapse on April 14.

Black Moth Super Rainbow mainstay Tobacco delivers his solo debut with analog synthesizers and tape machines. The result, Fucked Up Friends, is a dreamy, spacey trip for synth lovers and incorporates hip-hop beats and heavily effected vocals.

Genghis Tron: Board Up the House Remixes Vol. 2 (Lovepump United)

Tobacco also makes an appearance on this, the second of five collectable Genghis Tron remix LPs. Dntel, Circle, and CFCF also rework the group's electro-grind madness.

MoHa!: One-way Ticket to Candyland [US release] (Rune Grammofon)

Freeform noise-rock duo MoHa! combines the most apoplectic elements of its influences into what can only be called enjoyable clatter. Guitar, distorted bass, and electronics are used to annihilate eardrums over live and programmed beats.

MoHa!: "Anders Hore 11"
MoHa!: \"Anders Hore 11\"

Dillinger Four: CIVILWAR (Fat Wreck Chords)

Political/humorist punks Dillinger Four have finally released CIVILWAR, their fourth full-length album and first in six years. These elder statesmen of '90s punk aren't breaking the mold here, but their formula is as tried and true as ever with 13 anthemic tracks of push beats and four-chord progressions.

Dillinger Four: "A Jingle for the Product"
Dillinger Four: \"A Jingle for the Product\"

The Dillinger Escape Plan: Under the Running Board [reissue] (Relapse, 10/14)

Released almost exactly ten years ago, the Under the Running Board EP scorched listeners with just seven and a half minutes of frantic tech metal. To mark the anniversary, mathy fusionists The Dillinger Escape Plan have reissued the mini classic with ten bonus tracks – nine live cuts from the Dimitri Minakakis vocal era and a cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid."

Isis: Not in Rivers, But in Drops [CD single] (Ipecac)

Ambient sludge stars Isis (cover artists of ALARM 24) release their second single from 2006 full-length In the Absence of Truth. As we await the group's next album, due in 2009, this short release should tide us over with a video, album version, and live version of "Not in Rivers, But in Drops" as well as a remix of "Holy Tears" by Thomas Dimuzio.

Shai Hulud: Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion [picture disc repress] (Revelation)

Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion has stood for more than a decade as a bastion of progressive hardcore punk. Now two years after an enhanced reissue, the classic album gets a vinyl repress.