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.

Chthonic: Takasago Army (Spinefarm)

Chthonic: "Takao"

Formed in Taipei in 1997, Chthonic (pronounced “thonic”) plays symphonic black metal rooted in traditional Taiwanese music and folklore. Known to incorporate traditional instruments such as the hena (a two-string bowed fiddle, also known as the erhu in China) and base its lyrics on the mythologies of Taiwan’s history, the band is one of Taiwan’s most outspoken symbols for national independence and thought.

Takasago Army is Chthonic's sixth full-length album and is a concept piece about aboriginal Taiwanese tribesmen who volunteered in the Imperial Japanese Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Musically, it splashes elements of black, thrash, power, and melodic death metal with the emotional cries of the erhu and Freddy Lim's piercing shrieks and guttural screams. The symphonic moments are strategically placed, showing themselves for dramatic effect and melodic accompaniment; the result is an alternately war-like and pensive atmosphere.

- Text by Michael Nolledo and Scott Morrow.

Big Business: Quadruple Single EP (Gold Metal)

Big Business: "Always Never Know When to Quit"

When we last heard from Big Business in 2009, the formerly drum-and-bass sludge-rock duo had become a three-piece and released an epic, theatrical, singalong opus in Mind the Drift. Now the group has expanded yet again, doubling from its original size to a quartet by adding second guitarist Scott Martin, and Quadruple Single is the band's first offering in this form.

These four tunes fall somewhere between Mind the Drift and its predecessors, possibly a reflection of getting acclimated to the new lineup. There's plenty of emphasis once more on Jared Warren's thunderous bass lines and howling vocals, but this time they're rounded out by wailing post-rock accents and by both harmonized and noisy guitar accompaniments.

The most chant-worthy tune, "Ice-Cold War," is immediately followed by the hard-hitting "California Square Dance," which is full of massive bass (both guitar and drums) and agile fills. "Guns" closes the EP with a dose of Big Business' tongue-in-cheek humor, as an overdubbed refrain repeatedly shouts, "Guns are better than everything else" in advance of the group's most guitar-driven breakdown.

Little Dragon: Ritual Union (Peacefrog)

Little Dragon: "Ritual Union"

It's tempting to say that there's something in water in Gothenburg, Sweden. It might be more accurate to say that are two distinct strains — one running dark and viscous (At the Gates, In Flames) and the other as sweet and colorful as Vitamin Water (Jens Lekman, El Perro del Mar). Feeding on a healthy diet of the latter and bolstering the city's mystique is Little Dragon, a dance-pop quartet that just released its third full-length, Ritual Union.

Fans of the band's last release, Machine Dreams in 2009, will find that Ritual Union handles its intoxicating blend of oddball percussion, melodious hooks, and carefree genre-surfing with more poise. Each of its tracks take time to morph from minimal to manic in a fashion not unlike Hot Chip's soulful, dance-floor-ready electronica.

Little Dragon's focal point, on stage and on record, is its vocalist, Yukimi Nagano. Her cooly unaffected R&B delivery is an excellent counterweight to the band's pronounced affection for bouncy, hypnotic synth. Rather than sounding dated or ironically nostalgic, Little Dragon's gauzy pop imagines an '80s where restraint wins out over indulgence, and analog and electronic are not so readily distinguishable.

- Text by Kyle Gilkeson.

Aram Bajakian’s Kef: s/t (Tzadik)

Aram Bajakian's Kef: "Raki"

Brooklyn guitarist Aram Bajakian is yet another in New York City's long line of masterful experimentalists, mixing rock, jazz, noise, and world music into an indecipherable avant-garde blend.

Though he performs with a host of accomplished musicians (including Lou Reed, Marc Ribot, Yusef Lateef, Steven Bernstein, and Billy Martin), Bajakian also leads a number of projects, and Kef reflects his Armenian heritage. A student of world music, Bajakian uses this string trio to expand on the tradition of kef, an Armenian dance style that adapts and electrifies various folk elements.

Here, the string trio — electric and acoustic guitars, acoustic bass, and violin — takes Eurasian folk melodies and runs them through an avant-rock and jazz filter. Between harmonious folk arrangements, the guitar and violin often pair for energetic runs, buoyed by the rich bass textures, and all three instruments offer a wellspring of timbres. After running the gamut for its first 10 tracks, the album then closes with two of its most beautiful tunes in "48 Hours" and "La Rota."

Honorable Mentions

The Blind Shake: Seriousness (Learning Curve)

Cerebral Ballzy: s/t (Williams Street)

Dex Romweber Duo: Is That You in the Blue? (Bloodshot)

Isis: Live V 07.23.06

Laddio Bolocko: The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko reissue (No Quarter)

Machinedrum: Room(s) (Planet Mu)

Rival Sons: Pressure & Time (Earache)

Septicflesh: The Great Mass (Season of Mist)

Septicflesh: "The Vampire from Nazareth"

In 2008, Grecian death-metal quartet Septicflesh made a triumphant hiatus-ending return with Communion, an album that marked a new symphonic direction on the back of guitarist Christos Antoniou's classical studies.

The Great Mass is the group's second post-reunion effort, and it continues this direction with more of Antoniou's marvelous arrangements.  Orchestral and guitar-based hooks lead the way, but there's plenty of double-kick and blast beats, unearthly growls, and lightning-fast picking.

The album also is greatly strengthened by its secondary elements: mid-tempo riffs, Gothic singing, tom-heavy drum pounding, and brooding cinematic motifs.  Tracks such as "Five-Pointed Star," which display nuance and melodic mastery, would be believed as part of a dark Hollywood score (minus the metal elements).

The Great Mass might be the high-water mark of Septicflesh's celebrated 20-year career.  Either way, it's an exciting continuation of the band's reinvention.

Lanu: Her 12 Faces (Tru Thoughts)

Lanu: "Beautiful Trash"

Known for his work in funk/soul band The Bamboos, Melbourne-based producer Lance Ferguson now releases his second solo album of electronic pop as Lanu.

The album, titled Her 12 Faces, has gained steam abroad behind the strength of its first single, "Beautiful Trash," which features lighthearted vocals by Australian pop star Megan Washington (who appears four times on the album's first six songs).  The rest of Ferguson's sophomore effort is just as engaging, however, as it achieves sunny, fuzzy pop bliss without being cheesy or too sugary.

Lounge elements, hip-hop beats, and electronics help create a sultry vibe that is backed by strings, pedal steel, acoustic guitar, sitar, whistling, piano, and minimalist bass grooves.  Ferguson's skills as a producer come to the fore thanks to the diversity of sounds, but it's his penchant for simple yet effective melodies that makes Her 12 Faces one of the year's early pop gems.

Del the Funky Homosapien: Golden Era 3xCD (The Council)

Del the Funky Homosapien: "One Out of a Million"

Following his second dose of mainstream exposure with the 2001 Gorillaz debut, lauded indie MC Del the Funky Homosapien took another step back from major-label success.  A number of guest spots and a new Hieroglyphics album kept him busy, and intermittent work on the next Deltron 3030 release (with Dan the Automator and Kid Koala) kept fans awaiting another of his best collaborations (which, reportedly, is just about finally complete).

Over the past few years, however, Del has gone into hyper-proliferation, releasing four solo albums and a collaborative disc with Tame One since 2008 alone.

Golden Era, a triple-disc release, is the latest in what might come to be considered Del's golden age.  Featuring 10 more tracks of funky, sample-heavy hip hop and poetic cadences, the main disc is another solid installment in what is becoming a massive body of work.  Die-hard fans might find little new direction, but they should love it all the same.  And because Golden Era also includes the physical release of two previously digital-only albums — Automatik Statik and Funk Man — those who haven't kept up on Del's latest releases would do well to grab it.

Dengue Fever: Cannibal Courtship (Fantasy Records / Concord Music Group)

Dengue Fever:"Uku"

Righteously capturing the free spirit of Cambodia’s 1960s surf-rock and psychedelic-pop scene is Dengue Fever's fourth LP, Cannibal Courtship.  For nearly a decade, the Los Angeles-based ensemble, led by Cambodian songstress Chhom Nimol, has shone a light on the wealth of grooves that Khmer music has to offer, intricately reworking its musical foundations in an approach that is vintage in style with an ear towards global sounds.

Cannibal Courtship shows the band expanding its sound into new territories, playing a more fuzzed-out, rock-and-roll style while keeping true to the dreamy, reverberated guitar licks and driving bass riffs that make its music so hypnotic.  Guitarist Zac Holtzman takes a prominent vocal presence, and Nimol’s English has become increasingly better, resulting in a record that is sung half in Khmer and half in English.

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

Graveyard: Hisingen Blues (Nuclear Blast)

Graveyard: "Ain't Fit to Live Here"

It has been three years since Swedish psych-rock band Graveyard released an album. Rather than use that time to modify its sound or explore new territory, the band appears to have been perfecting its bread and butter: classic rock.

Produced, recorded, and mixed entirely in analog by Don Alsterberg (José Gonzales, Junip, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The International Noise Conspiracy), Hisingen Blues takes listeners back to the '70s with rock-solid shredding and vocalist Joakim Nilsson's impassioned wailing.

Yet for as retro as its sound is, Graveyard does show signs of modernity — to varying success. On tracks such as "Uncomfortably Numb," the band flexes its powers of power-balladry. And on "Longing," a downtempo song with subtle percussion and no vocals, an Ennio Morricone-esque whistle couples with tremolo to an understated crescendo.

Ultimately, the album is retreading covered ground, but with tight production and a commanding swagger, Hisingen Blues still hits all of the right notes.

Arkan: Salam (Season of Mist)

Arkan: "Origins"

Formed by drummer Foued Moukid and guitarist/vocalist Abder Abdellahoum, Parisian metal band Arkan began its existence to fuse Arabic and North African timbres and melodies to the brutality of death metal.

The group's 2008 full-length debut, Hilal, contained plenty of Middle Eastern sounds — oud, bouzouki, darbuka, and more — but Salam, its sophomore album, reflects better balance and better songwriting.  Though still plenty heavy, Salam is more melodic, with stronger hooks and smoother transitions between styles.

Abdellahoum's vocal brutality remains a key element, but it's evened out by a greater presence from standalone vocalist Sarah Layssac, who previously toured with the band.  The album crosses into vocal melodrama at times, particularly towards the end, but Salam is a welcome release for lovers of worldly metal.

Honorable Mentions

Bill Callahan: Apocalypse (Drag City)

Gorillaz: The Fall (Virgin)

Harriet Tubman Band: Ascension (Sunnyside)

Illmind: Behind the Curtain (Nature Sounds)

Mazal: Axerico En Selanik (Tzadik)

My Goodness: s/t (Sarathan)

O’Death: Outside (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Telesterion (Rodriguez Lopez Productions)

Tune-Yards: Whokill (4AD)

Colin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation)

Colin Stetson: "Judges"

Everyday music connoisseurs may not automatically recognize Colin Stetson's name, but they're likely to have heard his bellowing and diverse reed work — whether from his efforts with musical luminaries such as Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, and Fred Frith or, more recently, his opening slots for stadium indie acts such as Arcade Fire and The National.

Armed with a baritone sax and other horns, Stetson uses his solo releases to present looped, layered, and transcendental compositions that may leave listeners puzzled at how they're created.  Most sound only vaguely borne from horns, as Stetson utilizes circular breathing, chordal mouth/throat techniques, and singing through his instruments to achieve sounds that are uncommon to most.

New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is his latest, and it's full of swirling, cyclical pieces that can be both meditative and powerful.  Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) provide a few spots of guest vocals, but no amount of star power — including Stetson's famous tour-mates — could steal the spotlight from this one.

Julianna Barwick: The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)

Julianna Barwick: "The Magic Place"

Creating her music almost entirely out of overdubbed and looped vocals, singer/songwriter Julianna Barwick is able to achieve a profound and resonant style. Her ascendant voice, particularly when presented en masse, takes a celestial quality and at times resembles high-pitched woodwinds, organs, or keyboards.

With distant wails and chants that swell and retreat, the music sounds like an experimental composer’s take on church choirs, and for good reason: Barwick refined her talents while singing in church and school choirs as a youth. There are a few complementary piano notes and a buried bass line here and there, but largely, it’s Barwick’s shining voice and compositional skills that are center stage.

Earth: Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I (Southern Lord)

Earth: "Father Midnight"

Since restarting his cult-favorite band Earth in the mid-2000s, guitarist Dylan Carlson has offered a much less foreboding take on "drone doom" — using pedal steel, banjo, baritone guitar, and more to inflect a dark "Americana" vibe into what had focused on heavily distorted and slowed-down blues-rock riffs.

Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I is another return to form — and another new lineup.  Gone are the guest guitars from Bill Frisell; in his place, bassist Karl Blau and cellist Lori Goldston offer resonant low-end riffs that complement and harmonize with Carlson's melodies.

The songs, like usual, are long-form pieces that build around a few lengthy repetitions.  However, they're even a little longer than usual, with two that top 10 minutes and a closer that eclipses 20 — totaling 60 minutes over just five tracks.  All together, the material is another victory for down-tempo music, proving that slow songs don't have to be boring.

Pitom: Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes (Tzadik)

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, an alt-rock trio that embraces worldly motifs, and Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses, another eclectic ensemble that combines doomy riffs and string work.  Pitom's lineup, however, has a key difference: Fruchter's pliable skills.

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").

Honorable Mentions

Darkest Hour: The Human Romance (E1)

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX: We're New Here [remix album] (XL)

Rachel Goodrich: s/t

Gutbucket: Flock (Cuneiform)

Peña: Vol. II (Secret Stash)

Six Organs of Admittance: Asleep On The Floodplain (Drag City)

Tera Melos: Zoo Weather EP (Sargent House)

Teeel: Amulet (Moongadget)

As usual, ALARM leaves no genre unexplored in our list of this year's overlooked gems.

Sigh: Scenes from Hell (The End, 1/19/10)

Sigh: "The Summer Funeral"

With a history of fusing other revered genres to a doomy combination of black metal and thrash, Japan's Sigh used its eighth studio album to deliver symphonic, epic metal that calls upon classical instrumentation to top its rock foundation.

Brass, woodwind, and string instruments — as well as organ and piano — accent as well as lead sinister melodies that take surprising turns through fanciful themes. Raspy, menacing vocals coat each track, resulting in a dramatic presentation that isn't much at odds with its complex backdrop.

RJD2: The Colossus (RJ’s Electrical Connections, 1/19/10)

RJD2: "Games You Can Win"

Following a divisive album that saw the introduction of poppy, soulful vocals, producer RJD2 returned with something of a split release — an album that leaves no shortage of accessible, vocal-driven tunes but that emphasizes some inventive instrumentals.  Whether or not you dig the soulful RJ, there's no doubt that the music on The Colossus is some of his best to date.

Chicago Underground Duo: Boca Negra (Thrill Jockey, 1/26/10)

Chicago Underground Duo: "Spy on the Floor"

For 15 years, the Chicago Underground Duo (and Trio, Quartet, and Orchestra) has been an avant-garde jazz outlet for prolific Chicago musicians Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra, Isotope 217) and Chad Taylor.  Boca Negra is an interesting dichotomy, as spiraling vociferation leads to upbeat grooves, shifting piano chords, harmonic electronics, and ambient samples.

Algernon: Ghost Surveillance (Cuneiform, 1/26/10)

Algernon: "Broken Lady"

The brainchild of guitarist Dave Miller, Algernon walks a thin line between melodically driven post-rock and instrumental unconventionality.  Ghost Surveillance places greater emphasis on synthesizers and sprawling song structures, but at its core is the combination of accessibility and technicality that has defined Miller's style. Noisy, circular rock riffs transform to tranquil, wandering passages. "Timekiller," the album's fourth track, is a beautiful, buoyant number — and one of the band's best creations to date.

Bei Bei & Shawn Lee: Into the Wind (Ubiquity, 1/26/10)

Bei Bei & Shawn Lee: "East"

In the hands of a marvel, the guzheng — a gorgeous Chinese zither — resonates with tactile beauty as its many strings are plucked with precision.

Bei Bei, a native of Chengdu, China, is one such musical technician. And this collaboration with Shawn Lee, a prolific producer who can man as many genres as he sees fit, is undoubtedly one of the year's finest albums.  Together, the two use Into the Wind to navigate through funky down-tempo jams, Kung-Fu flavor, hip hop, soul, and driving grooves.

Daníel Bjarnason: Processions (Bedroom Community, 2/1/10)

Daníel Bjarnason: "Bow to String I: Sorrow Conquers Happiness"

Best known as a conductor and arranger for indie groups such as Sigur Rós, composer Daníel Bjarnason also holds a lofty classical résumé. Processions, his proper debut, is, at many points, a challenging classical work.  Powerful cellos scale and race with crackling percussions before settling into gently bowed and pizzicato string accompaniments; easily half a dozen strings battle for dominance in a sorrowful, harmonic piece that resonates long after hearing it.  Undoubtedly, Processions is a daring and original debut.

Shining: Blackjazz (Indie Recordings / Distribution, 2/2/10)

Shining: "Fisheye"

Beginning as an experimental acoustic jazz ensemble, Norway's Shining — the brainchild of saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby — transformed to a progressive jazz-fusion outfit before delving into its darker side for a collaboration with black-metallists Enslaved.

Blackjazz pushes deeper into the band's dark recesses, forging a progressive industrial sound for the young century.  Big, complex rock riffs, twisted through gnarly distortion, form the foundation and support a mass of frantic, whirring synth lines and gut-wrenching black-metal screams.  In all, Blackjazz is a new epic — and perhaps the best metal album of 2010.

Pillars and Tongues: Lay of Pilgrim Park, LP + download (Endless Nest, 2/9/10)

Pillars and Tongues: "The Center of"

With just three members, Pillars and Tongues manages to craft powerful folk abstractions and interwoven, trance-inducing vocal dynamics. Both composed and improvisational, these shifting forms evoke spiritual vibes in their soulful essence, heavenly harmonies, and repeated patterns.

Dessa: A Badly Broken Code (Doomtree, 2/9/10)

Dessa: "Dixon's Girl"

The only female member of Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree, Dessa is a spoken-word vocalist, singer, and MC whose awaited full-length was finally released earlier this year.

On A Badly Broken Code, her true solo debut, Dessa's vocal diversity is matched by its underlying music, ranging from hard-hitting beats and rhymes to lilting harmonic overdubs.

The Bastard Noise / The Endless Blockade: The Red List (20 Buck Spin, 2/16/10)

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

A spinoff of treasured "power-violence" hardcore group Man is the Bastard, The Bastard Noise is approaching its 20th anniversary of creating noisy electro-doom brutality.  For this split release with hardcore/punk experimentalists The Endless Blockade, the group utilizes the trademark drum-and-bass style of Man is the Bastard in combination with its far-out sounds.  The Endless Blockade contributes three tracks to the release — one 14-minute epic and two avant-garde remixes.

Freeway & Jake One: The Stimulus Package (Rhymesayers, 2/16/10)

Freeway & Jake One: "Know What I Mean"

Continuing his life after Roc-A-Fella Records, former freestyle star Freeway now makes his debut on Rhymesayers, a fitting new home — if only temporary before a move to Cash Money.  Fellow Rhymesayers standout Jake One provides a funky, malleable backdrop for Freeway's fiery delivery and lyrics that are alternately personal and light in content. And though Freeway deserves his accolades, Jake One's production is the MVP of this collaboration.

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch, 2/16/10)

Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Hit 'Em Up Style" (Blu Cantrell)

Beholden to the traditions of Americana and early African-American folk, the string trio Carolina Chocolate Drops continues blurring the lines of old and new. On Genuine Negro Jig, the group's fifth album, a few original numbers and a trove of traditionals take root in banjo, fiddle, and percussion. Three-part harmonies shimmer on the famous folk tune "Trouble in Your Mind," and simplicity shines on gripping renditions of "Why Don't You Do Right?" by Kansas Joe McCoy and "Trampled Rose" by Tom Waits.  Most surprisingly, Genuine Negro Jig includes an enjoyable rendition of "Hit 'Em Up Style," an unintentionally farcical pop hit by Blu Cantrell.

Mako Sica: Dual Horizon LP (La Société Expéditionnaire, 2/16/10)

Mako Sica: "I'Itoi"

A translation of the phrase "land bad," Mako Sica has more than a nominal Native American influence; the trio's distant vocal reverberations and dirge-inspired tunes recall the spirituality of America's original inhabitants.

Between the vocalizations of Brent Fuscaldo, the melodies of guitarist Przemyslaw Krys Drazek, and the rhythms of drummer Michael J. Kendrick, Mako Sica maintains a strong balance of abilities — with a brooding combination of jangly guitars, reverberated vociferation, and instrumental dynamics.

High on Fire: Snakes for the Divine (E1 Music, 2/23/10)

High on Fire: "Snakes for the Divine"

Stoner-metal trio High on Fire has built a devoted following over the past dozen years as fans fell in love with Matt Pike's gruff vocals and thunderous guitar riffs. On Snakes for the Divine, Pike uses his throat to channel Lemmy Kilmister; meanwhile, the band has picked up its pace and crafted an album that isn’t as outstretched. Hard-hitting riffery leads an effort that, though diverse at times, may be the band’s most driving release.

Jaga Jazzist: One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune, 2/23/10)

Jaga Jazzist: "One-Armed Bandit"

Five years have passed since we've heard the powerhouse melodies of Norway's Jaga Jazzist, the post-rock/"nü-jazz" conception of brothers Lars and Martin Horntveth.

One-Armed Bandit, immediately the group's best album, resembles symphonic prog rock, arguably a few steps removed from parts of Frank Zappa's expansive catalog and closer to countryman Jono El Grande's diverse and theatrical style.  This album, however, is much more cohesive than either of those comparisons suggest, and at times it is nearly overwhelming with grooves and harmonious refrains.

Rob Swift: The Architect (Ipecac, 2/23/10)

Rob Swift: "The Architect"

Turntablist/DJ Robert Aguilar, formerly of the X-ecutioners, has long utilized his love of jazz, R&B, and other musical movements to create compelling hip-hop instrumentals while displaying his tight beat-juggling skills.

The Architect is Swift’s foray into the classical world. In addition to a multitude of sampled styles and sounds, classical cuts comprise a substantial chunk of this Ipecac debut. Rearranged strings, organ, and horns often make the foundation of a given track, occasionally evoking high-tension Italian Westerns, as Swift’s scratches dance atop banging beats.

Rotting Christ: Aealo (Season of Mist, 2/23/10)

Rotting Christ: "Aealo"

For more than 20 years, Athens' Rotting Christ has traversed different directions on the metal path.  With its previous release, Theogonia, the group released a striking, original album that fused its dark sound to the ethnic sounds of its ancestors.

Like its predecessor, Aealo features female Benedictine chants, lingual pipes, and a medieval feel. Combined with dueling high-pitched harmonies and powerful guitar work, these new elements highlight an album that should be among the most original metal releases of the year.

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: Ali and Toumani (Nonesuch, 2/23/10)

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: "Ruby"

As two of Africa's most internationally renowned musicians, guitar legend Ali Farka Touré and kora phenom Toumani Diabaté have displayed impeccable abilities while integrating the styles of other cultures into their ethnic sounds.

Each Malian, the two collaborated for the acclaimed In the Heart of the Moon in 2005, shortly before Farka Touré's passing in 2006. Fortunately, the two set aside time to record new material before touring for In the Heart of the Moon, and the result is another beautiful set of duets that sees a posthumous release.

Throughout Ali and Toumani, Farka Touré roots each creation in melodious African-blues pieces. Diabaté's virtuosity accents each track in the form of fanciful scales, which at times evoke classical harpsichord passages, perhaps most notably on "Sabu Yerkoy."

Fang Island: s/t (Sargent House, 2/23/10)

Fang Island: "Sideswiper"

Mostly comprised of ex-Daughters, the good-time rock quintet Fang Island was one of the most quickly ascending bands of 2010, jumping onto tours with The Flaming Lips and Stone Temple Pilots following the release of its first full-length album.

The self-titled release is chock full of palm-muted and speed-infused indie-prog anthems, with über-layered vocal harmonies to go with a triple-thick guitar assault and distorted-bass bludgeoning.  It's one of those rare releases that feels absolutely radiant and thrashing at the same time.

B. Dolan: Fallen House, Sunken City (Strange Famous, 3/2/10)

B. Dolan: "The Reptilian Agenda"

Going way back with Sage Francis, rapper B. Dolan is a like-minded MC and slam poet whose style isn't terribly dissimilar to that of his long-time friend. Fallen House, Sunken City is Dolan's second full-length for Strange Famous, and it's full of the sociopolitical themes (if often in quick blasts or asides) and contentious delivery for which he's known.

In addition to some seemingly personal lyrics, Dolan takes passing shots at big business, taxation, the pharmaceutical industry, the concept of ownership of natural resources, the Israeli razing of Palestinian developments, and, among many other things, the so-called New World Order — dropping clips of Dick Cheney and George H.W. Bush in "The Reptilian Agenda."  On top of Dolan's socially conscious rhymes, A-list production by Alias makes this one of the year's top hip-hop releases.

Archie Bronson Outfit: Coconut (Domino, 3/2/10)

Archie Bronson Outfit: "Shark's Tooth"
Archie Bronson Outfit: "Shark's Tooth"

With its warbled vocals and driving percussion, British psych-rock trio Archie Bronson Outfit is like a more adventurous Wolf Parade — as comfortable burning up the dance floor with clean, bouncy riffs as it is turning up the reverb and rocking in a garage.

Coconut is the band's first LP in nearly four years, and it kicks off with a crunchy, swirling guitar line and a hypnotic bongo-laden beat. Produced by DFA's Tim Goldsworthy, Coconut gets spaced-out and drone-like at times, but it always offers a hint of pop accessibility amidst the static and haze.

The first time that Ben Goldberg heard a clarinet being played, he was struck by an unfathomable quality that he still hears to this day, even after spending decades playing the instrument. “I don’t know if other people hear it this way,” he says, “but to me, a clarinet has no end. It’s like it just disappears into…”

Goldberg trails off as he attempts to find words to describe the sensation that the sound of a clarinet gives him.

“It’s very deep,” he continues. “It has no bottom to it. And it always strikes me this way, no matter who’s playing it: that there’s something down in there that you just can’t reach. When you find something like that, you just start wandering towards it.”

"I realized that I had come up in a world where there was an axe to grind. That was an essential part of New Klezmer Trio: ‘God damn it, we can do this in an avant-garde way; watch this!’"

One of the principal forerunners of a musical movement that John Zorn dubbed “radical Jewish culture,” Goldberg blazed a new trail in the late ’80s by blending traditional Jewish folk music with avant-garde jazz, and he also has found new shades of expression for the clarinet in a jazz and experimental context. When he founded the New Klezmer Trio in Berkeley, California in 1987, Goldberg experienced what he refers to as the “musical big bang” of his career.

Ben Goldberg Quartet / John Zorn: Baal

At that time, Goldberg had already studied klezmer music for years in college and was heavily steeped in its tradition thanks to a rigorous itinerary of bar mitzvahs, weddings, and various social events. “I honed my style,” he laughs, “playing a thousand bar mitzvahs.”

Those types of gigs, Goldberg soon discovered, came with a hefty reward of instant social approval. “My choice to study it definitely had something to do with identity,” he explains. “Plus, you get a lot of praise. If you’re Jewish and you start playing klezmer at weddings, it’s like you’re an automatically esteemed member of the Jewish cognoscenti or something! They really treat you that way, like, ‘You’re doing such a good thing for the Jewish people.’ And that pleased me.”

But, despite the cultural affinity, Goldberg started to feel an acute sense of disconnection — a kind of generation gap, if you will — between klezmer’s old-world underpinnings and his own life experience. “Sounding authentic was beginning to feel pretty inauthentic to me,” he writes in his essay "New Klezmer Trio and the Origins of 'Radical Jewish Culture.' "

A lifelong jazz aficionado, Goldberg wondered why klezmer hadn’t evolved and branched out into a variety of modern permutations along the same lines as jazz had — and he wondered how it still could. Simultaneously, Goldberg wanted to use the clarinet as a vehicle for jazz. (If it’s a mystery as to why klezmer, itself a vibrant polyglot fusion of music from several different parts of the world, hadn’t continued to develop once it was transplanted into an American setting, it is perhaps an even more compelling mystery that the clarinet still hasn’t achieved the same visibility in jazz as, say, the saxophone or trumpet.)

So, after reaching a high degree of fluency brought on by year after year of intensive practice and analysis, he set about looking for ways to reinterpret Jewish folk music so that it might sound truer to himself and speak to contemporary sensibilities. One of his solutions was to apply the improvisation of jazz to klezmer’s heavily codified rules and parameters. Another was to, in a sense, crack the music open by attempting to dig deeper into the rich bedrock of Eastern European rhythms and uncover an essence that could be used as a living musical style.

Tin Hat: Foreign Legion

Revisiting how he felt back then, Goldberg wonders aloud: “Why is it that very few musical traditions are consciously involved with the idea of evolution?” It’s a rhetorical question, but Goldberg is less concerned with finding the answer these days, and he no longer feels as pressed to invent new languages as he once did. In a poetic twist to a career that spans work with individualist visionaries like John Zorn, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, and Trevor Dunn as well as several of his own groups, Goldberg became a full-fledged member of Tin Hat in 2005.

The brainchild of violinist Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard) and guitarist Mark Orton, Tin Hat (originally named Tin Hat Trio before the group reconfigured with the inclusion of Goldberg) weaves together chamber music, jazz, Gypsy folk, experimentalism, and pop into a sound that gives Goldberg room to feel at ease, at least in terms of the ethical considerations of his creative decisions. In a sense, Tin Hat, which released its live album, Foreign Legion, this spring on Goldberg’s own label (BAG Production), represents the fruit of all the time that Goldberg spent questioning the integrity of his innovations.

“In some ways,” Goldberg muses, “Tin Hat fits like an old glove. But when I first started playing with them as a guest in 1997, there’s something that really impressed me about them and, at first, even confused me a little bit: they didn’t have an axe to grind. I’m a little bit older than those guys, and when I first started playing with them, they really showed me something. I realized that I had come up in a world where there was an axe to grind. That was an essential part of New Klezmer Trio: ‘God damn it, we can do this in an avant-garde way; watch this!’ There was a sense of ‘look out, everybody, we’re really going to fuck with this song.’

"Mark and Carla were another generation. They just found the beauty in all this different music — whether it was avant garde, traditional, this style or that style. If you listen to ‘Waltz of the Skyscraper’ on the live record, it starts off as a waltz. And then all kinds of strange things start happening and it turns into — I don’t know what you’d describe it as — new music or free improvisation or a free-for-all, but it sounds like all those things are what belong there. It doesn’t at all sound polemical. In a way, it’s taking the next step. It’s saying, ‘Look, these musical ingredients that seemed antithetical to each other can live together happily!’ But it’s no less a concerted and well-considered and brave musical statement to make that step. Different generations have to take different steps.”

Ben Goldberg: Go Home

Goldberg stresses, however, that Tin Hat’s uncanny ability to craft accessible music out of what are often presented as highbrow forms belies the group’s musical sophistication and depth.

“It totally kicked my ass joining that band,” he says. “They have a very high standard of composition. In their world, it’s not just the idea of writing a tune. Partly because of the instrumentation — there’s no drummer or bass player — the emphasis is on compositional thoroughness. And I feel like my own ability to write had to be stepped up a notch or two. That had a huge effect on me — the way that I think about what a song is, and also orchestration, form, what’s required, and what a piece of music can be.”

In addition to the new Tin Hat live album (which consists of performances from 2005 and 2008), Goldberg also recently released an album as a leader, Go Home, again on his BAG Production imprint. Go Home features guitarist Charlie Hunter and showcases Goldberg in a decidedly more groove-oriented setting. Despite the fact that it has the word “home” in the title, the album represents anything but a final destination or resting place for Goldberg’s art.

Go Home follows 2009 release Speech Communication, a new album on Zorn’s Tzadik label from a reactivated New Klezmer Trio. Yet having let go of the “mission” that New Klezmer Trio once represented for him, Goldberg feels free to venture well outside the very paradigm that he helped create. And as he continues to cover more disparate territory, Goldberg is proving himself to be a rare musician — one who hits a comfort zone while simultaneously stoking his inspiration.

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: November 23, 2010 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: November 23, 2010.

Killing Joke: Absolute Dissent (Universal)

Killing Joke: "In Excelsis"

Over the past 30 years, England's Killing Joke has helped shape the industrial-rock and post-punk landscapes.  The band's trademark sound was formed in no small part by keyboardist Jaz Coleman's raspy singing and massive growls — as well as his slight orchestral flourishes — and the muscular riffs of guitarist Geordie Walker.

Absolute Dissent is the band’s first new album in four years, but remarkably, it's Killing Joke's first with its original lineup since 1982.  The album is another great mix of heavy riffs, synth-rock influences, and epic choruses, and at least in terms of songwriting and production quality, it has to rank near the top of the band's catalog.

The music doesn’t incorporate some of the disparate elements of albums past, and it doesn’t have as many dance-rock moments or the unpolished charm that some of the older albums do.  But it’s a solid mix of rock aggression and sing-along accessibility – and more importantly, it’s more protest music, with themes about omnipresent surveillance, microchipped populations, shadowy international powerbrokers, and never-ending wars.  Like the band’s 2003 self-titled album, it’s another powerful return to form.

The deluxe edition includes a collection of Killing Joke songs previously covered by bands such as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Helmet, Fear Factory, and Foo Fighters.

Gangrene: Gutter Water (Decon)

Gangrene: "Chain Swinging"

Gangrene is the new hip-hop duo of The Alchemist and Oh No, each an esteemed producer-slash-rapper. The Alchemist has produced for Dilated Peoples, Nas, Eminem, and many other huge names, and Oh No, the younger brother of Madlib, has released a handful of great albums for Stones Throw.

Gutter Water is their first collaboration.  It calls upon a number of friends and guest MCs too, including Raekwon, Evidence, Planet Asia, and others, but the album is much more than a bunch of great guest spots.  The material has ample rawness, with hard-hitting beats and rhymes, but there’s an underlying sophistication, whether from string, piano, and flute samples or from quick references to conspiracy theories.

The album does suffer from a lot of self-aggrandizement and a little tough-guy syndrome, and a few lines are crass for the sake of being crass.  Overall, though, it’s not particularly offensive, and it’s an exciting new project.

Fred Frith: Eye to Ear 3 (Tzadik)

At first glance, the catalog of guitarist/composer Fred Frith is seemingly endless.  Many know the genre-hopping experimentalist from his collaborations with John Zorn, including the avant-jazz-punk Naked City outfit, but his recorded output goes back more than 35 years.

Eye to Ear III is Frith's third and newest collection of film music, and it’s nearly as eclectic as his regular catalog.  The music covers a lot of ground over what mainly are two- to four-minute rock instrumentals, with big roles played by the violins of Ada Gosling and Carla Kihlstedt.

Later on the disc, in the "Water Music" suite,  an Indian bansuri and a Chinese guzheng provide an Eastern inflection.  A few ambient tracks are built around distant guitar tones and simple keyboard lines, and others present a sort of quirky jazz rock.  There’s even a spell of Italian western in the song “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” a tribute to Ennio Morricone.

In all, it's another eclectic and beautiful album by one of music's most daring guitarists.

Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore)

Agalloch: "The Watcher's Monolith"

Portland's Agalloch has already spent 15 years as a band, drawing praise for its infusion of neofolk, post-rock, and dark atmospherics into its black-metal base.

Though the band's lengthy EPs make up for the gaps in long-playing releases, Marrow of the Spirit is only the band's fourth official full-length, and it presents the most epic song durations of the band’s career.

With the exception of the intro track, every song is more than nine-and-a-half minutes.  “Black Lake Nidstang” sprawls over 17 minutes, and it uses a slightly Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar line as well as glockenspiel, other atmospherics, and delayed/dueling clean-channel guitars.  There's a grand 10-minute outro track, with a slight classical influence and string backdrop, and it's proof of the band's continued maturation.

If you love moody black metal but tire of constant screams and blast beats, pick this up.

Brandt Brauer Frick: You Make Me Real (!K7)

Brandt Brauer Frick: "Bop"

Only using organic instruments, the members of Brandt Brauer Frick, a German avant-garde acoustic dance trio, create an incomparable take on techno that's filtered through a classical lens.  With any number of layers in a given song, the music is based on textures, as every instrument becomes part of the overlapping rhythms.

You Make Me Real, the trio's debut full-length, exudes the influence of minimalist composers like John Cage and Steve Reich – including a bit of “prepared piano,” which Cage made famous – but undoubtedly, it wants you to dance.  In addition to the piano, there is a small army of instruments making this happen, including pizzicato strings, bass clarinet, tuba, timpani, and other percussive objects, and each builds in a mess of polyrhythms that always keeps a steady dance beat.

The group’s video for “Bop” gives an interesting glimpse of the process, visualizing every looped layer as they’re introduced.  Going forward, the group will tour as a 10-piece ensemble to accurately replicate the album, and that figures to be just as engaging.

Honorable Mentions

Broughton's Rules: Bounty Hunter 1853 (Relapse)

Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain (Fire)

Killing the Dream: Lucky Me (Deathwish)

Southern Culture on the Skids: The Kudzu Ranch

William Tyler: Behold the Spirit (Tomkins Square)

V/A: Revelation 150: Past Present, Breaking Out the Classics (Revelation) [50% of profits go to Human Rights Watch]

John Zorn: Ipsissimus (Tzadik, 10/5/10)

John Zorn: "Warlock"

Morrow: In 2006, indefatigable composer John Zorn launched another of his countless ensembles — Moonchild, a sludgy power trio built around vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn, and drummer Joey Baron.  In the four albums that began with Moonchild: Songs without Words, Zorn has used the group to explore heavy and spastic improvisations amid composed riffs and directed song structures.

The lineup has expanded a bit for a few releases, but that wild trio is the group's heart, with Patton offering wordless shrieks, chants, and vocal spasms over Dunn and Baron's distorted notes and progressive rhythms.  Ipsissimus is the group's fifth release in less than five years, and it's the first to prominently feature the guitar work of Marc Ribot, who appeared on one track of the 2008 release The Crucible.

Hajduch: In description, this sounds like a whole lot of John Zorn's projects (in the case of Naked City, you sub out Mike Patton and add Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms, but the description still fits to an extent).  In practice, it's very different.  Patton feels extraneous to an extent — like Attila Csihar's work with Mayhem, it can seem sort of like there is just this guy, making noises.  But also like Attila/Mayhem, there are moments where it just fits perfectly and feels exactly right.

The other notable thing about the music here is how fluid Baron's drum work is.  He slips from push beats to half-time to triads in a way that doesn't seem wanky or ridiculous, but that shifts the groove of the music seismically.  There are also moments where Patton's shriek and Zorn's bleat are near-indistinguishable, which brings to mind some sort of terrifying Mike Patton-with-saxophone-head chimera nightmare — a walking saxophone with slicked-back hair that is way shorter in person than you imagined.

Morrow: I hear what you're saying about Patton, but I wouldn't say that he's superfluous.  I think that because much of what he's doing is improvised and wordless, you can get that feeling of "oh, I've heard this before."  But yeah, there are moments when he fits perfectly with what's happening, like on the nearly Native American chants and wispy falsettos of "The Book of Los" (which, again, precede total vocal freak-outs).

Ribot's guitar plays a key role in broadening the Moonchild palette here, even if it's not as diversified as on Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, which utilized keyboardist Jamie Saft, electronics maven Ikue Mori, and a handful of vocalists.  But Ribot's skills can't be understated, and it's nice to hear a little high-end complement to Dunn's mammoth bass notes.

Hajduch: Ribot's guitar work is illuminating and adds a lot to these songs.  He's comfortable with a more dissonant style that slots nicely between Zorn and Patton and the more melodic, understated playing that he's used with Electric Masada.  Maybe "superfluous" was the wrong word for Patton's contributions — they often fit in nicely enough — but sometimes they're ridiculous enough that they completely distract from the music as a whole.

Overall, Ipsissimus is a great listen, threading many of Zorn's seemingly disparate sounds together and showcasing some excellent performances (Dunn's bass workout "The Changeling" is huge).  And if you like a more dissonant take on modern music, you'd be wise to give it a listen.

Morrow: Definitely, and after Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, which offered a little more variety, this might be my favorite Moonchild release.  But we should put that big "experimental" disclaimer on this, because it's not for the faint of heart.

Most bands rely on the pipes and charisma of their lead singers to tell a story. Sometimes, though, it’s the voiceless, abstract messages of our surroundings — flickering streetlamps, wrinkles on faces, magnetic fields — that have the greatest impact on our actions and memories.

In the case of Ahleuchatistas, an instrumental avant-rock trio from Asheville, North Carolina, the band’s music, in many cases, is as stunning for what it isn’t as for what it is. Forget vocals, forget distortion, forget the whole concept of studio effects.

This is instrumental performance at its purest, captured and bottled like a cloud of frenzied fireflies. But unlike a jarful of lightning bugs, Ahleuchatistas’ sound doesn’t wilt inside its packaging. It thrives in the space between past and present that recordings generate, gaining a new layer of meaning each time it’s played.

Ahleuchatistas was started in 2003 by bassist Derek Poteat and guitarist Shane Perlowin. Poteat and Perlowin were friends from a short-lived improvisational jazz and rock group that did the club circuit in Asheville, but they had bigger ambitions for their new project. When original drummer Sean Dail was brought in, the trinity was complete.

Poteat says that Ahleuchatistas has never consciously sought to impress. “I think we’re more focused on creating mood and feeling rather than trying to blow the listener away,” he says. “There’s a big technical aspect to the music too, but it’s never technical just for the sake of being technical.”

“There are some elements of what we do that are similar to math rock, but math rock is more about riffs and repeating. What we’re trying to do, especially with the newer songs, is push the boundaries of what people would perceive to be rock ’n’ roll.”

More than anything, the music is about getting people to think. As Poteat puts it, “People really don’t think enough about things before taking them in, so we try to get them to pause and figure out what they’re hearing, what they’re consuming, before they swallow it.”

The band does this by using unexpected sounds and, more importantly, by breaking the silence at unexpected times. The resultant songs pull you in with their emotion but demand careful listening due to their complexity — and the element of surprise. They don’t just invite you to deconstruct them; they require it.

It’s tempting to call Ahleuchatistas’ sound math rock due to its complex rhythms and technical precision and because, like calculus, it can require some cerebral calisthenics to fully comprehend. “There are some elements of what we do that are similar to math rock, but math rock is more about riffs and repeating,” Poteat says. “What we’re trying to do, especially with the newer songs, is push the boundaries of what people would perceive to be rock ’n’ roll.”

For Ahleuchatistas, this self-exploration has involved burrowing into the nooks of jazz and the crannies of avant-garde classical compositions, such as those of John Zorn. Poteat and Perlowin have been listening to Zorn’s music for longer than they’ve been playing together. What they didn’t know was that Zorn was listening to their songs too.

Two years ago, when the band was trying to re-release its second album, Perlowin sent some tracks to Zorn on a whim. A few weeks later, Zorn was on the phone, expressing his admiration for the band’s work and volunteering to put out the disc on his own label, Tzadik. Things were quiet on the Zorn front as Ahleuchatistas toured and wrote new material in 2009, but once it composed enough songs for an album, there Zorn was again, volunteering to record them.

It all has felt a bit strange, Poteat admits, because each of these collaborations has happened over the phone or in cyberspace. “People will ask what he’s like, and I’m always saying, ‘He seems like this really nice guy, but I don’t really know him,’” Poteat says. “I know I really like his work and how he handled the production of our work, but he’s still sort of a mystery to us.”

A similar sort of mystery shaped the group’s recent search for a new drummer. Before Ryan Oslance joined Ahleuchatistas’ ranks in 2008, the band notified its MySpace friends that it was looking for a new member, a move that’s typical of a band just finding its bearings but unusual for one with an established fan base and a sound that requires some serious talent to create.

“We parted ways with [Dail] and had five weeks until our next tour, so we were trying to think of ways to find somebody good pretty fast,” Poteat says. “A lot of people replied and said, ‘You’re kidding, right?’ But then we got these audio tracks from Ryan, he flew down from Chicago, and it came together like puzzle pieces.”

Since adding Oslance to the lineup, the band has veered away from the overtly political messages of earlier albums, which included tracks called “Al Jazeera,” “Post-Colonial Nausea,” and “Remember Rumsfeld at Abu Ghraib.” The tracks on its new album, Of the Body Prone, released in September of 2009, tackle similar topics but with oblique, sometimes humorous titles.

“Dancing with the Stars” starts with spacey guitar transmissions and wiggly bass lines that sound like muted alien conversations. Swiftly shifting time signatures create a sense of being drawn off course by a very strong magnet. When drums burst into the song, it’s as if you’ve been sucked into the wormhole.

Meanwhile, on “Why Can’t We Be in Jamaica?”, a solo of percussive popcorn gives way to a drum-and-bass duet that begins in perfect unison, then unravels into an explosive juggling act in which fiery drum beats, bass barbs, and bombshells of guitar somersault and ricochet off one another.

Watching this chaos unfold slowly, carefully controlled by the musicians, is perhaps even more exciting — and shocking — than seeing it self-destruct at warp speed. Not only is this level of control difficult to pull off, but it reveals the details and precision that go into creating anarchy, building anticipation in the process.

Though a marketing executive might call it mood music for the post-9/11 era, for Ahleuchatistas, Of the Body Prone is more of a psychology experiment, one that ventures into the realm of mad science.

“We really tried to say, ‘Let’s work within these parameters and see what we come up with,’ and do things like adjust the timbre of the song to see how it affects listeners’ emotions,” Poteat says. “We’re not just using the changes between the parts of the song to do that anymore, so I think the album shows how much our songwriting has progressed.”

Poteat also hopes that artistic progress will sow the seeds of social progress — or at least a bit more social criticism. Whether this happens isn’t up to the band, however, but through the listeners’ ears and lovely, languishing brains.

A guzheng player tapes a pick to each finger of the right hand; the left is used more for ornamentation, but an advanced player will tape picks to the fingers of both hands. Sometimes a player plays elegantly, evoking images of the Chinese countryside or an ancient temple, and at other times he or she might play more energetically, providing a wilder image like horses galloping.

What you almost never hear, however, is anything improvisational or experimental.  That is, of course, unless you’re listening to Wu Fei. She has managed, somehow, to make these seemingly incongruous elements work together in a fascinating and beautiful way. Like most artists, her ability did not come about accidentally, for Wu is indeed, as she says, “an old-school craftsman” who has taken to heart everything she has learned and observed during her varied life, even though it has left her stranded in a place between two cultures.

Born into a “lao Beijing” (old Beijing) family, Wu was assigned to the guzheng by her parents by the time that she was five. As musicians themselves, they had noticed her penchant for melodies and accurate pitch, and they were determined to get her on the path toward a musical existence. This involved living a life that was quite unlike most of her peers.

“I couldn’t do anything but practice,” she says. “From when I was about five years old, I had to finish my homework during school at break time between classes, so I wouldn’t have to do homework when I got home, so that I could have a solid two hours to practice every day. When I was seven, I was in a choir. At eight, I was going to the conservatory to get training and some music theory every weekend. I started playing in Chinese ensembles when I was nine and an orchestra when I was ten. I almost did nothing else except music.”

Just like other teenagers, Wu grew more independent as she got older. She didn’t want to spend all of her time working; she just wanted to be young like her friends. She grew frustrated at her diverted youth, developing a poor relationship with her father during her teenage years.

Yet despite the tediousness of her early life, the hard work paid off when Wu was accepted into one of the best conservatories in the city, the China Conservatory of Music. This immediately changed her attitude.

“When I got into the conservatory, I felt, ‘Wow, this is pretty awesome,’” she says. “The entrance exams were so difficult, and I had this overnight realization, just seeing how few students from all over the country got in, and we had the best musician teachers in the whole country protecting us, raising us like little genius kids. We were just so privileged.”

The students were so privileged, in fact, that even their parents were told by the school’s teachers to lay off the children. “My composition professor had a serious talk with my father right after I got into the conservatory,” Wu says. “Because he noticed that I was acting kind of nervous around my dad, he told him, ‘If your daughter’s going to become a composer, then her mind needs to be freed; it needs to be liberated.  She cannot behave like this. She needs outrage, or to do some crazy things. So don’t make her feel nervous.’”

As a student of composition, Wu had studied plenty of Western composers. But she felt that in order to truly grasp them, she needed to get closer to the subject matter.  So she moved to the United States, and from 2000–2002, she worked on her undergrad music degree in the composition department of the University of North Texas College of Music.

Adjusting to university life can be tough for anyone, never mind someone who has moved to a completely new culture and country to do it. At that time, there weren’t many Chinese students in the music program, and there were none in the composition program. That sense of isolation was bad for Wu, but things became worse after a seemingly innocuous question from a professor.

“I remember when my first professor asked me a question about composition,” she says.

“He asked me, ‘Why do you feel like you need to compose music?’ I was stunned. [It was] the simplest question, and I didn’t know how to answer it. My mind just went blank. Nobody had asked me that before in my life. I was put on this path.  I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He was like, ‘If you want a career, you need to think about it!’

"I was really troubled for quite a long time, almost depressed. I thought I had been betrayed somehow, that I was put on this path without knowing what to do about it. Before that I was excellent, a top student, promising young composer, the future of Chinese music. Suddenly, I felt like I had wasted my time. I hadn’t figured out who I was with all these crowns on my head.”

Her salvation came in the form of a master class that she took with Frederic Rzewski. His advice led her to Mills College, where she completed her master’s in music composition from 2002–2004, studying from people like Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, and Joëlle Léandre. It proved to be a pivotal decision, but one that took time to welcome. If her early life in the States was about trying to live in a different culture, then her early life in Mills was like trying to live on a different planet.

“The first semester, I was completely confused,” Wu says. “I thought I had chosen the wrong school. It’s a very experimentally oriented, artistic, avant-garde style. Students are really good players and really good improvisers, or electronic musicians who can’t read any music at all but have just brilliant minds. At the same time, I’m there, [with] the sort of traditional, classical background, like a craftsman. But they’re doing so many weird things! I was really confused!”

Having never much listened to that style of music, Wu felt like she had chosen poorly. She even went to see Frith and told him that she wanted to quit. This place was just too different for her, too confusing. He convinced her to try to embrace it and give it one more semester.

“And that’s when I really started to study improvisation,” she says. “The teachers there were quite brilliant. So that got me thinking, ‘Maybe this is an interesting place that I can get something worthy out of.’ Once I started studying improv, I just loved it — almost overnight. I never knew you could create music like that.”

Her professional life progressed pretty quickly. She toured Europe, made a successful and well-received first album called A Distant Youth, and spent time in New York. She started playing at The Stone, a performance space run by prolific composer John Zorn, at the invitation of multi-instrumentalist Elliot Sharp.

She had the opportunity to play with such people as Eric Friedlander, Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood), Serbian composer Stevan Tickmayer, Lukas Ligeti, Evan Parker, and Miya Masaoka.  Arguably the most important moment came when she played in an improv group with Zorn, giving her the opportunity to meet him and pass along her CD. He contacted her two days later, wanting her to do a record for Tzadik under his composer series.

Yuan was the title of the album, which was released in 2008, and it featured ensemble pieces for traditional Chinese instruments like the guzheng, dizi (a bamboo flute), erhu (a small, two-stringed violin-type instrument that rests on the knee), and the pipa (a four-stringed lute) as well as for piano and percussion.

As one can tell strictly from that range of instruments, Yuan is not just about traditional Chinese music but a fusion of elements from both sides of the globe. The images of the ancient Chinese temple are still evoked by the soft caresses of the guzheng, the pleasant whine of the erhu, the clang of Beijing opera gongs, and all the other assorted Chinese instruments, but that temple has been placed within a Western concert hall and complemented by its piano, marimba, glockenspiel, tambourines, and other elements. With this and her first CD, Wu has brought some traditional Chinese music to the ears of the West within the context of its own instrumentation. But can she also bring sounds and elements of the West to China in a similar way?

“Music here in general is pretty crappy,” she says. “It’s not that the people don’t have a taste for good music; it’s just that they’re not exposed to it. When they see a violin or piano doing improv, they just think, ‘Oh, well, that’s just their form.’ But when they see a traditional Chinese instrument doing innovative stuff, you can see in their eyes that they’re really interested, really thinking about it. And actually, I incorporate a lot of traditional Chinese elements into the new music, and they really like it because they feel familiar with the sound, but they realize that it’s something new that they’ve never heard. Even older folks, like 55-year-olds, find it really interesting. Audiences need to be educated as well. So it’s changing, but the mainstream in China is so powerful [that] it’s hard to break.”

So there’s hope that improv and genre mixing will catch on with the people of China, and there’s hope that someone like Wu Fei can increase the understanding between the two cultures by straddling that place that lies between them, and showing each aspects of “the other” that they can enjoy. Recognition from her own government, however, seems to be farther from coming to fruition.

“My friend was in charge of the China new-music section at the Europalia International Arts Festival in Belgium in 2009, which was the year they highlighted Chinese music,” she says. “They asked me to provide a list of artists who I think are interesting, who the Belgian audience should see, in the innovative area. So I gave them a list, and of course, the Chinese government didn’t approve all of them, and they need to approve it. I heard through the Belgian officials that the Chinese culture ministers had said that because I had an American passport, I couldn’t play the festival — that I wasn’t allowed to represent Chinese culture. And do you know what’s ironic? During this whole new-music festival, I was the only one who played a traditional Chinese instrument!”