power

Crystal Antlers’ Tentacles on Touch and Go is amazing. True, their name has hipsterism written all over and how many more “Crystal somethings” we can tolerate might be hot topic, but if you are into the new jangly, noisy, power pop/punk school coming frmo NY and LA, like No Age, Wavves, Vivian Girls, Cause-Co Motion et al, Crystal Antlers’ Tentacles is a must have from 2009.

San Diego instrumental-prog rockers Sleeping People was one of the last real finds of 2007. Released on Temporary Residence the label, which also hosts Explosions in the Sky, Tarantel and Maserati and Grails among others, “Growing” is a straight forward instrumental rock album with trailing guitar riffs and rock solid drumming.

Here’s the last part, from now on new music!!
05 A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble – Self Titled
04 High on Fire – Death Is This Communion
03 Upsilon Acrux – Galapagos Momentum
02 Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm
01 Future of the Left – Curses

15 Battles – Mirrored (Warp Records) : Everybody’s been talking about “Mirrored” this year, and they kind of deserve it for getting their oddtimed dissonant music to find strange acclaim from mainstream circles as well as mathheads.
14 Deejay OM – Reheated Naan and Curry (Galapagos4) : A fine hybrid of Indian samples mixed with beats. Somehow liked it much more than Madlib’s take. Past

Cuneiform never fails to impress us with a steady supply of brilliant albums. Here’s a new album, by the band that I still haven’t been able to pronounce correctly : Ahleuchatistas. The North Carolina power trio belongs to the increasing number of brilliant progressive math rock albums that I’ve been listening to this year, full of odd times, shifting rhythms, janglnig guitars and other extremities.

We’ve been slacking on posting avantjazz for a while since I haven’t found anything notable to listen these days (care to help? comment pls.) so here’s 2006’s Action Jazz by Mats Gustafsson’s The Thingon Smalltown Supersound.

An excellent return to form by the all powerful Steve Albini, producer of countless milestone albums, this time with his own band Shellac, which has been silent since 2000’s 1000 Hurts. It’s been well worth the wait as “Excellent Italian Greyhound” is aesthetically and musically sublime.

Do you like Klezmer music? Are you also a fan of high intensity in your face speed punk metal? Then this album is for you. Kletka Red’s “Hijacking” came out in 1996 on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. It’s Klezmer on crank.