Clash's Top 40 Albums of 2012

Recorded after Damon Albarn spurred the soul great’s return to music as a guest in Gorillaz, Bobby Womack’s final album evokes his past glories while sounding contemporary. Musical settings range from the title track’s symphonic trip-hop to the eerie electro-gospel of “If There Wasn’t Something There” to a haunting duet with Lana Del Rey on “Dayglo Reflection.” But for all their variety, the songs keep Womack’s weathered yet impassioned voice front and center, ensuring he gets the swan song he deserves.

Named after the keystroke for making a delta (i.e., triangle) sign on a Mac by holding down the Alt and J keys, the Leeds, England–based trio Alt-J is inspired by the symbol’s mathematical definition of change. This makes sense upon hearing the band’s handsome 2012 debut album, *An Awesome Wave*. Its take on postmodern pop mines the best elements from folk-rock, garage rock, dub-pop, indie rock, vintage cinema scores, and a cappella harmony before constructing layered, angular arrangements with sonic ore. Following a dramatic piano part, the opening “Intro” weaves heavily reverberated baritone guitar leads (à la Ennio Morricone) over and around looped beats and random vocal samples that all come together to play like the sons of The Beta Band. These contrast the pointed, geometric arrangements of “Tessellate” with Joe Newman’s flowing, throaty vocals and backing harmonies, which hover above the music like those of Fleet Foxes. Then, in “Breezeblocks”—a mechanically grooving standout in which a toy piano provides the lead—he inflects like Devendra Banhart imitating Jason Mraz, with overt affectation. \"Hand Made” closes with folky minimalism.

Stepping away from both the pop songwriting machine and his former crew Odd Future’s stoned anarchy, Frank Ocean guides us on a meandering but purposeful journey through his own vast mythological universe on his major-label debut. *Channel ORANGE* breezes from sepia-toned Stevie Wonder homage (“Sweet Life”) to the corrosive cosmic funk of “Pyramids,” which stretches from ancient pharaoh queens to 21st-century pimps. Rendered in pristine detail with calm, dazzled awe, even his most fantastical narratives feel somehow familiar—at once unprecedented and timeless.

© 2012 The Island Def Jam Music Group ℗ 2012 The Island Def Jam Music Group

Now here is some amusing, candy-coated anarchy. For the blown-out punk-rap act’s second record and (somehow!) their major-label debut, Death Grips fuse abrasive techno with shouted and amped-up hip-hop and crazed distorted backing loops. The Sacramento, Calif.–based group brings together producer Zach Hill of the avant-metal act Hella with vocalist Stefan Burnett and coproducer Andy Morin. Lyrically, there’s a bit of the Rage Against the Machine problem at work here. Songs like “I’ve Seen Footage” and “Get Got” icily remark on the proliferation of violence and the way it desensitizes youth. It’s also easy to see how desensitized youth would just think it’s cool. Two of the least venerated forms of the \'90s—electroclash and digital hardcore—are resuscitated in a way that will cause parents the world over to politely ask that that music be turned down. Yet it\'s undeniably good—always layered and frequently strange.

Recorded over three weeks in a darkened room, the third album from Canadian singer/producer Grimes, a.k.a. Claire Boucher, packs an idiosyncratic punch. At once grating and soothing, melodic and dissonant, *Visions* manages to sound like a pop record above all else, with contorted melodies that seep into your brain. Boucher tangles up her eerie falsetto with crackling beats and pinging synths, resulting in a gnarled amalgam of textures—electro-pop rendered as splatter art. It\'s fascinating and wholly original all the way through.

Electronic pop auteur Flying Lotus (a.k.a. Steven Ellison) displays a new clarity of vision on Until the Quiet Comes as he reins in the scattershot tendencies of 2010’s Cosmogramma in favor of a more unified approach. The composer/producer still offers inspired pastiches of jazz, hip-hop and ambient sounds. But where his earlier work could be intentionally jarring, this album takes the listener on a smoothly-sequenced journey through inner landscapes. Ellison is aided by such notables as Erykah Badu (floating diva-like above the tribal groove of “See Thru to U”), Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (making his dark presence felt in “Electric Candyman”) and the Long Lost’s Laura Darlington (cooing her way through the eerie expanses of “Phantasm”). There’s plenty of sinewy pulsation amidst the billowing electronica, supplied by Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner’s insistent bass lines and Ellison’s jittery programmed beats. From the funkified growl of “The Nightcaller” to the robotic munchkin twitch of “Putty Boy Strut” and the sweet psyche-soul of “DMT Song,” Flying Lotus infuses the album with mystical vibes laced with subversive humor. Unearthly yet inviting, Until the Quiet Comes’ sonic spell is hard to resist.

With disparate contributions from its four members, Grizzly Bear’s sound has long been multifaceted and thoughtfully layered. Repeated listening is frequently rewarded with newly discovered textures and details. “Sleeping Ute” opens *Shields*, the group’s fourth studio album, and is almost like a three-movement piece; alt-country–tinged guitar and bass introduce the song before a swirl of keyboards, buzzy guitars, and thunderous drumming transpires. A vocal and Spanish-style acoustic guitar outro make for an unresolved conclusion. *Shields*\' most straight-ahead modern rock number, “Yet Again,” is in the melodically accessible vein of “Two Weeks” from Grizzly Bear’s previous release, *Veckatimest*. A showcase for multi-instrumentalist Christopher Bear’s tuned percussion and lyrical drumming, “A Simple Answer” is bathed in emotive longing. There’s an addictive new wave pop sound to the nuanced “gun-shy,” while “Sun in Your Eyes” starts and ends as a piano ballad, transforming into a chamber rock *pièce de résistance* in between.

Australian musician Kevin Parker is a bit of a musical savant. Although Tame Impala tours as a band, the group\'s psychedelic trip-pop is pretty much due to Parker\'s writing, playing, and even producing. Parker sidekick and collaborator Jay Watson shares songwriting credit this time around, notably on two standout tracks: \"Elephant\" (an impossibly delectable blend of Sabbath stomp and Syd Barrett trippy-ness) and \"Apocalypse Dreams\" (a gorgeous, chameleonic tune that reflects Parker\'s noted influence, Todd Rundgren). And though it\'s hard to hear the opening \"Be Above It\" or \"Mind Mischief\" without detecting some *Revolver*- and *Sgt. Pepper\'s*–era Beatles in the songs\' DNA, *Lonerism* is loaded with more synthesizers and ambient sounds than guitars. It\'s definitely a more pop-oriented album than the crunchy *Innerspeaker*, and it reveals another compelling side to Tame Impala. (Check out Watson\'s other band POND, and its LP *Beard, Wives, Denim*, for another dose of satisfying psych-rock.)

West Coast hip-hop elders like Snoop and Dre have virtually anointed Kendrick Lamar to carry on the legacy of gangsta rap. His second studio album *good kid, M.A.A.d city*, conceptual enough to be a rock opera, certainly uplifts the genre with its near-biblical themes: religion vs. violence and monogamy vs. lust. Verbally nimble, Lamar experiments with a variety of different lyrical styles, from the Bone Thugz-type of delivery on “Swimming Pools (Drank)” to the more straightforward orthodox G-funk flow on “m.A.A.d. City feat. MC Eiht.” Like prog rock, Lamar’s tracks have songs within songs—sudden tempo changes with alter egos and embedded interludes, such as unscripted recordings of his parents asking for their car back and neighborhood homies planning their latest conquest. These snippets pepper the album providing an anthropological glimpse into his life in Compton.

Neneh Cherry is best known to the pop world as the artist who gave us \"Buffalo Stance,\" but as the stepdaughter of jazz legend Don Cherry, she\'s always been well educated in less popular and artsy strains of music. This collaboration with Scandinavian free-jazz trio The Thing (which took its name from a Don Cherry tune)—like her ventures with Gorillaz, Groove Armada, Massive Attack, and Tricky—illustrates her versatility as a singer, plus her fellow musicians\' eclectic taste and ability to transform material into something entirely new. Their version of Suicide\'s \"Dream Baby Dream\" brews for more than eight minutes, with Mats Gustafsson\'s sax, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten\'s upright bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love\'s drums forming a web of sound that\'s rich beyond its simplicity. The sound is that of an experienced trio whose members have established lines of communication within the notes. The Stooges\' \"Dirt\" retains its punkish hue, while Gustafsson\'s sax hits fever pitch. Ornette Coleman\'s \"What Reason Could I Give\" evokes a gentler side.

There\'s not a whisper of second album jitters on this follow-up from fearsomely singular childhood friends Jamie Smith, Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft. But—while opener “Angel” plays like an even leaner take on their signature witching hour sound—there’s discernible evolution in all those sonic spaces. “Reunion” boasts the unexpected calypso of synthesized steelpan, and “Our Song” is a warped, strangely intimate duet that lets Madley Croft and Sim’s vocals intertwine like tangled limbs.

Toronto R&B enigma Abel Tesfaye presents his landmark trifecta of mixtapes in one bleak, woozy stretch. Over *Trilogy*’s three hours, we descend ever deeper into the antihero’s decadent universe: Tesfaye pours Alizé in his cereal over bleary synth washes on “The Morning,” and that’s about as PG as he gets. But for all its doomy R&B nihilism—\"House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls\" combines sex, drugs, and Siouxsie samples—\"D.D.\" hints at Tesfaye\'s interest in joining pop’s one-gloved upper echelon.

Instead of grand drama and sometimes-bombastic crescendos, we get a quieter, sparer Efterklang on *Pirameda*, which may be largely due to the circumstances surrounding the recording. *Pirameda* is less muscular than 2010\'s *Magic Chairs*—Efterklang\'s first for the 4AD label and first with the more modest scale. The basics for *Pirameda*\'s 10 beautiful and ghostly tracks were recorded before the trio visited an abandoned Russian mining town on an Arctic island. They integrated thousands of field recordings (using empty fuel tanks, architectural debris, etc.) from the island into songs mostly built on gentle, reassuring rhythms, muted percussion, and the unadorned, vulnerable vocals of Casper Clausen. The album is drenched in a feeling of isolation, of exploration and contemplation. There\'s an occasional chorus of angels (as on \"Dreams Today\"), a handful of majestic horns (\"Apples,\" \"Black Summer,\" \"Ghost\"), and shy layers of pianos and graceful synths (everywhere). But it\'s a patient and quietly cinematic affair, one well worth visiting.

Having waded deeper into electronic waters with *Merriweather Post Pavilion*, the onetime freak-folkies in Animal Collective discover vast new worlds of color and texture on *Centipede Hz*. “Applesauce” tosses jangly ‘60s garage pop down a funhouse hall of mirrors; “Today’s Supernatural” heaves like a roller-coaster in a hurricane, yet it\'s also one of their catchiest songs ever. “Rosie Oh” exemplifies their effortless balancing act between lilting vocal harmonies and wildly psychedelic details: Writhing like a bag of centipedes, it’s nevertheless eminently hummable.

On Centipede Hz, Animal Collective return to being a four-piece, an event that is reflected in the widescreen completeness of the album. This is a panoramic set of songs that shimmer with the confidence and wonder of Animal Collective’s unique inner logic and the luminous warmth of their sound world.

A NOTE FROM MICHAEL GIRA “The Seer took 30 years to make. It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it’s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It’s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade. The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while. Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I’m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy!" HOW THE SONGS CAME TO BE The songs The Seer, Ave. B Blues, Avatar, and The Apostate were developed organically as a group in rehearsals and on tour. They morphed constantly throughout the last series of Swans tours, and were captured and lovingly adorned in the studio. The remaining songs on the album were developed from the ground up in the studio with the participation and input of all the contributing musicians, guided by an invisible hand... Recorded at Studio P4 and Andere Baustelle in Berlin, by Kevin McMahon and at Marcata Studio, Gardiner, NY, by Kevin McMahon. Additional recording at Trout Recording, Brooklyn, NY, engineer: Bryce Goggin. Mixed by Kevin McMahon at Marcata. Produced by Michael Gira. FULL CREDITS SWANS Michael Gira voice, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, casio, sounds Norman Westberg electric guitar, voice Christoph Hahn lap steel guitars; electric guitar, voice Phil Puleo drums, percussion, hammer dulcimer, voice Thor Harris drums, percussion, orchestral bells, hammer dulcimer, handmade violin thing, vibraphone, piano, clarinet, voice Christopher Pravdica bass guitar, voice, incredible handshake Honorary Swan: Bill Rieflin piano, organ, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, percussion, casio, synthesizer, bass guitar, voice, bird idea SPECIAL GUESTS Karen O lead vocal on Song for a Warrior (Karen appears courtesy Interscope Records) Al and Mimi of Low co-vocals on Lunacy Jarboe backing vocals and voice collage on Piece of the Sky and backing vocals on The Seer Returns Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton, Dana Janssen (Akron/Family) backing vocals on Piece of the Sky Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella of Big Blood accordion, vocals, dulcimer, guitar, piano and assorted other instruments on the Seer Returns Sean Mackowiak (the grasshopper) acoustic and electric mandolins, clarinet, various songs Ben Frost fire sounds (acoustic and synthetic) on Piece of the Sky Iain Graham bagpipes on The Seer Bruce Lamont horns on The Seer Bob Rutman steel cello on The Seer Cassis Staudt accordion various songs Eszter Balint violin, various songs Jane Scarpatoni cello various songs Kevin McMahon additional drums on the Seer Returns, electric guitar, sounds on various songs Bryce Goggin piano on Song for a Warrior Stefan Rocke contra bassoon on the Seer Produced by Michael Gira. Recorded at Studio P4 and Andere Baustelle in Berlin, by Kevin McMahon, assistants Marco and Boris, and at Marcata Studio, Gardiner, NY, by Kevin McMahon. Additional recording at Trout Recording, Brooklyn, NY, engineer: Bryce Goggin, assistant: Adam Sachs. Mixed by Kevin McMahon at Marcata. Mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose Berlin. Pre-mastering by Jamal Ruhe at West Westside Music. Artwork: Paintings and Swans photo portraits by Simon Henwood.

Minneapolis continues its golden run of producing quality talent with the first project to arrive out the Gayngs collective, the super slick electronic pop-soul outfit POLIÇA. Fronted by ice cool vocalist Channy Leanagh who sang with Gayngs, produced by Ryan Olson and featuring Mike Noyce from Bon Iver, it’s a who’s who of the current Twin Cities scene. Continuing the tradition of having friends in high places with Prince and Kanye West among Gayngs fans, POLIÇA have already been backed by none other than Jay Z who posted their video for the new for single ‘Lay Your Cards Out’ on his Life + Times blog: lifeandtimes.com/lifetimes-video-premier-polica-lay-your-cards-out After collaborating in the studio and live with Gayngs in 2010, it became apparent that Channy and Ryan should form a group of their own. “As touring progressed and Channy got more comfortable with the band and singing the songs, she would reinvent the parts she was doing in brilliant ways. It made me want to see where else she could go” explains Olson. Ryan’s pop sensibilities and electronic adventurism would prove to be the perfect vehicle for Channy’s recent growth and evolution as a vocalist and dynamic experimentalist. In June 2011, they began writing together what would become POLIÇA’s debut album, Give You The Ghost. The result is 11 perfectly formed auto-tuned songs that re-shape the intersection of pop and digitised R&B. And for all POLIÇA’s synthetic manipulation, Channy’s soft vocals and Ryan’s electronic soundscapes reveal a tender heart beneath, pulsating with life and raw emotion. Give You The Ghost opens with the attention grabbing sonic of first track ‘Amongster’, the two drummers immediately coming into full effect as it builds to a heady mass of beats, bass and Channy’s wandering vocals. ‘Violent Games’ continues the heavy on the drums theme, with duelling beats that intensify to machine gun-like levels, led by Channy’s urgent and cyclical vocals “Tremble at the taste of / Tremble at the taste of / Tremble at the taste of in his hands”. Born out of the break-up of a recent relationship, the majority of Give You The Ghost reflects the difficulty of facing up to your mistakes and making peace with them; an exorcism via exciting new musical possibilities. “The recurring theme of this record is ‘what in the hell just happened and who in the hell am I anyways’” says Channy. This redemptive mood is key for the track ‘Dark Star’, released online late last year amidst a viral whirlwind. Backed by smooth brass breakdowns throughout and mid-tempo loping rhythms, it’s typical of POLIÇA’s often meditative content fused with the addictive refrain “Ain’t a man who can pull me down from my Dark Star”. First sashaying single proper ‘Lay Your Cards Out’ and the dreamy ‘Wandering Star’ both feature Mike Noyce of Bon Iver on vocals and are equally as deliciously funk laden as they are hypnotic, with more ratatat drums from Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson, propelling the lush arrangements and slinky bass, provided by Chris Bierden. The name POLIÇA refers to the word ‘policy’, meaning a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, suggesting they were formed out of necessity. Which is exactly how this album feels and sounds; urgent, original and genre defying, POLIÇA are absolutely essential in 2012.

Jimmy Cliff’s anthemic compositions “The Harder They Come” and “Many Rivers to Cross” are among reggae’s most recognizable tunes, and his portrayal of populist gangster Ivanhoe Martin in the film *The Harder They Come* gave reggae its greatest bad-man archetype. Cliff’s 2012 release *Rebirth* is a collaboration between the rough-throated singer/producer and Tim Armstrong, frontman for Bay Area punk revivalists Rancid. Armstrong’s ear is unusually attuned to classic reggae\'s rhythms and textures, and he provides Cliff with a warm, organic sound that evokes the bubbling atmosphere of Kingston in the late ‘60s, an era when Cliff’s tales of hardscrabble sufferers were played end-to-end with soulful rocksteady by the likes of The Wailers and The Sensations and stomping rude-boy tunes by Prince Buster and Honeyboy Martin. That’s not to say *Rebirth* is completely revivalist. Indeed, some of its strongest moments come when Cliff puts his unique spin on rock numbers like The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton\" or Rancid’s own “Ruby Soho,\" which in Cliff’s hands becomes a bracing ska workout. 

The digital edition of Shackleton’s latest release slaps a series of widescreen EPs (*The Drawbar Organ*) alongside an equally ambitious album (*Music for the Quiet Hour*), leaving open-minded listeners with nearly two and a half hours of new music to wade through. And what a daunting digestive tract of sonic detritus this is, sending the producer’s singular version of percussive bass music through a dizzying array of ominous pipe organs, vaporized vocals, slow-building beatscapes, frothy feedback, hazy red herrings, and paranoid spoken-word passages (the abstract poetry of Vengeance Tenfold, which emerges from the ether like the learned words of a post-apocalyptic wiseman). As for what separates Shackleton’s EPs from his latest long-player, that’s really a matter of mood and tempo. While *The Drawbar Organ* is spacious and sound-designy, *Music for the Quiet Hour* is as live and direct as this kind of thing (read: experimental but engrossing) gets. To quote one of Vengeance Tenfold\'s standout lines, \"Music is the weapon of the future.\" Indeed.

Perfume Genius is Mike Hadreas, a Seattle songwriter whose jarring 2010 debut album, Learning, was called “an album of rare, redemptive beauty…one of the most uniquely endearing and quietly forceful debut albums of recent years” by Drowned In Sound, and established him as one of the most singular songwriters today. The bulk of Learning sprung from a time of self-imposed isolation in his mother’s suburban home following a period of trauma and self-destruction. The album was actually mastered from second-generation MP3s, as Hadreas had lost the original recordings, and this distant, abraded sound reinforced its harrowing tales and haunting melodies. “No secret/No matter how nasty/Can poison your voice/Or keep you from joy.” – Perfume Genius, “Normal Song” Though Learning’s voyeuristic window into Hadreas’s experiences resonated intensely with many people, his new album Put Your Back N 2 It is much more universal, addressing intimacy, power, family, secrecy, and hope not just through his impressionistic lyrics, but the music itself, which is as lush as Learning was stark. It’s a gorgeous soundtrack for anyone trying to keep it together in everyday life, and about moving forward. “I don’t want it to seem like I’ve been through more than other people,” Hadreas says. “Everyone has stuff. Staying healthy can be more depressing and confusing than being fucked up. But I want to make music that’s honest and hopeful.” The hypnotic songs on Put Your Back N 2 It are tender and moving, but they are also surreal and grand, recalling at times the universality of lullabies and hymns, faraway folk songs, the dramatic arc of a film score, and the almost spiritual quality suggests a kind of opiated gospel. He cites as a primary influence not one of the indie icons to which he’s sometimes compared (Cat Power, Bon Iver, Thom Yorke), but The Innocence Mission (“not their sound, but their timelessness”).

Early on in Matthew Dear's Beams— the New York-based artist's fourth full-length, his first since 2010’s shadowy masterpiece Black City— something strange happens. A thick-fingered electric bass gallops in atop a driving backbeat as Dear sneers, "It’s alright to be someone else sometimes." It may be odd to hear former techno-wunderkind Matthew Dear playing rock music, but the manic punk pulse of "Earthforms" is just one facet of Beams’ kaleidoscopic journey. Shot through with equal parts optimism and uneasiness, Beams is the latest transmission from one of pop music's most fascinating creative minds. Recorded in Dear's home studio and mixed at Nicolas Vernhes' Rare Book Room studios in Brooklyn, Beams evokes a day-lit dreamworld at once strange and familiar. While the album's dancefloor-ready tempos, major keys, and sun-warmed synths signal Beams as the lighter, brighter response to its predecessor, closer inspection reveals a squirming mass of oddball details. Dear's latest productions creak and groan like anxious organisms, with slivers of guitar, electric bass, and drum kit darting in and out among the synths and samples. Beams delights in thoughtful leftfield juxtapositions: the leathery, handclap-heavy funk of "Up & Out" barrels into the anxious wig-out of "Overtime"; the dark, burbling dirge "Shake Me" sets the stage for the melancholic simmer of album closer "Temptation". Beams’ lyrics, meanwhile, are deeply personal, expressing vulnerability and confusion in startlingly immediate ways. "Do I feel love like all of the others or is this feeling only mine?" Dear sings on the strutting lead-off single "Her Fantasy", later wondering "Am I one heartbeat away from receiving a damaging shock to my life?" Dear has grown into his songwriting voice, and he wears his current lyrical perspective—that of a man with something to lose—with an impressive grace. When all is said and done, the central tension in Matthew Dear's Beams— musical mischief vs. lyrical maturity—may not be a tension at all. After all, growing up involves learning to integrate all of one's disparate selves. "I’m about 4 to 5 different people at any given time," Dear says. "By allowing all of those different personalities to exist… the most pure and direct self can come through in the music. [The songs] may still be cryptic, and full of contradictions—but in my opinion, that is pure, unadulterated thought in musical form. They are direct lines to the center." In other words, Beams.

Although Chromatics have substantially changed their lineup since 2002, their 2012 configuration shows a huge development in both musicianship and songwriting. Now with deadpan chanteuse Ruth Radelet on the mic, *Kill for Love* opens with her demure vocals giving “Into the Black” even more tension than on Neil Young’s 1979 recording. The title track blends Italio Disco flourishes with \'90s-inspired indie rock, as Radelet contrasts a catchy vocal melody with a coolly aloof performance. She looks toward Velvet Underground–era Nico for inspiration in “The Page,” most noticeably when singing “I could be your mirror” over cold, gothic guitars that sound imported from The Cure’s *Disintegration*. “These Streets Will Never Look the Same” taps into every young woman’s desire to be Stevie Nicks, with a muted “Edge of Seventeen” guitar stutter that sounds identical to the original.

It doesn\'t take long for Actress\' third album to start toying with your head: only a few seconds, really, as the title track massages your brain stem and sidewinds across your speakers. And with that, we\'re in uncharted territory, caught in a vapor-trailed void between the outermost realms of electronic and experimental music. Darren Cunningham wouldn’t have it any other way. The song titles and press release for *R.I.P.* present it as a heady meditation on mortality, the Book of Genesis, and the producer’s twisted version of Plato’s cave. At least that’s what we *think* it’s about. Yet even if you don’t look at the record’s 15 very different chapters as a sample/synth-driven dissertation, it holds together as a fascinating blend of gauzy house grooves, stark minimalism, static-dredged IDM, extraterrestrial techno, and all-too-brief interludes. Get lost; you’ll enjoy every minute of it.

Before the debut LP from British folk-rock sensation Jake Bugg was even released in the U.S., discerning ears (and nascent fans) may have noticed his music in a Gatorade commercial. The driving, rebellious, Dylan-in-his-youth tune \"Lightning Bolt\" may at first seem like an odd choice for a soundtrack to 60 seconds of Gatorade history, but it works. The song\'s fiery guitar and racing melody electrify like, well, a lightning bolt. Bugg topped the British charts in 2012, at the tender age of 18. This young musician sounds like an old soul, with influences from Johnny Cash to The Everly Brothers and Donovan coloring his work; he\'s been known to cover Jimi Hendrix (his guitar work is astonishing for someone who only started playing at 12). This long-awaited debut is solid from start to end. Among the record\'s many delights are ballads imbued with pop references from the Merseybeat sound to Oasis (\"Note to Self,\" \"Slide\"), barn-burners, quiet fingerpicked gems à la early Dylan (\"Someone Told Me,\" \"Trouble Town\"), and swaggering country-pop (\"Two Fingers\"). He even pays homage to blues icon Robert Johnson on the closing track, \"Fire.\" Smart boy.

“Marconi Union are amongst today’s most talented musicians” – Sunday Times In the realms of modern-day late night ambient exploration, Marconi Union often draw comparisons with Brian Eno and Biosphere, perhaps Sigur Ros, but the graceful manner with which their richly melodic compositions unfold and the emotions these evoke sets them apart from their peers. Even Time Magazine recently hailed one of their tracks, Weightless, as “aural bliss”, and placed it at no. 11 in their Top 50 Inventions of 2011. Across five albums, informed as much by jamaican dub as Joy Division, there are streaks of black humour and pools of shimmering beauty revealed in their slow undulating groove. And however bleak things might sometimes sound, there’s always a glimmer of hope, a faint glint on the horizon. “Marconi Union have steadily released albums of pristine, clinical electronic music over the last decade… continuing to refine their art in minimalist fashion and placing MU firmly in the vanguard of acts making atmospheric, ambient music” Music OMH Marconi Union’s new album, Different Colours, their sixth, is the first to prominently feature the work of pianist Duncan Meadows, who joined the group initially for live duties and was asked into the fold more permanently in 2010. Playful and brighter, Different Colours is aptly named and finds Marconi Union shifting the focus from cool introspection to a friendlier, dynamic sound pierced in places by electric guitar and hushed vocals. Whether Duncan initiated this fresher outlook or not, on Different Colours Marconi Union have a certain swagger – and it suits them. Though the crumpled qualities of Marconi Union have been smoothed out to a degree by the addition of Duncan on Different Colours, the lasting impression is still one of exquisite world-weariness. “Melding organic instrumentation with soothing, cinematic ambient electronics, this mysterious outfit are now up to their sixth album Different Colours out on Just Music this month…expect to hear Marconi Union at Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza and other global sunset bars all summer” DJ Magazine “I think there’s something about the music that you can tell it’s been made by people who’ve been around the block a few times. We couldn’t have made our records when we were 20,” says Richard, “One of the great advantages of being older is you get a sense of context about things. You see where things fit in and you don’t get so distracted by momentary stuff” Six albums in and MU are still making music that is timeless.

After Portland-based The Shins received a GRAMMY® nod for 2007\'s *Wincing the Night Away*, mastermind James Mercer proceeded to collect another nomination (again for Best Alternative Music Album) as half of Broken Bells. Now Mercer has put the finishing touches on The Shins\' fourth studio album, *Port of Morrow*—writing every song, performing all lead vocals, and playing most of the instruments. It\'s highlighted by \"Simple Song,\" which boasts the band\'s hallmark baroque-pop leanings; it\'s like an intricate, modern spin on work by \'60s greats The Zombies and Love.

The story is a good one. Beal is said to have recorded this album on a karaoke machine with a $20 microphone while working nights as a hotel porter; he then promoted himself with hand-drawn fliers that included his home address and phone number. Whether the story checks out, the music here is primitive and evokes the sounds of Daniel Johnston, The Moldy Peaches, and lesser-known \"outsider artists.\" Yet the songs are surprisingly conventional once one attunes to the barebones sound. Beal\'s voice is pleasant, and his lyrics paint pictures in unusual cadences. \"Sambo Joe from the Rainbow\" takes Bill Callahan\'s downbeat approach and adds a touch of sunshine. \"Ghost Robot\" turns in a primitive rap song that makes Beck\'s lowest-fi recordings sound polished. \"Swing on Low\" goes even further into automated sound. \"Away My Silent Lover\" comes across world-weary, with \"Take Me Away\" turning to blues via Tom Waits. This clearly isn\'t for everyone, but for those who enjoy the unusual and a challenge, Willis Earl Beal is an enigma worth figuring out.