At the end of World War II, the victors, i.e. the USA and USSR, split the territories they’d defeated along ideological lines.

By the 1990s, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins had been relegated to the annals of obscurity.

What if pop music actually aspired to be art? Honnda, aka Brooklyn’s Amnon Freidlin (Mouthguard88, Normal Love, ex-Zs), makes it happen on his brilliant collection of spastic cartoon dubstep/house hybrids.

After eleven years of mind-blowing releases, Italy’s Black Rainbows deliver their sixth, best, most solid album yet.

In the middle of political turbulence, modern American punk rock seems oblivious and apathetic, even in the face of underground clubs closing doors across the country.

Springfield, MO synth punks Kudzu return with a sophomore effort full of driving beats and infectious melodies.

Though hip-hop has historically been male-dominated, a few strong women have risen over the years to remind the boys that the girls can dish it out even better.

In 1997, guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano left stoner rock kings Fu Manchu to pursue a slightly different sound than their alma mater.

In May of 2017, Spain’s Wau y los Arrrghs!!! played their final show, ending an uncompromising fourteen-year garage onslaught.

After the demise of Throbbing Gristle in 1981, frontman Genesis P-Orridge formed Psychic TV with former bandmate Peter Christopherson as an audio/visual enterprise building on the mindset of their former group.

Political electronic pioneers Meat Beat Manifesto, led by lone remaining founding member Jack Dangers, continues evolving their ever-morphing sound with a nod to ’90s darkness on their first album in seven years.

By 1975, sex-funk queen Betty Davis had assembled her own band, about half of which were family, and poised to conquer the music industry with her tightest, heaviest album to date and debut for Island Records.

Hailing from Crete, residing in Athens, Greece, female/male bass/drums duo Hand & Leg offer a perplexing full-length that weaves post-punk, goth and noise rock into a unified vision.

Kobe, Japan’s Gutara Kyo explode with an impressive blast of early ’80s-style hardcore, reminding us that there’s more to the Land of the Rising Sun than noise.

Four recently discovered archival recordings of furniture designer/sculptor Harry Bertoia join a fascinating documentary short made while the artist was still alive for an essential deluxe release.

Between blowing minds with Zs albums, sax god Sam Hillmer devotes time to his solo noise/drone project Diamond Terrifier.

By mid-1970, singer/producer/songwriter Lee Hazlewood had broken up with his girlfriend and his label LHI Industries was floundering.

For eleven years, Michigan’s Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble has received deserved accolades for their interpretations of Steve Reich and Terry Riley.

New Orleans funk originators The Meters never saw mainstream success but are continually revered for their unique contributions to the genre.

In celebration of what would have been his sixty-seventh birthday, a third volume of Patrick Cowley’s unreleased electronic compositions pairs his famed gay porn soundtracks with demos for his seminal 1982 album Mind Warp (Megatone), plus a few archival recordings, into what is probably his most coherent posthumous collection to date.

Just in time for Samhain, Gundella’s classic obscure educational record about witchcraft sees its very first reissue for the millennium’s uninitiated.

San Francisco space cadets Turn Me On Dead Man return with their fifth offering of psychedelic interstellar metal.

Three years after their stellar eponymous debut, The Luxembourg Signal deliver a strong sophomore followup.

German trio Mother Engine return with their third full-length of sprawling prog-inspired instrumentals.

Italy’s heaviest band delivers a sophomore monolith that makes them serious contenders in the global doom coliseum.

Historically, music has been an extraordinarily potent form of rebellion.

Paul Snowden, the brain behind London’s Time Attendant, returns with a new LP that successfully bridges the gap between glitch beats and Berlin school electronics.

Roman power trio Fvzz Popvli celebrate fuzz their own way on a debut full-length that will likely leave many scratching their heads.

Nearly two decades on, Brooklyn’s twelve-piece afrobeat ensemble Antibalas shows no signs of slowing down on its powerful sixth full-length.

Before becoming a revered Oscar-nominated A-list actor, Will Smith was one half of a hip-hop duo who not only placed Philadelphia on the map, but also achieved wide mainstream success with the genre’s first double LP.

Before Bruce Dickinson became known as the wailing banshee of Iron Maiden, he fronted Samson, a vehicle for Paul Samson, a guitarist who peacefully resides as an unheard giant of the new wave of British heavy metal.

In 1989, Ravi Shankar delivered a powerful dance-drama, sort of an Indian ballet, to the Birmingham Touring Opera Company on commission.

Between 1964 and 1968, Loma Records, an imprint of Warner Brothers that began as a commercial enterprise, became the conglomerate’s soul division under label head Bob Krasnow (formerly of Del-Fi, Autumn, and King Records).

During his lifetime, West Yorkshire, UK-born Alan Sutcliffe (1930-2014) founded the Computer Arts Society, produced animation for Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien (seen in the cover art) and acted as part-time director for Electronic Music Studios, creators of the EMS Synthi AKS.

Sardinia’s The Rippers return with their fifth full-length that shows their blistering freakbeat at full tilt.

Before poet Allen Ginsberg recorded the legendary sessions that would end up on last year’s phenomenal The Last Word on First Blues collection, he paid tribute to his hero and inspiration William Blake by setting the master’s words to music for what would be his debut non-spoken word album.

Two and a half years after their beautiful, stellar debut, The Luxembourg Signal finally return with an expanded lineup and a pair of excellent songs.

New Yorker Edward Rogers returns with his strongest and most varied album to date while examining America’s cultural obsession with the boob tube.

Kiwis are generally known for being polite, but Auckland’s Cavemen strive to destroy that stereotype with yet another blast of feral trash rock slime.

Through the ’70s and into the ’80s, Yuri Morozov recorded over 46 albums in numerous genres that were passed around Russian underground music circles in defiance of Soviet control.

English electronic music pioneers Coldcut join forces with the godfather of British dub Adrian Sherwood, aka On-U Sound, for sixteen slabs of heavy dub infusion.

Barcelona, Spain’s Cachemira explode with a stoner-friendly debut straight out of the Summer of Love.

A large part of what made Jennifer Kent’s 2014 horror film The Babadook so effective was Jed Kurzel’s unsettling score.

Milan, Italy’s Giöbia see their undisputed 2015 masterpiece remastered, repackaged and reissued for all the world to finally hear properly.

In case you haven’t heard, B-52s vocalist Fred Schneider has been active with his new band The Superions (Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall) for over a decade.

Shanghai, China’s Round Eye return with a referendum on last year’s election that offers an insightful glimpse from outside the United States.

Having already established herself as a prominent side-player to the likes of William Parker, TV on the Radio and Spoon, trumpeter Jaimie Branch delivers an outstanding debut as band leader that showcases the full range of her talent.

By 1995, Swans had evolved through several styles of music, from no wave skronk to punishing industrial sludge to Southern Gothic ballads to driving, droning guitar rock.

Between 1967 and 1971, directors John Palmer and David Weisman, fixtures of Andy Warhol’s Factory, filmed Superstar/“It” girl Edie Sedgwick in what would ultimately prove to be the defining role of her short life as Susan Superstar, the subject of 1973’s Ciao! Manhattan.

Japanese noise god Masami Akita, better known as Merzbow, teams up with Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Alessandro Cortini for a mutual celebration of the famed EMS synthesizer.