As Grandma Sparrow, Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) explores the fun and silliness of children’s albums through lavish orchestration and sound collage, creating a debut full-length full of smiles, laughter and psychedelia.
Another fine example of China’s ever-growing music scene, Beijing’s Luvplastik, a bass/drums duo comprised of British ex-pats (one of which is Dann Gaymer from GuiGuiSuiSui & the Electric Shadows), deliver a strong debut built on fuzzy ’70s garage rock.
A year after their debut 7”, London’s Cosines release yet another small slab of vinyl that shows the band growing heavier, both sonically and lyrically.
On his first proper full-length debut, Brian Magar (Pyroclastix, Denier, Albatwitch), the sole member of Layr, fuses black doom with his noise roots and stark religious imagery for an epic tome of warfare and decay.
Live from the Scrapheap, an apt title and one that only truly makes sense once the record is fully digested, is just about everything one could dream of for a debut album.
Hailing from South Central Pennsylvania, both Night and Layr create powerful, engaging music the stems from a black metal base, but adds other elements that twist it into something else.
Under the moniker of Cute Heels, Colombian-born Brussels resident, Victor Lenis, releases a thought-provoking debut electronic music album that explores the darker elements of electronic instruments while avoiding the standard 4/4 thump of generic house music.
For its ambitions, it’s an amazingly concise and formulated record. Native America makes the perfect first statement for a band in a city where everyone is fighting to make their own mark.
Lost Colony manages to tap into that intoxicating East Nashville ardor, a place you never expect to find yourself, but once you’re there, you never want to leave.
After eight years of existence, New York City’s largest electronic music showcase, Warper Party at The Delancy, finally releases its first collection of music from artists associated with the event.
For her fifth offering, Pantaleimon, aka Andria Degens, delivers nine songs of dark, dreamy psychedelia with the help of co-producer and former Bad Seed, Hugo Race.
On their debut EP, The Jungle sounds as if you played Prince at one end of a long wind tunnel and listened to it from the other end, hearing a dreamy, altered recreation.
On 73, Falbo sounds like a kid in a candy store grabbing and diving head first into any style that interests him. He is such an exciting musician, it was enough to grab bring famed-Dylan producer Bob Johnston out of retirement to produce this record.
This is a great EP, and it’ll fit whatever mood your currently in, whether you’re looking for something only to put on in the background, or something you want to settle down with and let it move you
Ten years and four albums in, they’re still bringing 1966 red hots kicking into our era and making us beg for more.
Sometimes, you should never find out the influences of a band you really like, as with Wetwood Smokes’, being a cross between AWOLNATION and Mumford & Sons, but they’ve jumbled this all up and have created something fresh and new.
A dance duo influenced by Daft Punk, Tachyon craft interesting, if a little oddball, grooves, interwoven with experimentation and the unexpected.
Record Store Day just got a lot more exciting with this double vinyl package from Northern Spy documenting the first ever performance of J. Spaceman (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized) and Kid Millions (Oneida) as a duo.
Notta Comet has so much music in them I doubt that many could even survive a full length from this disgustingly talented new band.
A truly and authentically fucked up album with stunning artwork by monsters of the considerable Quebec psych/garage/punk/whatevs scene that lingers in the mind’s ear like it’s been branded there.
Turkey’s Ekin Fil, aka Ekin Üzeltüzenci, has recorded since at least 2008, though her tracks are filled with an eternity of mystery that could only come from a country so steeped in civilization’s history.
In a celebratory merging of the East and West Coasts, two veterans of avant-garde music collaborate for a Record Store Day 7” that’s sure to get all salivatory juices running.
Books on Fate is the solo project of Adam Dishart, heavily and proudly influenced by 80s post-punk and guitar pop like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, and most obviously, The Smiths.
The crown jewel of Legacy’s 2014 Record Store Day offerings is a 50th anniversary edition of “The Pink Panther – Music from the Film Score Composed and Conducted by Henry Mancini.” A better marriage of quirky-yet-stylish music and popular film is hard to imagine.
Paul Mill‘s ultra-rare 2009 debut album as The Lord finally sees the light of day again as yet another ultra-rare release from the premiere English noise label, Exotic Pylon.
Maryland trio, Trans Am, embark on their tenth studio album, aptly titled Volume X.
Cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer/persussionist Chad Taylor team up once again for an album that uses jazz to deconstruct modern music.
So many of these songs sound like unearthed treasures from classic rock’s greatest bands, making Breathe Air a fantastic album for anyone unafraid to let loose and get their Dad Rock on.
This gripping, atmospheric Paris quartet claims to be inspired by UK Britpop and the NYC music scene, and this debut five-song EP backs up those assertions.
Long Beach, CA noisemongers, Gang Wizard, are back with their fifth properly manufactured full-length in their 19 year career.
On his EP, Simon Adams’ influences are certainly of large arena pop, bombastic and saccharine, but his own reproductions are scaled-back and quainter, yet no less appealing.
For their seventh album, New Zealand duo Claypipe brought their instruments to the beaches of Dunedin, where they explored their signature improvised noise drone among the ocean waves, sand and birds.
In a bold, unexpected move, Athens, GA’s Tunabunny drop the Fall-like post-punk that had come to define them in favor of electronic music, yet somehow create an album that is wholeheartedly rock at its core.
Returning for their first physical release of original songs in five years, Athens, GA’s Casper & the Cookies offer a collection of catchy post-punk and punk songs showing that the time off was time well spent.
Always unpredictable, Instagon return with a collection of spacey, yet sparse, previously unreleased recordings from 2007 and 2008.
After a slew of 7“s released in the UK, US and their home country, Hamburg, Germany’s Tripping The Light Fantastic finally deliver a strong debut album that hearkens to the ’80s in its retro sound.
This self-titled Progressive release by Ras Xix is an overall well-rounded and exciting effort, and it’s especially ambitious for the work of one person.
“It’s time to evolve, man!” asserts Lionize on its fifth album, and takes its own advice.
It’s a sure sign that a group has gained enough of a cult following when they release a remix album, and Godhead have done just that.
Long Island’s music scene may be dominated by tribute and cover bands, but once in a while a band of striking originality crawls out of the cesspool.
Despite being an odd hodgepodge of remakes, stray tracks from side projects and new tunes, Spacehawks keeps the train on the track.
The ever-prolific Neorev continues his collaboration with Long Island rapper Marcuss with a collection of originals, remixes and instrumentals that builds on the sound established on the previous Make Your Body Sway EP.
Place For One Day is that rare release that pushes tradition a few measures forward, this is no small feat nor is it anything to take for granted.
Atlas maturely reveals a band refining the indefinable thing that they do better than anyone else.
Bordeaux, France is known mostly for wine and history, two subjects that certainly influence the married duo of Pascale and Michael, aka Watoo Watoo.
The Strypes, Ireland’s successor to the Undertones in the teenage rock & roll sweepstakes, finally drop their full-length debut Snapshot in America.
Shanghai, China’s Pairs are back, this time with compatriots Stegasaurus?, for a twisted little split where they cover each others’ songs and toss in an original to boot.
It sounds glib to say so, but Lost in the Dream, the third LP from The War On Drugs, is just like its breakthrough album Slave Ambient, only more so.
We Create is exactly what its title suggests: a charming, unassuming collection of homespun recordings by a couple with a chemistry unmistakable.
