Squarepusher: Numbers Lucent EP (Warp)
Following the sprawling, style-swapping journey of Just of Souvenir, bassist and mad scientist Tom Jenkinson returns just three months after his recent full-length to issue an EP of hardcore dance / acid techno tunes.
“Illegal Dustbin,” like much of the EP, borrows a page from Venetian Snares with samples that sound straight out of his catalog. Jenkinson’s dexterous bass/guitar riffs and genre defiance are nowhere to be heard, so Numbers Lucent is purely recommended for dance fans.
Squarepusher: “Illegal Dustbin”
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Gutbucket: A Modest Proposal (Cuneiform)
Not as metal as Yakuza or as skronky as Naked City, New York’s Gutbucket manages to play the jazz-rock card and retain an identity of its own while balancing both of its primary genres.
A Modest Proposal is rooted in both musical worlds, and as such, should appeal to vast swaths of fans from each. It hits hard, draws back when needed, and doesn’t showcase unrestrained abilities.
Gutbucket: “Head Goes Thud”
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Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
With Animal Collective’s ninth studio album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, the question is where to go at such a time in a successful career — one in which the band has become most noted for pushing an avant-garde sound into the mainstream.
Merriweather… instead simplifies the music without dumbing it down, opening a vast space for lavish, layered vocals to hover and swoop in an entirely different, but also familiar, direction.
This approach is most evident in “My Girls,” where the familiar stacks of tribal instruments are replaced with a single rubbery bass note, moving the song to a wider palatability with perfect execution. The behemoth low end then intertwines with dancing harmonies.
Six Organs of Admittance: RTZ (Drag City)
As the primary project of Comets on Fire guitarist Ben Chasny, Six Organs of Admittance has been a prolific outlet for worldly folk tunes, psychedelic rock, and droning ambience.
This double CD compilation includes early live recordings and unreleased studio tracks, and though its songs stand well on their own, RTZ comes recommended for preexisting fans of Chasny’s music.
Cheer-Accident: Fear Draws Misfortune (Cuneiform)
Twenty-three years after the release of its first album, Chicago avant-garde rock ensemble Cheer-Accident is still releasing whatever the hell it wants, and now it does so for the first time on Cuneiform.
The group draws from elements of prog rock, noise rock, chamber music, theatrical rock, and pop, and Fear Draws Misfortune is many of these things, often in the same song. “According to the Spiral,” featured below, pulls from the band’s dramatic side, but make no mistake: this album lays down some big-time rock riffs.
Cheer-Accident: “According to the Spiral”
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Tags: Animal Collective, Ben Chasny, Cheer-Accident, Comets on Fire, Cuneiform, Domino, Drag City, Gutbucket, Naked City, Six Organs of Admittance, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, Warp, Yakuza