CLARK - Turning Dragon

Christopher Clark's second LP is riddled with station-scrubbing static, bringing to mind Marc Leclair's micro-sampling as Akufen (especially in what sounds an awful lot like chopshopped INXS on the aptly pointed "Truncation Horn") mixed with Aphex Twin's Analord acid baths, but ultimately has a clubbier take than either, closer to the bent beats of Basement Jaxx while staying bunkered and holding the vocal cameos. Hopefully, fellow Warp artists Autechre's return to form on Quaristice won't completely overshadow the turns taken here.

VA - An England Story: The Culture Of The MC In The UK, 1984-2008

Following up Soul Jazz's 2006 Dynamite Dancehall collection (a compilation that was in heavy rotation here in the store, especially those Lady Saw tracks) with this UK-focused set, An England Story highlights the influence of Jamaican dancehall on Britain's ever-evolving mutant forms of black beat-based music, from hip hop, trip-hop and ragga jungle to 2-step, grime, dubstep and beyond. In the words of London Posse's Rodney P, "This is a UK thing, it's hip hop and it's reggae...and those Americans don't know about that".

VA - Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story 1980-1986

Bankrolled by Island founder Chris Blackwell, the heyday of Nassau's Compass Point Studios happened during the first half of the 1980s, when the Compass Point All-Stars (led by Sly & Robbie and featuring guitarists Barry Reynolds & Mikey Chung, percussionist Uzziah Thompson, and synthesist Wally Badarou) gave the world yet another example of Jamaican music's endlessly adaptive abilities, cutting tracks with everyone from disco queen Gwen Guthrie to post-punkers Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Ian Dury. Funky Nassau features Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads, and tons of dubby dance-pop obscurities.

CURSED - III: Architects Of Troubled Sleep

Intro-ed with ominous soundbites that take the listener twenty years back to the days of Ministry and Public Enemy albums that actually struck fear and excitement in many a youth using similiar strategies, Cursed forces backs up against the wall like few others in metal-aligned hardcore. Any fans of Converge's crisply redlined recording style (accomplished in its own right on III by a team of engineers, mixers and masterers including Paul Aucoin, Donny Cooper, Dave Mackinnon and Alan Douches) and ability to switch gears from punk to sludge tempos with ease who haven't yet heard Cursed, get familiar.

SAMAMIDON - All Is Well

Samamidon is the newest release from Iceland's Bedroom Community label. This album pretty much acts as a tribute to the great appalachian banjo player Dock Boggs. It makes sense since Samamidon is best known for his banjo and fiddle skills. The wonderful thing about this album is that it is deeply rooted in the old world but yet has morphed into something beautiful and new. With the addition of ornate string compostions and baroque additions to the songs, Samamidon has crafted an absolutely stunning album. Think Sufjan Stevens and Dock Boggs.

JUNIOR BOYS - Body Language Six

Junior Boys' contribution to the Body Language series is mainly a tech-house affair, as briefly as it may flirt with current cosmic/balearic rumblings from Sorcerer and Studio. Chelonis R. Jones' Prince-liness lends the first signs of life to the mix with a standout track on par with Kelley Polar's synth arpeggiations; a sympathetic squelch follows from Steadycam, and you can imagine a crowd finally letting loose. More of a vocal/new wave bent follows, as recent Stereo Image and Matthew Dear bleed into vintage Pushe and Visage, making way for the Boys' own exclusive "No Kinda Man", edging things into a moody finish.   

EARTH - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull

Finally fully morphed into a lumbering psych-twang beast, Earth step further sideways from their disciples (and label boss) in Sunn O))), continuing in the direction initiated on their previous Hex full-length. With an even bigger sound than before that bluesily lopes along like an instrumental Rex or Brightblack Morning Light without the Rhodes and woozy vox, your head is less likely to bang as much as bob along to the widescreen organ-and-pedal punctuations that slowly slam into Dylan Carlson's Telecaster in Bees' best moments. Featuring a cameo from Bill Frisell, even (not that odd a coupling, actually).

BORN RUFFIANS - Red Yellow & Blue

In a world where Modest Mouse's spunk has staled with the inevitabilities of age and Built To Spill's guitar heroics increasingly cancel out pure pop pleasures, the pieces are in place for Born Ruffians to persuade the legions, young and old(er), in need of a good bratty yelpalong. Lead singer Luke Lalonde's register-pushing pipes, often abetted by gang vocals from rhythm section Mitch DeRosier and Steve Hamelin, help set the Ruffians apart, along with the bold bareness of Rusty Santos' production, a refreshing change from the ProTooled maximalism so prevalent in recent indie-rock.

STEPHEN MALKMUS & JICKS - Real Emotional Trash

Chockful of cocksure strutters but careful to fold in its share of pop flair, the Jicks (with new drummer Janet Weiss) continue to do a commendable job of integrating that modern mercury sound (like Lou Reed, Malkmus is another frontman whose guitar-slinging abilities remain largely unsung) with the '70s rave-ups that SM clearly holds so dear, even reelin' in the years on "Gardenia", or so it goes. Anybody who can identify the 'heavy' Can-Rock LP cover cut out and pasted into the back page of the booklet collages can roll backstage (the maple leaf on the drawn large lady's drawers is under there, I swear).

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan

It may not feature Your trickster Host intoning his hand of tall tales (most of which are true), but unlike another such compilation of tracks broadcast on Dylan's idiosyncratic and enormously popular satellite radio show, this new ACE collection comes fully licensed and approved by its producers. With liners by a crack team of writers that are nearly as entertaining and authoritative as the tangents dispensed on Dylan's Hour itself (and that's no mean feat), any fan of American music is going to find many a mind-blowing piece of the past here.

EARTH, ROOTS AND WATER - Innocent Youths

Thanks to Kevin "Sipreano" Howes and Seattle's Light In The Attic Records, Jerry Brown's legacy continues to grow, following last year's crucial Summer Records Anthology with a CD reissue of this 1977 LP, originally released in a pressing of only 500 copies. Anyone who loved the dub-tinged roots of Noel Ellis' self-titled album will surely take to the playful mixing touches added to the Summer house band. Howes' liners are particularly illuminating when describing the punky reggae party these Maltoners partook in, embraced as they were by the Two Garys and other rockers outside the Jamaican community.  

THE RUBY SUNS - Sea Lion

A welcome addition to the Sub Pop roster, Auckland NZ's Ruby Suns are led by songwriter Ryan McPhun, backed by Amee Robinson and Imogen Taylor along with a cast of guest musicians for Sea Lion, the group's first domestic release. Although they also delve into swathes of sleepy FX-hazed downtime (and even '80s romo-electro on closer "Morning Sun"), the band shines brightest with breathlessly strummy South Pacific-riffing harmonies redolent of both the gypsy arrangements of Beirut and the tropical Latin/South-Am-inspired oddball acoustica of "Winter's Love"/"Sweet Road"-mode Animal Collective.  

LAURA BARRETT - Earth Sciences (re-release)

Long a best-selling local independent staple of the store, much to Barrett's combined gain and pain (those old hand-sewn covers kept the times between batches all too long!), the Earth Sciences EP now comes in easy-to-shelve streamlined jewel case format, re-released on Paper Bag in anticipation of a follow-up full-length that we presume is well under way.

THE DIRTBOMBS - We Have You Surrounded

Doubling up on bass and drums with two band members apiece gives the Dirtbombs a uniquely full garage-rock sound, with the kits often L-R'ed for a, um, surrounding headphone experience. Mick Collins and crew touch on a variety of sub-styles with We Have You..., but when they ditch the soul-stained punk completely and veer off into dancier territory, the fuzziness and campiness at hand bring to mind not Detroit but instead Wax Trax!-era Chicago a la RevCo/Thrill Kill Kult. Stick around for eight-minute near-album-closer "Race To The Bottom", a synthesized feedback squall worth waiting for.

GOLDFRAPP - Seventh Tree

Starting with and often returning to a pastoral orch-folk setting that frankly flatters Alison G.'s wispy but poised vocals, the tracks featuring such retro innovations serve to cast the predominant familiar elements in a new light, turning the more conventionally-programmed numbers like "Road To Somewhere" into the disorienting ones, as well as making one more forgiving of songs like "Some People", where the strings and ponderous tempo conspire to lay it on way too thick. Missteps and all, the various refinements on Seventh Tree should bring plenty of new fans Ms Goldfrapp's way.

PLANTS AND ANIMALS - Parc Avenue

Like a slightly kookier cousin of Patrick Watson (they are indeed related, if only by label), Plants and Animals plunge right into their bombastic pop and expect the listener to do the same, flitting from horn-and-choir-backed Buckleyisms to lean, lightly funky rock ('funky' like when Radiohead throws in a breakbeat, mind you) complete with "I wanna dance" refrain, followed by errant pedal steel, a dirty-wah ditty, and marching waltz to taste. Could another Polaris be in the cards for Secret City? Parc Avenue certainly strikes the right balance between art and commerce to suggest so.  

ATLAS SOUND - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

A record that has more in common with the digital pop shimmer of Miracle Fortress, Caribou or Panda Bear than would be expected from the leader of a band as proudly scrappy as Deerhunter, this debut by Bradford Cox's solo alias boasts strong hooks and rich timbres, with a darkly playful feel that meshes well with the grainy childhood photo staring out from beneath the CD tray (perhaps of album dedicatee Lockett Pundt). With Let The Blind..., Cox fully comes into his own as a solid songwriter as adept at programming a tune as he is at prowling a stage, as capable of nuance and subtlety as mere provocation.

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS - Bachianas Brasileras Nos. 1, 2, 5 & 9

Heitor Villa-Lobos was one of the foremost figures of Brazilian classical music of the early 20th century. His mostly self-taught writing style merges rhythmic ideas of Stravinsky with baroque dances, French theory and 18th century counterpoint. He was also a strong nationalist who found common ground between Brazilian folk music and the classical tradition, a technique which would eventually generate his well-loved series Bachianas Brasileras. This 1956 recording features four of the nine J.S. Bach-inspired classics, conducted by Villa-Lobos himself. It also contains arguably the best recording of his famous Bachianas, No. 5 for soprano and 8 cellos.

BON IVER - For Emma, Forever Ago

Possessing a striking, teeth-clenched falsetto that, like Tom Brosseau, Dirty Projectors, TV On The Radio or local heroes Sandro Perri and The silt, draws you in and compels you to pay attention, Justin Vernon (formerly of Raleigh NC's DeYarmond Edison) retreated to his father's cabin in rural Wisconsin to record the bulk of this album, originally self-released last year and now picked up by Jagjaguwar. The project name is purposely corrupted from French for "good winter", a perfect image to pair with these happy-sad songs of solitude.

THE RAVEONETTES - Lust Lust Lust

Opening with a hip-hoppy number named "Aly, Walk With Me" that swaggers like Honey's Dead-era Jesus And Mary Chain, it's no surprise that the rest of Lust Lust Lust harkens back to three-chord, trem-and-distortion-drenched pop/rock'n'roll in a manner all too reminiscent of the Scottish duo. With so many other groups mining elements of this era these days, from A Place To Bury Strangers to even the new Magnetic Fields full-length, perhaps this pair of primly brash Danes see this as the ripe time to bare some fangs and stake their claim to a sound they've now been honing for years.