BLACK MOUNTAIN - In The Future

The 2005 self-titled debut by this Vancouver act crammed thunderous guitar riffing, shimmying art rock, stoned psych-folk, and prog shape-shifting into one of the year's great surprises. In The Future carries the weight of anticipation on considerably broader shoulders. Everything about this album is bigger and more ambitious. If Future suffers a bit from the lack of an immediate tune like "Don't Run Our Hearts Around" or "No Satisfaction", the sheer scope of "Tyrants" and the 16-minute "Bright Lights" alone provide no shortage of treasures to plunder. And these folks have never sounded as hazily sexy as on the stellar "Wucan".

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - S/T

When your band leader makes his own guitar pedals under the company name Death By Audio, you can bet your band will understand the art of making some pretty righteous noise. And so is the case with Oliver Ackermann and A Place To Bury Stangers. Picking up where Ackermann's old band Skywave left off, this is 21st-century guitar pop of the noisest, harshest persuasion. While it's next to impossible to not bring up The Jesus and Mary Chain when describing this band, that's only because few bands since then have proved so able to merge thick waves of trebly noise and feedback with sugary melody. Exhilarating stuff.

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE - Shelter From The Ash

Ben Chasny has built up quite a catalogue--Shelter From The Ash is his ninth release since 2000, not including his louder work with psych-hurricane Comets On Fire. Over this time, Chasny has found a way to merge the 20-minute raga drones of his early music into more concise songs. Just how that merging emerges is what lends Shelter its addictively morphing qualities. Whether it's the extended marriage of airplane howls and repeated codas on "Final Wing" or the more straight-up psych-rock of the title track, Chasny guides his music with just the right balance of sober assuredness and wired curiosity.

BLACK LIPS - Good Bad Not Evil

Black Lips already released a killer live album this year, Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo, which caught the group direct from Tijuana. Good Bad Not Evil keeps their momentum moving at a snarling clip. The album is vintage garage, nailing every detail. What makes the band more convincing (and fun) than the average ripoff is their commitment to an aesthetic. And only Black Lips could get away with "O Katrina", a song in tribute to the New Orleans catastrophe that is irreverent without being offensive, sympathetic without being corny, and just the right side of dumb.

PETER MARTIN & FINCH - Drouyn

Flitting from atmospheric new-agey synth orchestrations or folk vignettes (Martin) and foot-on-the-monitor proto-metal boogie (Finch), this collaborative '70s Aussie surf soundtrack sure is a weird one! A personal favourite of the new batch of reissues from mondo bizarro Japanese reissue label EM Records.

WHITE NOISE - An Electric Storm

A pairing of American-born David Vorhaus with BBC Radiophonic Workshop techs Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, White Noise was a definite contender for the oddest band signed to Island in the late '60s. With a more soft-pop-tinged A-side (although not without its more hardcore moments, such as the actual orgy recordings spicing up the Beach Boys bassline of "My Game Of Loving") backed by two long-form freakouts on the flip, An Electric Storm is both a novel artifact of its time and a highly original project that's still considered a high-water mark for experimental pop.

MICHIO KURIHARA - Sunset Notes

Some have come to know Mr. Kurihara through his work with the underappreciated Ghost, Damon and Naomi, and most recently, Boris. Well, Sunset Notes sounds a little like all of those projects while remaining completely its own. From over-the-top builds to pretty folk songs and surf guitar riffs, one of my favourite albums of the year. A++!

YOU'RE GONNA MISS ME - DVD

Legendary 13th Floor Elevators' singer, solo artist and psych-rock originator Roky Erickson is tailor-made for documentary treatment. Making said film is a tough proposition, but You're Gonna Miss Me succeeds nicely. Owner of a potent wail and explosive songwriting, Erickson was equally owned by a litany of drug addictions and mental health problems (culminating in shock therapy and an unfortunate stint in a mental institution). Director Keven McAlester focuses not only on Erickson, but on the toll his life has taken on his family, who battle to enforce their own view on how to best save him. 

JENNIFER GENTLE - The Midnight Room

Neither a solo artist nor female, this duo comes from one of the more unlikely places for indie rock: Italy. Listening to The Midnight Room, however, the benefits of their Italian music heritage are clear. Like the soundtrack work of Morricone, the music of Jennifer Gentle is simultaneously accessible and deeply weird. As such, it brings to mind other fractured psych-pop writers like Captain Beefheart and Syd Barrett. The Midnight Room requires patience and an open ear for the unexpected, but its wheezy, sighing, whimsical, morphing qualities make for a fascinating listen.

DUNGEN - Tio Bitar

Sweden's Dungen is one-man recording project whose 2004 release, Ta Det Lungt, felt more like a 70s time-capsule than a modern release. Tio Bitar continues in this vein, mixing psych-rock power with folk melodicism. Unlike the live band's jammy shows, the disc displays more of an affinity for mellow romps and well-written songs. All the same, it's no snoozer, with fierce drumming a constant source of kinetic energy. Dungen just seem to be aware that endless guitar solos are more fun live than on album.