and leaving, it's a voice that producer Garrett Lee uses as a jumping-off point, dropping fat guitars, electronic noise, and eclectic instrumentation in with Lightbody's breathy, moody depth. The band plays around with wild shifts of texture: "Gleaming Auction" veers in seconds from a relaxed shuffle to a shoegazing crunch, while a blanket of fuzzbox swagger calls forth the ghost of T. Rex on "Tiny Little Fractures." But just when you're ready to throw the record on random shuffle with Electric Warrior or maybe Heaven Tonight , the band lays down a pastoral ballad like "Same." Somehow it holds together beautifully, stuffed with songs that reward repeat listens and ear candy that keeps you full for days. -- Matthew Cooke  (less)

even a song called "I Hate the Way You Love" (plus a slow version, "I Hate the Way You Love, Pt. 2"). Similarly, VV (Alison Mosshart) sings like a cross between PJ Harvey and Christina Martinez (Boss Hog). And yet, despite lines like, "Get the guns out" ("Love is a Deserter") and "Lost a lot of blood" ("At the Back of the Shell"), No Wow is too catchy to be a bummer (must be "love" asserting its presence). VV and Hotel (Jamie Hince) make their songs move and groove with a minimum of fuss, mostly just some grubby guitar, unobtrusive drum machine, and Suicide-like electronic pulses. Mitchum would surely approve. --Kathleen C. Fennessy  (less)

on film frame by frame) and stop-start animation. His meticulousness is much like the band's process of composing and sequencing their music. There's a measured restraint that's rarely employed in modern pop music and it's the precision and restraint in the arrangements that serves to magnify what is there. And what is there is exceptional.  (less)

catchy pop and is inspirational without being preachy. Instead of presenting a linear narrative, the book is made up of a succession of vignettes illustrating biblical parables through a hippy prism--making it particularly easy to adapt and update. Directed by Schwartz's son Scott, this touring production (including new lyrics by Schwartz senior) is set in a hi-tech environment and incorporates references to video monitors and computers (which form an electronic crucifix). This revival is sometimes marred by weird arrangements (new orchestrations have been made by Alex Lacamoire)--as with the quasi drum & bass beat on "Tower of Babble" or the metallish guitar licks on "Save the People." Still, the performance presents a...  (less)

told from the point of view of a character known as "The Prize Fighter Inferno" a.k.a. Jesse from the story of Coheed and Cambria. Of the 11 songs on the album, we hear a softer side of Sanchez, enveloped in mellow electronic grooves and gentle compositions. Some tracks adopt dance rhythms while others are hypnotizing in melody and verse.  (less)

with references to forest creatures, it represents more of a change in tools than direction. Longtime associate Dave Fridmann (the 'Lips, Sleater-Kinney) handles the production reins. While all nine selections ebb and flow in volume, like a shortwave radio half-heard in a dream, a few maintain a steadier motorik-meets-disco pulse. Tracks like "Snowflake in a Hot World" and "Runaway Raindrop" could be compared to New Order or the Pet Shop Boys, with a dose of Thoreau. Snowflake Midnight proves that a veteran band can re-write themselves without losing the plot. --Kathleen C. Fennessy  (less)

which they did in 2005). It speaks volumes about their music’s versatility; one minute it’s gummy dub, the next it’s chest-beating, chug-a-lug metal, shredding punk, and bleeped-out electronic psychedelia. At its best, Dub Trio’s music is simultaneously all these and more. Their sophomore album, aptly-titled NEW HEAVY, is undoubtedly a rock record that retains enough dubby elements to save the boys a name-change: "Dub is the foundation. It’s in everything we do, whether it’s the structure, the effects, or the bass line. It’s what all other elements are based on. You hear that even on the heaviest parts of the new record." – Joe Tomino, drummer New Heavy is indeed heavy, and hard. It references Metal...  (less)

modern themes. Featured artists include Gerry Alfred, Robert Mirabal, Quiltman and Joanne Shenandoah, each of whom contribute strong tracks to the set. There are some techno attempts that fall pretty flat, with processed voices of tribal elders (this is supposed to give it a dream effect, I guess) and some hip-hop references that just don't work. But the tranquil beauty of Shenandoah and Quiltman, and the rhythmic groove of Mirabal more than counter the effect. --Louis Gibson  (less)

and leaving, it's a voice that producer Garrett Lee uses as a jumping-off point, dropping fat guitars, electronic noise, and eclectic instrumentation in with Lightbody's breathy, moody depth. The band plays around with wild shifts of texture: "Gleaming Auction" veers in seconds from a relaxed shuffle to a shoegazing crunch, while a blanket of fuzzbox swagger calls forth the ghost of T. Rex on "Tiny Little Fractures." But just when you're ready to throw the record on random shuffle with Electric Warrior or maybe Heaven Tonight , the band lays down a pastoral ballad like "Same." Somehow it holds together beautifully, stuffed with songs that reward repeat listens and ear candy that keeps you full for days. -- Matthew Cooke  (less)

aspire to but not so many achieve. On this release, he casts his net farther afield--the smoky nightclub trumpets and sultry beats of 1998's Permutation are still present, but the hummingly intense electronics and roiling drums on tracks like "Rhino Jockey" leave the jazz references pretty far behind. The track "Precursor" uses what is called "vocal percussion" to emulate the click-and-pop assemblages of some of the farther out German electronic experimentalists and segues neatly into the down-tempo groove of "Saboteur," which is built on a bottle-clinking percussive sample from obscure '60s blues-rock outfit the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. "Keepin' It Steel" is reminiscent of Stereolab in a way, with a pleasantly lazy tempo that ma...  (less)

demanding recording of large instrumental forces that I know, with bass transients and dynamics so far beyond the current state-of-the-art in speakers and electronics that I suspect designers will still be catching up to it twenty years from now." - The Absolute Sound "I am still tingling from that mighty avalanche of sound...Certainly this record is a technical triumph, as it is clearly intended to be, but the really exciting news is that it is a musical triumph as well." - Ultra High Fidelity Seldom heard, powerful works for organ, winds, brass, and percussion - from classics to an over-the-top piece by hot American composer Michael Daugherty . Crown Imperial is a follow-up to one of Reference Recordings' all-t...  (less)

experimental brief without losing the very tender heart that beats at the center of the Her Space Holiday design. Pieced together on electronic organ and soaring computer sequencer, and carried by what sounds like an orchestra of heavenly strings (all, of course, issuing from a groaning hard drive) this is far from a conventional slow-core album, and the furthest step that Bianchi's taken from his roots in the Californian hardcore act Mohinder. The sweet, electronic "Hassle Free Harmony," for instance, recalls the twinkly psychedelia of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence," but despite this re-creation of familiar reference points, Bianchi's sonic adventurousness on tracks such as "The Ringing in My Ears" and the spaced, glitchy "Lydia"-...  (less)