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Fabric 40

Mark Farina, a San Francisco-based DJ, is a mainstay on the electronic scene. What began as an exploration of the house genre has now become Farina’s inimitable musical echo. The globetrotting performer is known for his genre versatility, but also his distinctive cocktail of Chicago urban, jazzy reverberation with San Francisco sound. While he’s also known for his down tempo grooves, Fabric 40 is nothing of the sort.

Feed the Animals

When I heard the first Girl Talk album a few years back, I was pretty excited. It isn’t like remixing is innovative, nor is Gregg Gillis fashioning a new art form (even if he has made it more fashionable again).

Lake Bottom LP

The strong and lovely voices of the Chapin Sisters offer a raw, deep-down quality to Lake Bottom LP. Listeners who have ever found themselves betrayed by a lover will relate; a theme of troubled love runs through all eleven tracks. The sisters sing about temptation, jealousy, promises kept and broken, loneliness, and longing. Of course, the approach is not feeble or helpless.

Accelerate

Recently I was in my car listening to Raw Power and cringed to note that Iggy Pop's music is now being used to promote cruise lines.

Shapeshifters

The state of mainstream hip-hop is pretty damn depressing. The entire genre has been declared dead a number of times, and the best of a generation make reality shows instead of change. Similarly, the city of Detroit has been ridiculed as economically depressed and full of unprosecuted crime in the shadow of police scandals that have come to prominence again this year. Some might say these are symptoms of a dying city, if it not a dead one. Of the respective states of Detroit and hip-hop, it is also sometimes said that one death begets the other.

Someone Else's Deja Vu

What would it be like to do a double-take at the memory of another? How would this be communicated? The simple dot-with-a-tail in this band’s name changes it from a death van for male offspring to a juxtaposition of a human and vehicle - or a parent, hand on shoulder, naming the thing with the siren as it passes.

The Devil, You + Me

I think The Notwist are a fun, synthy explosion of goodness, and I loved and lived with their 2002 album, Neon Golden, since its release. In the interim, the band members have been keeping busy with projects 13 & God and Ms. John Soda, both excellent acts in their own right.

You May Already Be Dreaming

I stepped onto my balcony in the bright, cool morning and put in my earphones. Once I pressed play, everything seemed to slow down. As though following the tempo of this album, traffic slowed from its _Grand Theft Auto _pace and enjoyed the sunshine. Having been compared to The Mountain Goats and Iron & Wine - with lyrics like “I’ve been dying for a year and ten days” or “It's so hard to love your body from the ground” - Neva Dinova’s music has that special something you can’t quite figure out.

Wrongkong

Wrongkong bounces through the speakers with a mix of haunting electronic and club sounds. They defy typical song structures through their use of daring beats and tempos, which makes their self-titled debut album both energetic and soothing.

Rise & Shine

Rise & Shine, the sophomore album by country duo Fanny Grace, is pleasant, well-produced, up tempo, contemporary country-rock with a postfeminist sensibility. Writer/producer/guitarist Paul Reeves and co-writer/lead singer Carmen Meja have turned out a collection of sassy-yet-vulnerable-women-in-pickups songs in the best Dixie Chicks tradition.

Nectar

There are some records that are meant for rocking out with all the windows down as you go flying down the highway, and others that are perfect background music for a chill, low-key evening with friends. Natalia Clavier’s Nectar is definitely in the latter category, and in a good way.

Elephant Shell

A college friend of mine was fond of saying that any album he found boring, underperforming, or straight-up bland – music that failed to move him to even the mildest active like or dislike – was “really mediocre.” Discs that merit this special kiss of death are usually just not very good. Sometimes they’re over-hyped, so-hot-right-now sophomore efforts, or ambitious projects that fell short of achieving the kind of transcendent finished product of which their creators seemed so capable when the first press release hit. You want a wrecking ball, this music barely leaves a mark.

FabricLive 39

This record is sick. By 'sick' I mean off the charts wicked, all night booty-shaking, dance party-inspiring, screaming while you crash down the rollercoaster of noise sick. Woah. DJ Yoda, the mastermind behind this collaboration, hails from the UK and focuses on hip-hop turntablism, making a name for himself since the late 1990s with his How to Cut and Paste album series. Joining the ranks of Fabric DJs, he’s outdone himself.

Fabric 39

Robert “Noise” Hood is one of the original members of the Detroit collective Underground Resistance (UR) and a solo DJ with an incredible discography. His work is informed by militant politics of music as a tool for social chance, and coming out of Reagan-era inner city Detroit, his radical views are personally informed.

The Jealous Girlfriends

When the package arrived in the mail containing The Jealous Girlfriends' new, self-titled album, I had just been laid off. Requesting to review the album solely on what I deemed to be an excellent band name, I've been in the mood for quiet lovelorn angst, I suppose. If both the words “quiet” and “lovelorn” may reside in a territory of artistic license and open-ended transition, that is.

Boo Human

Chicago-based Joan of Arc, and the family Kinsella, return with their second Polyvinyl release Boo Human. This time they have arrived with 14 musicians in tow to create a more complex and thorough album. Staying true to their quirky indie rock roots, Boo Human starts of with a medley of sounds and styles.

Hard Candy

The great thing about following Madonna’s musical career is to see just exactly what sort of musical guise she’s going to adopt next. She’s always been heralded for her chameleon-like ability to change her image, but she’s equally restless with her musical style, letting her brand of dance-pop change along with her image. Her latest, her last for long-time label Warner Brothers, before her switch over to the record-breaking deal she inked with Live Nation, _Hard Candy _partners Madonna with some of the best urban-pop producers working today.

Lake Bottom LP

The Chapin Sisters are a trio of gifted recordings artists who have managed to reinvent the love song by incorporating a touch of irony into their modern interpretation of folk- and roots-inspired pop.

Keep Singing! A Benefit Compilation For Compassion Over Killing

Beautiful art graces the cover of this album, entrancing me as I hear Gina Young introduce both the tone and ethics of the compilation. I quickly feel enveloped by the politics and clarity of these artists.

The Glow Pt. 2

Originally released in the shadow of 9/11, The Glow, Pt. 2 became an indie classic, a college radio staple, and something people would name drop to make sure you knew what was happening in the world they believed meant everything.

Tickley Feather

Do you wish Animal Collective had a female member? We’re not there yet, but since Tickley Feather (nee Annie Sachs) has been opening for the band and their sometimes solo, acclaimed drummer Panda Bear recently, we may be closer to collaboration that anyone realizes. I’ll be the first to admit that noise rock can seem insanely unlistenable if you’re used to the uncomplicated ditties mainstream radio often provides, but with a woman like Sachs, you get a lot of substance.

Catherine Avenue

Biirdie came into my life at just the right time. Named for the musical Bye Bye Birdie (but adding an extra “I” because one Birdie band already exists), this southern California folk-rock trio’s sophomore release may not be extraordinarily adventurous or unusual, but they nevertheless make you want to take a long drive into nowhere, windows down. Maybe living in Boston, I hear songs about L.A. and get whimsical for rolling hills that lead to desert.

Gea

When Mia Doi Todd’s _The Golden State _was released in 2002, I thought her work was oddly impressive. Her strange voice as captivating; if not always soothing or particularly enjoyable, it impressed me and kept me tuned in. Her first (and only) major-label album, it compiled tracks from her previous independent records, and it looked like Todd might Sony/Columbia Records’ new “it” girl. Time passed. Her contract wasn’t renewed. She contributed to other, better known musicians’ projects while two more solo albums came out to much less critical acclaim.

Fabriclive.36

If you want to get the party started, here is the album to get the job done. Fabriclive.36 features James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on this release of electronic disco to minimal disco. The Fabriclive.X repetoire features a new artist release on a regular (if not monthly) basis out of the Fabric night club in London. These works are compliations of artists spun up for the night club dance crowd.

The Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3

Jill Scott was introduced to the world on her aptly titled, brilliant, neo soul debut Who is Jill Scott? (Words and Sounds Vol.1). She co-wrote the classic Grammy winning "You Got Me," performed by The Roots with Erykah Badu, and we've been discovering more of her ever since. With soulful, hip hop poetry style here on her third proper studio release, she continues the trend, but with more jazzy flourishes.

Blackout

Few will want to admit it, and even fewer actually will, but Britney Spears' Blackout is a scintillating, effervescent slice of post-millennium pop that will be a guilty pleasure for many in the coming months. Say what you will about the circumstances of Spears' personal life, which have certainly exceeded the threshold of outlandish, but those circumstances have no effect on her splashy radio and club-ready formula.

Canon / Verses

Being an Ani DiFranco fan has been a part of pretty much every feminist’s rite of passage since she came on the scene in the early ‘90s with the release of her self-titled album. Now seventeen years, two DVDs, and nearly thirty albums (including remixes, tributes, and live discs) later, DiFranco has simultaneously released a retrospective double-CD and book of poetry that show just how much she has grown personally, politically, and artistically.

Death of the Sun

Former singer/songwriter of the Metallic Falcons (with CocoRosie's Sierra Cassady), Matteah Baim branched out on her own not long ago and has come forth with her debut solo album, which includes collaborations with some of today’s biggest names in hipster folk, including Devendra Banhart and 90 Day Men’s Rob Lowe. While the musical composition stands out to me more than Baim’s crackling voice, her cover of the African-American spiritual, "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore (Michael Row)," is a delightful surprise halfway through the disc.

Misbegotten Man

There is always something gratifying about a woman striking a discordant chord towards positive social and political change. After all, these are the days when America vies for a female president. Never more than now is that Helen-Reddy-cry so prevalent: “I am woman hear me roar. Cheesy as it might sound, it still rings true. There is power in the roar.

All the Strays

Sitting in a warm living room with your closest friends enjoying each other’s thoughts and company is exactly how you feel when the first song of this album strums - and it only gets better from there. Antara’s third solo album, All the Strays, comes at you like a warm cup of coffee… a fall evening by the fire… or an embrace of an old friend.
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