So Cow
Tic Tac Totally! Records
(2010)

When you hear that an album was recorded in a shed in Tuam, Ireland, and that the lead singer spent his early adulthood as a tourist and college lecturer in Seoul, South Korea, you don’t really know what to expect. So was the case with So Cow, a band headed by Brian Kelly and his recently established musical cohorts. →

Javelin
Luaka Bop
(2010)

At a typical Javelin show, cousins George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk prepare boomboxes that serve as more than just hipster accessories. Each boombox produces a layer comprising a pastiche of sounds that are wide-ranging and indecipherable. They sample motifs from disco, hip-hop, R&B, calypso, psychedelic folk and god-knows-what-else, and recreate the sounds with electronic and homemade instruments. These songs are not exactly mash-ups →

Malachai – “Fading World”

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Malachai
Domino Records
(2010)

Upon first listen of Ugly Side of Love you’d think the Bristol duo known as Malachai have yet to find their musical direction. A second spin and your opinion probably won’t change too much from the first. Maybe it’s because as members Gee Ealey and Scott Hendy have pointed out, England may have given music like The Beatles and The Kinks but you can’t leave out The Specials and Asian Dub Foundation either. →

Inter Arbiter ” Bright Orange Air”
[http://forcefieldpr.com/inletsbright.mp3]

Inlets
twosyllable records
(2010)

I’d like to say that when done correctly, lo-fi recordings can be a thing of beauty. Then again, is there a right way to produce a lo-fi album? Working out of his Brooklyn apartment, Wisconsin transplant Sebastian Krueger’s new Inlets album, Inter Arbiter, created a 37-minute lo-fi triumph →

Xylos
Self-released
(2009)

From the album cover alone, you’d think Xylos’ debut E.P. was the American answer to Spain’s Delorean or Sweden’s Air France. Instead, it contains five tracks representing the wide range of moods this Brooklyn upstart is capable of, from tropical boy-girl melodies (“In the Bedroom”) to percussion-filled folk (“Yellow Flip-Flops”) to auto-tune textures (“This House We Built”). While this variety of sounds doesn’t exactly seem like full band material, you can hear the group feeling their way through and working toward a comfort zone →

Yeasayer
Secretly Canadian
(2010)

Odd Blood may not be the best album of the year, but it may turn out to be 2010’s most unusual and perplexing offering. The psychedelic pop of Yeasayer has always been rather amorphous and difficult to categorize–they draw from worldbeat (“Enya with bounce” says their Myspace), eighties synth pop and tribal drums, creating a futuristic pop music that seems ahead of its time. →

Strong Arm Steady
Stones Throw
(2010)

Has it really been that long? In the nineties, Death Row Records was building a musical empire, a roster full of heavy-hitters like Dr. Dre, 2pac, Snoop Dogg and Warren G. One should be reluctant, however, to call it a Golden Age of West Coast hip-hop. Sure, the label hailed in the era of G-funk, thug life and fuck-all attitudes →

Surfer Blood
Kanine Records
(2010)

None of the members of Surfer Blood actually surf, but they certainly know how to write some great pop hooks. Hailing from Palm Beach, FL, the five-piece band of twenty-somethings recorded their debut album in a college dorm, taking inspiration from Afropop, grunge and surf rock. →

Mr. Chop – “T.R.O.Y.”

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Mr. Chop
Now Again Records
(2009)

For anyone who’s listened to nineties-era Nas or C.L. Smooth, it’s more than likely the Pete Rock-inspired covers on this record will sound familiar. The Bronx native graced the boards and blessed many a track during the hey-day of sample-based hip-hop music →

DOOM
Gold Dust
(2009)

There is a twist of irony when it comes to DOOM- he does not fit the typical super villain motif. Sure he adopted masked identities inspired by Marvel Comics’ Doctor Doom, assuming the role as MF Doom, Viktor Vaughn and his production moniker Metal Fingers. But DOOM (his most recent name change) is hardly “evil,” as he often describes himself. Yes, he may be a bit twisted, but demonic, never. Over the years, his characters have allowed him to explore the intimacies of life. →