CD OF THE MONTH

Film School - Hideout

Produced by Greg Bertens

Engineered by Dan Long

Mixed by Phil Ek

Awash in rich vocals and punctuated rhythms, Hideout sounds nothing like its cocooned namesake. In fact, Film School's latest effort not only breaks out of the confines of the shoegaze genre, it also reveals a band reincarnated with a new lineup and sound. For the most part, the San Francisco quintet has discarded the goth posturings found nestled in swathes of reverb and loops on earlier releases, and replaced them with a sound rooted in a more conventional pop structure.

At first, the My Bloody Valentine guitar grumbles on opener "Dear Me" sound rather routine until the skittering percussion and towering rhythm guitars crest at the minute mark. Greg Berten's broken and commanding vocals tear through the uproar with the thematic lines, "We can hide out / We can hide here too / It will take us back to me and you." Alongside Berten, many of the new lineup additions build on Film School's pulsing rhythms and textured ambiance. The eddying vocals of bassist Lorelei Plotczyk on "Florida" and "Compare" infuse decadent nostalgia to the ghostly chamber pop electronics.

Hideout's mid-section leans towards '80s pop balladry with the heartbreaking love song "Two Kinds" and the harpsichord-tinged sweeper "Go Down Together." The album breaks out of that mold when Jesus and Mary Chain-saw riffs fuzz everything on closer "What I Meant To Say." Alongside the new experiments are moments when the old psychedelic interstellar rock of Film School past zooms into focus ("Sick Hipster Nursed by a Suicide Girl") only to be grounded in the terrestrial by the jackhammer rhythms on the well-named "Lectric." The guitars scorch across the sky, leaving slashes and burn marks as they go.

Those burns feel all the more corporeal on a release that fully tracks the emotions of a caged mind without sounding blinkered. Film School has not only done this with Hideout, but has crafted its strongest album to date. (Beggars Banquet)

www.filmschoolmusic.com

-Kyle Lemmon

Eulogies - Self-titled

Recorded and engineered by Mike Cresswell at Sunset Sound in Hollywood Mixed by John Goodmanson at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle

Mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters in Echo Park

Produced by Peter Walker and Hrishikesh Hirway

Marking the twentieth release for a rising label Dangerbird Records, Eulogies' eponymous debut brings the listener more ear candy from Los Angeles. Eulogies harks the '90s indie and college rock heyday, while showcasing a band with smart, new things to do to the guitar, bass and drum configuration. The songs on the release are intelligently crafted tapestries, which swoon and scream emotion while they wade through electric fuzz. Eulogies tact is found in mood generation - they can make the listener rattle and shake like a fridge on the fritz, as well as make the listener curdle and shiver with a drowsy, melancholy ballad.

Singer/guitarist Peter Walker sings with an edgy, confident poise, leaning delicately on the intimacy and sexiness of Europop, with the hook and grit of Pavement-style instrumentation. Walker's vocals carry effortlessly, singing a wry, slightly distorted disposition that juxtaposes against the clean angular background: "What I took from the drawer / Doesn't make me miss you any less / If I believe in something / I'll perceive something" from the upbeat, suspiciously Cars-influenced "One Man."

Eulogies fixate a sound that is jogging paced and sensibly optimistic, but the minor keys and confronting lyrics register the album with a gloomy underbelly. "...it's suicide I'm sure / Down that road" ("Life Boat"). These contrasting elements engage the listener with a thoroughly well-balanced debut. It's satisfying and listenable while challenging enough to staple the band to unpretentious artistry.

Eulogies is a solid debut, perched on change and struggle with bright tones lacing the songs together. It's an interesting duality of sadness and joy, considering the band name dually references the memory of one's life, once dead. (Dangerbird Records)

www.eulogiesmusic.com

-Christopher Petro

Uni and Her Ukelele - I'm On My Way

Recorded and mixed at Octopus Audio in Sacramento, CA

Produced and engineered by Zack Proteau

Mastered by Eric Broyhill at Monster Labs in Sacramento, CA

As the ukelele-slinging alter ego of San Francisco's Heather Marie Ellison, Uni and Her Ukelele may be unique in modern music. The little stringed instrument (technically in the lute family) is not an oft-employed accompaniment nowadays, but nonetheless Ellison has found it delivers just what she needs to frame her sunny pop songs.

Uni and Her Ukelele's second self-released recording, an EP entitled I'm On My Way, shows a wide span of influences. The ukelele provides a retro vibe that fits well with Ellison's kooky pin-up girl image (she makes her own vintage-inspired costumes and lists Minnie Mouse as a style influence), and she mixes it intelligently with other genres to avoid a novelty spin.

The title track sets a tone of unsinkable optimism with its can-do lyrics and plucky delivery. "Emily" couples the ukelele with a gentle electric piano intro, where "Breakin' My Own Heart" channels a rock 'n' roll edge. "The Wedding Song" isn't quite as advertised - it ironically chronicles an unsure kind of love where the subject bemoans that she is "not good enough" to wear her sweetie's ring, but then decides it's not such a big thing after all. "Twinkle Twinkle" on the other hand is breathlessly romantic, similarly so to "My Favorite Letter is U," a signature song from Uni's full-length debut of the same name.

These songs are more orchestrated than on that album: their sound filled out with backup, the ukelele kept front and center. Ellison's voice is very pretty, breathy on top but solid below, with an occasional hiccup like Tony Basil or Betty Boop. Sexy and original, she's definitely a girl on her way. (Self-released)

www.unicornbread.com

-Susan Brooks

Numbers - Now You Are This

Recorded by Aaron Prellwitz at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco

From arty, dance-punkers to neo-prog buffs, San Francisco's Numbers have relentlessly explored an elastic cluster of music genres and stitched them together from the inside out, birthing a spastic party monster that's been assorted yet consistent through every incarnation. But over the course of their eight-year run, the three - singing drummer Indra Dunis, synthist Eric Landmark and guitarist Dave Broekema - have undoubtedly expressed a soft spot for pop noodling. And like Bay Area buds Deerhoof, the outfit's susceptibility to pop adherence has often clashed with a certain cacophonic crunch.

Raw, frantic and noisy as ever, Now You Are This - the band's fourth full length - still finds the group toying with the pop idiom, but also uncovers the trio's newfound love for drone-affected melodies. And while Numbers' sound has grown, their vocals are remarkable this time around as well - the brood has obviously fattened up their vocal chords a bit since its prior fling, We're Animals (2005), ousting their blunt, quirky barks for a wholesome, cheery range.

Kicking off Now You Are This on a fuzzy note, "New Life" mirrors what's to follow for the album's breadth - rigid Wire-toned guitars, smashing drums and grainy, hum-along organ modulation that mingle and feed back as Dunis and company heartedly cry "New Life" throughout the whirring din. The tune eventually turns on its head and splashes into the initial soothing moments of "Mind Hole," a delicate wash of reposing piano keys and ride cymbal. As the song trots forth, the notes eventually sour and erupt into a caterwaul of buzzing synths and garagey, shearing riffs. It's a catchy-as-hell basement rocker, and like the rest of Now You Are This, it's set to cook.

(Kill Rock Stars)

www.numbersmusic.com

-Chris Sabbath

Emily Jane White - Dark Undercoat

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Wainwright Hewlett (Guerrilla Recordist) in Sebastopol, CA

Since its Haight-Ashbury heyday, San Francisco has had its fair share of folk singer-songwriters in residence. The city's moody, fog-shrouded atmosphere lends itself to such mellow musical composition. Emily Jane White is an exemplar of this breed of performer.

Minimalist acoustic arrangements and a subdued delivery are the hallmarks of her new release Dark Undercoat. The album is elegantly sequenced, contained within a connected cycle that starts with first track "Bessie Smith." With a backdrop of guitar, light cymbals and cello, the song's melody displays White's remarkable vocal texture, a smoky, velvety alto. The lyrics, a paean to the renowned blues singer, initiate repeating leitmotifs with references to "the three wise men" and "a shot to the ego," which will be echoed later. The Americana that sparked the blues as an art form is a recurring signature - "Hole in the Middle" quotes Bruce Springsteen and alludes to New Orleans voodoo.

The instrumentation stays sparse throughout, sticking mostly to guitar although cello surfaces again in the title song and piano is introduced in "The Demon" for an additional layer of auditory depth. At first "Sleeping Dead" sounds musically akin to the traditional "Hush Little Baby," but sung from the point of view of a man asking to be buried alive, it proves more on the order of a dirge than a lullaby.

"Wild Tigers I Have Known" was written for the Cam Archer film of the same name, and circles back to the first track with this pretty poetry: "There will be wise men singing, bringing you love." "Two Shots to the Head" compasses the earlier ammunition allusion and completes the cycle with an image of finality. (Double Negative Records)

www.emilyjanewhite.com

-Susan Brooks

Solar Powered People - Hibernation

Written and recorded by Solar Powered People at McCording Studios in Sacramento, CA

Engineered by Matt McCord

Produced by Solar Powered People and Matt McCord

Mixed by Chris Woodhouse and Matt McCord

Mastered by Chris Cline

Hibernation Solar Powered People's debut album, sounds like it was born in the subconscious minds of some very serious musicians. The album's dreamlike quality immerges out of the psychedelic "Child's Introduction" and continues throughout in the form of subtle, straightforward melodies, airy synths and rippled instrumentals. These rush in behind driving guitars to grab the listener and then retreat like a cold wave, leaving a heavier new feeling in its place. To these elements the band has added vocals that layer and resonate like they were sung into a shallow canyon. Finally with some studio touches from Chris Woodhouse (who also worked with the Deftones, Team Sleep and Cake) uses studio touches to tie together the album's various aspects, bringing the aural dream into reality.

The track "Awhile" is probably one of the best examples of the band's proclivity for shoegaze, featuring chords that seem to feed on themselves when the song breaks open into something deep, soaring and intense. The track sounds like it could blow out speakers even played at a low volume. Still the album is equally beautiful in its simple moments as in its moments of heavy orchestration. "Start the Cycle" features both, launching into heavier percussion halfway through what begins as a soft melody; meanwhile "Turn Back" is entirely slow, lingering thoughtfully through notes like an early Enya instrumental. The album's single "Picture Fade" sounds like a reflection of heartbreak, with lyrics that mirror the song's melancholy, reverberating notes.

Fans of Team Sleep, Pinback and Mew will fall willingly into Hibernation. After nine tracks the listener wakes from Solar Powered People's spell; but unlike most dreams, this album is not likely to slip away. (Three Ring Records)

www.solarpoweredpeople.com

-Lulu McAllister

Ohmega Watts - Watts Happening

Produced by Ohmega Watts

Not many hip-hop artists or producers dare to stray very far outside of their genre, but those that do have the rare opportunity to create a whole new group of fans and open a lot of doors. The Pacific Northwest's Ohmega Watts is one of those rare music producers that manages to shape shift his career toward great horizons. His new 18-song album Watts Happening is a creative endeavor that brings the listener to musical places that, although not completely uncharted, are incredibly inspiring.

Opening with "What It's Worth," the album immediately lifts off into the stratosphere and doesn't come back until the very last note of the very last song. Funky break beats and a wonderful soul/funk vibe permeate throughout, hearkening the feel of early dance-oriented hip-hop. "No Delay" is a positive song bringing the promise of elevating change while "Model Citizen" captures the glow of a relaxing hot summer day. But the true album treasures are "Adaptacao," "Saywhayusay" and "The Platypus Strut" - each showcasing amazing Brazilian and Latin grooves that could make almost anyone get on the dance floor and strut their stuff. Not many current producers are jumping on the Brazilian beat bandwagon, which is too bad since when done right can make for some truly beautiful and innovative new sounds.

This album is great for fans of feel good, underground hip-hop that love the sounds of such legendary acts as De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. In a landscape overrun with the never-ending stream of egotistical thugs and gangsters who promote a way of life that does nothing but bring negative publicity, Ohmega Watts offers a refreshing alternative and a voice worth hearing. (Ubiquity Records)

www.ohmegawatts.com

-Casey P. O'Neill

Nire - Vespers

Recorded and mixed by Nire at their home

Mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion

Certain albums simply sound better at specific times of the day. A perfect example of this is the debut full length from Portland via Philadelphia duo Erin Morgan and Josh Hinton, who perform as Nire. It is an album that is well suited to late night listening and is appropriately entitled Vespers - an evening prayer service.

Vespers would make amazing, contemplative music for any kind of spiritual searching. It is intimate, still and focused, using a limited palette (acoustic guitar, old keyboards, voices) to create a delicate, pretty, low-lit bedroom-sized world. Morgan and Hinton sing together on all of the tracks excepting two brief instrumentals, and their voices, which become inseparable, never rise above a whisper. The album is closely recorded so that every guitar strum, key played and vocal nuance makes an impact.

They don't diverge much from the minimalist, after-hours pattern they establish but the album is never monotonous or dull. The music, while spare, is also rich and suggestive, sometimes approaching the haunted starkness of Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Like Drake, they accomplish a lot with modest means. The songs have enigmatic, hinting lines like "Jesus and the moon and the rain and the snow" (from "Mary") and "As we sing, we sing ourselves to sleep" (from "The March"), which could stand as a mantra for the band.

There is so much noise in our culture right now, and Nire seems to be offering an aural tonic for it all, a kind of refuge from the clamor. Vespers is a strong, promising debut that adheres to an aesthetic that, while consciously circumscribed, also yields a great deal of beauty, warmth and comfort. It is an un-showy, unpretentious album that captivates by being gentle and quiet, settling on the listener like a blanket of soft snow.

(Abandoned Love Records)

www.niremusic.com

-Lukas Sherman

The Femurs - Modern Mexico

Recorded by Brian Brown and Reed Griffin

Mixed and mastered by Chris Hanzeck

A casual listen to the third release from the Seattle duo of Rob and Colin Femur yields little by way of variation. Both players sing and alternate duties on drums and acoustic guitar, and all of Modern Mexico's 12 tracks are short, lean, upbeat, lo-fi sing-alongs. Equal parts coffee-shop novelty and campfire ditty, these six new songs, repackaged with last year's Jack Cafferty vs. Chuck Scarborough EP, barely differ in their component parts but peel back the superficial similarities and a lyrical lexicon of cheeky charisma remains.

Throughout, this album is a giddy, sun-drenched affair. The two Femurs are boyhood friends from New York, but musically they've developed a wholly West Coast veneer. If Violent Femmes were raised in the same dysfunctional family as The Beach Boys, something like The Femurs might eventually have sullied forth. Virtually every moment of Modern Mexico bears this comparison out. Unlike their precursors, though, The Femurs have yet to locate a vein of pure saccharine pop genius to call their own.

Even so, from the happy-go-lucky catharsis of "Crazy Girl" to the happy-go-lucky catharsis of "Girl for Everyone," Modern Mexico testifies to the band's often clearly focused priorities. Far from being merely unrequited contrarians, Rob and Colin Femur celebrate what they love (in songs like "Vitamins," "Plastic Swords" and "Calgon") with far more frequency than they rail against life's little letdowns, and the result is an uplifting whirlwind of an album. At its worst, these songs grind into a kind of numbing, selfsame familiarity. But in small doses they boast the best of what's on tap at open mic nights from Seattle to San Diego - a flurry of untrained musical energy that's as transcending in its quest for pure fun as it is frayed at all of its many edges.

(Homespun Records)

www.losfemurs.net

-Jason Kirk

Upsilon Acrux - Galapagos Momentum

Engineered and mixed by Jay and Ian Pellicci_

Recorded at Infrasonic Studios in Los Angeles

Galapagos Momentum, the new full-length recording from San Diego's Upsilon Acrux comes through the speakers without introduction and at full ramming speed. Instantly the listener is taunted by frantic guitar-tapped triplets and manic snare drum syncopation. An immense tension is created by precise drum arrangements that traverse all manner of time signatures in rapid fashion. Cerebral and intuitive bass lines are punctuated by spastic bursts of a free-jazz nature.

Their musical world is one without words as they represent a growing faction of instrumental neo-prog/hardcore outfits bent on creating the most feverish amplified equations possible. Bands like Upsilon seem perversely fueled by aurally discordant mind spaces. Without turning to any vocal imagery or expression, they construct songs as a series of vignettes, snapshots into a tortured and primal self beyond language. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for the non-prog devotee to really identify.

The track "Boa vs. Crab" stands out in particular as possessing enough balance to warp time and space while still drawing in the average listener. Suspense is built at the outset by a dark bass guitar raga before rapid fire hi-hats are paired up with strange frequencies, best described as guitar-based imitations of defective telephone signals. Ten seconds later they're in Minutemen territory, kicking out fast-paced slink and jive before descending into sparse, clean-toned doom. It basically sums up the record - all over the place.

Accessible or not, the real essence of Galapagos Momentum seems to be its subconscious affect. Put it on, zone out and the next thing you know you're stroking a cat while pondering quantum physics, the cosmos and your grocery list. It could be a very valuable tool. (Cuneiform Records)

www.myspace.com/upsilonacrux

-Geoff Shiner

Sleepy Eyes of Death - Street Lights for a Ribcage

Recorded by Keith Negley at The Soundhouse

Engineered by Zack Reinig

Produced by Zack Reinig and Sleepy Eyes of Death

Mastered by Barry Corliss at Master Works

Street Lights for a Ribcage, the debut full length from Seattle quartet Sleepy Eyes of Death, is an album that sounds exactly like it should. There is no mistaking the band's intent to create a powerful mood through their sound, and they follow through on it unequivocally.

Banks of vintage synthesizers, guitars drenched in washy shoegazer effects, and explosions of apocalyptic drums make for an intense and fully saturated sound, so much so that the silences between songs are somewhat startling.

"Mean Time Till Failure" and "Eyes Spliced Open" start the disc with a propulsive torrent of sound. Of the 10 songs on the album, only "In Parallel" and "Tired Channels" have vocals, and even then they are heavily processed through a vocoder. The band tones down the bombast for a few ambient tracks: the slightly dissonant "We Are Safe" and the zero-g drone of the connected tracks "No Panic" and "Capsule/Collapse." "Separated by Circuits" remains relatively low key until some cathartically heavy drums kick in, and "Cells Divide" is a slow builder that features drums by former Carissa's Wierd member and current solo artist Sera Cahoone. Any trance induced by the album's mellower moments is fully obliterated as the album's closing track "Static for Blood" fades in and then bursts into a sustained sonic supernova.

For listeners of a certain age, the retro keyboard sounds will awaken memories of the movie Tron or Carl Sagan's public television series Cosmos, and the wind tunnel guitars will jack directly into the pleasure center of any fan of the shoegazer sound perfected in the early '90s. Yet somehow these decades-old sounds transcend their period associations to create music with a timeless quality and an immersive, powerful, almost primal effect on the listener. Play loud. (Sleep Capsule)

www.sleepyeyesofdeath.com

-Mike Baehr

Breech - Tarnish and Undress

Produced by Mike Flanagan and Breech

Recorded, engineered and mixed by Mike Flanagan at Black Spring in Los Angeles

Mastered by Jeff King at Threshold Sound

Imagine a circus troupe on black and white film. Nostalgic piano chords fill the air. Suddenly female singing, by turns cajolingly sweet and fiercely low, slices through the scene. Whirlwind guitar riffs and muffled laughter ensue - is this a dream? No, this is "Schubert Waltz," one of the teaser songs in Breech's Tarnish and Undress. This short track gives a taste of the band's fearless ease at distressing rock music with medieval sounds, pushing the definition of indie rock to give birth to a fantastical tale that excites yet seems disconcertingly familiar.

The album's first track, "Grounded," sets the tone with a tribally percussive instrumental opening, which fans into Missy Gibson's ringing lead vocals in all their strength and purity. However the lyrics "I'm a bad girl / I'm a sinner" reveal a dirtiness that is at once vulnerable yet raw. "Saboteur" starts out alternative but makes a sharp turn as Gibson hits the refrain with tragi-comical glee, and ends with laidback California cool evoked by the pedal steel.

The dreamy instrumental section in "Concealed" provides a nostalgic backdrop for Gibson and producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mike Flanagan to create a two-part harmony that rolls perfectly into a pathos and never fully resolves. Similarly, "Keeper of the Key" recalls the guitar opening in Sixpence None the Richer's "Paralyzed," but the drum pattern and Gibson's half-talking lend it a punk flavor. In each song, it is always Gibson's pleading lyrics reflecting an abandoned and battered woman that take center stage, and surprising instruments like the accordion and ruined autoharp complete the surreal experience.

Originally from Detroit, Gibson is also famous for selling her own baked goods in order to fund the band's releases. Tarnish and Undress, the now L.A.-based band's fifth release, promises to be a feast for the ears. (Ru Records)

www.breech.net

-Yvonne Chan

The Hot Toddies - Smell the Mitten

Recorded and mixed by Johnny "Genius" Murphy

A domestic nod to Spinal Tap (Smell the Glove) and L7 (Smell the Magic), Smell the Mitten is full of innuendos. There's a sizzle below the surface of The Hot Toddies' retro style just waiting to tickle the listener's taste buds and catch the senses off guard.

Opener "Sugar Daddy" is an exact doo-wop replica with everything from the deep bass to the dulcet backup harmonies. It would be easy to pass the song up as an old classic cover, until the chorus "You make me want a sugar daddy / with a big fat wallet and a brand new Caddy" kicks in and introduces a touch of mischief. Each song gets progressively more tongue-in-cheek than the next, and by the third track, "Seattle," the lyrics "I get so horny when I'm in Seattle" smack out against their saccharine shrouding and reveal the naughtiness brimming below the surface.

"Wet Dream" is where the ladies really flex their witty muscle, chiming together, "I think I read in a magazine / That science proved that the universe is someone's erotic dream" to explain all of life's perverse inequalities. Lessons about online romance are learned in the spoken word of "HTML" further defining Smell the Mitten as a cleverly modern collection of adult struggles.

The Toddies' musical talents sparkle on psychedelic throwbacks "Photosynthesis," "What's Your Sign?" and "Rocker Girl." The tap dancing drums of Sylvia Hurtado and the guitar and bass of Heidi Bodeson and Erin Skidmore pull the band into a hasty rock party while Jessica Wright's keys put a trippy spin on the songs. The ladies also toy with conceptual storytelling in "Anais Nin vs. The Pirates of Santa Cruz" and a lazy Hawaiian love song in "Ocean." But it is the tension of sweet and sassy woven consistently throughout the album that ultimately makes Smell the Mitten such a cozy fit. (Asian Man Records)

www.myspace.com/thehottoddies

-Megan Clinard

Leigh Marble - Red Tornado

Produced and engineeed by Leigh Marble

Additional engineering by Ian Watts and Jeff Stuart Saltzman

Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman

Recorded at Fishboy and Magic Closet Studios

Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering

Portland-based songwriter Leigh Marble's sophomore effort Red Tornado begins with "Lucky Bastards," a rock song that surely lives up to the hype surrounding the release. It benefits from Marble's gruff vocals and uneven articulation; in fact, it takes guts to make something so full of, well, noise. But combined with a stark rhythm section, "Lucky Bastards" succeeds as a compelling and aggressive welcome mat. But one good song does not a good record make.

The remaining 10 tracks on Red Tornado manage to fall just short of the mark - Marble's lyrics tend to reach too far into the Land of Cliche to retain their meaning ["So far, so good, so far away"], his voice only really performs well for him on one song, "Get Yours," and the tracks are packed so full with layers and instruments that it is difficult to hear the whole sound at once, as one sound.

"Baby Ruth" is the most well-crafted song on Red Tornado. It tells a vivid tale of a cheating girlfriend with the kind of righteous entitlement of the afflicted that makes a song sound spiritual. Whereas many of these tracks clearly come from a heartfelt place, "Baby Ruth" succeeds in conveying that emotion to the listener with genuine style. It feels a bit like Marble is mimicking a retro classic rock feel with pianist Ben Macy, but the words tell it like it is in frank Marble-speak: "You said, 'I thought I'd feel guilty, but I just feel hot.'"

Admirably, Marble was the main engineer for his own record. In the hands of a more removed ear, several of these songs could reach their full potential and be as good as the opening track. "Baby Ruth" especially could be a showstopper.

(Laughing Stock Records)

www.leighmarble.com

-Ali Marcus

The Somnambulants - Paper Trail

All Songs arranged, recorded, mixed and produced by Joseph White

Relative newcomers to the Bay Area from New York City, The Somnambulants are a male-female pair, Joseph White (bass, vocals, synths, programming) and Channing Sargent (synths, vocals), who have based their band on a love of all manner of electronic music. Their new album Paper Trail traces many of their mutual inspirations.

"Beat Down," included twice in different mixes, incorporates dire pronouncements of danger, and White sounds almost unhinged: "This town's too rough for you / This town's too rough for me" could refer to the more unsavory aspects of Brooklyn, where the duo first emerged in the Electroclash scene several years back. With a creepy Gary Numan-esque tone, intensified by its inclusion in a doubled loop like a Mobius strip, this song packs quite an impact.

Like a lot of electronic music, Paper Trail uses repetition to create a hypnotic effect. On the faster songs it's like a jackhammer, as on "Burning Daylight" where choruses of "more, more, more" (delivered spasmodically a la David Byrne) feel like the grip of addiction. However, it's most effective on "Water Colors," a dreamy, evocative number that swirls like eddies on the sand. With echoes of New Order at their most ambient, the song really does sound like the aural equivalent of a watercolor painting, not one that is finished and dry but rather one in the process of being created that still retains fluidity.

Things pick up again with "The Strip." Presumably named after L.A.'s Sunset Strip, the fast-paced instrumental provides a time-lapse sense of traffic on that busy street. The loveliest song is "Close Second." With an ethereal beauty coupled with the same psychosexual desperation found throughout this set, it reaches ambiguous but beautiful territory reminiscent of Roxy Music. (Clairaudience Collective Recordings)

www.somnambulants.com

-Susan Brooks

No Doctors - Origin & Tectonics

Recorded, engineered and mixed by Eli Crews with No Doctors at New, Improved Recording

Mastered by Myles Boisen at Guerrilla Recording

Produced by No Doctors

Musically, it's no stretch to say that on their latest full-length effort Origin & Tectonics, San Francisco's No Doctors have found a creative embrace of Captain Beefheart's desert-blind, off-kilter sensibilities. A penchant for the New York noise of Sonic Youth, Television and The Contortions is also apparent in their home-brewed amalgam of the "post" rock movements. Despite the evident relations to their ancestry however, it's clear that No Doctors are serious about bucking conventions.

Unlike many of their guitar-toting peers, they turn to a wider instrumentation for percussive and melodic embellishment, which includes plenty of saxophones, gongs and even a glockenspiel. The recording quality is extremely dry, which accentuates the clarity and gristle of their vocal delivery while at the same time bringing more attention to warm and natural instrument tones. The guitar work is well balanced between chunky staccato chords and sustained melodies, yet remains mostly clean on the album.

"Invisible Clopes" is a track that makes good use of this motif, where the close sound brings dimension to staggering, near-epiphanal vocal delivery. Space between these dynamic bursts is filled by sinister, rumbling baritone sax and sparse drum work. The lack of any detectable recording effects gives the track a confessional feel of torn emotions, light and dark.

But despite the elusive strangeness of No Doctors, there exists throughout this record a whole-hearted showmanship that croons in baritone voices and kinky grooves. Take "Rumble Ring" for example, a quirky headbanging affair that could easily pass for the type of lo-fi dance rock being circulated today. Their talent for bordering on pop reveals a deliberate sense of control, the ability to concentrate their strangeness into a more digestible format.

Perhaps it's not quite mind-blowing, but No Doctors are still able to throw a wrench in the works of modern rock music. (Self-released)

www.nodoctors.com

-Geoff Shiner

Boy in the Bubble - Songs from the City on the Sun

Recorded and mixed by Lior Goldenberg at the Rock Studio

Produced by Lior Goldenberg, Noah Lit and Josh Seidenfeld

As unique as his vocals are, it's obvious that Boy in the Bubble's singer and creator Josh Seidenfeld has the digestibility of Joanna Newsom - you either love the voice, or you reach for the cotton. The singing influences land somewhere between Ted Leo and David Bowie's Stardust era. With band aid from Echo Park's Oliver Future, Seidenfeld reminds the listener that this is his album, spotlighting the vocals at a higher level so they rise above the instrument mix.

Songs from the City on the Sun is a meshing of high and low roads. The album's listenable quality rests on driving guitar hooks and melodies that catch like a flu, coupled with Seidenfeld's over-the-top vocals, intrepidly unafraid of flamboyance. The instrumentation does recover some of the ground shaken loose by Seidenfeld's voice, which runs an octave as vast as the Bay Bridge.

Seidenfeld's poetry walks a fence between digestible you-me-we tales and confounding ambiguity restrained by odd lyrical forms rather than lyrical quality, like that found on the bouncy "The Real World Don't Matter": "Formulas, they fall at your feet / Tapping your toes you still can feel the beat / You're an aristocrat of defeat." One unfortunate sacrifice is that the lyrics occasionally self-implode, muddled undistinguishable by their over the top swagger.

"Take Me Home" is where things really pull together, the vocals sound less first-take, and the hooks snag with a slippery organ and stadium-ready electric guitars and drums.

This debut highlights a lot of creative ideas swirling in the band, from the distorted, drunken ballads to the guitar driven anthems. With more focus on reserve and vocal leashing, Boy in the Bubble could become emblematic for not just the obvious talent, but for the packaging of that talent. (Red Cat Records)

www.boyinthebubble.org

-Christopher Petro

Nyles Lannon - Pressure

Produced by Badman Recording Co. in Portland, OR

Mastered by Mike Wells at Mike Wells Mastering in San Francisco, CA

Listening to Nyles Lannon's new album Pressure is like eating a large bowl of chocolate ice cream for dinner. It's tasty, it's consistent, and it's even a little offbeat and dangerous, but in the end you're left feeling unsatisfied: it's just too much of the same thing.

In a similar manner, Pressure delivers yummy musical stylings without much balance. Lannon's laidback, oddly ethereal style dominates the album and, tempting as it is, it eventually loses its charm and starts to blend into the background.

This is not to say that Pressure has no merit. On the contrary, the album has some legitimately great songs, like the drawling and sexy "Next Obsession," an ode to the inevitability of passionate surrender ("You've taken all of my soul / What can I do / I'm a fool"), and the booming, somewhat psychedelic "Slipping," which channels late Beatles recordings. Bolstered by an Elliott Smith-like whispery darkness that pervades throughout (Lannon's voice even sounds like Smith's), Pressure has an undeniably sophisticated panache. In the wake of Lannon's work with Film School, his latest endeavor seems understatedly reflective and mature.

However after about the fourth or fifth track, the album begins to go stale. Lannon's soft vocals and subdued strumming start to sound hypnotic and pat, and even songs that would be pleasing and fresh on their own, like the electronic and shimmering "Crash Landing" or the delightfully syncopated "Elephant Song," have all the impact of a bland aftertaste.

All in all, several good songs do not an album make and in this regard, Pressure is less than the sum of its parts. It seems a little one-note, although that may just be a side effect of Lannon's somewhat atonal style. But the album's several undeniably bankable tunes definitely make Pressure worth a listen. (Badman Recording Co.)

www.nlannon.com

-Caitlin Berka

Albino! - Rhino

Recorded and engineered by Bruce Buchanan at Big Hut

Mixed by Dan Prothero at Big Hut

Mastered by Ken Lee at Ken Lee Mastering

When considering a genre as large as world music, most tend to look beyond the U.S. However Albino!, awarded "Best World Music" by the SF Weekly in 2005, hails from the Bay Area and adeptly challenges this assumption with its debut album Rhino. Rife with upbeat flow and protest, the band coins its style "heavy, heavy Afrobeat" however the music does still retain an unavoidably American interpretation. This may be the fusion itself. On the album, Albino! stitches bebop, acid Latin jazz, African percussion and enunciation, and reggae together into a colorful texture, despite its alabaster name. And that irony is likely part of the point.

Albino! is known for attention-grabbing stage shows choreographed and costumed to resemble an African tribe, The Blues Brothers, Burning Man goers and a dance troupe. Rhino manages to successfully convey that big energy through the sheer amount of players - there are eleven members and eight guests playing political funk on Rhino.

Extended movement-inducing tangents underscore clear lyrical messages like "Democracy - not for sale." The band's fire is pointed directly at the relationship between culture, politics and media in perpetuating fear and poor choices. This is done in a fashion vague enough to apply to any country, but specific enough for the listener to conclude Albino!'s message likely targets Bush in "Puppet Boy" ("Your masters put you on T.V.") and the Iraq war in "Soldier Don't Speak" ("We have all seen the images ... Culture of obedience").

Albino! is American Afrobeat at its best, coupling instrumental intervals, sparse and protest-oriented vocals, horns, keys, bass and ultra-percussion. Their album Rhino a good introduction to the genre for a newcomer, and required listening for someone who's already a fan. (Mighty Niblet)

www.albinoband.com

-Rachel Mulcrone

Emily Kurn - Things Change

Produced by Mark Thayer and Emily Kurn

Recorded and mixed by Mark Thayer at Signature Sounds Studio in Pomfret, CT

Mastered by Bob St. John at PDQ Mastering in Miramar, FL

Alaskan Emily Kurn produces a consistent collection of folk tracks on Things Change. The songs don't stray far from the singer/songwriter type: calm and vocal-driven performances with minimal usage of guitars, piano and percussion. But there is an ethereal quality to Kurn's quivering yet delicate voice that leaves a lasting effect, even when the subjects vary from politics to being, as Kurn puts it, "a poor man's answered prayer" in "You Were Drunk."

The album starts off with the slow and light offering of "Brown Boots, Red Coat," a country/folk song that eases the listener into the meat of Kurn's creations. "Angeline" is a notable track if only for the raw emotion in Kurn's trembling vocals amplified by the lack of overpowering instrumentals. Had the song included a booming bass line or rigid snare beat, it would have ruined the fragility of Kurn's words: "You both glowed, pulled in close / You stitched flowers up his sleeve / In navy blue and green, Angeline."

As mentioned, Kurn isn't afraid to enter into the realm of political controversy. In "If I Am American," she questions what it truly means to be American and the civil instability that events in recent years have caused. It is the most straightforward song on the record lines like, "Locals leaned forward to ask me / 'Where are you from?' / I told them 'Canada, Land of the Maple Leaf." And it is a powerful piece of lyricism.

However, there are moments when Kurn loses her footing. In "The Schmuck," she tries her hand at organized chaos but falls short of success. The song attempts instrumentals that don't fall in consistent time, and Kurn's voice gets lost in the shuffle. The accompanying piano segments deemphasize Kurn's vocals when it should be the primary focus, and the ending to the barely two-minute track is abrupt, unexpected and unearned.

Kurn closes out the dozen-track disc with the line, "When I look in the mirror, I somehow look older." Nothing stays the same for long and she gets that.

(Self-released)

www.emilykurnmusic.com

-Philiana Ng