Celebration - Celebration (2005)

Oh man, this is really excellent. I'm not even really sure how to tag this in a way that isn't douchily vague and probably inaccurate. Their last.fm page tells me that this band is "cabaret punk", but don't take that to mean it's mediocre, (unpleasantly) grating, Amanda Palmer-esque music for mall goths refusing the label. It's a little like They Shoot Horses Don't They in the sense that the vocals are a frantic and vary drastically in pitch, and the music is explosively exuberant in a freak-ass, circus kind of way. As of late, this is one of the few records that I've instantly liked in its entirety, and I'm now actively seeking their second one.



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Tuxedomoon - Pinheads On The Move (1987)

Tuxedomoon formed in San Francisco in the mid-80's and kind of blew people away with their extremely weird, slightly spazzy art / new wave / experimental sound, which is slightly electronic but mostly just an aural aneurism. I enjoy it thoroughly.



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The Pop Group - Y (1979)

This group is among my favourite aural challenges, oh man. A man named John Dougan described this particular album much better than I could via All Music Guide & Amazon:

"Emerging in the late-'70s post-punk era, this militant gang of leftist radical politicos from Bristol, England, specialized in a funk-driven cacophony of sound that was abrasive, strident, and ultimately very exciting. Railing against Margaret Thatcher's Tory government, the state of pop music, racism, sexism, etc., the Pop Group were not the easiest band of the early post-punk era to listen to, but those who made the effort were in for an interesting melange of primitive rhythms and avant-garde guitar racket." (Dougan 2008)

And there you have it.



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Metallic Falcons - Desert Donuts (2006)

Metallic Falcons is Matteah Baim and Sierra Casady of CocoRosie fame. Sierra was the reason I was made aware of this record, which is strange and beautiful in a way that amplifies those qualities in CocoRosie's music without overdoing it. The best way I can think to put it is this: it sounds like a memory, most likely one to take place in a quiet house on a cloudy day. I've seen it classified as "baby metal" by lots of folks, but what that means I'm not really sure; there's nothing about this album that I would say is even remotely metal, but it is creepy and dark like I guess some metal is? Difficult to describe, it's not difficult to enjoy; I recommend this if you like CocoRosie or just spooky music in general.



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Emily Wells - The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties (2008)

'Very honest', 'very different' and 'very impressive' are all phrases I'd use to describe this piece of music, which was the end result of this girl, Emily Wells, having rejected major labels due to their restrictions on her creative freedom. She wrote, recorded and produced this all by her lonesome, but you shouldn't mistake it for an amateur-y mixtape deal; the sound is really crisp, and all the many layers of sound fit together perfectly to create what seems to be a "Fiddler On The Roof"-sounding, danceable set of sweet-but-authentic words and beats. Also, all the track names rhyme- cute!!



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Bat For Lashes - Fur And Gold (2007)

I know this has been posted all over the place, but I'm sorry: this girl, Natasha Khan, is something special, and for that I feel she deserves more plugging. Supposedly this record was inspired by a dream she had, which wouldn't surprise me as it has a really soft, lunar feel to it. The hand claps and the bare bass drumming, along with her very pretty, lullaby voice, do their part to create the half-spooky, half-dreamy atmosphere on this near-perfect album; while there are a few tracks that stand out from the others, mostly because they're catchy without being artistically faint, Fur And Gold is best absorbed in its entirety.



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Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain (2005)

"UTTERLY UNRULY" is the best way I can think to describe this album, which, for me, defines the really uncomfortable cross-section between math rock and metal. It's noisy, screechy and fairly unpredictable despite its occasionally repetitive structures. Think Hella only louder, faster, more jagged. In short, it's an aural curbstomp- worth it, I think.



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