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CD Reviews

Yeasayer | Odd Blood

Secretly Canadian (2010)
Yeasayer have created a decadent, densely produced mess of a second album.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 09, 2010

Myra Melford’s Be Bread | The Whole Tree Gone

Firehouse 12 (2010)
Few jazz players and composers can bring as broad a vocabulary to a single piece as pianist Myra Melford.

By: JON GARELICK | February 02, 2010

Four Tet | There Is Love In You

Domino (2010)
In the five years since Kieran Hebden a/k/a Four Tet last dropped a full-length, the playing field has been seriously leveled for sample-based electronic music.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 02, 2010

Original Soundtrack | Kamasutra: Vollendung Der Liebe

Crippled Dick Hot Wax (2009)
The good news: Kamasutra is, in fact, a very early Can recording, credited to "Irmin Schmidt Inner Space Production."

By: GUSTAVO TURNER | February 02, 2010

Kemado (2010)
This Los Angeles foursome first emerged in 2008 as the Muslims, a name they elected to change after they grew disgusted with and exhausted by all the ignorant — and often racist — bullshit that came out of people's mouths during shows/interviews/conversations.

By: MIKAEL WOOD | February 03, 2010

Toro Y Moi | Causers Of This

Carpark (2010)
Toro y Moi's debut is a leap into a tactile æsthetic where surreal and sometimes unstable atmospheres lure listeners into simple, soulful songs.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 03, 2010

Ape & Undu | Jaw & Order

Trapjaw (2009)
This is not your typical bi-racial indie-rap duo with a whiteboy who rips and a tandem token black guy who holds the honky's jockstrap.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | February 03, 2010

Pit Er Pat | The Flexible Entertainer

Thrill Jockey (2010)
Pit Er Pat, the minimalist duo of Fay Davis-Jeffers and the dubiously named Butchy Fuego, have pared down their sound in search of simple beauty, but the result is an icy album utterly lacking in energy.

By: MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | January 27, 2010

Various Artists | Pop Ambient

Kompakt (2010)
It'd be easy to understand a resistance to "ambient" music — beyond all of its unfortunate Enya and dusty Eno connotations.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 27, 2010

Fresh Vetz | Vet Status

Top Shelf (2009)
It's a bright sign for hip-hop when at least three promising subterranean sluggers ride flows comparable to that of the almighty Nas.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | January 27, 2010

The Magnetic Fields | Realism

Nonesuch (2010)
This will be labeled as the Magnetic Fields' folk album, and fairly so.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | January 27, 2010

Priestess | Prior To The Fire

Tee Pee (2009)
Now Priestess are back in Indieland, rubbing denim-clad elbows with the likes of Nebula and Black Math Horseman.

By: MIKAEL WOOD | January 27, 2010

Basia Bulat | Heart Of My Own

Rough Trade (2010)
Like a Laurel Canyon Billie Holiday or a pixilated Tracy Chapman, Bulat sports a voice rich with vibrato, hearty oomph, and dignified lonesomeness.

By: ZETH LUNDY | January 27, 2010

MC Paul Barman | Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud

Househusband (2009)
Note how the title of Paul Barman's third and latest sounds corny at first glance but deserves a "ha" — or at least an "I smell this dude" — on further contemplation.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | January 19, 2010

Beach House | Teen Dream

Sub Pop (2010)
Before I talk about Beach House's third album — the top dreampop album of 2010 until further notice — I should reveal that I had the big gay whirlwind romance of my life under the influence of a steady stream of Beach House Mania at SxSW three years ago.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 19, 2010