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Review: Emptyset Emptyset
Label: Caravan

A hybrid project based in Bristol, England, Emptyset is grimy and cryptic, driven from within by the region's body-buzzing bass culture, inspired from without by minimal techno innovations in Berlin and Detroit. The 10 short tracks—the longest clocks in at just over six minutes—seem like sketches of more epic versions and may initially disappoint. Read more » 

Review: Kasper Bjørke Standing on Top of Utopia
Label: hfn

The sophomore solo LP from Danish producer Kasper Bjørke, Standing on Top of Utopia, is a collection of solid, if unremarkable, songs on the hfn label. Known for his award-winning group Filur with Tomas Barfod, Bjørke's occasionally forgettable productions benefit from collaboration, care of guest vocalists Louise Foo, Jacob Bellens, and WhoMadeWho's Tomas Hoffding. Read more » 

Review: White Hills White Hills
Label: Thrill Jockey

White Hills' last album, Heads on Fire, flared and throbbed in the peak-era Hawkwind/Comets on Fire vein of robust space rock that appeals both to stoners and acid acolytes. However, the New York-based group considers this self-titled album, its fourth overall, to be a new phase in its evolution. "Dead," though, starts the disc with more of that roiling, majestic rock—no real departure, even with Oneida's Kid Millions playing drums. Read more » 

Review: Josiah Wolf Jet Lag
Label: Anticon

Siblings hate being compared to one another, but it's impossible to listen to Josiah Wolf's debut effort without thinking of Yoni Wolf, WHY?'s master wordsmith and Josiah's brother/band mate. Perhaps if Josiah's work stood apart from Yoni's in any real, audible way, we could ignore the fact that the two are, in fact, related to one another. Read more » 

Review: Bomb the Bass Back to Light
Label: !K7

Plenty of people have mentioned the supposed tropical influence on the new Bomb the Bass album. Granted, Tim Simenon worked with Brazilian Gui Boratto (and a host of other guests) on this follow-up to 2008's Future Chaos, and the resulting album is light and breezy. Read more » 

Review: Radian Chimeric
Label: Thrill Jockey

Radian are no strangers to deconstruction. Through past albums like 2002's rec.extern and 2004's Juxtaposition, the Austrian trio has taken apart every aspect of their band—rhythm, melody, and songwriting—and rebuilt themselves into a glitchy, experimental post-rock outfit that defies categorization. Read more » 

Review: Zelienople Give It Up
Label: Type

Somewhat confusingly described in their press materials as a "jazz trio," Zelienople may share Bohren & der Club of Gore's fixation on Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks music, but they cut that dreaminess with wandering clouds of guitar-nourished despair. It gives the proceedings a smudged and inconsolable soiled-American vibe similar to Steven R. Smith's music, with a few formal nods to ambient electronic. Read more » 

Review: Mikkel Meyer Bacon
Label: Statler & Waldorf

Don't confuse Danish electronic experimentalist Mikkel Meyer with German techno producer Michael Mayer. Whereas Kompakt artist Mayer makes taught and cohesive digital music, Denmark's Meyer takes a scattershod approach to avant-bass tracks. On Bacon, spacious dubstep numbers like "Kotelet" seem on the verge of collapse, crackling with static, brittle rimshots, and unstable sub-bass notes. Read more » 

Review: James Pants Seven Seals
Label: Stones Throw

Apparently, the dapper B-boy, who long ago spent his prom night charming Peanut Butter Wolf, now wants to start a doomsday cult. But never mind Seven Seals' tacky, occultist artwork—James Pants is still a charmer. He holes himself deep into a scuzzy, ramshackle noise and his mess is simply immaculate. Pants oddly clashes punk thrash with medieval Kraftwerk synth riffs on "Beyond Time," while "Wash to Sea" finds him cleverly revising Joy Division as a lounge act. Read more » 

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