The BLACK LIPS play Rock & Roll with very few unnecessary flourishes. A swamby back woods stomp underlines slightly distorted guitars, not because of any effect, but because they're just that damn loud. This is the 7th record from these Atlanteans, & while there's a new producer the sound is consistent with their previous work, a raucous noisy back yard party, soaked in beer & hazed in smoke.

"Drippers" is a very limited edition e.p. of mostly new material from the Western, PA group BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW. Continuing where they left off with "Dandelion Gum", B.M.S.R have mastered their brand of post kraftwerk, lo-fi shoegaze. They use their cheap analogue electronics well & almost every song is dripping with vocoder vocals & garbage can beats. There really isn't any other band out there right now that sounds like these guys but if you're looking for a starting point, think BROADCAST, early STEREOLAB, KRAFTWERK & SLOWDIVE maybe with some Mush Records production aesthetic thrown in. These limited edition e.p.s come with four different scratch & sniff covers (tomato & campfire are some smelly examples) & supposedly will NEVER BE REPRESSED.

Formerly Reading Rainbow, Philadelphia's Bleeding Rainbow release their debut (or third?) on Kanine Records. Twee female vocals, charging guitar melodies and affected walls of sound are what the reinvented and repositioned players (Sarah Everton moved from drums to bass) have constructed. For fans of Sleater Kinney (even if Carrie Brownstein doesn't like their old band name), My Bloody Valentine or Pretty Girls Make Graves.

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Much appreciated reissue of this long out-of-print classic second album by the NYC band BOWERY ELECTRIC. "Beat" truly was a groundbreaking & modern sounding way back in 1996 with it's mix of trip-hop beats, drone & shoegaze elements. Sure, ALL of these things had been done by other bands but nobody really blended them together in a such a cool, minimal way before. This is one of the records that put Kranky on the map & it still sounds fantastic 20 years later. Fans of of early trip-hop like PORTISHEAD & MASSIVE ATTACK, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, PALE SAINTS etc...need to pick this up. AS RECOMMENDED AS THEY GET!!!

On January 8, 2016, David Bowie released his 25th album on his 68th birthday. It's called "Black Star" & it's really great. We loved "The Next Day" and still do but after hearing "Black Star", that record almost seems like a pallet cleanser, a fine record that he needed to get out of the way so he could make this incredible one. Tony Visconti is of course there on production duties & Bowie gathered a group of New York jazz musicians for his backing band. Something about the complex rhythms & linear song structures reminds us of RADIOHEAD a bit, but with more of the drama of "The Next Day" or Scott Walker's recent albums. Really though, nobody else is making records that sound like this & it's amazing that Bowie still finds a way to sound more modern than anybody else just shy of turing 70. RECOMMENDED.