Do Make Say Think return with another album, this time going back to their roots. Four long, instrumental tracks. Less vocals to divert your attention from their attention to detail on their own instruments, though some are present at the beginning of "Make". In the opener "Do", What starts off pretty unmenacing becomes full on shred halfway, with guitars being joined by horns before the denouement slows things down. "Make" has a very gardual build-up, where again the horns usher in the climax with guitars. To those who loved the new direction on "You, You're A History in Rust", this may not be exciting and "old hat", but it's refreshing hearing Do Make Say Think just do their thing instead of worrying about appeal or innovation. "Say" has an extremely cool groove, with jazzy drums and light guitar that blooms into something more at times then retreats back. "Think" is very serene, but has something strangely captivating with its occasional guitar flairs. It's a song I could easily have seen being on Squarepusher's Ultravisitor.

Kel McKeown returns with his third album after last year's Ex-Aquarium. I first became aware of Kelpe with his debut album Sea Inside Body. His aquatic themes and pure electronic sound were very captivating. When he returned four years later with Ex-Aquarium, the aquatic obsession was still there, but an influence by actual instruments totally transformed his sound (in a good way) in that it almost sounded like two different artists. Cambio Wechsel seems to have merged the sounds of those two albums. He also pulls some retro funk samples into the mix in a very compelling way. It seems to blend perfectly into his sound's aesthetic. Squelchy bass is the backbone of Cambio Wechsel, which gives the album a much more hip-hop vibe than Ex-Aquarium, which came across as more folktronic to me, but Kel takes it away from the normal dirty hip-hop setting as much as is possible, converging it with the aforementioned funk, as well as folk, jazz, psychedelia, and kraut-rock. The overall effect is funky without being clubby. It's a totally new sound, and that's what Kelpe has been missing before, its own sound. With Sea Inside Body, it sounded like a lot of other IDM at the time. With Ex-Aquarium, it sounded like Four Tet. With Cambio Wechsel, it sounds like Kelpe.

Jeff McIlwain drops the "Icl" again for his latest album on Ghostly. For those of you who've followed the Lusine projects over the years, "Lusine Icl" is typically reserved for Jeff's more ambient work, and "Lusine" for his more beta-oriented work. That formula doesn't change here, as A Certain Distance certainly has more in common with 2004's classic Serial Hodgepodge than 2007's Language Barrier (soon to be a classic I'm sure). Those two albums cemented McIlwain as a standout artist that is a flexible as he innovative. His understanding of ambience and thump shapes his works on both projects in a way that's clearly distinguishable from anyone else. As with everything on Ghostly these days, there's a commercial angle here with the single "Two Dots", with its echoed samples/vocals. It's not something I would expect from Lusine, but it works. These types of vocals appear throughout the album, and they're actually a nice accent to Lusine's sound. As with any Lusine album, there's some hip-hopesque beat experimentation going on, and it's wrapped in a Techno-IDM framework. A slightly more poppy Lusine, but still another good record from a true talent.

Bibio just continues to churn out quality in what has become his breakout year. Two albums and now two EP's, this one with new tracks and so many remixes it's basically another full length. The new tracks start the show, and are fantastic. The title track perfects the folk-hop template while maintaining an energy most tracks in this style can't compete with. It bleeds directly into "Rotten Rudd", which slows things down before becoming an athemic sing-a-long. "Steal The Lamp" retreats from a Jaga Jazzist style opening into a Squarepusher style DNB freakout at the end, showing Bibio still has more sounds he's willing to tackle. On the remixes side, highlights are Lone's effort, which throws the original sounds into a blender halfway in to create a smoothed out hip-hop groove. Leatherette's cut-up, pitchshifted version of "LOver's Carvings" takes some getting used to, but its lounge feel is too cool to be denied. Another highlight is Bibio's own rework of "Palm Of Your Wave", which takes the original tune to new heights. Another excellent release.

Justin Levy finally follows up his breakout album as DJ Signify Sleep No More with Of Cities, a hard nosed urban instrumental hip-hop album that completely eschews current trends in the hip-hop scene coming out of LA. Don't expect the wonk or style hopping of Flying Lotus at play here. Of Cities is much grittier and more focused. Coming from Brooklyn, this album almost plays like a defense of territory or a statement against the West Coast's influence on instrumental hi-hop. Of Cities is ambience for the city streets, the percussion of stepping in puddles, the sound of not having an umbrella in the rain. Aesop Rock appears here, and his vocals fit neatly with Signify's sound. Overall, I think the album fits somewhere in between the sounds of Blockhead and Deceptikon, firmly in the tradition of the genre, with a harder edge than anything I've been hearing in this space in quite a while. This album may not excite some for that reason, but for me, it's actually refreshing to hear the East Coast alive again.

Vowels is a side project on James Rutledge, better known as Pedro, with drummer Chris Walmsley of Voice of the Seven Woods and Psapp. If you like percussion, step into this one. Walmsley lets his presence be known, with drum fills all over, and Rutledge complements with complex beats and 0-60 tempos in record time. With Pedro, it's quite hard to pin down a style, but I'd say Krautrock, jazz, and psychedelia are the primary sound influences of this record. A highlight is the 11 minute epic Appendix, which goes through all of these styles over the course of the tune, and never loses its place. This release is definitely experimental, but it's not just for beardstrokers. It has an energy to it that is palpable.

Whiskey Leaves is a lovely little acoustic folk album from the normally experimental Digitalis imprint. Female vocals in (mostly) Japanese color heart strings plucked off an acoustic guitar. The duo is Aiko Koa and Anthony Guerra, and this is supposedly their second release, but good luck finding the first. These songs are simple, but impeccably crafted and memorable folk pop treats. Guerra makes his own percussion out of tapping his feet and his guitar, and Koa adds ukelele work in at some points. Beyond the pop, there are many ambient moments tucked away in this release, letting the instruments breathe in space, and it's well sequenced, never a jarring juxtaposition. The number of moving parts isn't immense, but it's the perfect amount for this record. This one is severely limited, but you can still grab copies from the Digitalis website. Do that.

To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie return with their second album after their debut The Patron. Marlone sees the band growing quite a bit from their debut, with their arrangements growing more intriguing and varied, and overall just more impressive. Their sound is a mix of experimental and post rock, with ambience and shoegaze playing a role as well. Jehna's vocals still sound remarkably like Beth Gibbons, with a bit of Cortney Tidwell and Trish Keenan thrown in, but her work on guitar mixed with Mark McGee's electronics and percussion take this band to totally different places. There's a dichotomy at play between light and dark on the album, with morbid violin and ambience competing with a pull toward pop sensibility. Ocassionally, light wins, as on "In People's Homes", but if dark places are where you like to hang out, Marlone is a great album to bring with you.

In the 70s, French musicians created tons and tons of material for use in film and television, most of which was never released. The material was mostly avant-garde use of jazz and what little electronic material they had, mainly Moogs and home made synths. Loosely involved in this scene, in 1975, Bernard Fevre released the ultra-rare The Strange World of Bernard Fevre, a composition of experimental electronics and library music. Three years later, as Black Devil, he released the classic, but rare "Disco Club" single. In 2001 and 2002, Luke Vibert started to shed the light on much of this material in his "Nuggets" series for Lo, on which Fevre appears. In 2004, Rephlex re-released the "Disco Club" single. Since then, Fevre has gone on to release three albums of what is new/what is old material for Lo, to great acclaim. This album is a more official re-release, but the track listing is different, and there has definitely been some updates to the sounds, though how much who knows. What's important is that everything Fevre has done, whether he did it in the 70s or recently, has been incredibly intriguing work, and this album is no exception. Strange New World wavers between synth-based experimental and electro sounds.

The prolificness of the Deerhunter collective shows no signs of stopping in 2009, with new albums from its guitarist (as Lotus Plaza) and its singer (as Atlas Sound) and this EP as the full band. Rainwater Cassette Exchange is a collection of short, catchy indie rock songs. Cox's easy to follow vocals are at the forefront, but the tempo changes with each tune, as does the instrumentation, so there's a great ebb and flow feel to the EP. Synthwork creeps in on "Famous Last Words" to great effect, almost being used as a background vocal. Samples creep in after the vocals end and the band continues to jam on in "Circulation", closing the EP in strong fashion. If you're a fan of the last Deerhunter album, this EP isn't going to surprise you, but it probably will make you happy.