Argentine ex-actress/comedienne turned folk singer/songwriter Juana Molina returns with her fourth album. Juana's formula has always been of mix of folky guitar, Spanish lyrics, and little electronic touches, but here she's a bit more ambitious. The album starts with a very energetic chant with repetitive backup vocals buttressing a subtle drum beat, in direct contrast from anything I think she's ever done. The energy level doesn't drop as more layers are added, such as horns, whistles, and more. It's a heck of a way to start an album, and sets the tone for what follows. From there some more familiar tracks follow, but Juana's vocal delivery is noticeably more varied throughout the album, and the energy level and chanting elements are certanly a focal point, and work very well. Even though I personally loved Juana's formula, it's great to see here experimenting with new sounds and her own voice. It just shows what kind of talent she is. A captivating record.

Merck sublabel Narita delivers its swan song in the form of the compilation Terminal, showcasing some of the best unreleased tracks from its usual suspects. Anyone's who's heard previous Narita releases knows what to expect: hard-hitting techno tinged with experimental sounds. It felt to me like Narita didn't have enough time to say what it wanted to say about current techno music. There's something very compelling about experimental electronic producers' takes of dancefloor music, an idea Warp developed and abandoned with its Arcola sublabel and something I was hoping Narita would pick up the slack on. Early releases hinted at the true genius to come from the collision of techno and IDM, but sadly, beyond a few great singles and a couple albums, Narita never developed into the influencer on the genre it could have been with more time, and perhaps that has to do with it coming from the States and not Germany or the UK. Even so, what we did get out of Narita were a bunch of fresh takes on dancefloor music, and ideas that could linger on or develop more in the hands of other labels as these talented artists move on.

Dubstepper Zomby takes us back to the days of early Hardcore/Rave with his debut album. After a string of successful dubstep 12"'s, this album is quite a curve ball for just about anyone who's heard Zomby's material before, but thankfully I can say it's a welcome one. Beyond Rustie's remix of Spliff Dub, Zomby's dubstep tracks really don't stand out as much as this "throwback" material, which has a life and joy to it a lot of people could use right about now. I won't pretend to be an expert on early 90s rave music, but it feels as though Zomby's taking his favorite sounds from '92 and injecting them into what he was pumping out for the dubstep community. Sure, there's a lot of cheese elements here, but like with Burial, those elements actually work to the favor of the music, not to its detriment. And with big ups from Martin Clark on Pitchfork recently, he might have a chance at some of that Burial success. A fun listen for vets and newbies to the early 90s rave scene, as long as you don't mind air horns and Street Fighter II samples.

If you've heard of The Tough Alliance, you've probably only heard their gloriously cheesy Scandanavian-new-wave/pop albums, i.e. the last two albums (this was the case with me, at least), in which case the Swedish duo's 2006 full-length may come as a surprise to you, as nothing could be more of a departure from their recent material. 'Escaping Your Ambitions' is a very creative ambient (and vaguely IDM-ish) album, with thoroughly unique production and an impressive melding of genres (found sound, modern classical), and without the sometimes tedious tendencies of their more recent material.

For a very limited release (only 100 copies for the world), 'Serene' has gotten a respectable amount of press, and one can immediately see why. The closest reference points are William Basinski and Boards of Canada (and not in a derivative sense!), and I'd have to say that Spencer Doran's sound is probably closer to Basinski. 'Serene' consists of two tracks, a 35-minute decayed-piano loop (with dissonant guitar and other interesting effects), and a 5-minute coda. As with all such music, there's a very real danger of slipping into banality or boredom, which Cloaks (thankfully) manages to expertly avoid.

In case you didn't notice, the release date listed above is 1972. Unfortunately there isn't a 35th anniversary 2007 re-release, or whatever, that I can pin this recommendation on; but I suppose we can muddle through, regardless. I had heard vague things about Niagara (LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy manages to name-check them in 'Losing My Edge'), but finally got around to listening to their classic string of 1970s albums just last month, and I couldn't believe what I'd been missing. Niagara are a very hard band to explain; an odd melding of Afro-Cuban jazz, prog, disco, and krautrock. They sound oddly modern (perhaps just because fashionable late '00s music tends in their direction), but also timeless. The main thing is the quality of the songwriting, though; I was consistently blown away by the sheer creativity and inventiveness on display here.

The former Vivian Girls drummer was recently shunted over to fellow Brooklyn-based lo-fi act Crystal Stilts, and one can immediately see the similarities between the two bands. Vivian Girls' sound is among the scuzzier of the current spate of lo-fi indie acts (Times New Viking are almost unlistenable in this respect), but it definitely works. Somewhere between shoegaze and punk, with great melodies and an incredible (female) vocalist. Highly recommended!

A very impressive little psychedelic folk album. This isn't usually my genre of choice, but there's really something unique about this record; the production is such that it's quite difficult to tell if it was recorded in the 1970s or last week. There are prog-esque instrumental segues, beautiful piano pieces, etc.; Type Records has really honed in on a lot of great off-kilter folk/rock acts that somehow, taken together, constitute a cohesive sound.

A collection of this NYC band's two pre-2008 releases (and rather 'pre,' at that; from 2004 and 2005), consisting of six melodic and engaging post-punk shoegaze-ish tracks. Re-tooled versions of the majority of these tracks will appear on the forthcoming 'Alight of Night' album, but this 12" is worth picking up on its own terms (well, for me at least!), and serves as an excellent preview of their upcoming debut LP. Crystal Stilts have been an opening act for hundreds of shows in NYC over the last few years, though intermittently (various hiatuses, changing members), but they seem to have finally solidified their band lineup and gotten down to putting out some proper releases, and are certainly one of the most exciting bands to emerge this year.