Tremor Rumbles Around The World

Despite the somewhat destructive name, Tremor are an intriguing and positive combination of electronics, folk, world music, and traditional Argentinian sounds. Their album Proa is like a trip around the World Showcase Lagoon at EPCOT because of the vast array of influences, sounds, and cultures mixed up on this record. Having dubbed themselves as a digital folklore band, Tremor are obviously an open minded bunch and have no problem mixing bleeding edge sounds with cultural influences spanning centuries.

Proa is a fascinatingly good album because of the creativity in which Tremor deploys. Their fearlessness at colliding Argentinian sounds with electronics and whatever else they could find laying around makes for a textural feast that ricochets around the musical spectrum like a ping pong ball. They are all over the place with 8 bit sounds crashing into dubbed out beats, multi-part harmonies meshing with acoustic guitars, experiments coming together with commonalities; Proa is a successful science experiment with sounds. As one might expect with such relentless experimentation its a bit chaotic, but always in a good way, and it's almost kind of like what Beirut would sound like if they were from South America.

Proa is wondrous exploratory stuff that offers endless hours of new sounds and musical ideas coming together into something cohesively entertaining. If music needed a passport one gets the feeling that it could use Tremor to get into about anywhere it needed to get to. Original, beautiful, and determined to be different Proa is the sort of world music record that never lets on that is just that...worldly.

333's Bicameral Brain

The strangely named 333 have been making some of the strangest music you'll ever hear for longer than I can remember. This unit of post apocalyptic musicians create a world in which doom is the norm and abandoning hope the ideal. They make sounds that tend to drone on and on in an eternal and hopeless struggle to escape the underworld; happy campers they are not. Their latest album Bicameral Brain is an epic two CD set of ambient noodling that would seem appropriate for the final invasion and colonization of earth by aliens.

This is a huge, epic, all encompassing record that's so laden with atmosphere that it almost collapses from the weight of the songs. This is a record that washes over you like a never ending tsunami of depression. If you had to nail down Bicameral Brain in four words it would be thought provoking, doomy, and expansive. With songs that stretch beyond the outer points of our comprehension and riffs to go along with that Bicameral Brain is a record that could seemingly play in the background for the rest of humanity's existence without much notice. It's epic stuff that echos around your brain like a bouncing ping pong ball potentially giving you a migraine.

333 are not the type of band that's on a never ending quest for the spotlight, rather, they lurk in the shadows creating the ambiance of every day life and the end of it. Whether or not they're clinically depressed can be debated, but what can't be is that this group are experts at creating wandering atmospherics that are stirring, haunting and apocalyptic. If these are the end of days, than 333 are the house band for humanity's extinction.

Obits Beds & Bugs

I think if you were to look up rock and roll in the 21st century you’d probably find a picture of Obits next to the Penguin Guide to Music’s definition. These guys are uncomplicated and make no bones about what they do; they play rock and roll and that's it. Their latest album, Bed & Bugs is like a shot of gasoline straight to the heart; aggressive, toxic, but and absolutely amazing rush.

Bed & Bugs is raw and unrefined but doesn't let that hamper it from being quite good. This is post grunge mayhem with Stooges-like tendencies. Simply put Bed & Bugs is raw power (see what I did there??). Screamy vocals, bashed drums, wrangled guitars are all here and they’re powered by a rebellious spirit that got lost in the 50’s and has been trying to find it's way to the 21st century. It’s all very rough and ramshackle and sounds like it might all explode into a million pieces any second; how can you not love a record like that?

Obits are as pure as the driven snow…if that snow was grey and sludgy and covered in black ice. They make a mess out of every song but it works out pretty well and Bed & Bugs is one heck of a good sloppy record. There’s something to be said for guys who just plug in and just go. Obits are just honest and good and they play rock and roll the way it should be…as if every song could be your last. Bed & Bugs ain’t pretty but it is good.

Washed Out Cause A Paracosm

A few years ago, Washed Out was pretty much hailed as the savior of shoegazing. Their debut album was a slice of perfection that was clearly rooted in the past but modernized for everyone’s convenience. It was in my Top 10 for 2011 and it was a stunning statement that shoegazing was alive and well. Two years later and Washed Out have returned with their latest record, Paracosm as could be expected it’s not a let down.

Sophomore slump be damned, Paracosm, is a continuation of the exploration of sound that Washed Out embarked upon back in 2011. Much like Chapterhouse’s second album, Paracosm doesn’t quite have the same level of awe as their debut but it’s still worthy. While not as distorted and, um, washed out Paracosm is ethereal and textural and at times approaches Cocteau Twins levels of gaseousness. The record is packed to the gills with gorgeous riffs and sounds that envelope you in a cascading wave of beauty. Paracosm is the sort of record it’s easy to get lost in, wander around for a bit and never find a way out of. This album is a dream committed to sound and recorded in a sleep experiment in heaven.

Continually inspiration and gauzy, Paracosm is another impressive effort whose impact isn't immediate but rather more subtle. Washed Out is a master scientist who has studied everything folks like Robin Guthrie have done in an effort to perfect it and build off of. They’re getting close to achieving the perfect shoegazing record and it’s simply amazing to listen to them try. Essential stuff.

Atropolis Makes Transitions

Although from New York Atropolis and being firmly an American collective, this band take a global approach to keeping a dancefloor packed. With hints of cumbria, dub, dubstep, moombahton, and just about anything else with a groove their album Transitions is box fresh but rooted in world music tradition. It’s a pan global exploration of deep grooves, atmospherics, and sound collages that’s far greater than the sum of their parts.

Transitions is an exciting, energetic, and throbby record filled with great basslines that it rides like Kelly Slater does waves. This is the sort of album that it’s simply impossible not to move too. With buildups and comedowns bouncing off each other, modern production and old sounds working with each other and songs that are physically moving Transitions hits all the right notes, no matter where they are from.

In addition to the overwhelming amount of rhythm here, Atropolis has seen fit to allow vocalists from a diverse array of backgrounds to contribute to their already stunning album. These collaborations give the songs on Transitions added depth and emotion. While most people will never have heard any of these guests, trust me when I tell you they only make Atropolis’ songs stronger and more culturally diverse.

Transitions is a fantastic album that is colorful and full of flavor. It’s a diverse record that contains a bevy of electronic and cultural elements that combine forces to create something magical. With winter winding down this is the perfect record to wind it down to; if ever a record had sunshine and warmth written all over it Transitions would be it.

No Age And An Object

OK, the last time I came across No Age I thought my CD player was going to fall apart. This was a band so chaotic and so destructive I felt lucky to have survived listening to them. But, on their new album An Object, something's changed. While previous efforts were darn near deadly, this record is not as aggressive, noisy, or catastrophic; it was such a change that it made me do a double take.

Sure there's lots of atonal noise and angularity going on here but there are surprising attempts at harmonies and melodies; it's quite shocking! Nonetheless, An Object is still a great record that veers in to aggression and craziness occasionally but has no problems down shifting into something else. I guess you could say that while An Object isn't as aggressive as previous efforts it is weirder than their other records. Within this album there are moody riffs and almost atmospheric sections and passages that will leave you stunned. It's all rather intriguing and is a rather uncharted development for this band but it works and works pretty well.

No Age aren't like many other bands. They seemingly seem to shift between chaos, dissonance, weirdness, and harmony with ease. An Object is all of these things in measured doses and while other records may have made you fear for your own safety this one will have you doubting your own safety. Simply put, weird noise has never sounded so cool. There's truly no age that you can put No Age in and I suspect that's the way they want it.

The Green Are Home For Hawai'i 13

Hawaii’s very own reggae stars are back; mixing Hawaii pride with Kingston vibes The Green embrace island culture with a bear hug. Their latest album Hawai'i 13 is a living testament to that pride and musical heritage and continues to see this band developing into something that's a mixture of their physical and spiritual home.

Positive and upbeat, the songs here are modern and energetic. Hawai'i 13 is influenced by rock and roll as much as traditional reggae, dub, R&B, and even Hawaiian music. It's enjoyable stuff that's catchy, groovy, and laid back. In other words, it's darn near the perfect reggae album and if you throw their positivity and thoughtfulness these guys are a rapidly approaching musical Nirvana.

Truly proving music is a universal language and reggae is about one love, The Green demonstrate that it doesn't matter where you come from or who you are but what's in your heart that matters and isn't that the message Mr. Marley sang about years ago?