Eleven Tigers - Clouds Are Mountains (Soul Motive)
This album combines the best ideas from the past two decades of electronic music--hyperactive drum n' bass beats, Burial's underwater dubstep, plus dark ambience and the reverberations of post-apocalyptic cityscapes. Adding information-overload samples and surprisingly accessible melodies, Eleven Tigers creates a new high-water mark for electronic music.
Ion Dissonance - Cursed (Century Media)
On their fourth album, Ion Dissonance prove that, after close to a decade, impossibly complex tech-grind can still be done well. Sometimes fast and insane, sometimes slow and brutal, this album never relents in terms of volume or intensity. An emotionally draining but powerfully satisfying listening experience.
Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You (Fiction/Geffen)
Nash's first album was a snarky, sarcastic version of the girl-with-piano singer/songwriter genre. Her followup retains the sarcasm but expands her sonic palette, integrating more guitar-based indie sounds as well as girl-group pop influences. The result is a significant improvement on an already excellent sound.
LA Vampires And Zola Jesus - LA Vampires Meets Zola Jesus (Not Not Fun)
This is a strange record. I know Zola Jesus's other stuff, but this isn't their usual darkly melodic lo-fi goth sound. The lo-fi elements are still there, but the songs themselves are vaguely psychedelic ambient hums, with wordless moans as the only vocals. It's trippy, but ephemeral, ultimately lacking substance.
Medications - Completely Removed (Dischord)
On previous releases, Medications had a definite rock n' roll streak that is missing from their latest LP. In its place comes an increasing emphasis on quirky, angular melodies, and the resulting collection of songs is more immediately engaging than anything they've done before. These guys have found their niche.
Various Artists - Dark As Night Cassette (Bathetic)
This tape showcases the latest microgenre, "witch house," an appropriate name in light of the spooky, lo-fi sounds contained within. Cheap synths, indistinct vocals, tribal beats, and an overlay of tape hiss create a sound that resembles early Ariel Pink, or Aphex Twin at his most ambient. Unique, intriguing noise.