duo of Andy Jarvis and Joincey (both of Sculptress) - some of this feels like a deconstruction of Sculptress' folk drone, other parts flayed electronics / casio improv

Collaboration between Stoke's finest, Andy Jarvis and Joincey (both of Sculptress): searing beams of feedback tone open the cd before a distortion freefall kicks in with plenty of flailing drums too

• Una cdr (First Person) 1

More satanic electronic assaults and malevolent percussion from Joincey and Andy Jarvis.

also: A Jarvis / Puff / Sculptress

Jeff Gburek has, in the past, collaborated with the likes of Tom Carter. Here we find him solo, working mainly with electric guitar, under the name Saiko. I say mainly, as there are touches of voice and synth, but the principal element apart from guitar is space: there are two tracks of two minutes silence! I like the guitar tone here, as it sounds like the treble control is turned all the way up. This makes for a slightly crunchy offset to what is often very reflective music and also suits the times when the feeling of blues influence bubbles up. Maybe it's just me, but I think I hear a tinge of Bo Diddley in there too. (JC)

The last record by Jukka Raisanen, aka Sala Arhimo, soon became one of my favourites of 2006 so I had high hopes for this new one - and they're entirely fulfilled. There's a lot of saxophone here and it has a jazzy looseness with something of a chamber music feel too. There's a real sense of delight in this music and the keyboard (possibly chord organ) has moments of fairground feel. If you're looking for a point of reference for Jukka and you happen to have a copy of Gong's Magick Mother Invocation to hand (and I'll bet some readers do!), try playing it back to back with track 7 of this album… very interesting, packaged by Time Lag (which tells you all you need to know) and highly recommended. (JC)

also: Islaja

Sand Snowman - The Twilight game cdr (Reverb Worship) 4

The last Sand Snowman record I reviewed here was, as I recall, all instrumental. This time there are vocals galore from singers with names like Moonswift and Nyx. There's something of an early '70s prog-folk/Wickerman feel to this music and it is delightful stuff. (JC)

Sandoz Lab Technicians - The Western Lands cd (Last Visible Dog) 6.50

Brand new album from Tim Cornelius, James Kirk and Nathan Thompson consists of one long piece ("Western Lands") and 2 shorter pieces. "Western Lands" itself is astonishing - piano dominates the first part, sounding like a seriously far-out Alice Coltrane, huge luscious chords sweeping over autoharp glissandos and growling electronics. The piece later ebbs into autumnal improv textures with clarinet, wheezy tones and deep drones sounding like a cold north easterly shivering through trees. The two tracks that bookend it are both led by improvised organ / keyboard (inc the starry plink of Fender Rhodes - lovely) over scatterings of percussion and scraped bowings. Highly recommended.

Recorded in New York by Mark Bajuk, Adam Burr, Tony Fasce, Silvia Feriozzi, Eric Mauer, Brent Peich & Russ Waterhouse. Slowly dissipating clouds of nocturnal haze and a relentlessly creeping fog of drone undercurrents. Something of a midway point between Stars of the Lid and Family Underground.

This is perhaps best described as a recital: an hour of solo performance from Schnitzler at a grand piano. No synth drones, no references pointing towards the sonic textures of early T-Dream. More apposite guides to what this sounds like lie with Bartok's Mikrokosmos, serialism and, at times, the unusual chord voicings and angular rhythms of Thelonious Monk. Ultimately, your fondness for this will depend on whether an album of spacious abstract solo piano is a turn on or a turn off. If it's the former, the rewards will be plentiful. (JC)

Seht 

• Christian Jesus, I Will Determine A Suicide cdr (Foxglove) 4.50

Stephen Clover is rapidly becoming a master of disturbing ambience after some great releases for CPsiP, Audiobot etc. This opens with a mesmerizing siren-call of submerged strings and distant voices and sinks slowly into a dark pool of decaying beats. The second track evokes thunder rolling across pylon-studded plains - high wire hum and ominous drone.

• Dead Bees cd (Pseudoarcana) 6

It's a while since we've had anything from Stephen Clover and this new album delivers with an opening monolithic drone masterpiece. It begins with an ebbing and flowing synth drone with ominous undertow; as the piece progressed the undertow starts to win out and it feels like the dark waves are overwhelming you. The second track is not quite drone-based but is a utterly focussed repetition of some jerky cinema-organ notes until they are submerged in an icy hiss. No-one else does this quite like Seht.

Seht & Stelzer - Exactly What You Lost cd (Intransitive) 4

Collaborative (by post) album from Seht and Howard Stelzer (the guy who runs Intransitive) that opens as it doesn't mean to continue with a visceral blast of screwed-up tape torture. Things then take a turn towards minimal repetition that will be familiar to fans of Seht with the sounds degrading, distorting and decaying into pits of majestic hum where the original sounds ring ghost-like and distant. The encroachment of external sounds really overwhelms further into the disc and becomes more unsettling.

Selvapyy & Pyy Pivossa 3" cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 3

This is pretty wild: mushroom-damaged pop that sounds completely all over the place. Surf riffs, ghostly improvised piano, garbled goblin vocals, dub echo melodica, swells of distortion. 

originally recorded in 1990: gorgeous fragments of melodies that remind me of gamelan music, recorded on mbira, moog, guitar and slit drums with occasional singing

Another great Fonal release, this is the sort of polyphonic synth wizardry that demands the wearing of a silver cape. A wondrous carousel ride through Krautrock and English prog with lovely analogue sounds and all the crispness and lightness of midsummer at the Arctic Circle. Lovely packaging as always.

A subtle and inventive collection of pop songs. The vocals and harmonies - very fine they are too - struck me as sounding a bit like Tahiti 80, but the instrumentation steers clear of hard beatboxes and more towards Elephant 6 territory, with a nod to the 1970s here and there. (JC)

Siddhi 

• In The Wind cdr (Akoustic Disease) 6

Released on the Italian label run by the guy who also records as ThrouRoof is this cdr by the mysterious Siddhi. Cosmic guitar drifts and plaintive meditations. Lovely.

• Whispering Wind cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.25

This has a medieval elegance with cosmic drones, wispy flute playing, some gorgeous bowings and stargazing acoustic guitar picking. Lovely. handmade sleeve once again on the great Reverb Worship label.

Silmaril - Voyage of Icarus cd (Locust) 8

This album compiles hyper-rare progressive folk (a self-released lp run of 300 copies in 1973) with material by Silmaril never heard before on record. There's also an extensive liner note, explaining how this Milwaukee band came together and how they eventually split, a fascinating story that begins in a catholic youth retreat and winds up in a gay cowboy band in Texas. Anyway, the music, which often draws on religious lyrical themes, has many-a-harmony, guitar and mandolin and a quality that lends itself to candlelight and wine.... that'll be altar wine, for sure! (JC)

Silvercords - Divergence Eve cdr (Time Lag) 4

Bass-heavy rumbling infernal drone from Sara & Nicolas of Family Underground with flickering synths hissing in and out of earshot and liquid metal tones menacing high overhead. 

also: Family Underground

Sky City is a four piece featuring Robert Horton, Tom Carter, Texan percussionist / noise artist Lisa Cameron and vocalist Lee Ann Cameron. This is a fascinating collaboration: one of Horton / Carter's finest. Eerie outer space blues featuring slide guitar, Horton's homemade boot, Lisa Cameron's vibrating cymbals hovering menacingly and Lee Anne Cameron's almost Opalio-esque cosmic babbling. 

Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Birdtree, Blithe Sons etc) and Donovan Quinn (Verdure) create 15 gorgeously loose and summery songs of the psych-folk type, using guitars, banjos, organs, mandolin, penny whistle, accordion, bouzouki, dulcimer etc

Trome records is run by the same guy who used to run the fine Evelyn records. The guy who records as Small Town Boredom hails from Paisley, not far from Boa HQ, and this is a collection of fragile, intimate home-recordings. Almost whispered vocals sparsely accompanied by guitar, piano, harmonium, slow Low-esque drums and violin - these are miniature hymns to melancholy. Fragments of dictaphone recorded songs and field recordings intersperse throughout. Lovely.

I was about to write that "Spitrobot Goes Shopping" is the electrifying scream of indignation an oscillator might make if it was immersed in a tank of water but I've just read the insert which tells me I've just been blasted with a scouring wall of guitar feedback. The B side features more tortured guitar but is the disorientating sound of malfunctioning Commodore computers taking over the world. 

Steven R. Smith 

• Crown of Marches cd (Catsup Plate) 8.50

this is a beautiful album from Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana / Thuja) - there are only hints of his fascination with Eastern European folk music here, this is an epic journey of psychedelic blues that calls to mind Loren Mazzacane Conors or Keiji Haino - highly highly recommended

• Owl cd (Digitalis) 7

Brand new album from Steven R Smith of Hala Strana / Thuja etc. More similar to his "Crown of Marches" cd on Catsup Plate than his Eastern European folk experiments, this also features his first vocals. The guitar playing is sparse and soulful, warm, often mournful tones with some slashes of heart-piercing distortion; the vocals weary meditations. Nice packaging too with printed card covers.

piano improvisations displaying a fondness for block chord atonality which seems to nod in the direction of Michael Finnissy with a hint of Cecil Taylor (JC)

Brian comes from Galway, Ireland. Brian lives in Seoul, South Korea. Brian describes his early musical attempts as "god awful" or "utter shit", but concedes that "recently it's been getting a little better". Brian is too hard on himself! These songs are mainly very short and sound quite distinctive in a good ole' fashioned 4 track bedroom punk pop (with a twist) kind-of-a-way. If you can imagine a halfway point on a bridge between Boyracer and Pumice, this might just be it… looser than one; tighter than the other. There's some nice off key 'cello, wonky piano and what has to be a homage to Calvin Johnson too. Mmm… smiles all round. (JC)

Softwar - s/t cd (Digitalis) 7

New collaboration from Jewelled Antler regulars Loren Chasse, Christine Boepple, Kerry McLaughlin and Geoff Koops. Meditative folk drone with layers of organs / keyboards weaving an almost impenetrable veil of smoke. Some of it has a similar nocturnal feel to AM, while the tracks featuring vocals remind me of the Erika Elder-sung MV/EE stuff. One of the best Jewelled Antler-associated releases.

also: Kyrgyz, Loren Chasse, Ov

Soil Sing Through Me 

• s/t cdr (Blueberry Honey) 3

members of Feathers and Sunburned Hand of the Man conjure up a wailing pound of sound, working layer upon layer of intense noise into one big stoned howl 

• New Milk cdr (Wabana) 4

Freeform psychedelic rock of from members of Sunburned Hand of the Man and Feathers. Loose drumming with flailing tentacles of guitar strung over it.

also: Sunburned Hand of the Man

The Solo Joint 

• s/t cdr (Foxglove) 4.50

Another lovely cdr on Foxglove of meandering folk from Spain (after that lovely Raro & Apenino cdr from earlier this year). Acoustic guitar, scattered percussion, piano, flute and occasional vocals form into a spontaneous wash of freeform pastoralism. 

Soon Clyde - Solace cdr (Cook an Egg) 7

Yet another winner from Cook An Egg. Soon Clyde is Baltimore based artist Greg Pardew (with some violin from Jenn Hutt on this record) and he plays some lovely acoustic guitar, has a line in elegaic songs which make me think of "More" era Pink Floyd and extends his themes with some fine twists of strangeness. (JC)

4th instalment in the Music Fellowship Triptych series: Spiderwebs is Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Sandy Ewan (Weird Weeds) with some divinely beautiful guitar pieces - rings of e-bow swoon and ringing harmonics. Mike Tamburo & Matthew McDowell (both ex- Arco Flute Foundation)and their contribution is a 20 minute-plus drone of epic peacefulness which opens with melancholic guitar picking and ends with by evoking the blurred whir of a musical box. Finally, 3 magnificient pieces of steel-rattling and warping from Keenan Lawler and his National Steel Resonator guitar. I'd recommend this cd for each of the 3 artists alone - this is a great release.

also: Tom Carter, Weird Weeds

Ben Spiers runs the Transient label, is in Empty Mirror and Seen Through and recorded a collaborative cdr for CPP with 1/3 Octave Band's Bill Wood. This cdr is a collection of guitar and violin improv, ranging from nocturnal meanderings to flurries of obliterated notes.

• Artwork Temporarily Removed 3" cdr (Transient) 4.50

  Degraded guitar buzz and wail from New Zealander Ben Spiers. Breathes of feedback harmonise mournfully like the death gasps of a mangled guitar & amp. Individually block-printed manila sleeves.

   

• Spin You cdr (Transient) 6.25

  more late night string caressing from Mr Spiers: title track "Spin You" is gorgeous - solitary notes dropped into a gloom of taut scraping and "Trinh Has Gone" sombre violin drone disintegrating into atonal screech. 

• And Then cdr (Transient) 6.75

Spiral Joy Band 

• The Dreams of David Crosby cassette (Sloow) 4

Appropriately enough "The Dreams of David Crosby" opens up with the ululations of a myriad of pipes! These, along with the hand-drums, establish a suitably dosed atmosphere to fill the dreams of the Great Ego. These tracks are all live recordings: the first side is filled with mostly hand percussion jams. Side B finds SJB in full-on cosmic drone mode with fiddle and harmonium.

• Wake of the Dying Sun King cd (VHF) 8

The 2nd album from various Pelt members is another fantastic voyage into tranced drone and spacious cosmic textures with the emphasis heavily on percussion this time with gongs, cymbals and singing bowls bowed and clashed into a frenzy of singing metal. Sruti box and fiddle pair up on the final track to create a hypnotic earthy drone that seems as rooted in Appalachian tradition as it is in Eastern meditation.

also: Pelt, Mikel Dimmick

Spiral Joy Band with John W Fail - Pores in the Porch & Puddles beneath cd (Soopa) 6

A collaboration between Pelt members Mike Gangloff & Mikel Dimmick and John W Fail of Lied Music. A quivering mass of string drones (fiddle and israj) and a deeply contemplative feel. Packaged in a brown and black card fold-out similar to the Hototogisu and Wolf Eyes releases.

Spires That in the Sunset Rise 

• s/t cd (Eclipse / Graveface) 6.50
• Four Winds the Weather cd (Secret Eye) 7
• This is Fire cd (Secret Eye) 7

4 women from Chicago who create the strangest music - the most psyched-out communal folk oddness shrouded in witches' lair creepiness: harmonium, banjo, violin, guitars, bells, incantations and insane cackling

also: Travelling Bell, Tar Pet, Kathleen Baird

woozy songwritery stuff that recalls Red House Painters meets early Palace 

one long piece of drone that unwinds rather malevolently with warped guitar strings and a weird undercurrent that sounds like possessed muttering one minute and an airplane propeller the next

rampaging noise splurge from Stoke-on-Trent

New Zealand super-group featuring James Kirk (Sandoz Lab Technicians / Gate), Antony Milton (A.M. / Nether Dawn) and Stephen Clover (Seht), wtih guest players Kieran Monaghan and Campbell Kneale. Great lurching psych / noise rock.

Antony Milton (Nether Dawn, AM) and Stefan Neville (Pumice) both record some fantastic music on their own - together they are Sunken and this album draws from their fuzziest, haziest sides with both playing reed organs with various effects. The result is gorgeous - an amorphous and bottomless sea of wheezy drone that casts you adrift from reality and out into the ocean. Nice card gatefold sleeves too. 

another winning combination from the people behind the Foxglove label: Brad Rose (North Sea, Golden Oaks, Cone Bearers, Corsican Paintbrush) and Eden Hemming Rose (Wax Ghost, Corsican paintbrush) with Keith Wood (Hush Arbors) - this is an outbreak of joyous spontaneity on acoustic guitars / banjos and a toybox of percussion

also: Autumn Galaxy, Wax Ghost, Golden Oaks, Corsican Paintbrush, Juniper Meadows, North Sea

Sunroof! - Panzer Division Lou Reed cd (VHF) 8

Brand new Matthew Bower (Skullflower / Hotogisu) solo release with guests Mick Flower, John Moloney and Mattin on some tracks, great title too with the sounds plotting a course between between Kosmische psych / electronic overload and brutal metal machine music. 

Sunshine Has Blown - s/t cdr (MYMWLY) 6.50

Packaged in hand-made paper that looks like animal hide, this is a lovely disc from Joel Stern-led Sunshine Has Blown. Sounds seem to emerge from an inky blackness like little bubbles of light, unrecognisable tones rung from instruments such as cello, thumb piano, violin, guitar, percussion. Lovely stuff.

also: Stern / Guerra

A collection of ten songs, some in Spanish, set within fairly minimal arrangements. There's a splash of harmonium, banjo and piano, but nothing detracts from Sutherland's voice. This founder member of Cerecrus Shoal delivers powerful and heartfelt music, ranging from personal reflection to what I can only call protest songs. In these, Sutherland's voice has a snarl which is in parts P.F. Sloan and Steve Earle. Quality material throughout. (JC)

big band sound from Finland: decadent 60s soundtrack shimmies in the vein of Pascal Comelade mix with pretend national anthem for tinpot dictatorships - good stuff

Antony Milton in yet another disguise: this compiles songs from cdrs released a few years ago on Wire Bridge and is his most song-based project, lo-fi campfire pickings that exist somewhere between Alastair Galbraith and old-time country / folk. 

also: Antony Milton, Nether Dawn

Preston Ari Swirnoff - Maariv cd (Last Visible Dog) 6

A stunning album from this sometime collaborator of Ilya Monosov and member of The Shining Path. Exploring dense organ / piano drone, early electronic experimentalism and 20th century minimalism, this recalls Charlemagne Palestine (yes, that good!). It opens with rolling piano chords and ominous electronic undercurrents. The second track is an even more threatening headache-throb of atonal organ tones. The tension eases on the 3rd track with guitar harmonics tinkling like a thousand stars in a crisp winter night sky - gorgeous. Finally a short(ish) track of the whir and feedback from 4 tape machines. Excellent stuff. 

Swung - Voice and Key 3" cdr (Pseudoarcana) 2.50

Swung is Zoe Drayton from Auckland, New Zealand and this 3" collects recordings featuring voice and keyboards made between 1996 and 2006. This is a really beautiful and intimate release of fragmentary melodies: sea shanty drones on chord organ, weird vocal-only lullabies like Julee Cruise in a hall of mirrors and a casio & wordless vocal lullaby so fragile you feel breathing while listening could shatter its spell. Highly recommended.

Talugung - Flooded Fields cdr (Foxglove) 4

Another undiscovered gem from Foxglove, this time from Canadian Ryan Waldron and his array of homemade and strange ethnic instruments, mostly stringed instruments or percussion (of the xylophone / gamelan variety). This is a gloriously exotic blend of free improvisation and Far Eastern folk music, similar to Henry Kuntz.

Mike Tamburo 

The ghosts of an old theatre take over the stage after the floodlights have gone out and play improv into the darkness. Eerie percussive adventures using piano parts and electronics with lots of echo and delay. (JC)

• At Bohemian Grove cdr (Rural Faune) 5.50

Chimes and twangs lead off here with a pretty yet ominous quality: all doll's house darkness, old perfume (thanks to the late Syd for that line!). Across the 32 minute piece, things get much more full on, with chanting voice, organ, fuzzy guitar and electronics. It's like a big fairground of sound with a sacrificial rite being conducted somewhere just behind the waltzer! 66 copies with twigs inside the packaging. How can you resist? (JC)

also: Matthew McDowell

this is a reissue of a self-released cdr by Taralie Dawn of Spires That in the Sunset Rise - the music shares a similar air of lost-in-the-woods bewitchment but is more introspective: thornily clawing guitar, weaving flute and cello, jangling percussion and shiver-inducing vocalising. 

also: Spires That In The Sunset Rise

A half hour, divided into two untitled pieces, of heavy duty, drone filled, overdriven, bone crunchin' noise music from Dayton, Ohio. The first piece has the feel of heavy industry, the second more like the sound of some sort of sub-aquatic installation piece. (JC)

• Infidel cd (Spirit of Orr) 4

wild heavy psych-rock that veers outer-spacewards, with the wolfman vocals of Ed Wilcox. The cdr is a reissue of a Siltbreeze album.

• Monkeys Straw Raincoat cdr (Spirit of Orr) 4

Ed Wilcox has been at the core of his Temple for quite some time, bringing helpers on board as-and-when to surround the flailing widness of his percussion and vocals with something similarly out there. This sounds like the sort of soiree that's beyond the law and beyond control: harmonicas dance with fuzz guitars while whoops'n'hollers abound. I'd like you to think every word here was the product of my own razor-sharp wit, but the best line on Wilcox came from Julian Cope, so I'll just purloin it. He described our Ed as "a raggedy-assed Huckleberry Finn-meets-Huckleberry Hound" and that says it better than any further description. (JC)

Murk indeed. Temples is Kevin Richards from Denver who records guitar and layers and overlayers the resultant sounds on tape to create a swirl of disorientating murk at times. The final track (and title track) finds the guitar a distant rumble, minimal and melancholic. 

Denver's Kevin Richards has already had one cdr out on Pseudoarcana, the appropriately titled "Murk". The source sounds on this release continue to dwell in the shadows and the background sounds become the almost oppressive foreground through which the source can seem like a distant light in a thick fog. An absorbing listen.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz inspired pop naivety - this features 14 live recordings from 2002 - 2005. It pairs the wistfulness of the Autocollants at their slow-burning best with the untutored joy of Maher ... and comes highly recommended.

Textured Bird Transmission - Panda Heads on Staggering Crystal Seas cdr (Gold Soundz) 5

Disorientating swarms of vocal hum and effects, comes in a hnd-made, silver-sprayed sleeve. Ltd to 50.

These Are Powers - Silver Lung 7" (Elsie and Jack) 3.50

"These ex-members of LIARS, KNIFE SKILLS & NO THINGS express their abrasive avant noise rock w/vigour over this 3 track 7". This is their 1st vinyl after several well received tapes & cdr's. Anna's primal screams & ghostly whispers, Pat's nursery rhyme chanting w/surging bass & Ted's near motorik beats run riot like a crazed Plastic Ono Band filtered through that Brooklyn/NYC haze. This is E&J's first foray into the lair of lacquer, pressed on heavyweight white vinyl presented in a beautifully printed & laser etched black card sleeve w/additional colour transluscent vellum insert."

Eric Thielemans - A Snare is a Bell LP (Ultra Eczema) 15

"This is the first in a series of solo percussion LP's on Ultra Eczema, titled STS! A meditative psychedelic experience is what I would like to call this, though I realise I make it sound like a silly zen blowout, and that's not what it feels like at all! 
When I first saw it live in a giant church in mechelen/belgium, I was yelling "THIS IS THE BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR". I thought there wouldn't be an end to it and didn't even feel a build-up to a more tense sound or a drone. There was a difference in resonating sound and it definitely changed, but as with more constructive minimalists such as Steve Reich or maybe even Terry Riley, you can't tell when things change... That experience got enlarged as well by the scenography he played in, a splendid eye-torturing construction..."  That experience got enlarged as well by the scenography he played in, a splendid eye-torturing construction, built especially for this piece by Antwerp based sculputurist Filip Metten. On record it feels different of course, as you can skip the needle up and down to the end and back, you can hear an enormous tension and sound difference. Though this piece is written for only a snare drum and a tiny bit of vocals (resonating with the snare drum) it sounds like either 20 people on a snaredrum, like if Glenn Branca would invite 567 people playing the exact same snare roll, or like a choir, and by the end definitely like the sound of a Whitehouse LP; building up strongly to the point of absolute silence, which feels like a relief! This piece is based on a snare roll which changes 3 times.
Live, this piece can go up to an hour or longer, on this record, it is one full side. The B side is a psychedelic etch!" - Dennis Tyfus. This record is limited to 500 copies, has an insert and comes in a duo coloured psychic design by Dennis Tyfus.

Thingumajigsaw - Awake in Whitechapel cd (Deserted Village) 8

This record has the ethereal wail of the musical saw on it. What more do you need to know? Alright, maybe you're not so easy to sell to on this point as I am.... aside from the saw, there's banjo, flute and rather spooky female and male vocals. Now, if you think you have an idea of some dark folk music here, the lyrics will take you in another direction entirely. Try to imagine what it might have sounded like if Momus had written words for Incredible String Band songs. Improbable idea? maybe, but it's the best description I can come up with and if it intrigues you at all, the album is recommended. (JC)

Thousand and Bramier - The Sway of Beasts cd (Arbouse) 2.50

This music seems to breathe such an atmosphere of the Southern United States - white columned wooden houses, sound of cicadas at dusk (in my mind, not on the record, I must point out!) - but as far as I can gather, this duo got together in Paris. To these ears, this music could be informed by Townes Van Zandt, Gene Parsons' Kindling album, Michael Nesmith in his Papa Nes phase and maybe Palace Brothers. There's great warmth to this set of songs, recorded in a very direct and intimate way, so it communicates very directly and is a good listen. (JC)

"Improvisational Bay Area quartet Thuja create aural landscapes that capture the reverberations of wood and wire, the sounds of breaking sticks and scraping stones, and the ambience of their surroundings into a shifting, dynamic musical framework. The members of Thuja play off each other and the space they inhabit with a natural instinct, succeeding in conjuring spectral compositions which are at once abstract yet inviting. For this self-titled release, their sixth full-length and first for Important Records, Thuja have assembled recordings from various live performance spaces (the Hemlock, the Oaklandish Gallery, Pehr Space, Kains Greenhouse) and have welcomed a variety of guests into the fold to help assist and expand their microscopic psychedelia toward a new plateau. After eight years, the semi-annual gathering of the members of Thuja is almost traditional, but new clearings are still to be discovered in its thickets of sound." (Important website)

Free jazz a la Ayler and primitive energies from Alex Neilson and David Keenan, both of Taurpis Tula. 

another tip-top release from Misplaced Music: sharp-edged indiepop from Leeds with one eye on a great melody, the other on the bizarre - sort of midway between the Fall and Thinking Fellers

Heidi Diehl and G Lucas Crane (Non Horse) from Vanishing Voice. Sprawling downer dirges and a improv / electronics duet that sound like they've been beamed from another world.

Timothy Renner of Stone Breath, Spectral Light ... and Breathe Stone: sparse dark-woods folk played on his homemade ent-banjo and equally influenced by Middle-Eastern / African folk as by American. 4 songs are poems by 17th century catholic metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw, the rest are spiritual in content.

also: Hoofbeat, Caw & Thunder, Crow Tongue

Back-porch folk ballads from Timothy Renner (Stone Breath / Crow Tongue / Spectral Light) - chilling recordings of murder ballads and spirituals, recorded using a homemade cigar-box banjo, Timothy's deep vocals and one microphone. Recommended.

sparse and strange folk wrapped in some unsettling organ drones - intriguing and atmospherically charged stuff. Handmade packages. 'Stitches' is a departure from the sparse folk of their debut - drone-based experimental folk-psych-pop with a real magical if slightly uneasy quality. Strange, captivating and beautiful.

also: Hand/Eye comp

Shogu Tokumaru - L.S.T. cd (Active Suspension) 3

A collection of very pretty pop songs with notably fine vocals. It's a bit of a lazy option to align stuff like this to the Beach Boys, although I've seen it done in connection to Tokumaru and I think he is a fan. However, the playfulness here is closer to Harpers Bizarre. There's some lovely instrumental sounds on this too, especially the musical saw… I've yet to hear a record with one of those on it which fails! (JC)

a hopped-up 4 tracker that could be the end of year coursework from a bunch of snarling and grinning students from the Kill Rock Stars academy of punk pop - think Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bangs, Bis, Sonic Youth, Huggy Bear with a bit of late 70s Rough Trade 

Antti Tolvi - Tanan cdr (Peippo) 4.75

One long track of harmonium drone from Antti of Lauhkeat Lampaat: a dense and homely wheeze with immense bass tones. Lovely. 

Tombi - Black Humid Mist cdr (Students of Decay) 3.50

Overloaded synth and electronics from Ry Wharton, who also runs the Twonicorn label. The first track pairs pulsing ringing tones with an undercurrent of static hum, while the second longer track is a full-on charged blast of pure electricity.

This cdr blasts off harshly with swarms of ululating vocals amidst the noise onslaught, then follows that up with creepy warped ambience and eerie clanging. Comes with a free badge!

Towering Breaker with Dylan Nyoukis - Visions Versions cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3.50

Collaborative cd of feverish acid-fuelled atmospheres full of rumbling tape loops, Skaters-esque vocal wow and vocal gibberish.

Toymonger - The Night Vision LP (Munitions Village) 15

This is a split release between Irish labels Deserted Village and Munitions Family. Gavin Prior (United Bible Studies) is one of the members of this duo. Heavy ambience, heavy synth buzzes, some clarinet and metal machine screech - dank oppressive atmospheres. Hand assembled stencilled spray-painted covers.

You may well be judging this on your idea of a 1970s travelling Christian commune, but if you're expecting saccharine bible songs, listen further as the fayre here is.... very unusual. What we have is an original lp from 1975 topped up to 2 seconds short of maximum time on the disc with other material from that era. There is much instrumental loveliness here: sitar, whistles and drums, with their love of ISB shining through. Much of this sounds pretty dark, but where the real oddness trips in is in the singing. A lot of this breathes spookiness like the music from Children of the Stones, plus the odd bit of atonality (intentional? I'm not sure!) which adds to the disquiet and then we get the Chant for Pentecost. This is sung in a disturbing monotone which only rises as the drum accelerates at the end... scary biscuits!! There are no close ups of commune members, so I can't see if any numbers are embedded beneath their hippy hair. Great packaging too. (JC)

Treetops is Mike Pollard who also runs the Arbor label. The sound of infernal gloom with occasional wordless moans cutting through the heavy atmosphere. The clattering percussion lends it a air of ritual too. Sleeve by Bethany of Pocahaunted.

• Cool Runnings cdr (Digitalis Ltd) 4

Treetops is Mike Pollard who also runs the Arbor label. The sound of infernal gloom with chilling wordless moans, detuned guitar growl and brittle piano cutting through the heavy atmosphere. Handpainted sleeves, ltd to 84.

Tricorn & Queue - Hidden Entrances cassette (Digitalis) 4

The pink and silver swirls on the handmade tape cover match the music within perfectly. Ever-ascending spirals of dream-like guitar and synth. Lovely. Sold out at source.

Trihornophone - At First I Thought It Was The End cdr (Bottlenote) 4

Two saxophones - alto & baritone - one trumpet and drums: that's Trihorniphone. Between them, Sean Og and friends come up with the kind of loose-but-together grooves that invoke shadows of the Charles Mingus band and John Tchicai. This is a jazz record which sings of so much that's great about the form without the chin strokey-blokey nonsense the word all too often implies. Recommended - it's even got a big brass car horn on the cover… parp-parp!! (JC)

also: Wailing Bones Volume 7 comp

Turner Cody - Buds of May cd (Digitalis) 6.50

Buds of May had a small run cdr outing in 2004, so this Digitalis issue will hopefully bring these songs to a wider audience than they've had so far: they certainly deserve to be heard. Cody, also known as a member of Herman Dune, has a bittersweet quality to his voice which would appeal to fans of, say, Vic Cestnutt. Before I found that he grew up in Boston, the title track was making me think of Jonathan Richman too. A good, concise album of songs with many memorable lyric lines. (JC)

Alexander Turnquist - Sleep Chapter 3" cdr (New American Folk Hero) 4.25

Beautiful drone textures in a Stars of the Lid style built from guitar sounds: extended floating and resonating tones to lull you into slumber. Lovely packaging with vellum inserts.

Turnstone - s/t cd (3 Lobed) 7

Three way collaboration between Tom Carter, Robert Horton & Michael Shannon, with the occasional presence of Henry Kuntz on gamelan / saxophone. I've been thoroughly impressed with all the Carter / Horton collabs to date, and this is mighty fine too with an impressive array of instruments from dilruba (similar to an esraj), lap steel, Horton's homemade boot and various household appliances and most intriguingly "Cornish school of Music ladies' room string-board". Sounds range from hypnotic spectral blues to the doomy hinterland of the final track with its distant clanging gamelan and infernal guitar rumble.

Hanna Tuulikki 

• Call and Response cd (Gleaners) 9.50

a document of a sound installation by Hanna Tuulikki (Nalle / Scatter) recording the interaction between two humans and wildfowl. Hanna plays clarinet, flute and sings and Chris Hladowksi (also Nalle / Scatter) plays clarinet, while a live recording of Hanna singing "Polly Vaughn" plays. A squeaking cacophony of woodwind and bird calls and Hanna's unique interpretation of te traditional folk song "Polly Vaughn". Another lovely package: gatefold card sleeve with insert and paste-on art. Limited to 30.

• Kensington Cradle Songs cdr (Gleaners) 7

Compiled from performances at Hanna's installation in Liverpool in October 2007. Hanna asked people from the Kensington area of Liverpool to sing lullabies that they were sung by their parents or that they sing to their children. The participants then took part in a collaborative "deep-listening" experiment where they sang their songs very slowly and the result is a harmonious blend of vocals where the singers become more and more focussed on the whole sound than on their individual songs. It reminds me of past Alejandra & Aaron discs where they collected songs and sounds from their environment. This cdr features 9 singers and then the final collaboration. 

• Black & White Drawings book 9

I saw this at Nalle's Glasgow gig sitting on the merchandise table all on its own and pounced on it, thinking it was the last one. Luckily Hanna had a few more lurking underneath and I have a handful of a small edition of 50. This compiles some of Hanna's wonderful folk art from covers for Nalle, Family Elan, Ben Reynolds and the " Garden of Forking Paths " albums to tour posters and plenty of other drawings. Birds, bears, animals, trees, boats, the sun, the moon, the sea and the stars. Highly recommended.

also: Nalle

• The Shore That Fears the Sea cd (Deserted Village) 7.50

another lovely release from United Bible Studies and a departure from the free-flowing nature of their earlier cdrs with structured songs. Pastoral folk with some lovely instrumentation and vocals - blissful and serene.

beautiful semi-improvised instrumentals with a free-flowing pastoral folk feel and an evocative use of instrumentation (some particularly lovely clarinet and bugle playing) from the Deserted Village collective. A reissue of a cdr from 2003 on Deserted Village.

• The Northern Lights and The Northern Dark 3" cdr (Rusted Rail) 4.75

6 tracks which highlight United Bible Studies' wide range of styles and sounds very well. Their distillation of folk and collective free music is always welcome and, in addition to the songs, there are wordless g