Takeshi Muto :: Expect More From a Past Life

     This is glitch music with beats and distortion; a math professor dancing like Christopher Walken. This is not popular music, you need to aquire the ear for it, but once you have, you will be participating in the listening experience and realize its worth every minute. Glitch has its luminaries and notables and Takeshi is not one of them. But with this album he has made a good start and a good addition into a genre worth admiration. He is one half of Miami's Phoenecia, and you can see the beat decomposition and sublte hip hop tint leaking into his solo works here too. Listen to this album when you are actively thoughtful, either while programming or while relaxing at the house in solitude. This is a soundtrack for your mental activities.

Stand-out tracks: "Quiloid", "Fuqpulga", and "Ntak / 7me7a"

Note: Album is available on Rhapsody, but not iTunes or Napser

Feist::Let it Die

I discovered this Canadian song bird while surfing on Rhapsody. While most of the album spins like crappy elevator music that will have you frantically searching for the escape hatch there are a few really great songs. For the uninitiated, I would recommend the extremely fizzy "Mushaboom". I have no exposure to commanding pop but after listening to this song I know what it should sound like. "Tout Doucement", which translates to something French, is also another stand out. It's one of those songs that lingers in the periphery and eventually wins you over. Lastly we have the muti-layered masterpiece "Lonely Lonely". As the title suggests, the song starts off slow and deliberate but ends with a such a great instrumental ditty that it's repeated twice.

Black Keys::Rubber Factory

     I liked this album on the first listen. After the second, I was planning to pick up a copy on the way to the pub. By the fourth it found a place in my daily rotation.

     The album lands under the genre "Garage Rock Revival" which houses notables such as The White Stripes, The Vines and And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. Comparison: first album Black Crowes (i.e. shake your money maker) mixed with third album White Stripes (i.e. white blood cells), with more natural blues sensitivity thrown in and you'd have a smoothy that tasted much like this album sounds; refreshing.