The Microphones - “I’ll Be in the Air”
Don’t Wake Me Up

Early Phil Elvrum is occasionally hard to tell apart form late-era Phil Elvrum. In this case the pensive vocals and roiling guitars could have come from practically any of his projects and albums. It is in fact from 1999’s Don’t Wake Me Up, part of a very fertile period in his songwriting career. I can’t tell if that’s Mirah singing backup, but it’s possible.

Lowcloudcover - “Skeleton Key”
Separation Anxiety

Confident, competent, and well-produced, this Lowcloudcover album sounds great but not particularly original. But reliably good, slightly-extended (all but two of the songs clock in between five and six minutes) psych-rock is surprisingly difficult to find and this is a fertile source. They must also be given extra credit for actually using the bass rather than letting it slog along deep in the low end.

Jonsi & Alex - “Stokkseyri”
Riceboy Sleeps

A rich, contemplative soundscape that manages to faultlessly merge digital and organic tones. Perhaps closest to Sigur Ros’s ( ), but more subdued and blue-grey. (insound)

Olivia Tremor Control - “Holiday Surprise”
Dusk At Cubist Castle

Despite their sound being more ether-soaked psychedelia on this record than the sharp, more abstract Black Foliage, OTC were plenty ambitious with this album. With multiple multiple-part tracks and an entire optional “background” track on a separate CD, this was straight up concept work. But with solid songwriting and an sound that changes so often you can’t help but pay attention, you can take the concept or leave it and it’s still a great record.

Autechre - “krYlon”
Oversteps

At first, I thought claims Autechre had gone melodic on this album were overstated. Then this and the final track cashed that check but good. It’s their most beautiful and accessible work since LP5’s “Rae,” combining some of that album’s glitch-outs with harmonies as much Frost as they are Tri Repetae. And the 10-minute closer, “Yuop,” channels (if you can believe it) Stars of the Lid more than anything, all zen bowls, strings, and eerie majesty. Oversteps does have the usual Autechre weirdness, but parts are powerful and the last two tracks are simply stunning.

Loscil - “Zephyr”
Plume

This hypnotizing album is Loscil’s third, far more rich than the muted Submers or the barely-there Triple Point. It’s full of tracks like this, repetitive but enveloping, and deceptively full of detail at every tone level. Beauty, but hovering on the border of threatening depths. (insound)

Black Forest/Black Sea - “Sevastopol”
Black Forest/Black Sea

An album of freaky chamber folk, before the band went a bit more digital. The cello/guitar combo makes it sound like an Espers backing track, but the off-kilter melody and confidently atonal background noise set it apart. An unpredictable band, for good and ill.

Cults - “You Know What I Mean”
Cults

Halfway between Saturday Looks Good To Me and Connie Stevens, this song hits its tone just right. The album is full of these catchy little nuggets of song-singing, now more synthy, now more grungy. Thoroughly entertaining, even if it won’t live forever. (insound)

Manual - “Confluence”
Confluence

This rather long track (13:10) migrates through a few distinct phases, all of them gauzy and ambient, and all pleasant and multi-layered. The slow-motion wash of distortion and soft noise gives way to a piano-pierced stillness of real craft and poignancy. The rest of this album moves along similar paths, and while it isn’t exciting, it’s beautiful and calming. (insound)

Fennesz - “Glide”
Black Summer

This shimmery, noisy blanket is one of Fennesz’s most understated and beautiful tracks. It takes a while to get going, and the song really only takes up about seven minutes of the nine and a half it runs for. (insound)

Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen
LP

These guys sound a bit like The Boredoms minus their occasionally out-sized insanity. Building semi-improvised songs around themes on guitar, keyboard, or sample, and blowing it up now and then, much of this album is anthemic and thumping, yet never overbearing or hardcore. (insound)

A Weather - “It’s Good To Know”
Cove

Much of this record falls under the softly-sung male-female harmony indie category and is fairly safe and pleasant, if forgettable. But the keyboards and the bittersweet call and response of the final track are simple, beautiful, and instantly memorable. (insound)

Father John Misty - “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Fear Fun

I’ve had this song stuck in my head since I watched the video that some friends of mine were involved in. The guitar has such a great tone and the sibilant, clappy drums are just repetitive enough to be hypnotic. Hopefully the rest of the album (due out on May 1st) will be as good as this track.

Spiritualized - “200 Bars”
Lazer Guided Melodies

Before the noisy majesty of Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space and the overwrought gospel of Let It Come Down, Spiritualized was straight-up psychedelic rock, lapsing into shoegaze (as you do) and generally maintaining a gauzy, spacey feeling for the length of entire albums. Lazer Guided Melodies is a great example of this, and “200 Bars” is impeccable, with its deliberate pacing and soft layers of jangly psych harmony. She does, in fact, count all the way to 100 before the song “starts.” I love it.

The Beatles - “I Feel Fine (Instrumental/Warmup)”
Studio Sessions 1964 (Bootleg)

This is takes 6 and 7 of the 9-take recording of “I Feel Fine”; take 6 is without vocals and is just pure jangly rhythm. Of course, in a way, it’s just “I Feel Fine” without the voice track. But it’s more than that, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Beatles ephemera tracks are always fun.