Trans Am - THRILL JOCKEY
Artist: Trans Am

Trans Am play mostly big dumb rock (of the tongue-in-cheek variety) on their Thrill Jockey debut, trading Boston and Foreigner licks with a talent for technique and not a little ironic displacement. Absent the irony this would be an absolutely horrendous record, but kept in mind it's an enjoyable, if somewhat expendable listen. ~ Sean Cooper,... Read More

The Last Place to Go
Artist: Boxhead Ensemble

The Boxhead Ensemble is a collective of ever-changing musicians that provide the soundtrack for the film Dutch Harbor. Featured on this record are Will Oldham, of Palace fame, Edith Frost, Ken Vandermark and a host of others. Last Place to Go was recorded during the European tour of Dutch Harbor. The musicians provided improvised accompaniment... Read More

Moon Pix
Artist: Cat Power
Community Score: 6.83
The Black Light
Artist: Calexico
Community Score: 8.00

Deeper and richer than their debut, Spoke, Calexico's second album expands upon the sun-baked, cinematic sound of before with the addition of Latin jazz rhythms, mariachi trumpets, and pedal steel; in and of themselves, the group's songs are not exactly compelling, but they're produced with such a fine sense of texture and atmosphere that The... Read More

Accelerator
Artist: Royal Trux
Community Score: 5.50

Not long after they received Sweet Sixteen, complete with its notorious cover of an excrement- and vomit-filled toilet, Virgin Records realized Royal Trux may not be a crossover act. They were willing to let the band go, giving them severance pay and the master tapes to their recently completed album, Accelerator, which was then released on... Read More

TNT
Artist: Tortoise
Community Score: 8.67

Expected by many to continue leading the post-rock brigade into a new fusion with dub and electronics, Tortoise instead turned yet another corner with their third album, TNT. Adding guitarist Jeff Parker to cement their musicianship as well as their connections to Chicago's fertile jazz/avant-garde scene, the band returned with a record of... Read More

Singles, Live, Unreleased
Artist: Royal Trux

Royal Trux celebrated their freedom from Virgin and return to Drag City by releasing Singles, Live, Unreleased, a sprawling 32-song set filled with rarities and obscurities. Sure, it seems like this falls into the "fans-only" category, but this mess has a certain charm. Also, in its own way, it captures what Royal Trux is all about, containing... Read More

New Lands
Artist: Flying Saucer Attack
Community Score: 8.00

Likely titled New Lands due to Flying Saucer Attack being lauched upon "phase two" (as the liner notes put it), this release finds FSA down to Pearce and Pearce only, as before with a bit of help here and there from Rocker and, on "Present," the co-writing skills of two members of Amp. That the first two tracks are called "Past" and "Present"... Read More

Tone Soul Evolution
Artist: The Apples in Stereo
Community Score: 5.62

The second full-length album by the Apples in Stereo isn't as surprising as their debut, 1995's Fun Trick Noisemaker, but it doesn't sound like simply more of the same. Graced with a larger budget and access to a fully equipped 24-track recording studio for the first time, the group (particularly singer/songwriter/producer Robert Schneider) is... Read More

Bad Timing
Artist: Jim O'Rourke

With Bad Timing, O'Rourke attempts a return to the organic atmosphere of acoustic guitar from his explorations in electronica. The album consists of four songs clocking in at roughly ten minutes each, and is characterized by O'Rourke's ambient acoustic exploration. Three of the tracks enlist various instruments from cello to trumpet and even... Read More

1212
Artist: Barbara Manning

For all of her past recorded output, Barbara Manning has never been the most prolific of composers, her many albums relying instead on her gifts as an interpreter of other writers' songs; the achievement of 1212 isn't simply that it's made up largely of Manning originals, but that chief among them is her most ambitious creation to date, a... Read More

Sing Sing (1984-1994)
Artist: Honeymoon Killers
Silur
Artist: Tarwater
Community Score: 8.00

One of the best shots fired by the European post-rock brigade, Silur advances the focus on broad-ranging electronics from Tarwater's previous work to concentrate on Kraut-inspired mechanistic rhythms as a backdrop to an assortment of atmospherics ranging from scratchy '60s-pop samples, spoken-word passages, understated hip-hop turntablism, and... Read More