If Habits & Contradictions was a reinstatement of gangsta rap, then Control System is a giant leap forward in conscious rap.

This is the band's best yet.

Stephens fronts the group with aplomb, with her Joni Mitchell-esque vocals floating through the album's 11 tracks like smoke from a campfire.

Although Jimmy Edgar isn't the first (or best) to do neo-electro (Chromeo and DāM-FunK come to mind), Majenta shows that he might just be the most believable.

Night and Day [is] another true testament by one of America's last genuine musical anti-heroes.

Cancer For Cure is El-P's most accessible album yet, and with the right push it could be his breakthrough release.

This one is cohesive and feels like a band affair, feels like an album, feels like it has the chemistry Velvet Revolver frustratingly didn't quite have but a certain other band had once upon a time when Slash was in that crew.

This is highly listenable, but equally disturbing.

This is not exciting music; it's a hypnotically paced political screed.

Cosentino's songwriting has definitely strengthened, it's just that instead of sounding like her peers at the Smell, she'd rather sound like her heroes on the AM dial, and that's not a bad thing.

Gallery falls short of living up to what Idle Labor promised, feeling more like a case of the leftovers.

Dig deeper into Heroes and you might find a newfound respect for the aging outlaw.

Bloom leans heavily on that push-and-pull dynamic and the results are hugely effective, affecting and ultimately beautiful.

Ufabulum shows Squarepusher pushing forward some of his leanest, most unfurled compositions to date.

With a more dynamic and drastically enhanced sound, this is how Dopesmoker was meant to be heard.

Not every moment is seamless, but the results are fascinating and, more importantly, enthralling from beginning to end.

Even though their singer will soon be pushing 60, it's clear these guys haven't run out of things to say. Or shout.

Unpatterns straight-up works.

Like your favourite beer, Municipal Waste are reliable and will whet your whistle for thrash, a comparison the band would welcome with arms, or mouths, wide open.

While this record is steeped in mature rhythms, the hype tendencies that make the music ghetto are never sacrificed.

Death Dreams is the perfect example of a "same but better" second outing giving fans more of what they love while presenting something new to consider for those who weren't sucked in the first time around

Arguably Cattle Decapitation's best offering to date, Monolith of Inhumanity is a dynamic record, with many different elements working together to create one cohesive, disgusting and brilliant release.

There's so much going on throughout each of these nine songs that it's hard to take it in all at once, yet whether it's because of time shared or friendship and family connections, the performances are in perfect sync.

The craftsmanship of the album is impeccable, synonymous with the Cologne sound Kompakt has become so well known for.

With Memory, it's apparent that Lazer Sword have toiled over the big picture, leaving little room for twelve-inch singles, all the while crafting an absorbing full-listen.

An original record blending beauty and brutality.

Shows that CFCF aspires to be known as a serious artist, not just an electronic one.

Numbers like "Springs" and "NoWayBack," featuring the "good witch/wicked witch" vocals of Berlin Germany's Butterclock, may show that oOoOO is willing to move forward with his music, just not at the destroy-and-rebuild pace that the average ADD-afflicted hipster has grown to crave.