Kudos to both director and music supervisor for thinking outside the source music box. [Jun 2011, p.47]

As a pop album, Channel Pressure falls short, primarily because the songs simply aren't as good as their impeccable references demand. [Jun 20111, p.46]

Andrew WK's lucid, luminous production delivers a sequence of music that seems to hover between states. This is a musical achievement. [Jun 2011, p.46]

An unusual and unexpected triumph. [Jun 2011, p.44]

Shaolin is a pleasingly unpredictable record. [May 2011, p.64]

Given the unequaled brilliance of their SST era, it;s tempting to compare and contrast, but those who do so risk missing out on the often excellent music the Kirkwood brothes are making now. [May 2011, p.60]

With the addition of these elegant bent strings, it is as though perfumed air has been allowed to seep into what was formerly a hermetically sealed canister. This (now non-) trio's music is that much better for the enhancement. [May 2011, p.58]

If it was possible to see the debut Carbeth as a local gem of modest proportions, it's hard to receive The Constant Pageant as anything other than a finished masterpiece, with four or five songs that have longevity written in and the rest of them as musically sharp as they're lyrically alert. [May 2011, p.56]

That persistent footwork pulse holds the album together, preventing it from dispersing into a grey stew of genres. [May 2011, p.53]

It has that out-of-time, sketchbook privacy of so much current home-recorded memoradelia, but it also has a grit or grain to it--cheap Xerox rather than woozy VHS wobble--which is strangely refreshing. [May 2011, p.53]

It's a concise, tidy sounding album, with little of the noise leakage of old. [May 2011, p.51]

Here Before picks up as though they'd never left. [May 2011, p.50]

If their forthcoming albums match the confidence and uniqueness of Bible eyes, Night Slugs may enjoy another year in the spotlight. [May 2011, p.49]

Almost overpowering in its anthemic positivity, Constant Future is unfashionably fearless, and all the better for it. [Apr 2011, p.58]

Guillermo Scott Heren's eight record as Prefuse 73 is oddly colourless (or should I just say boring) suite of compositional drifts. [Apr 2011, p.70]

Celebrity guests or not, this is what Beans is--a densely indigestible acquired taste. [Apr 2011, p.70]

Mind Bokeh feels driven by the way recording music allows its maker to home in and hear clearly hazy, unformed ideas as material for the next piece. This at least would account for its restless churn of styles. [Apr 2011, p.69]

In Love With Oblivion is best when it's tough, primitive and direct. [Apr 2011, p.67]

Even without Gobert's cinematographic backdrop Simon Werner A Disparu stands as a solid instrumental album in its own right. [Apr 2011, p.63]

"Feral," "Codex" and "Giving Up The Ghost" finally win me over. [Apr 2011, p.62]

This intensity and force, despite the stillness, brings a new dimension to Low's sound and makes C'Mon an interesting addition to an already impressive body of work. [Apr 2011, p.60]

It's impressive on the first few listens, it grows irritating with repeat play. [Apr 2011, p.57]

Throughout this solo effort--his fourth, for what it's worth--Callahan mumbles ever onward like a charmless, tranquillised version of Giant Sand's Howe Gelb. [Apr 2011, p.55]

Black Sun has a broader palette, even if it's not really any lighter. [Apr 2011, p.53]

Hayward sounds bored, Coxon throws out Clapton-ish licks, and Taylor's milk-and-water vocals make him sound like the younger brother of The Beautiful South's Paul Heaton. Only Thomas seems willing to inject any imagination into the songs. [Apr 2011, p.52]

The album works best when the trio downshift to embrace Kaur's vocals and rhythmical sitar twangs. [Mar 2011, p.61]

The One is both sonically and conceptually strong enough to transcend that small internet buzz circle. [Mar 2011, p.62]

Sic Alp's latest might make for acceptable audio wallpaper--nice tunes and all, just ragged enough to contrive an illusion of edginess--but it crumbles under closer scrutiny. [Mar 2011, p.58]