Reminder: The music industry is in trouble, not the music. So while his Definitive Jux label folded up its tent (for the most part) in February, head Jukie El-P pushes on like a soldier with this deep-as-Atlantis instrumental mix, a shuddering blend of future-shock synths and heavily modified sonic darkness of all kinds. The dark sounds won’t surprise anyone familiar with El’s previous releases; this is one dude who’s always known and preached the gospel of “we are so f***ed.” And while each of the 15 tracks have names (winner: “Take You Out at the Ball Game”; runner-up: the wicked-cool sci-fi prowl of “He Hit Her So She Left”), Weareallgoingtoburninhell is indeed about losing yourself in the journey, as dubstep-descended rhythms slash through futurescapes that’d make John Carpenter’s hair stand up. And man does that sound cool. And if you’re curious about the “3” in the title, both the vinyl and CD contain codes to download Megamixxxes 1 and 2. (M.L. Thrope)

Here’s to growing up. Not that Wavves doesn’t look the same from the outside: cheapie day-glo artwork featuring a mysti-cat smoking a ciggy under a pot leaf, the indie-mundanity of the title of Nathan Williams’s third album (spare me the claims of irony, though I’m glad he didn't call it “Wavvvves”). But Williams and new Wavvers Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes (formerly Jay Reatard’s rhythm section) have emerged from the shadows of fuzz and lo-fidelity production that can sometimes dutifully obscure weak songs with the best batch of Wavves-ness yet. Not that Williams has lost his boyish charm: “Green Eyes” is an endearingly honest and direct love song (and it’s, like, actually arranged, ‘n junk); “Baseball Cards” uses some of that old fuzz and murk as a weapon rather than merely as camouflage; and the title track opens the album in ramshackle pop-punk glory, announcing a brand-new talent who you already mostly know. Ladies and germs, meet Wavves again. (M.L. Thrope)

The title of ethno-musicologist/multi-instrumentalist Dr. Lloyd Miller’s collectors’ holy grail LP Oriental Jazz (more name-dropped than actually heard until a couple of years ago when a track was anthologized) cues folks on how to categorize his music, but doesn’t come close to conveying just how eclectically well-rounded and far-flung his playing is. True, his first recording (a 78 RPM record—born in 1938, he was rather precocious) was in the style of early New Orleans jazz clarinetist George Lewis, but with a voracious appetite for the music of many cultures kickstarted by living in Iran for a year and travels to Asia and Europe in the 1950s (and beyond), his style and the number of instruments he plays expanded so far that the only thread tying together the tracks on this new collaboration (his second with U.K. collective the Heliocentrics) is that it’s modal. Yes, jazz aficionados of catholic tastes will hear sounds recalling late ‘60s/early ‘70s jazz of a multicultural bent, but psychedelia fans will just as easily identify with the mellowly hypnotic grooves and exotic timbres. Working from an advance, I can’t tell how many instruments Miller plays here, but the man is known to be adept on clarinet, piano, bass, cornet, saxes, banjo, santur, zarb, oud, sehtar, dan tranh, and dam kim; whether blowing or strumming, he adds a vast array of textures in the most musical, unpretentious, unself-conscious way imaginable, and needless to say the Heliocentrics provide plenty of rhythmic impetus. (Steve)

While the focus of this compilation is ostensibly jazz, no particular love of jazz is required to appreciate this album, because many of the tracks could just as easily be labeled soul (or boogaloo, as on “Emakhaya” by Heshoo Beshoo Group) instrumentals or funk (Malombo’s &rlduo;Sangoma,” The Drive’s “Howl”). That said, there are a few tracks that are unalloyed jazz, highlights being the stunning modal epics “Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)” by the Mankunku Quartet and “Spring” by the Chris Schilder Quartet featuring Mankunku, the bopping “Pinese’s Dance” by Jazz Giants, and—had to represent him here—Chris McGregor & The Castle Lager Big Band playing the swing-bop “Switch.” The great joy of such compilations is the inter-cultural ferment of multiple styles, whether intentional or accidental, and of course the incorporation or influence of African rhythms (including harmonic rhythms and treatment of chord progressions) on these tracks is notable, whether subtle or obvious. In other words, no matter how imitative of American models these tracks may me, they often still have a distinctive African flavor. (Steve)

This mish-mash of song-fragments and experiments were put to tape in the years between this duo’s first appearance (under the name Whitey on the Moon UK—yes, we’re all glad they had to change it) and the time when In Ear Park started to come together. What’s incredible is that, even at their most incomplete (five of the 11 songs here are titled “Practice Room Sketch”), these bits and pieces share the same instinct for melody (and often, melancholy, if of a wistful sort) that characterizes Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear) and Fred Nicolaus’s best work as Department of Eagles. Dig into the wintry warmth of “Grand Army Plaza,” the elegiac “Deadly Disclosure” and—well, really, those Practice Room Sketches are cool as hell, and could easily make for a standalone, more thematically focused EP. (M.L. Thrope)

The recorded results of Dean & Britta’s recent accompaniations for Warhol’s Screen Tests are no less hazily gorgeous than the concerts, or Warhol’s stars for that matter. Long a learned disciple of all that trickled down from the Velvet Underground’s brief but historic career, Dean Wareham—along with his own, presumably more balanced Nico-esque partner, Britta Phillips—does justice to the original pop-art star and his favorite band with this mix of originals, covers and wisely chosen remixes (three are by Sonic Boom, who knows a little something about woozy psych-pop himself). Dean and Britta slather the cool all over this set; their originals—the opening instrumental, “Silver Factory Theme,” captures our false-nostalgia for an era we never lived through, while “I Found It Not So” drifts along in a narco-haze that Hope Sandoval would want to live in—succeed wildly at evoking that era’s Factory-ness, while the remixes find the same druggy momentum in softly repeating beats and patterns (Sonic’s reworking of ”Richard Rheem Theme” seems the sort of thing Warthol would dig were he around today). Recommended for all fans of Warholica! (M.L. Thrope)

Perhaps the purest articulation of the Daptone aesthetic, this 12-strong Afro-soul instrumental group hits its best good foot yet on its third outing. The Budos Band’s sound will never quite come through on record as vitally as it does in concert, but knowing the impossibility of the endeavor, the Daptone crew sets out to capture it nonetheless. On III, they come pretty damn close. Since they can’t replicate the sweaty basement feel of the live Budos experience, the band and production team focus on the intricate detailing within these 11 jams: You can’t hear “Crimson Skies” without thinking of a hard-boiled cop flick nearing its inevitable climax, nor “Golden Dunes” without imagining how the same movie would unfurl if it were set in Morocco in 1977 (call it fez-funk). Regardless, III is one disc you’ll want to keep handy for all your late-summer late-night party needs. (M.L. Thrope)

Lean, melodic and British as all get out (even if the brothers that make up the rhythm section are South African), Stornoway’s debut demonstrates how indie-pop is an endlessly renewing organism: While this quartet works with tried-and-true elements, Beachcomber’s Windowsill nevertheless sounds fresh and new. That’s primarily to do with frontman Brian Briggs’s voice, the sort of clear-eyed tone that makes you think he’s always looking skyward when he sings. The impeccably crisp “I Saw You Blink,” a tidy reverie of pop-hookery, dances merrily around the maypole of his vocals (and he modestly plays up the brogue in his voice), while the sedate songs—“Fuel Up” and the hushed “On the Rocks”—provide even better vehicles for him, as all the instrumentation seems to follow his melodic lead. Add the captivating lead single “Zorbing” and you have a debut that all indie-pop fans will want to get to know. (Bosco)