His second release as Atlas Sound sees Bradford Cox, the inimitable Deerhunter frontman, crafting woozy pastiches of samples, synth, guitar and his own double(/triple/quadruple)-tracked, lispingly lo-fi vocal streamers. Cox has a real ear for melody, but he’s also a creative maniac. Not content to leave a song to its own vague structure, he piles on bits and pieces until the listening feels more like a dreamy snorkel than an airy stroll. Even so, many of the tracks shine through the fog as real pop gems. In particular, “Walkabout,” which features an obscure Nuggets sample and Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear, an obvious influence on Cox) taking over vocal duties, “Criminals,” with its bucket rhythms and psyched-out guitar, and the sunny, poignant compromise of ’ Sheila’ (”No one wants to die alone,“ Cox reasons, &rlquo;Sheila! / We ”ll die alone together”). (Abby)

Lightning Bolt may be better known for their live “guerilla gigs”—just imagine a hurricane with two adrenaline machines pulsing in its eye—but make no mistake, when drummer/vocalist (if you can call his mutilated yelps “vocals”) Brian Chippendale and bassist Brian Gibson want to reach out through your speakers and grab you by the throat, they know how to get it done. Whether edging their brutally noisy rock towards the extremes of shreiking bass, frappé rhythms or swirls of sonics so warped that they melt into one another, Lightning Bolt increasingly do it with the sort of majestic composure that could only be acquired through repeated confrontations with pure human chaos. (Abby)

Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power of Bristol-based electro duo Fuck Buttons are noisy experimentalists, but they are devoted to rhythm. On this gorgeously assaultive second LP, a typical track will build a tinny, frenetic club beat into a tower of crystalline static, washed through with nebulous melodies. The process generally takes about 8 to 11 minutes (with a few 5-minute exceptions) but never seems to drag as the drone and skitter push each other to stunning, futuristic heights. Expect relentless brain pounding, and don’t be surprised if your leg muscles can’t help but spasm happily. (Abby)

Another hard-to-classify gem from Kranky, the latest from Adam Forkner’s one-man project, White Rainbow, is pure nirvana: sprawling, meditative and hypnotic, full of rich textures and spacey electronics. Forkner, a fixture on the West Coast experimental scene who’s toured with the likes of Valet, Atlas Sound and Devendra Banhart, makes great use of guitars, vocals, percussion and synths in weaving a lovely fabric of sounds that’s equal parts psychedelia, ambient electronica and drone rock. The tracks are dense and long (the shortest is 12 minutes) but Forkner is a master of space and mood. If spacey psychedelia is your thing, New Clouds is your thing. (James)

While there’s no such thing as a “typical” Sufjan Stevens album, this one is unusually ambitious AND eccentric, even by his adventurous standards: a small-orchestra/rock band celebration—complete with dancing cheerleaders—of the highway we love to hate, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. (I wonder whether, when the Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned Stevens to write this piece for the 25th anniversary of its Next Wave festival, this is quite what they expected.) The show is presented on an audio CD (or LP, your choice; the LP comes with a comic book!) and a video DVD that provides an inkling of what a multi-media spectacular the BAM presentation was. (Steve)

Sparklehorse always brought a touch of experimentalism to their indie-pop bona fides, so this inspired pairing with Austria’s electronic maestro Christian Fennesz is not as odd as it might seem. At any rate, the two have created one of the year’s boldest and most beautiful electronic record. Supposedly Fennesz and the band holed themselves up for two days to create this 40-minute opus, a beautifully textured work of rich atmospherics nicely combining acoustic instruments and layers of synths and guitars. Some vocals, abstract and dreamy, dot the proceedings, but this is ambient music at its finest, with two supreme musos at the top of their game. (James)

The penultimate song on Neon Indian’s Psychic Chasms is called “Ephemeral Artery.” It’s not a bad description for this project’s sound as a whole: there’s a pulsing life at the heart of it, a catchiness that in another, slightly altered world might make for some sick dancefloor hits. “Ephemeral” is the key here, though—while Daft Punk and Justice could serve as rough points of reference, Neon Indian stay hazy and hallucinatory where their forebears were forceful. The end result is a bedroom dance record that suggests half-remembered bits of retro pop anthems, transmitted via a fevered brain. It’s an offbeat album, but the moment when it clicks makes for a satisfying experience. (Tobias)

Grooms (formerly Muggabears) is a band we’re quite proud of at Sound Fix, as singer/guitarist Travis Johnson works here. But no personal connection to the band is required to enjoy Johnson’s clangy alternate-tuned guitar, Emily Ambruso’s thrumming bass lines, Gabriel Wurzel’s urgent force-beat drumming, and songs that are catchy even through frequent noise explosions. Johnson’s versatile vocals (sometimes straightforward, often adorned with falsetto, and so full of timbre changes that he proves it legitimate instrument in the mix) deliver enigmatic lyrics of existential angst, unpretentiously channeled through everyday concerns. (Steve)

In 2007, DFA made many best-of-the-year lists with its reissue of Pylon’s first album, Gyrate. Now the label follows up with Chomp, the Athens legends’ equally great sophomore release from 1983. Pylon’s most famous song, “Crazy,” is here, along with plenty of other gloriously angular, yelping songs that defined Southern post-punk. There are four bonus tracks: “Crazy” 7”, “Yo-Yo” alternate with Vanessa Briscoe’s vocals slowed down to man-pitch, previously unreleased alternate mix of “Gyrate,” and non-LP single “Four Minutes,” which is “Beep” at half-speed. (Steve)