Across the almost 50 minutes and 23 tracks of this experimental “mini-album,” Birmingham’s suave mod-futurists Broadcast trade snippety notions with longtime album artist and Ghost Box Music founder Julian House (aka the Focus Group). As swirls of instrumental samples ebb and shift, the deadpan, singsong vocals of Broadcast’s Trish Keenan chime in sporadically, like distance markers along a dark, circuitous path. Though the album seems to lack any overlying structure, its music maintains a consistently ominous tone, echoing through itself as if through the chambers of an underground catacomb. Use it to soundtrack in the wallflower room at your (post?) Halloween party, or maybe as the inspiration for your latest experimental/occult film. (Abby)

With the help of his increasingly close-knit band of buddies (including Megapuss’ Greg Rogove and Little Joy’s Rodrigo Amarante), freak folk icon Devendra Banhart hones and distills all his playful, wandering, sing-along inclinations into this winning collection of grooving folk-rock ditties. While his more recent albums tested the listener’s tolerance for dippy lyrics and bland songwriting, the gentler of these tunes (which is most of them) sound like the coffee mug warming your hands and the sun hugging the horizon on the first fresh-ass morning of a weekend mountain cabin retreat with your best friends. And, when he hits a heavier stride (as on atypically indie-rocking “16th & Valencia” or acid jam “Rats”), the effect is just as agreeable. (Abby)

After recording as both Weird Tapes (also the name of his download-laden blog) and Memory Cassette (the ’female’ counterpart), enigmatic New Jersey recluse Dayve Hawk unifies the projects with his first album as Memory Tapes. Hawk’s remixes have warped the sonics of artists from Britney Spears to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but his solo work comes across as more of an underground project—melding tinkling keyboard, zipper synths, Liquid Liquid cowbell rhythms, and his own falsetto into gauzily-produced music that sounds like it made it halfway to the club, but got distracted by a John Hughes-themed Halloween party. (Abby)

Throwback doo wop garage may not be the most original idea, but Arish “King” Khan (also of King Khan and the Shrines) and Mark “BBQ” Sultan aren’t out to push things forward. Rather, they’ve decided on the single most fun style of music possible, and throw themselves into making it like the future of raunchy good times depends on their sultry mmbow bow bows and rickety riffs. If that isn’t convincing enough, you’ll at least want to give this a few spins so you’ll know what lyrics to euphorically shout along the next time you catch these two nuts live (a MUST). (Abby)

After stints in Zombie Zombie, Married Monk, and Flop, French electronic producer Etienne Jaumet went solo two years ago. This is his first album as such, barring a well-received 12”, and on it Jaumet stands outside current trends, instead looking back on old styles and giving them his own spin. The opening track, the 20-minute excursion “For Falling Asleep,” suggests at first with its heavily pulsating beat a more emotive Kraftwerk circa Autobahn, but then surprises with saxophones halfway through—pointing to earlier Krautrock influences—and at 14 minutes a brave abandonment of the previously insistent beat. The only thing about this masterful track that doesn’t fit is its title—this is not music for sleep. Such a strong and extended start inherently risks subsequent letdown, but Jaumet sidesteps this through sheer variety as he gives us his eccentric takes on Detroit techno (“Mental Vortex” and “Entropy”), the uncategorizable “Through the Strata” (with hurdy-gurdy, woozily swooping synth, and a beat way too slow for dancing, closing with what sounds like echoing water drops), and back to Krautrock as the album winds down on the droning “At the Crack of Dawn.” Only about half of it will work in clubs, but all of it sounds great. (Steve)

The question of where to file Danish group Efterklang was already confusing enough—Post-Rock? Electronic?—but is now even more muddled now that they’ve released an album that can easily stand among the more attractive Post-Classical albums of the decade. Perhaps a new category, “Post-Everything,” is in order. This is a magnificent live transformation of the quintet’s 2007 sophomore album Parades. Performing it with orchestral textures and richness makes the stylistic ties to Minimalism—some of this could pass for Steve Reich—even more obvious. The songs also feel more sensually powerful (kudos to arranger Karsten Fundal, additional collaborators include Peter Broderick and Our Broken Garden’s Anna Brønsted). Having the vocals declaimed by a small chorus lends the music a ritualistic tone that heightens its intensity. Parades is a very fine album, but this concert performance is now my first listening choice for this material; it seems like the way these songs were meant to be played. The post-rock/classical thing is almost becoming a trend, what with Sufjan Stevens’s The BQE, Rachel’s, Johann Johannson, Gabriel Prokofiev, etc., but this is the best of the group so far. A bonus DVD includes the concert, behind-the-scenes documentary, and seven Efterklang song videos. (Steve)

A customer who walked in in the middle of the track “Path to Wisdom” from this album asked if it was Fela Kuti. No, but Allen was Fela’s drummer, and certainly at times this CD is closer to the icon’s Afrobeat style than much of what Allen’s done in recent years (which I consider good news). But track to track, there are many other comparisons that come to mind, notably the Sun Ra Arkestra and Dorothy Ashby. Finnish techno-lounge star Jimi Tenor’s makes major contributions with his versatile big band Kabu Kabu, and with occasional solo vocalizing and some fine flute, Allonymous raps wittily on a few tracks, Daniel Givens adds some deejaying, and Strut’s Inspiration Information series of collaborations has another winner. (Steve)

Imagine if J Spaceman of Spiritualized, was an actual spaceman, and therefore all his instruments were electronic (cause, y’know, in space everything is electronic). That’ll give you some sense of what Northhampton, UK resident James Chapman is coming from on his second album as Maps. Chapman is working at crafting shoegaze from dance-floor clay, but the man loves his beats, and he’s got a sneaker for synth pop, so these conceptual musings on “altered states” end up sounding more like moody club remixes of M83 than atmospheric rock drones. That is a very good thing. (Abby)