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Jazzkammer Metal Music Machine (Smalltown Superjazz) The Norwegian noise duo of Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre have markedly moved away from brutality in recent years, but here they jump face first into the gaping maw of black metal, working with members of Enslaved and Manngard to reduce the genre to its most elemental building blocks.
Scott Walker The Drift (4AD) The most difficult album I heard all year, but one of the most rewarding, too. Walker has a very dark view of the world and his ominous compositions reflect it: clashing harmonies, ultra-thick arrangements, and his trademark lugubrious croon.
Juana Molina Son (Domino) On her best album yet the gentle Argentinean singer gives her music a deeply appealing homemade quality, as spare acoustic guitar patterns, eerie analog synth, and inventively manipulated samples of her own whistling, beatboxing, and scatting all coalesce together in the most natural way.
