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Mike NewmarkAbout Mike Newmark Mike has been a staff writer at PopMatters since 2009. He began writing music reviews for his college paper in 2005, where he cut his teeth as an arts editor and weekly columnist. He graduated from Vassar in 2008 and is now pursuing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. He currently practices individual psychotherapy at a clinic in the San Francisco Bay Area. Features
Beacons of Longevity: An Interview with TortoiseTortoise co-founder Dan Bitney discusses the past, present, and future of the band that changed indie rock forever, and continues to thrill their power base on their first original record in five years, Beacons of Ancestorship. [10 August 2009] Reviews
2562: UnbalanceUnbalance is a standout in 2009 electronica, a exemplar of the magic that happens when music of the past is filtered through the imagination of a truly gifted producer. [3 November 2009] 
Do Make Say Think: Other TruthsOther Truths finds the Toronto post-rock quintet in excellent shape, still hitting the sweet spot where skilled musicianship and rugose sonic textures meet. [28 October 2009] 
Sweet Trip: You Will Never Know WhySix years after Sweet Trip's indie-electronic flavorgasm Velocity : Design : Comfort, the Bay Area quartet unveils a follow-up that makes its pop predilections far more explicit, zeroing in on the hooks and magnifying them until they take center stage. [22 October 2009] 
Rose Melberg: Homemade ShipThe former Tiger Trap and Softies frontwoman releases her third solo album and her second since she turned into a pumpkin...I mean, an acoustic singer/songwriter. [21 September 2009] 
Various Artists: Little Darla Has a Treat for You, V.27: Eternal Spring EditionDarla Records releases its latest various artists compilation, which once again features all exclusive tracks and a relatively vast array of styles. [14 September 2009] 
Company Flow: Funcrusher PlusThis alternative hip-hop classic is reissued by Company Flow member El-P's Definitive Jux label 12 years after its initial release, and after three years of being out of print. 
Mika Vainio: Aineen Musta Puhelin (Black Telephone of Matter)Always quite independent of spirit to begin with, the Pan Sonic member and venerable solo producer gets completely rebellious on Aineen Musta Puhelin, dealing only in silence and noise. [10 September 2009] 
jj: jj n° 2Another album that makes Sweden sound like paradise, jj n° 2 is a youthful, elemental, and startlingly beautiful piece of music that doesn’t simply transcend the mountain of hype it’s already received, but completely defies it. [26 August 2009] 
Pat Metheny / Gary Burton: Quartet LiveTwo outstanding contemporary jazzmen, whose collaboration produced one of the seminal bop albums of the '90s, reunite and document a quizzically boring performance from their 2006/2007 US tour. [24 August 2009] 
Recloose: Perfect TimingMore Stevie Wonder than the Belleville Three, Perfect Timing is daringly fun and Recloose’s most liberating full-length release by miles. [20 August 2009] 
Biosphere: Wireless: Live at the Arnolfini, BristolWireless is Biosphere's live performance at Touch's 25th Anniversary celebration, and it provides a nice recap of the veteran ambient producer's finest hours. [3 August 2009] 
Clark: Totems FlareWarp artist Chris Clark caps off his self-appointed trilogy of electronic diablerie with Totems Flare, a far more mercurial record that still retains his sturdy production values and monstrous beauty. [23 July 2009] 
Boozoo Bajou: GrainsHave you ever wanted to hear what two German guys think California sounds like? 
Yppah: Gumball Machine WeekendGumball Machine Weekend was supposed to be a teaser EP for Yppah's full-length record They Know What the Ghost Know (three of the EP's five songs appear on it), but now that the full-length is available, the EP's all but lost its function. Awesome. [22 July 2009] 
Wye Oak: The KnotThe Baltimore duo's second record betters their debut on all fronts, forming their early-era slowcore and alternative country influences into a shattering work of relational despair. 
Antiguo Autómata Mexicano: Chez NobodyNot a heterogeneous junk pile of disconnected genres, nor a seamless fusion of them, Chez Nobody is instead a loosely hybridized indie electronic creature that careens forward in pitches and rolls almost despite itself. [15 July 2009] 
Tara Jane O’Neil: A Ways AwayAfter the relatively traditional folk of TJO's high water mark, In Circles, A Ways Away finds her turning slightly inward and crafting music that's reminiscent of the first two albums under her own name. [17 June 2009] 
Loess: BurrowsBurrows is some of this year's finest electronic listening music you'll pass clean by. Seek it out, close your eyes and take the plunge. [11 June 2009] 
Tarentel: Live Edits: Italy/SwitzerlandLive Edits collects individual performances from Tarentel's 2005 Italy/Switzerland tour and stitches them together as an often gripping end-to-end experience. [31 May 2009] 
Grizzly Bear: VeckatimestBy pulling all four of their heads together in the conception process and tweaking the nuts and bolts of their design in the three years following Yellow House, Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear have produced their finest record to date. [26 May 2009] 
SND: AtavismAtavism is the Sheffield duo's first SND record in nearly seven years. Was the killer wait worth it? Yes. The wait was worth it. [11 May 2009] 
Diamond Watch Wrists: Ice Capped at Both EndsThe second of Guillermo Scott Herren's three albums released during the months of April and May, Ice Capped at Both Ends is the highly anticipated collaboration with Hella's Zach Hill. [8 May 2009] 
Svarte Greiner: KappeDeaf Center's Erik Skodvin resurfaces as Svarte Greiner with a doom ambient masterpiece, seductive in its melding of sensuality and terror, and already one of the best records of 2009. [6 May 2009] 
Takeo Toyama: EtudesOriginally released in 2003, Takeo Toyama's Etudes finds the underrated Osaka composer concocting some of the most on-the-nose fairy tale music since "Peter and the Wolf". [3 May 2009] 
Paul van Dyk: Hands on in BetweenThe result of a contest given by Beatport and Paul van Dyk himself, Hands on in Between is a double-disc set of the trance producer's admirers putting their hands all over his 2007 comeback album In Between. [1 May 2009] 
Intrusion: The Seduction of SilenceIntrusion is a solo project of Echospace's Stephen Hitchell, who uses this opportunity to conjure an aquatic suspension space perfect for dropping out. 
Quatre Tête: Art of the StateChicagoan trio Quatre Tête has honed the well-known Chicago post-hardcore style down to a fine point on their first full-length record. [16 April 2009] 
Pan-American: White Bird ReleaseMark Nelson's sixth record as Pan-American does more to cast a spell and correct previous mistakes than any of Nelson's post-Labradford work. [20 March 2009] 
Richard Pinhas and Merzbow: Keio LinePinhas and Merzbow title their first studio collaboration after the railway that took them from Tokyo to their studio in the suburbs, and Keio Line ends up becoming an album about traveling, like it or not. [17 March 2009] 
In Endeavors: You’ve Got Your Friends, I’ve Got MineThese Lexington, KY garage rock upstarts clearly love the Strokes, and use their strutting rock 'n roll as a crutch. [12 March 2009] 
Tim Hecker: An Imaginary CountryAfter the gut-busting emotional hurricane of Harmony in Ultraviolet, An Imaginary Country is a much-needed breather, favoring rich stasis and Zen-like serenity over topsy-turvy drama. [11 March 2009] 
DJ / rupture & Andy Moor: PatchesPatches -- live tracks assembled from a tour with the Ex guitarist Andy Moor -- flies in the face of Rupture's Uproot mix months earlier with caustic sonics and desolate atmospheres. [10 March 2009] 
Jóhann Jóhannsson: FordlândiaFordlândia is Jóhann Jóhannsson's most extravagant work yet, attempting a sense of cinematic grandeur, elegiac sadness, and high drama. [26 February 2009] 
Bibio: Vignetting the CompostOn Vignetting the Compost, Stephen Wilkinson pulls a rabbit out of his hat and shows that he's done what everyone wanted him to do but that nobody believed he could: he's grown -- as a songwriter, as a musician, and as a producer. [25 February 2009] 
Wireman: Armour EPIf you wanted a glimpse into current state of European dub techno, you could do a lot worse than this. [5 February 2009] 
Lithops: Ye Viols!Nothing Jan St. Werner touches has ever been less than technically proficient, but with each new album it's becoming increasingly difficult for Lithops to shake its reputation as a poor man's Mouse on Mars. 
Marykate O’Neil: UndergroundThe Brooklyn singer/songwriter's third full-length album is mired in the time-tested formulas and pre-chewed sound of adult-oriented rock. [2 February 2009] 
Iran: DissolverThe reclusive, elusive Iran release their third record after six years of silence, and the sound -- once noisy and gnarled -- is so toned down it could be mistaken for the work of an entirely different band. [1 February 2009] 
Dälek: Gutter TacticsThe experimental hip-hop duo's fifth proper album finds an even clearer way to convey the limitation of language as a mode of expression, and the confusion and ambivalence of living in today's trying environment. [28 January 2009] 
Actress: HazyvilleDarren J. Cunningham -- co-founder of the laudable Werk Discs label -- finally releases his long-awaited and long-hyped full-length album as Actress, and it's a good 'un. [21 January 2009] 
Rafael Toral: Space Elements Vol. 1This is the third record in guitarist Rafael Toral's space-themed series, consisting of beeps, boops, squeaks... and no guitar. 
Fennesz: Black SeaFennesz's first solo record in quite some time is quieter, more amorphous and less accessible than his most definitive work. Spend some time with it, however, and it begins to open up. [15 January 2009] 
Efdemin: Carry On—Pretend We Are Not in the RoomEfdemin's first mix CD, Carry On, Pretend We Are Not in the Room, takes us through a succinct survey of groovy, idiosyncratic minimal techno. [4 January 2009] 
Britney Spears: CircusReleased just 13 months after the pissed-off Blackout, Circus catches Spears on a relative upswing, flush from Blackout's positive critical reception and the release of her MTV documentary, For the Record. [10 December 2008] 
Jazzanova: Of All the ThingsOf all the things Jazzanova could have done for a sophomore effort in the seven interminable years since their electro-jazz landmark In Between, they've recorded a soul record. [5 December 2008] 
School of Seven Bells: AlpinismsEven when not all of School of Seven Bells' experiments work, they hit the dream-pop sweet spot with enough frequency to make their debut recording worthwhile. [26 November 2008] 
Nuspirit Helsinki: Our Favorite ThingsFor this mix, the Finnish nu-jazz production team offers songs that recall a Scandinavian loveseat: clean, austere, not terribly immersive, and quirkily appealing. [14 November 2008] 
Lineland: Logos for LovePricier gear and a five-year break don't keep Lineland's latest from becoming a ho-hum genre exercise. [12 November 2008] 
Various Artists: I Love DubstepAnother month, another dubstep mix from Rinse FM, this one playing to newcomers with genre standards and tracks that sound a lot like them. [10 November 2008] 
Windy & Carl: Songs for the Broken HeartedSongs for the Broken Hearted can be seen as a companion piece to their most difficult outing, Depths -- except this is a much more personal record, fluctuating with the tension and release of the human heart. [7 November 2008] |
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