Sorry for what feels like a rush job on the announcing, time keeps on creeping....

For once I will make a recommendation on how to listen to this show. It is a driving piece. Not in like a “Woo!! Roadtrip!” sort of way but in an art film sort of way. While driving doing holiday errands, I had a Koyaanisqatsi type experience. Whether city or highway, that is sort of the effect I was going for.

Cloudland Canyon is a really interesting German act. The Requiems Der Natur CD is a nicely intense piece of work that actually came out in 2006. It combines a lot of found sounds with some Kraut-electro structures that makes for an impressive debut.

Astral Social Club is Neil Campbell of Vibracathedral Orchestra doing his home recording thing. He has an extensive catalog of CD-R releases and this release is the VHF recordings compilation picked from these CD-Rs. Since this release last year, there are several other releases from ASC that are equally good, including a couple of releases on Important that are well worth tracking down.

Gultskra Artikler is an amazing sound project from Russia that has a prolific string of releases over the last few years. I played the release they had on Lampse last year and when I got hold of the new release this particular track just kept coming back on me. A great piece of sound sculpture. The seeming straightforwardness of the track disappears in the murky ambiguity of the samples.

I first got hold of a CD-R from Talibam! about a year ago. Three long improv pieces, it was a nightmarish mess anchored by big drums. I really enjoyed it, but it is blown away by the focused intensity of their latest release. A dozen focused pieces, they still have a very improvisational feel to them, but feel like there was a better coherence in the vision, more fat excised and nothing but intense lean left over.

Pluramon is the shoegazing postrock project of German musician Marcus Schmickler. He collaborates with several vocalists on his latest release The Monstrous Surplus. On this particular track, he collaborates with Julee Cruise, probably best known for her work on the Twin Peaks theme. They have collaborated on several tracks on this CD and a previous release. This track is a great illustration for how to employ a strong vocalist without making a track sound like Karaoke, mixing the vocals as another element of the overall sound as opposed to the feature.

Pulga is the collaboration between Italian jazz experimenter Valerio Cosi and Austin noisemaker Vanessa Niwi Rossetto. I first saw this on the Tiny Mix Tapes year end list and it certainly deserved to be there. Jazz, drone, noise, and melody tied up in a loose but expressive and expansive ball.

Shark Move were one of the original Asian prog bands, hailing from Indonesia. There was only one CD released, but this is a monster of English prog styles and Asian vocals. Shadoks, home of many excellent re-releases of obscure psychedelia and prog, has given this CD a really classy repress.

Tigersmilk is another project featuring Rob Mazurek. I have played many of his projects before: Exploding Star Orchestra, Sao Paolo Underground, Chicago Underground. This is a collaboration with an acoustic bassist and a percussionist, with a large helping of postproduction spin. Another excellent CD from the house of Mazurek.

Wildildlife is a San Francisco band that has a pit of abstract rock influences without sounding like they are aping anyone directly. I really think this CD is one of the best rock CDs of the year and can't wait until they spend through the South.

Blue Sky Black Death are a hip hop production crew with a really skewed sense about them. They have several production credits on Wu Tang related material and they have this smoky, cinematic edge that really catches my ear. This is from their double CD release from 2006 that was one CD with rappers and one instrumental. The CD in production now is totally instrumental and should be out later in the year.

Fond of Tigers is another one of those Jazz groups that make Jazz aficionados uncomfortable. Noisey, eclectic and strange, their new CD Release the Saviours really holds up on repeat listening.

Rah Bras broke up at the beginning of 2007 and that is too bad. Primarily keys and bass, they are heavy and strange. Too much for people I guess, because their CD Whohm rips up everything in its path. I lament the passing of yet another band that the frightened the emo kids.

Aluk Todolo is a three piece of black metal guys doing Krautrock. Or maybe they are Krautrock guys doing black metal. They take the coldness and buzz of black metal and put it through the rocque mechanique of Krautrock. Four long tracks on one CD, live these guys can probably really smoke.