Well, it's been quite a year for music, and quite a year for retailing too, but in a different way. Real indie bands (on actual independent labels) have been riding high on the Billboard charts in the U.S., as Spoon, the Shins, Bright Eyes and Arcade Fire all scored top ten albums in 2007 ... and now Leslie Feist from Broken Social Scene has four Grammy nominations! (Who remembers Feist rocking the drums at BSS's 2003 Other Music in-store?!) And as music migrates to the internet and diverse sounds more and more frequently drive commercials, films and TV shows, it seems that new bands break at the speed of light, and interesting and eclectic sounds are embraced by the mainstream at an alarming and truly exciting pace. Whether or not you are actually buying all that great music is between you and your conscience, I guess.

Which brings us to the other side of the equation: music retailing is in a freefall. 2007 began with Tower Records officially closing up shop all over the U.S., and there have been a ton of great indie shops going the same way this year. Other Music is trying to stave off the impending storm by jumping into digital retailing with both feet, having launched our MP3 download shop in late April, and throwing a lot of resources into our new online video series and all things digital. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, download 'em, or something like that. But it's not so simple as CD and vinyl customers suddenly pointing their dollars at downloads... this is a time of dramatic change for retailers, labels, artists, fans, and really anyone with an ear for music.

One thing that is not changing, though, is all the great music. There is still a ton of it, more than ever really, and Other Music still takes seriously our mission to sort through the sounds and help you find the best music out there. We will publish an in-depth recap of the best of 2007 just after the new year, featuring more than 200 releases sorted by genre, but here we have our 25 favorite new releases and 25 favorite reissues of the past year. Have a look, have a listen, and support underground music!

-Josh Madell

Hardly a new group, Tinariwen have been churning out their signature brand of desert blues for more than twenty-five years, albeit in the relative obscurity of the dusty south Sahara, but the story of the Malian musicians has caught on significantly over the past few years both here and abroad. Their history is dramatic; while serving time in Algerian military training camps, singer and leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib became mesmerized by the "new" sounds of Led Zeppelin and Santana. Inspired to pick up a guitar, he and his band (who were also militants) developed a sound that brought the blues back to Africa from whence they came, combining traditional African singing and percussion with electric guitars and an intense rock and roll attitude. Drawing on the experiences of the fiercely nomadic Tuareg people, Tinariwen writes of unemployment, social oppression, rebellion and subjugation, first by French colonizers and later by the Malian government. It's trance inducing yet extremely well-grounded music, alive with the spirit and struggle of life in this trying world. Although they have been releasing CDs to international audiences for several years, Aman Iman is the perfect distillation of their powerful sound, and their recent touring, including an electrifying in-store performance at Other Music that created more excitement than any gig we've seen in quite some time, made a deep connection with the staff and customers, and catapulted this album to the top of a lot of our best-of lists. Tinariwen are a timeless, truly thrilling group that remind all of us of the transformative power of music.

Last year, mystery dubstep revolutionary Burial knocked us all out with his self-titled debut. In 2007, his second album, Untrue, repeated that knockout twice over. Burial's overall palette and scope move far beyond his peers, allowing him to craft full albums that are more about the overall journey than the stops along the way; a deep, mysterious and dark world of mood music, of cold city streets and streetlight burn, of endless drives through vacant urban overpasses at 4 A.M. Burial's melodies are still steeped in the two-step/garage formulas that birthed dubstep, but carry a distinct Detroit techno feel that makes his works sound expansive, open, and wondrous.

Pop iconoclasts Animal Collective brought across their clearest distillation of sound and structure to date with Strawberry Jam, in which their attempts to shed their sounds of old met with thunderous, gleeful success. While many elements of their sound on Strawberry Jam leaned towards indie rock, the group's shared influences of tribal drumming, tropicalia and psychedelia, as well as nods to electronic composers like Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, are all strikingly present, with unexpected clarity. Adding a more purposeful use of rhythms and textures to the atmosphere of their songs, the group proved that a push towards new and more widely accepted songs didn't have to come at the cost of their rampant streaks of experimentation, all adding up to their best record to date.

2007 saw the highly-anticipated, much-lauded sophomore album from Pantha Du Prince hit our shelves. While his first album, Diamond Daze, turned heads with its uniquely manicured textures, This Bliss followed suit with an even more pronounced feel, at times slightly edgier production, and characteristically unique atmosphere, all united by an overall, undeniable "personality" that is sorely lacking in recent techno releases. Gripping, evocative tracks unfold with unexpected gravity and fragile beauty, placing his works in a class truly on its own.

Dean Spunt and Randy Randall were two-thirds of the insanely great (and ridiculously unheralded) Los Angeles art-punk band Wives. Emerging from the same all ages scene that also brought us folks like the Mae Shi, 400 Blows, and Mika Miko, their new project No Age retains that same unbridled spirit fully intact, only now the two have opened up their sound equally to noisier passages and to melodic songcraft. Now signed to Sub Pop with a debut album set for 2008, Weirdo Rippers collects tracks from the group's five vinyl-only singles and EPs, showcasing the band's sometimes taut, often loose punk thrash and heady dream pop into wholly cohesive bursts of manic grandeur, recalling a more easygoing Lightning Bolt or a melody-driven take on Black Dice.

The heavier-than-heavy dubstep label Skull Disco brought us Soundboy Punishments, compiling the label's first five 12-inch singles. Culled primarily from the work of Shackleton, as well as a few selections from Appleblim and Gatekeeper, this is a mysterious yet engaging collection of deep, dark and danceable dub. As the title suggests, it's punishment for any sound boy expecting the same ol' thing, and worth it to everyone from the curious to the aficionado, especially for the now-legendary 18-minute Ricardo Villalobos remix of Shackelton's "Blood On My Hands."

M.I.A.'s sophomore effort was well worth the wait, buzz and backlash. Over the minimal yet throbbing, building mix of bass thumps, live and programmed drums, odd keyboards and tons of weird world culture samples (soundtracks, field recordings, in-studio chatter), she's singing wild and free and rebellious jams, in a league of her own. It sounds like nothing else, honestly. The textures and overall mixes shift from polished PlayStation sheen and big arrangements to grittier lo-fi techniques, all enhancing the shifting climates and cultures. It's a melting pot of a lot of things that really has nothing to do with America, yet it's definitely a pop record that confronted American consumer culture and its all-encompassing presence head-on.

Blood Visions technically came out in late 2006, but truth be told, we were so put off by its awful cover, that it took a few months before one of us dared to play it on the shop stereo. Needless to say, we thought Jay Reatard's songs were bloody great and we obviously weren't the only ones. Commanding major label attention while watching his audience grow tenfold, this was certainly Reatard's year. This Memphis denizen has been banging away at the hallowed halls of garage punk (and its corollary of goth-tinged synth punk) for well over a decade with the Reatards, Lost Sounds, Bad Times, Terror Visions and several other outfits, but his recent forays into solo territory unleashed a knack for relentlessly catchy, songwriting that no one could have anticipated. Ricocheting between the fast and the faster, Blood Visions channeled Adam Ant through the Futureheads and vintage Sparks, showing a personal side to the genre that few are able to successfully harness.

If this New England noise/improv group's chaotic, occasionally unstable live shows and countless tales of free-form scrape scattered across over two dozen albums, CD-Rs, and cassettes had scared you away in the past, then 2007 found Magik Markers doing a complete 180 turn and crafting a song-based work that's as affecting as it is solitary. Not that anyone was expecting the group to produce such a mature album, but BOSS proved that the group could fuse emotional volatility across a new and completely accessible approach. It's a POP album, and it will undoubtedly make you see the Markers in a different light.

King Khan, thee baddest French-Canadian Indian exiled in Germany, at least that we know of, returned in 2007 with yet another new album, here backed by an incredible eight-piece band, with a full brass section. On What Is?!, Khan channels Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Stones, the Stooges, Jacques Dutronc, Johnny Thunders, Dylan, and Sun Ra (no, wait til you hear "Cosmic Serenade") all in the space of one album, rooted in an authentic '60s style recording and gut-shot production values. Khan howls, preaches, and confesses like James Brown raised on Nuggets and Pebbles compilations, and if you don't love this record, you are sick of rock 'n' roll.

The After Dark compilation was originally compiled and pressed in an edition of 200 copies as a label sampler/promo for a Glass Candy tour, but an unexpectedly massive response to the sounds contained herein has brought it out of limited edition limbo and into wider availability for the general public. It's an oft-stunning mix of airy, synth-soaked dance glee and low-slung grooves that samples key 12" singles and demo tracks from a whole host of different Giorgio Moroder-loving bands, such as Glass Candy, Professor Genius, Chromatics, Farah and Mirage.

Formed from the ashes of Seattle's Pretty Girls Make Graves and Hint Hint, the Cave Singers debuted this year with Invitation Songs, an album that is just that: an irresistible offer to join them in the dark and dreamy world that their music inhabits. Built around finger-picked acoustic guitars, brushed drums and intimate, emotional vocals, the trio transcended folk music, blues, bluegrass and country, with a singular focus that belied its members' punk rock backgrounds.

At age 62, Robert Wyatt continues to be a refreshing voice in music, and there's no doubt that avant-pop's elder statesman is as much of an adventurist and pioneer today as he has ever been. This man belongs in the same pantheon of innovation as Arthur Russell, Tom Waits and of course, Brian Eno. His latest, Comicopera, unfolds over three acts, its tales of "human foibles" spelled out with contributions from Eno, Anne Whitehead, Paul Weller, Karen Mantler, Yaron Stavi, Orphy Robinson, and Monica Vasconcelos. It's a fresh take on Wyatt's classic sound, his latest ranking right up there with other great releases like Rock Bottom, Shleep, and, of course, his work with Soft Machine and Matching Mole.

The first solo album from Eric Copeland, a member of Black Dice and Terrestrial Tones, delivered heavily rhythmic electronic pastiche, unafraid to wander into more abstract territory; the 12 songs gathered herein find Copeland reflecting on his past work while exploring wholly new ideas, sonics, and textures. More than just a simple side project created in the gaps of his main band's recording schedule, Hermaphrodite is an assured and thoroughly bizarre debut, one that showcases Eric Copeland's ability to transform strange and oft-indescribable sounds into compelling, original, and endlessly listenable pieces.

Band of Horses' second effort plays as hopeful as it is downtrodden, and perhaps that's why their musical landscapes wear the promise of nostalgia so well. Whether or not you were one of the believers drawn in by 2006's Everything All the Time, you'll no doubt be won over by the stirring, vibrantly layered epics of Cease to Begin. Frontman Ben Bridell and his bandmates once again layer desperation across songs so poetic and charged, you'll feel hope swell within you, despite the fact that many of the songs here are about people who have no such thing.

Atlanta's notoriously rambunctious garage rockers, Black Lips continued their ascent up through the ranks with Good Bad Not Evil, their fourth studio album. Following the evergreen template of noise, hooks, bluesy undercurrents and primal psychedelia that powered all the bands on the legendary Nuggets collections, Black Lips skillfully managed to improve and further their stereophonic excesses with this go around, as evidenced by the frenetic guitar basher "Cold Hands," the boozy "Lock and Key," and the surprising slow gem, "Veni Vidi Vici." Their edges were a little less rough this time, but their sound remained exciting and raw.

Earlier this year, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to debut the first release from one of our favorite new local groups, Vampire Weekend, with this now out-of-print EP. Since then, the band scored a contract with XL Recordings, toured the US and Europe, and with their album still a month off, they seem poised to take over the world. The group of four Columbia grads traffics in African Paul Simonisms as they pertain to the indie rock that many of us live and die by, with all of the quirks and nuances you'd anticipate from a band that drew well-earned comparisons to the best material of the Police, the Teardrop Explodes, Orange Juice, and the Talking Heads. Look for their debut full-length, out January 29.

Even if we told you that Efdemin made some of this year's most non-retro-nostalgic Detroit, efficient, deep, on-point electronic jams, all full of warmth and slowly-rising energy, it still wouldn't really do this brilliant album justice. The nom de techno of one P. Sollman, Efdemin's tracks are strangely blissful (in a "house" way) and muscle-y (in a "Detroit" way) and sophisticated in a way very specific to the Dial label, on which Sollman has previously released some gorgeous ambient installation soundtracks. On the darker side of the coin as labelmate Pantha du Prince, but no less incredible.

Originally released last year as a super-limited LP, West Coast, by Swedish duo Studio, quickly became a DJ favorite, even finding DJs like Prins Thomas and Todd Terje remixing the album's "Life's a Beach." Though their connections to the Scandinavian bent for neo-space-disco are evident, Studio sticks closer to the cosmic blueprint of Italian DJ Daniel Baldelli's legendary sets, with their slo-mo tempos and an assimilation of diverse and often disparate styles, one which will also appeal to Krautrock aficionados.

Chromatics' transformation from seditious no-wave punk bash to warm, pulsating Italo disco finally peaked in 2007 with Night Drive, an imaginary soundtrack helped out by Glass Candy's mastermind Johnny Jewel, contributing a battery of bleak but glimmering keyboard melodies and eerie drones. The group's icy version of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" really pushes this effort over the top.

Annie Clark, a 23-year-old from Dallas, has seen the world while slinging axe for the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. Yet her association with those two overachieving entities scarcely prepared one for the sheer ambition and accomplishment of Clark's Marry Me album, a gorgeous, precocious and often stunning debut released under the name St. Vincent. Like Bjork, Clark is clearly an intense, iconoclastic, fiercely independent and hugely talented artist, whose vision and drive makes her music almost unclassifiable. Channeling Antony and the Johnsons, Cat Power, Feist, Rufus Wainwright, Kate Bush, and Joanna Newsom, Marry Me is in a much different league than 99% of the "indie" records released year, and probably this decade. Plus, her CMJ in-store at OM was the debut release in our new "Live at Other Music" video series!

Madlib's lil' brother Oh No borrowed a crate of vinyl from Now Again honcho Egon's collection -- all rare music from Greece, Lebanon, Italy, and Turkey -- and chopped, looped, layered, and reshaped these various bits into a whole new composition of his own imagination, combining them with his own programming and playing. It's a psychedelic funk response to Madlib's Beat Konducta series or, of course, Dilla's Donuts.

Hands down the best rock and roll reissue of the year, Jim Ford's The Sounds of Our Time will be absolutely essential for anyone who has ever dug Exile on Main Street, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Dr. John, Link Wray's three track shack recordings, gritty southern soul, driving with the windows down etc., etc. It is THAT GOOD! Including his classic Harlan County album in its entirety as well as 15 more tracks that are just as great, if not better, this collection was culled from some 300 hundred hours of reel-to-reel tapes found under the Ford's bed in a trailer park in Northern California. And his story is every bit as incredible as his music. Sadly, Jim Ford passed away last month.

There's probably little that will prepare you for this stunning and outright jammin' full-length from maverick composer and philosopher Henry Flynt's short-lived boogie-rock band, Nova'billy. Originally recorded between 1974 and '75 but never released, H.F. and Nova'billy, while surprising, is not by any means unprecedented in the Flynt catalogue. While most ostensibly an extension of Flynt's radical reconfiguration of Southern music, one can also sense a smart and seamless synthesis of many of his ideas and experiments with rock, free jazz, North Indian, and ecstatic musics. Guitar, saxophone, keyboards and, of course, Flynt's unmistakable violin playing -- here in particularly fiery form -- wail, blast and even trade hot licks over a rhythm section that varies from the "Wipeout" style intro of the opening "Conga" to firmly in-the-pocket back beats to unhinged percussive battery.

Formed in the late 1970s around a core of University of Georgia students, Pylon were instrumental in establishing Athens, GA as a hotbed of bizarre punk rock activity. Supported by new wave darlings the B-52s, Pylon stayed active until 1983, acting as a fundamental influence to a then nascent R.E.M., who championed the band during their rise to mainstream success. It's fitting that the DFA found time to reissue the band's debut album, Gyrate, with a host of singles and unreleased tracks in 2007 as Gyrate Plus. Pylon's slash-and-burn dance-punk is in retrospect a prime influence on that label's main activities, and a fitting tribute to an essential band, all but lost to time and history.

Chicago's dynamite soul/funk retailer Dusty Groove kicked off their reissue series in 2007 with one of Jorge Ben's deepest, most emotional albums, 1970's Forca Bruta. Here, Ben mellows out a bit for an album that, while still a groover, relies more on quiet intimacy and subtle orchestrated flourishes akin to the work of Caetano Veloso's self-titled LPs of the same period. Here he's backed up here by samba heavyweights Trio Mocoto, and JB's vocals never quite sounded as throaty and passionate in the early years as they did on this LP -- the fire in his voice on this album is matched perhaps only on his 1976 classic Africa Brazil.

British folk chanteuse Vashti Bunyan's unprecedented return to the realms of outsider music began a few years back with the rediscovery of her lone album, the beautiful and delicate Just Another Diamond Day. Yet the music world she had left behind so completely in the '60s has flooded back to her, with a comeback album, collaborations with Animal Collective and Devendra Barnhart, and now this fantastic double-disc reissue of her first two singles, demos for Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label, and other home recordings, all dating from 1964-1967. Varied in scope but never in quality, Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind is another fine glimpse of one of the most honest and direct female voices to be rediscovered in recent years.

Telegraph Avenue never broke through to American audiences during their brief run in the 1970s. In their home country of Peru, however, these four guys were stars, with a hit single that helped make their self-titled debut one of the all-time best-selling records in Peruvian rock history. An effortless mix of American psychedelic rock, delicate soul, and breezy pop, Telegraph Avenue recalls the direct hits of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Grand Funk Railroad, but also serious debts to the Beatles and Badfinger. Members went on to perform in Tarkus, but you can catch their earlier, more accessible efforts here.

2007 saw the release of this two-disc volume devoted to the peak creative years (1970-1983) of the long running Malian super group, the Rail Band. A state-sponsored ensemble set up and funded by the national railway to provide entertainment at the Buffet Hotel de la Gare Bamako, the Rail Band was fronted by vocalist Salif Keita, an albino of noble descent who had to break the rules of his caste in order to step into the role of a griot. Possessing an impossibly beautiful voice, he is today one of the most famous Africans alive, but it was via the Rail Band that he originally came to prominence and arguably did the greatest work of his career. Innovators of African music, the Rail Band stretched the boundaries of their song lengths and influences, changed dialects to fit their audience, had a fluid membership and arrangement style, and are one of the most well-loved African groups of our times.

Along with his World of Echo, Dinosaur L's 24 24 Music is quite possibly THE Arthur Russell jam most talked about, coveted and, in 2007, the one that finally became available once again. Arthur's concept for this record was actually more in line with downtown/avant composition concepts than simple disco jams -- every piece here revolves around the concept of initiating subtle changes in the music every 24 bars (hence the title) funky as hell, but much more loose and freewheeling than you might expect. It's one of the most essential downtown/disco (not disco)/punkin & funkin New York records ever recorded.

This uber-talented Motown vocalist is best remembered for being Stevie Wonder's first wife. Her self-titled debut was recorded shortly after they married in 1970, and the album was very much a collaborative effort, marking the first time that one heard a young Wonder finding his own unique voice in his production and arrangements, and it would prove to be a direct link to the synth- and Rhodes-drenched spiritual soul of his aforementioned records. Syreeta's voice here is disarmingly sweet like Minnie Riperton's, and the overall mood of this album is one of deep optimism and joy. By the time they started on her follow-up album some three years later, Wonder's star had risen all the while their marriage was in turmoil. Amazingly enough, this album was recorded while they were in the process of divorcing, and the optimistic mood of the debut was replaced with a slightly schizophrenic suite of songs documenting their tumultuous relationship. These records were cherished throughout the years by the people who did get to hear them, and have long been acknowledged as some of Motown's most underrated releases.

Esteemed West Coast record retailer Amoeba Records made the jump to starting an in-house label in 2007, and what a title to kick things off: long-missing live tapes of Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, recorded by legendary Grateful Dead roadie Owsley "Bear" Stanley, which had been hiding in the Dead's infamous tape vaults for years.The band was killing it on these two nights in early April, 1969, Chris Hillman reacting to the heat of Jerry Garcia's nightly shredding, Gram mic'ed close up and the very breath of clarity allowing these tracks to ache and burn in all the right places. If this artifact doesn't put to rest the rumors that the Burritos were slouches live, then nothing will.

Soul Jazz once again comes through and delivers a much-needed user-friendly comp highlighting a musically rich yet under-documented movement. Brazil 70 explores the country's popular music following the tropicalia era, which was broken up and destroyed by the oppressive military dictatorship that ruled the country at the time. Despite arrests and deportations, the artists of this period chose to experiment even more musically and the lyrics became even more obtuse and impressionistic, with many acts writing in code to get their message across. Featuring Joyce, Novos Baianos, Nelson Angelo and many more luminaries.

Paul Witzig's 1972 film Sea of Joy has long been considered a cult classic due to the commentary-less, free floating and communal vibes he conjured, in stark contrast to the typically aggressive and hot action of most surf films of the era. When Witzig approached the Australian rock group Tully about scoring the movie they were one of the biggest acts on the continent, known for their hard rocking head music and psychedelic light shows. However, they'd just undergone a spiritual revelation, changed direction entirely, and wrote this incredible album in an enlightened state of mind. In turn, they created an absolutely beguiling soundtrack, one which flows effortlessly from track to track, with mellow organs and maracas providing the initial propulsion, before veering into roiling and intense passages that suggest the group's earlier incarnation. Incredible stuff.

Ophiucus cut one stellar album for Barclay back in 1972, a singularly ambitious affair that nevertheless orbits a similar artistic territory to that covered by the Pretty Things' Parachute, the Beatles' White Album, early Pink Floyd, and Faust's IV. There's a heavy use of pastiche, with references to musique concrete, pastoral folk, French chanson, and the multi-part harmonies of the Beach Boys. Whether you favor the Decadanse or the Psych section here at Other Music, this is one for you.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, groups like the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds cast a huge shadow across America with their steady stream of pop hits. And as this latest compilation from the always excellent Numero Group illustrates, that very shadow was one thousands of children and parents were desperate to claw their way out of for a little time in the spotlight. Gathering up a host of previously little-known and altogether unheard gems from across the country, Home Schooled: The ABCs of Kid Soul kicks out funk, joyfully boisterous harmonies and gorgeous ballads.

Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble lived in the liminal space between electric Miles and the space chants of Sun Ra. This disc documents a performance for Malcolm X, its four sections split according to his various names, be it Malcolm Little, Detroit Red, or Malcolm X. By turns bluesy, syncopated, free or soulful, Cohran's multi-faceted talents as an arranger and player are on display. Wide-open, this is a must for fans of Mr. Ra and other likeminded sonic explorers.

This languorous mix compiled by the Dirty Sound System is a slow-roasting pleasure of ancient synth arpeggiations and bubbling hand percussion. Kicking off with the Beach Boys-esque falsetto of John Forde, the mix is streamlined and silvery throughout its duration, encompassing the likes of Krautrock demi-urges like Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as well as Sylvester, Fern Kinney and the Undisputed Truth, all coherent and wilded out.

A never before heard two-CD live set of one of the most-revered and under-documented female folk singers, Karen Dalton, rescued from the crumbling remains of an ancient pair of reel-to-reel tapes ... seriously, this is a big, big deal, essentially doubling her recorded output, and prefacing those works by seven full years. Recorded in Boulder, Colorado, the repertoire she covers here spans the gamut from Jelly Roll Morton to Fred Neil, to key tunes from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. While the sound isn't one hundred percent pristine, it's more than enough to capture even the most subtle nuances and heretofore unseen ferocity of her performance.

Uruguay's Gaston "Dino" Ciarlo was the foil to Eduardo Mateo's wildly eccentric streak. Both were blessed with a superb pop sense and a keen desire to wed it with their national folkloric heritage, but with Dino's tunes you can feel a real purposefulness, a poetic seriousness even, that reinforces his scathing political wit. Compulsively listenable, Montevideo Blues easily ranks up there with the best of all the South American reissues we've been fortunate to discover in the last few years.

Lion Productions presented us with this elaborately packaged and immaculately researched reissue from Eduardo Mateo. He first gained notoriety as the principle force in El Kinto, a groundbreaking Uruguayan act that was enormously influential for their times, taking rhythmic inspiration from Uruguayan candombe and their melodic sensibility from British and American rock acts. Following the band's collapse in 1970, Mateo was coaxed into traveling to Argentina to record his first solo album, Mateo Solo Bien Se Lame, a work of rare and astonishing beauty; subdued without being explicitly melancholy, filled with syncopated rhythms, unusual phrasing, and poetic idiosyncrasies. If you love the mellow side of Caetano, Pep Laguarda, Gilberto Gil, or even contemporary artists like Juana Molina, you will absolutely be freaking out over this.

Born and raised in and around Western Massachusetts, singer-songwriter Bobb Trimble released two albums of peculiar, placidly shook, fully-loaded psychedelic pop in the early '80s, at a time when such music couldn't have been less relevant. While we love his 1980 debut, Iron Curtain Innocence, we consider 1982's Harvest of Dreams to be his fully-realized masterpiece, a work of oddball charm and mellifluous beauty. It's hard to describe in so few words, but no less an unparalleled classic of the psychedelic canon.

Short, sweet, and sophisticated, this early '70s, May-December musical collaboration is long overdue for serious reconsideration. Soul singer Barbara Massey, a backup torch out on her own, was paired with jazz guitarist Ernie Calabria, who'd played with everyone from Bob Dylan to Harry Belafonte, and assisted ably by Keith Jarrett, Grady Tate, Chuck Rainey, Joe Beck, and orchestrations conducted by Eumir Deodato. The vibes present are immeasurably deep and rich, crossing the streams of lounge exotica, sit-down jazz, and somnambulant psychedelia.

Anyone who has heard the peculiar sound of Tuvan throat singing, perhaps in the Paul Pena documentary Genghis Blues, will most likely never forget it. For the uninitiated, it is a style of singing found in the remote Republic of Tuva (between Russia and Mongolia), which seemingly defies the laws of physics by allowing a singer to vocalize two separate tones at the same time. All three distinct styles of Tuvan throat singing (khoomei, sygyt, and xoomei) are featured in these 1969 Russian-recorded tracks, all heard for the first time on CD.

Teiji Ito's 1964 masterpiece, Tenno, is a record full of paradoxes and mirrored chambers, of mystery and fundamental, ritual power. A longtime collaborator and one time husband of dancer/experimental filmmaker Maya Deren, Ito was a lifelong student of ecstatic ritual music and was welcomed into shamanic rites in Japan, Nepal, Native America, and Haiti, where he died in 1982. Consisting of overdubs of Ito performing on a myriad of traditional ethnic instruments, electronics, and tape and phonograph manipulations, the 50-odd minutes of Tenno adjust the poles of primitive versus technological, acoustic versus electronic, "live" versus recorded, and music versus noise into so many configurations that it would be dizzying if it were not so grounded in the mysterious primal unity that it is.

Often playing at breakneck speeds, Omar Souleyman and his band create an ecstatic party music unlike anything else you could find in 2007. Fusing elements of regional folk forms with lo-fi drum machines, phase-shifted Arabic keyboard lines, and unidentifiable spurts of electronic noise, Souleyman sings and chants with palpable energy, often in feverish call and response, and proves his virtuosity on traditional Middle Eastern instruments like the oud, spike fiddle, saz, or nay. Souleyman is an intriguing, imposing character capable of impassioned, frenetic vocalizations that are as much about rhythmic invention as they are about delivering the lyrical goods. A musical icon in his native Syria, he's reputedly released more than 500 studio and live cassette albums since 1994. Leave it to Sublime Frequencies to distill such a massive catalog down to the essentials.

The queen of funky jazz harp, Dorothy Ashby made three records for the Cadet Concept label in the late '60s; Rubaiyat was the last of them, and rivals her oft-sampled classic Afro-Harping in terms of its scope and sense of adventure. Based on the writings of Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat positively shines, injecting these majestic tracks with serious bump in its orchestral and torch song tendencies, and with exotic gracefulness in others.