The Other Music Update

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	June 23, 2010


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES Oneohtrix Point Never Pan Sonic Paul White Kele Koes Plus My Friend Rain DVD Perfume Genius Trentemoller Madlib (Medicine Show #6) Lorn Deepchord presents Echospace Kode9 (DJ Kicks)		Mandre Stars Ital Tek The Roots ALSO AVAILABLE HEALTH Chemical Brothers Laurie Anderson Foals Sia Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/othermusicnyc Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/othermusic

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WIN TICKETS TO ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER RECORD RELEASE PARTY
Other Music is giving away two pairs of tickets to Oneohtrix Point Never's Record Release Party performance at self-titled's Northside Festival showcase at Glasslands tomorrow (Thursday, June 24). There'll also be live sets from Steve Moore of Zombi/Lovelock, Carlos Giffoni (doing a special No Fun Acid performance), and Autre Ne Veut. To enter to win a pair of tickets, email enter@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners this Thursday morning.

THURSDAY, JUNE 24
GLASSLANDS: 289 Kent Avenue Williamsburg, Brooklyn

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THIS YEAR'S GIRLS: ELVIS COSTELLO BURLESQUE
Last year, Casino O'Fortune Cookie Productions brought down the roof on Joe's Pub with The Costello Show, the first-ever live music and burlesque tribute to Elvis Costello, which received the endorsement of Mr. Costello himself! Now they're back with an all-new cast and all-new lineup of songs with This Year's Girls: The Return of Elvis Costello Burlesque! Live band KiNDERGARTEN returns as the Imposter-ers, playing Elvis classics, with all-new performances by striptease stars Anita Cookie, Clams Casino, L'il Miss Lixx, Ms. Tickle, audience participation by Neil O'Fortune and the song stylings of your host, Shelly the Singing Siren! Other Music has two pairs of tickets to this night!!. Send an email to giveaway@othermusic.com to enter, and we'll notify the two winners this Friday.

SATURDAY, JUNE 26
JOE'S PUB: 425 Lafayette Street NYC
Doors at 11:30 P.M., Show at Midnight
$15 Tickets Available at joespub.com

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WIN TICKETS TO TORO Y MOI
Having just wrapped up a North American tour with Caribou, Toro Y Moi returns to New York next Thursday, July 1, where he'll be performing a set of his blissed-out pop underneath the paper clouds at Glasslands. Also performing that night will be: Body Language, Idiot Glee, Rewards and a Taken By Trees DJ set. Other Music has a pair of free passes to the show which you can enter to win by emailing tickets@othermusic.com. We'll notify the winner on Monday, June 28.

THURSDAY, JULY 1
GLASSLANDS: 289 Kent Avenue Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Toro Y Moi will also be appearing the next night, Friday, July 2, at the Whitney with High Places.


			Many of our customers have been enjoying the ease of texting their orders with their mobile phone. To take advantage of this option with any of the items listed below, go to subports.com where you can create your free Subports account. Afterwards, just text the corresponding subcode listed underneath each item to 767825.


	$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3		ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER Returnal (Editions Mego) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Mere months after Rifts, a generous double-CD collection gathering the bulk of Oneohtrix Point Never's work to date, catapulted Daniel Lopatin to the top of whatever you want to label the current crop of deep space/Kraut/synth/pop hybrids, he's back again with a new album for Editions Mego. Given the Austrian imprint's track record as an outré label par excellence, it could be seen as a daunting move for the young Lopatin; over the course of Returnal's eight tracks, however, he easily proves it's the right fit, introducing some new twists in his compositions that indicate the Oneohtrix tree has only just begun to bear fruit -- still dealing in swaths of grey synth grit, but increasingly introducing welcome Technicolor bursts into the music. Tracks like "Stress Waves" and "Pelham Island Road" are wrapped in gentle swaths of keyboard washes, all blurred notes and shading that create a beautiful weightlessness, offering a pronounced sense of drift amidst Lopatin's alien terrains. Elsewhere, the title track incorporates bizarrely tweaked voices to excellent effect, bringing the track as close to an overt pop song as OPN has ever come. All throughout the album, Oneohtrix Point Never's normal retro-futuristic tones are softened by woozier, more deliberately delirious sounds, hitting less like the work of presets and built-in arpeggiators, and more akin to the labor of an actual human being negotiating technology in the hopes of eliciting an emotional response. It all makes for a fitting follow-up to Rifts, and definitely indicates brighter things on the horizon as well. [MC] Order CD by Texting "omcdoneohtrixreturnal" to 767825


	$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3		PAN SONIC Gravitoni (Blast First Petite) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Gravitoni is certainly one of the year's more bittersweet releases, as it marks the end of Pan Sonic's fifteen-plus year career. From having released some of the most influential experimental techno records of the '90s, to their collaborations with Alan Vega, Merzbow and Haino Keiji, Pan Sonic have consistently evolved and expanded their definition of minimal techno. Calling it quits late last year, members Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen leave us with a stunning swan song: an hour of pummeling, abrasive, and, at times, contemplative exercises in industrial and experimental electronics. Though moments of sparse, spaced-out techno are still present (this is Pan Sonic, after all!), the duo successfully explores new territory, cementing their place as one of the most interesting experimental electronic artists of the last two decades. On Gravitoni, Vainio and Väisänen create a space (a place something like bleak, crumbling metal works) where minimal techno meets noise. "Voltos Bolt" opens the record with squealing, industrial feedback, while "Corona" employs jack-hammering metal blast beats(!) to awesome effect. But this industrial-noise assault never overpowers the album, for in classic Pan Sonic fashion, the duo begin to deconstruct this sound, focusing instead on the essence of the noise they've explored earlier in the record. Swelling high-pitched drones, static, and well-balanced moments of silence dominate the latter half of Gravitoni -- the huge washes of fuzz and low bass drone on "Trepanointi/Trepanation" being a personal favorite. Closing the record with one of Pan Sonic's strongest, most mesmerizing moments of experimental techno, the aptly-titled "Pan Finale" is a gorgeous track where a heavy drone swirls around a warm, minimal beat. All in all, this is a fantastic album; the only problem being that Pan Sonic's recent dissolution means that we won't be able to experience any of this killer material live. Recommended! [CPa] Order CD by Texting "omcdpangravitoni" to 767825


	$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3		PAUL WHITE Paul White and the Purple Brain (Now Again) "Ancient Treasure" "Body Spirals Pt. II" British producer Paul White has been making a name for himself via a series of limited edition releases on the One-Handed Music label, including the amazing Strange Dreams of Paul White album, which came packaged in a small pillow and saw him chopping up avant and prog heavies like Captain Beefheart and King Crimson into a web of electronic funk workouts, adding new layers of spectre into the matrix of dark, nostalgic sampledelica that has become known as "hauntology." On his follow-up album for Stones Throw's Now Again imprint, White puts his scalpel to the sonic flesh of Swedish psych wizard S.T. Mikael almost exclusively (similar to the way that Oh No used only Galt MacDermot samples as the basis for his Exodus into Unheard Rhymes album on Stones Throw a few years back), and creates a new beast that proves to be an admirable collusion of sitar swirl, blunted hip-hop bounce, Radiophonic circuitry, and bloody fret-worked stumps. He takes the abrupt sketchbook approach to track making that folks like Dilla, Madlib, and the Ghost Box crew have perfected into a science, and fashions these miniatures into a collage that blends together successfully as a unified whole -- this album actually PLAYS like an album, not just a collection of beats, and that's where White shines brighter than many of his peers. With this record, he proves in an official context that he's up there with the likes of FlyLo and HudMo as one of the brightest new stars in the never-ending galaxy of beatmakers and MPC composers. I cannot recommend this one enough. [IQ] Order CD by Texting "omcdpaulpaul" to 767825


	$13.99 CD		KELE The Boxer (Glassnote) "Tenderoni" "Unholy Thoughts" Since putting his band Bloc Party on hiatus, Nigerian-British vocalist Kele Okereke has been getting his groove on. Taking leave from the rock scene and coming out in the press (though the news was somewhat overshadowed by the outing of Ricky Martin), Okereke spent some time in NYC, spotted chilling in Williamsburg and DJing in Chelsea and Soho. All that's to say that Okereke is branching out beyond the straight-laced Britpop scene, and is ready to throw his hat into the dance arena. On the last two Bloc Party albums, A Weekend in the City and Intimacy, as well as throughout the Intimacy Remixed collection, Okereke was heard stretching and wrapping his voice around some nice beats and crunchy guitars; on his debut solo album, The Boxer, the guitars are downplayed, and the beats are tougher and bigger, sonically richer and more purely electronic, with synths and effects everywhere. The first single, "Tenderoni" (not to be mistaken as a cover of Bobby Brown's '80s hit), is a sensual plea to the tough boys with limp wrists, with lyrics like: "Been running with the rude boys for much too long, you think you are one of them" and "You want tough I'll give you tough." Sung over a thick and pumping mirage of grinding synths, gay bar bass pulse, and a shaker and timbale breakdown, it's pretty sweet, a perfect soundtrack to the fighting ring he imagines himself in. Producer/remixer XXXchange (Spankrock, Santigold, Mad Decent) has helped Okereke's Morrissey-esqe lyrics of longing, love, struggle, sincerity and intimacy find a home somewhere between big room dance mania, electro-dance fusion, Baltimore breaks, and the Williamsburg shuffle, all with a fresh sounding pop aesthetic. There are lots of great songs like the military call-n-response of the opener "Walk Tall," where Okereke cries "I'm getting stronger," or the African percussion of "The Other Side" where he sings "I'm turning into the man I used to be, it's driving me insane." The occasional backing vocals by Joyce Scantlebury feel like Rowetta from Happy Monday bringing the occasional diva choruses and adding a nice softness. With the current domination of the pop world by high-octane women, it's nice to hear a guy really go for it and create something worthy of inclusion. Smart and totally assessable, not miles away from Bloc Party but just different enough to make it stand out. With the perfect mix of tempos and unique production, this is solid, tight, and undeniably contemporary. Funny what a new neighborhood will do to an artist. My summer indie pop-dance jam for sure, and the best solo debut since Thom Yorke's. [DG] Order CD by Texting "omcdkeleboxer" to 767825


	$16.99 CD		KOES PLUS Dheg Dheg Plas / Volume 2 (Sublime Frequencies) "Kelelawar" "Rahasia Hatiku" Sublime Frequencies strikes again, reissuing the first two albums by Koes Plus, recognized in their part of the world as "the Beatles of Indonesia." We'll leave it to Alan Bishop's well-researched liner notes to tell the story of the band (of course it's as interesting as it is tumultuous), but none of that would matter if the songs weren't great. Again, not to hide the mystery, but THEY ARE -- late-'60s groovers from Southeast Asia full of junkyard musicianship up against tender balladry, a keen ear for both the pop sounds of the world in that time, and enough of the local/national island "tonk" to keep things interesting. There's enough fuzz guitar and metal percussion to bring out the Captain Caveman inside of you, but the real surprise is the quality of their slower songs, particularly on the Volume Two tracks, which with a little polishing up could have given the Bee Gees a run for their money. But polish is not what we're after here, and Koes Plus stands as another exciting flake of rust on Sublime Frequencies' world-traveled hull. [DM] Order CD by Texting "omcdkoesdheg" to 767825

$19.99 DVD+CD

VARIOUS ARTISTS
My Friend Rain
(Sublime Frequencies)

Director Robert Millis (Climax Golden Twins, AFCGT) presents a wordless video travelogue of a trip through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, putting into perspective the cycles of life and death in the Far East, where industrialization and Western culture rust away, vessels in service of deeply-held traditions to carry on. Deluged by rain during the monsoon seasons, when this was shot, Millis augments the footage of everyday life with those of artwork depicting brutal deaths (sculpture of a drake, disemboweling a boy to the upset of his grieving parents; garish paintings of sinners having spikes nailed through their tongues), but it's the meditations on objects, and the people just trying to get by in an extreme environment, that stay with you -- a culture, its belongings, its places of worship, its relationship to music. And of those, the performances captured are outstanding: a performance on tuned hand-drums, a blind street performer singing ballads and strumming the ukulele on a bench, simple pathos enacted through marionettes (anatomically correct!) on a stage, and some very expressive long-lens footage of a man playing a leaf are but some of the joys on display here. Fascinating and succinct, My Friend Rain is paired with a CD featuring music from and inspired by the film, either collected live, or culled from recordings unearthed during the artist's stay. [DM]

Order CD/DVD by Texting "omcddvdvariousmy" to 767825


	$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3		PERFUME GENIUS Learning (Matador) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store In the few Perfume Genius promo shots floating around, Mike Hadras appears gaunt, pale and beaten -- shirtless, purple-bruised and shirking in a rundown living room in one picture, or staring defiantly through a black eye in a stark photo booth portrait. It could easily seem hokey, but the shots are arresting and intriguing, and give some small hint at the dark intimacy of Hadras' debut full-length, somewhat hopefully entitled Learning. This is shaky, unsettling music, full of sharp-lined portraits of loss, loneliness, and a struggle for love and acceptance, seen through the eyes of misfit teens -- a struggle that, it would seem, Hadras himself is using his haunting music to do battle with. Home recorded on cheap equipment, mostly built on simple piano progressions and Hadras' high, thin voice, the sound as well as the powerful lyrical poetry falls somewhere between Elliott Smith's early recordings and Daniel Johnston's home tapes, though with higher production value you could see Perfume Genius' lonely pop standing alongside Antony & the Johnsons or even Angelo Badalamenti's emotional and unnerving work for Twin Peaks. These songs have the often-uncomfortable feeling that you are looking at someone's little brother's diary that was filched from underneath an unmade bed for laughs, but instead killed the party. There are small triumphs, mostly from the simple knowing that the narrator has chosen to at least sing these stories rather than hold them in -- and at a brief half-hour, it is still a painful, harrowing journey, as these songs demand that you lean in close, and listen carefully to tales that can be hard to take. But there is a raw honestly, a purity, and an art to this music that is all too rare, and as unsettling as these songs can be, they beg you to listen, and you will find it hard not to comply. This heart-rending and deeply personal music needs to be heard, and Hadras is a true poet; nonetheless, I shy from excerpting any lyric here -- it feels like tearing pages from that diary. These stories may be best heard in headphones, alone, late on a hot summer night, with Mike Hadras' quavering voice in your ear. [JM] Order CD by Texting "omcdperfumelearning" to 767825


	$17.99 CD Limited Edition $19.99 CD+DVD		TRENTEMOLLER Into the Great Wide Yonder (In My Room) "Fury" "Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!" I don't know who commissioned who, or what grant was won by whom to make this album happen, but Into the Great Wide Yonder has too much thought, drama and musicality to think that this is just the newest record from Trentemoller. It almost seems too powerful for the typical club-goer and too danceable for the typical experimental music head, but the album bridges that gap surprisingly well. Taking heavy cues from soundtrack master Ennio Morricone and adding a dash of crescendo rock for good measure, the Danish producer uses dramatic spiraling build-ups, tastefully-placed yet epic strings and guitar arrangements, and various percussion to make an album that is both high-concept club music and a crowd-moving high art. The entire thing is presented both like a mix and a living sound sculpture. That dubby, trancey element that I don't usually care for is still there, but the range of sound and style is beyond anything I've previously heard from him; I have to give Trentemoller credit, this stuff is well done. [SM] Order CD by Texting "omcdtrentemollerinto" to 767825 Order Limited CD/DVD by Texting "omcddvdtrentemollerinto" to 767825


	$15.99 CD		MADLIB Medicine Show Vol. #6 (MMS) Track 1 Track 3 There must be something in the (bong)water lately, because it seems like every DJ is tripping balls on a psychedelic tip -- the past few weeks have seen mixes of psych music from around the world by folks like Dom Thomas, Andy Votel, Demdike Stare, Paul White, and others. It was only a matter of time before Madlib got in on the act and volume six of the Madlib Medicine Show series may just (once again) be his best yet; this heavy-duty brainticket (and yes, if you're keeping score, they're here) was crafted from Madlib's "4 tons of vinyl" (boys will be boys -- it's always a contest) and is without a doubt one of his most dizzying, dense, and just plain WTF-ing mixes ever. Surgically enhanced Krautrock, Kool-Aid acid rock, paisley-printed and tie-dyed soul, prog-bombing chin strokes... it's 60 minutes of everything you'd want and expect from a mix of this nature repped full-force, stitched together with layer after layer of anti-drug film slogans (the sample of Daffy Duck talking about how he doesn't shoot dope is a personal fave), stoner mushmouth, and even some musique concrete foley art. The Brain Wreck Show opens with the sound of glass breaking and a spaceship taking off; after that, all bets are off. What sets this mix above and apart from the other Med Show joints is the way it's put together; where the other volumes tend to feel somewhat haphazard and dashed off at times, with abrupt and sometimes awkward transitions, this is the first mix I've heard in the series that sounds meticulously constructed. (And don't think I'm hating -- I really love those other mixes). If the man had an MC spitting overtop some of this density, people'd freak the hell out and call it a genius rap move. As it stands, it's one of the best things I've heard all year, and should stand out as one of Madlib's most inspired releases thus far in any style. Whether you're smoking oregano or booking yourself a ticket on the astral plane, if you've ever had a moment that could remotely be considered psychedelic and enjoyed the trip, you need one of these passed your way. Best cover art of the year, too. [IQ] Order CD by Texting "omcdmadlibmedicine6" to 767825


	$15.99 CD $19.99 LP		LORN Nothing Else (Brainfeeder) "Army of Fear" "Automaton" The newest full-length from Flying Lotus' Brianfeeder label is a surprise on two accounts. First, 23-year-old Marcos Ortega a/k/a Lorn comes from the landlocked Midwest, not the sun-drenched beaches of California, and second, this is the heaviest music we've heard from the Brainfeeder crew. Lorn's take on the IDM, wonky, darkcore, doomstep -- or whatever -- genre is industrial and mechanical, yet melodic and melancholic, with crunchy snapping drums, gear-grinding synths, acid bubbles, crunk's staggered bounce, and sharp, brittle beats. That's not to suggest that Nothing Else is some update of Nine Inch Nails, though Trent Reznor's palette for the dark and digital does come to mind, and Lorn's ear for the sonically sinister is similarly quite accessible. The twelve tracks flow like the albums of Flylo, a tight and taut assembly that constantly shifts, from circle to square, trapezoid to octagon. Nothing Else was mastered by Clark (Warp Records) and the music has much in common with that of the UK producer: an onslaught of heavy atmosphere, colored by softer and lighter passages. It's actually nice to hear one of the Brainfeeder crew going for the jugular this time around. Like the dark presence in a John Carpenter film, or the soundtrack to the latest installment of Saw, Lorn makes dark and moody music, that paints a picture of, not so much a horror scene, but the unsettling moments before the event. All that and you can still dance to it. Like the title suggest, currently there's Nothing Else (or at least not much) quite like it. Recommended. [DG] Order CD by Texting "omcdlornnothing" to 767825 Order LP by Texting "omlplornnothing" to 767825


	$15.99 CDx2		DEEPCHORD PRESENTS ECHOSPACE Liumin (Modern Love) "Maglev" "Sub-Marine" Longtime producers Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell have been working together on their "Deepchord presents Echospace" project for a few years now, creating spare, dub-colored techno that has capably picked up the torch left smoldering the wake of Rhythm & Sound's dissolution. Gradually refining an approach that has taken near narcotic rhythms and limber bass and juxtaposed them with evocative field recordings, the pair's past releases have truly been something special (as have their respective solo outings -- with Hitchell working as both Intrusion and Variant, and Modell working under his given name), as has the spate of material they've released on their Echospace imprint. Following up nicely on their multiple reworkings of the Vantage Isle Sessions comes Liumen, the duo's second album for the Modern Love label. Those expecting more of the restrained dub figures and grainy static that colored the past couple of releases from this pair are in for a bit of surprise here, however. Undoubtedly shaped a bit by Rod Modell's Tokyo field recordings (which weave in and out of each track), the album betrays an almost claustrophobic air, with disembodied voices poking through amidst tempos more reflective of the hustle and bustle of major metropolitan life. Which isn't to suggest that Modell and Hitchell have completely forsaken everything that made the earlier Deepchord/Echospace recordings so great in the first place; rather, as shown by tracks like "BCN Dub" and "Magelv," they've taken the deep bass and gently echoing percussion, given it a pulse, and pushed them both out onto the dancefloor to mingle with the sounds of trains, crowds, and traffic, creating tracks that turn the everyday negotiations of urban space into rhythms and melodies wrought with their own unique tensions. If that doesn't wax your goat for some weird reason, those who pick up the initial pressing of the album get an extra disc's worth of reworked source materials, which take the original field recordings through a hazier, dronier territory that makes for some sublime late night/early morning accompaniment. [MC] Order CD by Texting "omcdechospaceliumin" to 767825


	$14.99 CD		KODE9 DJ Kicks (K7) "Natty" DVA "2 Much Chat" Digital Mystikz Hyperdub label head Kode9 takes his place among the tastemakers with the latest installment of the seminal DJ Kicks mix series. Similar to his spring set in New York opening for Flying Lotus, the comp delivers a thoughtful cross-section of the current state of electronic music. A true student and scholar of the bass aesthetic and its varied mutations, Steve Goodman's approach is global and across the spectrum. All the current branches of dance music from UK funky and grime to house, dubstep, R&B, wonky, and more are presented by choice selections from some of the freshest producers around. Of course there's no shortage of Hyperdub tracks, and British artists dominate. From the female forerunners, Ikonika and Cooly G get spins, and there are also the dirty and grimey productions of the Bug, Terror Danjah, and Zomby. The dubby Grievious Angel and Digital Mystikz ride alongside the new-school soul of JDavey, Rozzi Daime, and Morgan Zarate, and there are lots of funky moments as well, a la Aardvarck dissecting Prince beats, and the tribal sway and swagger of DVA and South African house producer Mujava. There are tons (31 tracks!) to sink into and Kode9 is the man to make all the disparate corners of electronic music run together seamlessly. A great cross-section of modern day music, recommended for the fluent and the novice as well. [DG] Order CD by Texting "omcdkodedj" to 767825*


	$17.99 CD		MANDRE 4 (Rush Hour) "Rain" "I'm on Your Frequency" Fans of Daft Punk and Dam-Funk, head's up! The brainchild of a Motown artist Andre Lewis, Mandré rocked a silver helmet, wore black leather, and made spacy, funky, synth-bass-in-your-face albums in the early-'70s. And while "Solar Flight" from his first album got some love at the Loft, after three lukewarm receptions, Lewis walked away from Motown and released 4 on the tiny Bay Area imprint, Future Groove, in 1982. Due to some warehouse disaster, only a handful of these made it into the shops though, making it a rare funk item. The first half of the disc contains some smoggy lo-fi haze that would appeal to the chillwavers out there, but the "freaky" side is where he busts out the vocoder and gets nasty with it. Long-lost and now back just in the nick of time, Mandré is ever-prescient. [AB] Order CD by Texting "omcdmandre4" to 767825


	$13.99 CD		STARS Five Ghosts (Vagrant) My first encounter with the Montreal-based power pop figureheads Stars was through their cover of the Smiths' "This Charming Man," from the band's first 2001 EP, A Lot of Little Lies for the Sake of One Big Truth. There, they took a song about vulnerability and longing (from the male perspective, no less) and, with the help of a laidback Beta Band groove, brightened the darker corners of the song with colorful vocal interplay between Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell. That has always seemed to be Stars' mission from the outset: pitting words about mistakes, blown second-chances, and loves lost against a generally upbeat and chipper sonic template. It works more often than not, but Stars also have the unfortunate distinction of always being that other, less popular Canadian band that writes big, sprawling pop songs (former label-mates Broken Social Scene quickly outstripped them in size and recognition, as did those Billboard ballbusters Arcade Fire). The Five Ghosts sees the band paring down their bigger impulses and making a more intimate, less bombastic record of hopeful, melancholy synth pop. "Change/I've never been good with change," Millan sings on "Changes," but that's just not true. What immediately sets this album apart from other Stars records is how much closer it sounds; the production is deliberately subdued, a little fuzzy, but pleasurable and warm. Listen to the way Campbell and Millan get quiet before the pre-chorus synth hook on "The Passenger." Most of their vocals come out as irresistible whispers, or arching croons, as on showstopper "How Much More." Though Arcade Fire might get the glory, I've always admired Stars more, lyrically, the same way I admire the Rosebuds; neither band is afraid of honest, simple questions, or the words "never" and "ever" combined with "love." Millan's voice is particularly effective at pushing lines like, "How much more am I supposed to take/How much more am I supposed to break?" past emo melodrama, achieving an emotion that feels weightier than you could imagine. The songs possess a naiveté that is affecting and true; they catch you off guard, as on the excellent "I Died So I Could Haunt You." The Five Ghosts is a reminder that Canada's smaller export still write affecting pop songs that, while lacking in dramatic, overarching concepts, achieve an everyday kind of greatness. This charming band! [MS] Order CD by Texting "omcdstarsfive" to 767825


	$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3		ITAL TEK Midnight Colour (Planet Mu) "Neon Arc" "Strangelove VIP" The new full-length from Brighton producer Alan Myson a/k/a Ital Tek feels like a slight departure, and a welcome reintroduction. Where his 2008 debut album, Cyclical, was a skeletal hip-hop approach to dubstep, Midnight Colour is a fuller and richer creation. Not a straight-up dubstep record, this is more of a new-school IDM, wonky outing; the bass and low-end are ever present, swirling and flowing across a terrain of snappy digital clicks, pops, and thumps, yet the overall feel is more open and diverse than your typical fare. Perhaps the surprise is how musical this album is; gone are the hollow and cavernous black holes, Midnight Colour taking us on a ride around Saturn's rings, as small particles of sound circulate and spiral all around. Less grime and more shine, like Ikonika or Joker, Ital Tek incorporates a rich synth palette dubbed the "singing synth" sub-genre. And there are some jazzy moments, crunk bounce, disco re-edit cutup, glitchy downtempo and leftfield dancefloor jams throughout. Though the catchphrases may apply, Midnight Colour has a fresh and refreshing air. With his second full-length, Ital Tek is becoming a standout among the ever-expanding crop of electronic producers worldwide. [DG] Order CD by Texting "omcditalmidnight" to 767825


	$11.99 CD		THE ROOTS How I Got Over (Def Jam) Now on their eleventh album, Philadelphia musical hip-hop troupe the Roots are true survivors of the scene. They've always skated the line between magazine credible and street credible -- never totally fitting into one specific genre or another, and How I Got Over continues their rich legacy, straddling too many styles to even mention. They might best be known these days as Jimmy Fallon's house band, but a few tracks into the record it's obvious they've still got the chops to keep their own music tight and direct. Black Thought's lyrics are on point and typically relevant and Questlove's dusty beats are as inventive as ever -- but I can't help feeling there's something missing. The record is chock full of collaborations as they rope everyone from Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman to soul sensation John Legend (lest we mention Joanna Newsom), but the urgency we heard on Rising Down is all but gone. While they may have experimented with a more raw style on their previous album, I half expected the Roots to take this a little further. How I Got Over, somewhat disappointingly retreads old ground, and has the band exploring the more soulful, more crossover end of their sound. You can hardly begrudge them for it, but a few hot tracks like "Get Busy" and "75 Bars" wouldn't have gone amiss. In their place we have the silky Kanye-like "The Fire" and the wonky "Web 20/20," which while great in their own right, don't carry the album to the stratospheric heights I was hoping for. [JT] Order CD by Texting "omcdrootshow" to 767825


	$14.99 CD $16.99 LPx2+MP3 $9.99 MP3		HEALTH Disco 2 (Lovepump United) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store LA noise punks HEALTH, whose eponymous debut from 2007 would be reworked by bands and producers and released as DISCO a year later, are bitten by the remix bug again. Their new album, DISCO 2, finds every song off of their second full-length (last year's Get Color) being transformed from howling, percussive anti-pop romps into spacey, synth-fueled excursions by electro-minded contemporaries like Crystal Castles, Tobacco, Salem, Javelin, Nite Jewel, and many more. DISCO 2 also includes a new track, "USA Boys," (which we're offering as a free download this week on Other Music Digital), a great, shimmering, slow-burner recorded in Trent Reznor's studio and mixed by the one and only Alan Moulder. CD includes bonus disc of remixes; Double-LP comes with download card for bonus remixes; MP3 version on Other Music Digital includes bonus content. Order CD by Texting "omcdhealthdisco2" to 767825 Order LP by Texting "omlphealthdisco2" to 767825


	$15.99 CD		THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS Further (Astralwerks) The Brothers once made dance music palatable to the unwashed masses who would never wrap their arms around cold, robotic techno -- the duo's big, brash sound mixed stadium rock, psychedelia, hip-hop and dance music into a sonic stew that pleased both kids and critics on both sides of the Atlantic, and made them one of the biggest, and longest-lasting acts in the electronica world. It took a surprisingly long time for their big beat style to wear thin, but it eventually did -- which is why it is such a pleasure to hear this new one. A much more subtle, slow-burning version of the sound you loved, that proves once again that these guys are the real deal. Order CD by Texting "omcdchemicalfurther" to 767825


	$22.99 CD+DVD		LAURIE ANDERSON Homeland (Nonesuch) "Strange Perfumes" "Dark Time in the Revolution" On her first new studio album in nine years, Laurie Anderson worked with a wide array of (mostly) local legends, from her husband/co-producer Lou Reed, to John Zorn, Antony Hegarty, and Kieran Hebden. The performance artist/singer explores politics, and personal politics, and she does so with loose, thoughtful abandon that is totally Laurie, and will be very welcome to any longtime fan of her work. Order CD by Texting "omcddvdlauriehomeland" to 767825


	$13.99 CD $19.99 LPx2		FOALS Total Life Forever (Sub Pop) "Total Life Forever" "Alabaster" Considering all the lip service this band committed to dissing their own debut, the new one from Foals has retained most of the signifiers of that sound: sprightly, danceable post-punk rhythms, trebly guitars, and a soulful bounce that comes off as Bloc Party doing Talking Heads. Order CD by Texting "omcdfoalstotal" to 767825 Order LP by Texting "omlpfoalstotal" to 767825


	$13.99 CD		SIA We Are Born (Jive) "Be Good to Me" "Stop Trying" Sia first found success as the voice of Zero 7, with lazy, sultry, smoky ballads and downtempo R&B, and her biggest solo hits have been of a like mind. We Are Born is by no means an about-face, but it leans in a different direction, full of bubbly, upbeat dance-pop that nonetheless plays to Sia's biggest strength -- that voice, an emotional, rich, nuanced instrument that sounds indomitable throughout. Order CD by Texting "omcdsiawe" to 767825


	PHONE ORDERS Phone orders are accepted at (212) 477-8150 (ext. #2, mailorder) Mon-Fri, Noon - 7pm EST EMAIL For general inquiries or other information please email sales@othermusic.com. Do not reply to this message. REMOVE This is an automated list. If you would like to be removed for any reason, please visit: digital.othermusic.com/subscribe.php		THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS [AB] Adrian Burkholder [DG] Daniel Givens [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [JM] Josh Madell [DM] Doug Mosurock [SM] Scott Mou [CP] Chris Pappas [MS] Michael Stasiak [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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