The brainchild of Dev Hynes (of Test Icicles and Lightspeed Champion), Blood Orange is Hynes' soft and funky, '80s-influenced urban-indie project. Since Blood Orange's 2011 debut album, Coastal Grooves, Hynes has flourished as a behind-the-scenes songwriter, producer and magician creating memorable work with artists like Solange Knowles and Sky Ferreria, but it's with this project that his deep well of talent is beginning to find a real home of its own. While Coastal Grooves, which is a favorite of mine, felt like a one-man band re-imagining Prince's gender bending b-sides, this follow-up comes across as a fully fleshed-out and original take on the '2013 is 1983' formula trending these days, with Hynes channeling his inner Michael Jackson. Featuring a solid crew of musicians and vocalists, Hynes applies his catchy and lovely song-writing skills to a host of fresh voices that seem right at home in the contemporary nostalgia. Throughout, the talents of David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), Samantha Urbani (Friends), Adam Bainbridge (Kindness), Clams Casino, rappers Despot and Skepta, engineer Jimmy Douglass (Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliot), and a few more collaborators all lock into the soulful, mid-tempo grooves. Together they all help paint a kaleidoscope of ideas, giving the album a communal urban vibe where artists share talents and create quality, time-traveling modern/retro/R&B/pop/hip-hop/indie music that blurs lines with male and female vocals, rappers, scratching, field recordings, walking bass, drum machines, live drums, sax solos, keyboards, guitar, and all other means of grooviness.

Devoid of the lo-fi annoyance that usually accompanies this sort of retro vision, the album shines as live instruments and samples (Neneh Cherry, Grace Jones, Malcolm McClaren, Fat Boys) are woven together, yet it is Hynes' arrangements of all the players and sounds that is what's most impressive. One of Cupid Deluxe's strong points is the strength Hynes shows in putting seemingly opposite elements, styles, or sounds together (one moment Phil Collins, Naughty by Nature the next). Each song is filled with memorable melodies, hooks, lyrics, and appearances, everything feels in place, and damn near perfect. The album reminds me very much of ol' New York, Brooklyn primarily, pre-9/11 specifically. He continues to channel a certain undercurrent of NYC street life on Cupid Deluxe, from skaters and queers to the young homeless, making a complex and authentic reflection of the city. Though the album is full of songs of longing, wanting, and struggles of the heart, the spirit feels freer, warmer, and a bit lighthearted, like listening to an '80s classic R&B radio station. If you've been into the decade's past revivalist like Toro y Moi or Twin Shadow, Blood Orange is perfecting the formula. Best of the now school, right here, and a late-breaking addition to my 2013 hit list. [DG]

After her introduction to the indie world via True, her Blood Orange-produced mini-album for the Terrible label, Solange Knowles has become a sort of figurehead for American independent underground R&B artists. She has started her own label, Saint, and her first release is a self-curated compilation; Saint Heron is Solange's 2013 mixtape featuring a selection of the best underground jams of the year and some unreleased gems. There are known entities, like Kingdom's "Bank Head (featuring Kelela)" and Sampha's "Beneath the Tree," yet it's mostly filled with new and noteworthy names and self-released artists: Jhene Aiko, Jade J, Iman Omari, Starchild, India Shawn, Petite Noir, BC Kingdom, along with major label vocalist Cassie (produced by Solange) and the final track by Ms. Knowles herself. The overall mood is mid-tempo, electronic and soulful, inspired by the work of acts like Little Dragon, Rhye, or the Weeknd. Solange has an ear for good songs and vocalists, and the 12 tracks gathered here can serve as a primer of some new voices working mostly under the radar. Smooth and sexy, sweet and soulful, electronic and emotional, the comp plays out like the next step after Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Bubblers series, yet here the mood is more consistent. Solange seems to have tapped into the scene at just the right moment and this is a selection of her findings -- kind of funny that her song is called "Cash In." She seems to have found her own platform away from the shadow of her very popular older sister. It's a great starting effort to bring these underground names to the masses, and collected all in one place there is a creative weight to this scene and this sound that is impossible to ignore. A good listen from start to finish, dedicated to all the slow-burning soul lovers in the house! [DG]

Best known for pioneering the Hi-NRG sound and launching the career of Sylvester, Patrick Cowley is an undeniable disco legend. Yet for all we know of Cowley as a disco producer and DJ, his more experimental leanings have only recently begun to emerge; from his student days studying synthesizer composition to his late-'70s art punk project Catholic with Indoor Life's Jorge Socarras, Crowley's interests were varied and expanded well beyond the dance floor. Now, thanks to the always-reliable Dark Entries imprint in collaboration with the Honey Soundsystem party collective, we're treated to another side of Cowley with School Daze, a 2LP collection of his gorgeous, game-changing soundtracks for gay porn films made between 1973 and 1981.

Moving away from the schmaltzy wah-wah of '70s porn music and his own brand of high-powered disco, Cowley's work here is more akin to the space-aged synthscapes of German kosmische artists like Klaus Schulze or Manuel Göttsching but with an understated groove that is most certainly the Megatron Man. With only one full-on disco cut here (album opener "Zygote"), what follows is nothing short of pure, cosmic magic. Deep, sensual, and bubbling with a languid dreaminess, this is Cowley's disco music stripped to its core: warm, skeletal beats, percolating synths, and a keen sense of melody that must have worked perfectly in their original erotic context. Tracks like "Seven Sacred Pools," "Nightcrawler," and "Mockingbird Dream" are beautiful, extended workouts driven by subtle rhythms and a palette that combines gentle ambient textures with an almost aquatic musicality. "Pagan Rhythms" and "Journey Home," on the other hand, are darker, more tribal exercises that retain their ethereal coolness, but also come off sounding like rough, early Detroit techno sketches. Easily one of the strongest archival finds of the year and an immediate staff favorite, those with even a passing interest in cosmic music, disco, proto-techno, or fans of cosmic disco of a more recent vintage (Chromatics, Glass Candy, the Drive soundtrack, et al.) should pick this up immediately! [CPa]

I have to come right out and say that this record is so amazing, and it comes from a particularly fertile time in Italian experimental music when a group of Italian artists were making some just absolutely incredibly beautiful music that drew on minimalist and ambient tendencies, but filtered through their own particularly personal lens. Originally released on the legendary Cramps label, and stunningly reissued here by longtime Other Music faves Die Schachtel, if I could have given them a wish list of Italian rarities to issue this would have landed at the very top. Produced by the legendary Franco Battiato, and inspired by one of my all-time favorite novels, Mount Analogue (A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidian Adventures in Mountain Climbing) by mid-20th century French Pataphysician Rene Daumal, Lovisoni & Messina chart course to a sonically rarefied air, one riven with deeply atmospheric chasms and reflective pauses. Cloud-shrouded and all enveloping, with vague washes of synth and strings, and thoughtfully patterned harp, it is astonishingly rare that an album this quiet and thoughtful is nevertheless able to completely seize every aspect of your attention. Presented with Die Schachtel's usual exacting standards, the CD comes with three bonus tracks while the LP is strictly limited to 500 copies. Highest possible recommendation. [MK]

Habitués of a similarly bleak, dramatically unfolding universe of sound, Mika Vainio and Stephen O'Malley are in many ways perfectly suited musical collaborators. While Vainio's solo work and recordings as one half of Pan Sonic pushed the rhythmic and frequency extremes of analog and digital electronics, O'Malley's guitar playing in SunnO))) treaded previously unexplored ground in the abstract expressionist fringe of drone metal. Several years in the making, Aanipaa's Through a Pre-Memory brings together Vainio and O'Malley, along with a host of guest collaborators, for four extended-length meditations combining eerie glassy drones, vast reverberant spaces, and blasts of brutalist beats. Opening track "Muse" kicks off the album on an oddly plaintive note, O'Malley's gently clangorous riffs and Vainio's sparse beats eventually giving way to the blood-curdling spoken-screamed vocals of Khanate's Alan Dubin (reciting the work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova). Massed clusters of guitar noise meld seamlessly with Eyvind Kang's haunting strings on the penultimate "Mirror of Mirror Dreams," while closer "Watch Over Stillness/Matters Principle" returns to the kind of droning-plus-doom-vocals territory that would be familiar ground for many fans of SunnO))). [DS]

William Bennett, founding member of pioneering UK noise-performance provocateurs Whitehouse, began the Cut Hands project as a platform to explore his longstanding interest in African music, language, and art. Dubbing his audacious new genre exercise "afro noise," Bennett, with Cut Hands, eschews Whitehouse's ear-splitting electronics, confrontational lyrics, and S&M imagery in favor of pile-driving percussion workouts that recall the polyrhythmic frenzy of batucada and ritual voodoo music. Damballah 58, Bennett's second release for Berlin-based imprint Blackest Ever Black, balances more assaultive, percussion-heavy tracks -- the carnivalesque title cut and the dread-laden "Immersion" -- with becalmed, atmospheric pieces ("Mamba Muntu, "Belladonna Theme") combining menacing synth tones, liquid pitch shifts, and an eerie disembodied female voice. [DS]

Following a handful of cassette and CD-R releases comes the debut full-length LP from Normandy-based singer Alice Dourlen, issued by label-to-watch Shelter Press, an imprint based in the French Alps who have recently been putting forth an impressive array of artists' books, prints, records, and ephemera. Dourlen has been garnering comparisons to such heavy weights as Catherine Ribiero and Nico of late, and with good reason I'd say, as there's a quite impressive gravity and starkness to these songs that haul forward with a nearly ritualistic tension. Accompaniment is sparse, bordering on minimalistic at times, with spindly and twining electric guitar, wonderfully resonant percussion and a base layer of humming organ that complements Dourlen's compelling singing, which can conjure either the flintiest of granite or the breath of a hush. This is someone I'm positive we'll be hearing a lot more from, and one who is sure to appeal to fans of Zola Jesus or Anna Von Hausswolff as well as the aforementioned artists. Recommended. [MK]

RVNG Intl. brings us a pair of Sydney natives who are making some really fresh stuff. Alex Murray and Mark Smith are Gardland, an improvisational analog techno band. While researching the duo is a difficult and unyielding task, the quality of their debut album hardly reflects the press they've received. With only a debut EP released earlier this year, Syndrome Syndrome is their first big outing, and it is pretty bold: the 13 tracks are on the whole pretty long, averaging at about five minutes each. It's clear they're not aiming for any kind of accessible techno either; the cuts are dark and moody, playing with the deepest bass and the sharpest beats. Much more grounded and cutthroat than labelmates Blondes, Gardland is all about the succinct, tense heat. Even the six-and-a-half-minute "Nothing But Not Zero," the longest track on the album, seems short; its entrancing video and lengthy bass-filled journey feels so club-ready solely because of the dense atmosphere it evokes. "Magicville," another highlight, plays with deep, warped beats to cater a similarly suspenseful morning club. That said, it's really the title cut that stands out; "Syndrome Syndrome" is a growing monster of strained noise, slowly evolving into a really aggressive piece. The tracks are all carefully constructed, far from tedious, and very much heart pumping -- not anything to miss here. The cryptic, exciting nature of Syndrome Syndrome is bound to entice any dark electronica fan, as well as any RVNG devotee in general. [MM]

Even if you only have the slightest interest in the history of techno music, chances are that you have heard of Cybotron's 1983 landmark album Enter. But have you also listened to it? On this altogether conceptual affair, the visxionary duo Rik Davis and Juan Atkins combined futurist philosophy with progressive European electro sounds. With post-industrial Detroit as a backdrop, they merged the ideas of theorist Alvin Toffler with those of classic Kaballah, developing an exceptionally idiosyncratic vision in which the transformation of all people into a superhuman entity would come to be through spirituality and technology. It is in Toffler's writings that Atkins bumped into the term "techno rebels," signifying the agents of the computer age, from which he famously coined the term techno music. Cybotron's cold, synth-heavy sound documented a collapsed industrial empire, emphasizing a mood of paranoia and desolation while also bringing to the fore feelings of anticipation for an immanent future.

Enter, rather than being the ultimate proto-techno album, is a concept-driven collection of electro pop songs built around a number of strong Cybotron singles released between 1981 and '83. "Alleys of Your Mind" offers a dystopian urban vision that combines Kraftwerkian electro with a Funkadelic edge, whereas "Cosmic Cars" is the funky and decisively non-romantic Detroit answer to Gary Numan's electro staple "Cars." On the closing track things become truly interesting, with "Clear" leading the duo to new futuristic heights, becoming techno's first defining moment, and paving the way for the Drexciya-like excursions that would follow a decade later. Although the tensions between Juan Atkins' sense of robotic funk and Rik Davis' more rock-oriented aspirations make the album as a whole sound somewhat dated, especially in the latter's sometimes overwrought guitar solos, it indicates a remarkable early shift from electro to techno, of which the conceptual framework would become hugely influential. Soon after, Juan Atkins would spark the techno revolution with Model 500, releasing a number of groundbreaking records, but the seeds of his brilliant innovations were already planted on this classic. [NVT]

Branching out from earlier, folk-centric releases, Dublin guitar heavyweight Cian Nugent welcomes a solidified backing lineup on his first release for No Quarter. The core of musicians from his last full-length, Doubles, reprise their roles on Born with the Caul, but the direction changes a bit from heart-swelling, tear-stinging folk pride to full-on electric ecstasies. As an arranger, Nugent is not one to sit still, so the three lengthy tracks that comprise this release build, turn, ramp up tempos and pile on the instrumentation to his heart's content. There's a method to all of this, not some random hodgepodge of styles and influences, so if you wanted your Van Dyke Parks song cycle to adapt a little bit of a brogue, then go full-on Dungen all over you, Nugent is your man, putting you in a stranglehold with top-shelf musicianship and joie de vivre. [DM]

Ever since the Geto Boys brought their nightmarish "Mind Playin' Tricks on Me" into the national conscious, Houston hip-hop has hovered at the edge of cultural perception like some strange dream, never quite being grasped. While massively popular throughout south Texas during his lifetime, DJ Screw's influence was really only felt some ten years after his death and when Houston hip-hop topped the Billboard charts circa 2005 (with Slim Thug, Paul Wall and Chamillionaire all scoring hits) it was short-lived. But as this excellent photography book from Peter Beste (who previously documented Norway's black metal scene) proves, Houston rap continues to thrive well into the present. Photos of icons like Bun B, Pimp C and Devin the Dude abound, but it's telling that the cover photo is of a schoolbus of cheerleaders waving at a SLAB out on the highway. And you'll have to go nearly a hundred pages in to even glimpse a candy-painted car. Rather than look on the glamor of hip-hop, Houston Rap focuses on the grit underneath. And the accompanying oral history, as told to writer Lance Scott Walker, documents impoverished African-American communities continually under siege, be it by speculative real estate or lack of health services. Still, the book proves that Houston rap is nothing if not resilient. [AB]

Spencer Krug (of Wolf Parade) may be using his stage name Moonface here, but with just the piano to accompany his chilling vocals, Krug strips down and embodies the singer/songwriter always hidden within, pushing personal and stark messages into stunning new realms of clarity for all, as he opens himself up to an emotional voyage on Julia with Blue Jeans On. He takes deeper root in his classically trained background, allowing the piano and his voice to resonate with every keystroke and chord. Krug intimately opens up his home of thoughts -- it is as if the listener is sitting on the bench beside him at the piano, nestled deep inside the left side of his brain. The lyrics are metaphorically rich and self-reflective (take "Everyone Is Noah, Everyone Is the Ark" as proof). The contrast in loud/soft piano acts as the main energy that pushes the album from start to finish. Striking because of its unadorned revelations, Moonface's Julia with Blue Jeans On is an emotionally draining listen. It may induce some heartache, you've been warned. But after a full listen through, coming out the other side is something similar to a cathartic awakening. [TL]

Yo La Tengo's Fade gets the deluxe edition treatment, the double-disc containing a bunch of extras: an array of Fade outtakes, extra tracks and alternate versions, plus a download card for the now out-of-print 12", Stupid Things. If that's not enough, you also get the "Oriole" b-sides from the recent, limited "Ohm" triple-12" set. A great record and a definite contender for our "Best of 2013" lists, here's what we said about Fade when it was initially released:

The deluxe edition CD re-release of Kurt Vile's Wakin on a Pretty Daze adds a second disc to the mix: Kurt Vile's newest EP, It's a Big World Out There (And I'm Scared) -- also available separately on vinyl. The EP is comprised of b-sides and alternative versions of album tracks, allowing the listener to hear how Vile's songs evolve, where he goes wrong, and, most importantly, where he gets it right. Definitely worthwhile for Vile fans. Here's what we said about the original album back when it came out:

It's a live album delivered as sound art, and as such, with Nils Frahm's intuitive piano playing and wonderfully open-minded approach to music, this is a fairly stunning and truly enjoyable record. Frahm has long tended to make great music out of enforced limitations, from the string-deadening approach on 2011's Felt to the minimal meditations of last year's Screws, but the genius of this new set can be defined by one song title: "Improvisation for Piano, Laughs, Coughs, and a Cell Phone." Drawn from more than 30 performances, Frahm carefully constructed this album to reflect the magic and off-kilter surprises of a public performance, and the results make for a great home listen far beyond the pale carbon copy of most live LPs. Really great and innovative stuff here, joyful, melodic and emotional in the truest sense.

Dirty Three guitarist/Australian composer/painter Mick Turner offers us his second solo full-length, Don't Tell the Driver, a "post-rock rock opera" comprised of layered instrumentals and ambient tones, with guest vocalists Caroline Kennedy-McCracken (the Plums, Deadstar) and opera singer Oliver Man.

Coming off a four-year break, Magik Markers return with the Drag City-released Surrender to the Fantasy, which finds the Connecticut-based avant noise-rockers reeling it in a tad with a little more melody coming through their explosive sprawl. It's a more varied outing than what we've heard from the (now-again) trio than before, yet they're still as adventurous and fiery as ever.

UK electronic conjurers Demdike Stare grace the cover of December's issue of Wire. Also inside: new age purveyor and Eno collaborator Laraaji; Heatsick + Helm; Invisible Jukebox with New York turntablist Maria Chavez; Global Ear: Western Russia; Cross Platform: Robert Beatty; plus, news, reviews and much more.

Back in print on CD and double-LP. Luciano Cilio's Dell'Universo Assente is a truly singular work of intimate acoustic arrangements that reference many different musical genres. The 11 tracks in this collection represent the entire recorded output from the virtuosic multi-instrumentalist whose unfortunate suicide in ‘83 left few artifacts behind. Folk, modern composition, improvisation and various world musics are just a few of the musical genres that spring to mind when listening to Dell'Universo Assente. But it's the kind of self-contained, confident and reflective work that transcends mere genre restrictions to become that rare thing which is truly unique. [KH] 

THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS

[AB] Adrian Burkholder
[DG] Daniel Givens
[KH] Koen Holtkamp
[MK] Michael Klausman
[TL] Taylor Law
[JM] Josh Madell
[MM] Matthew Malone
[DM] Doug Mosurock
[CPa] Chris Pappas
[DS] Dave Shim
[NVT] Niels Van Tomme

THANKS FOR READING
- all of us at Other Music