ALMOST UNDONE From Behind Glass
nnLove ’em or hate ’em, there’s no other SLC band like Almost Undone: Churning, chaotic grind-grooves and ethereal female vocals bound in unholy matrimony. Their second EP From Behind Glass trades (some of) the dark noise for sophisticated rhythmic divergence, deeper dynamics and a voice that steps up and owns it. (AlmostUndone.com)
nnTHE MORLOCKS Church of the Morlock
nnOgden produces a twisted brand of garage-rock, and The Morlocks could be its most suave purveyors, always in control and smoother than a strip-club martini. Nary an off track; “Boy Meat Girl” is the romantic hit of the summer. (MySpace.com/MorlocksBand)
nnLAM Emotional Roller Coaster
nnIt’s not just a clever title'this double-disc (!) set really is an emotional roller coaster for rapper LAM, who pours it all out over 22 tearful tracks of troubles without flinching. Too much information, but with “Keep on Shining,” relief arrives. (SelfExpressionMusic.org)
nnPAPER CRANES Escape to Wicked Mountain
nnPure electro-rock lunacy preoccupied with dinosaurs (first half) and yet-to-evolve species (second half) shouldn’t logically produce tunes as catchy as “Stegosaurus,” but logic has no place in the noise-tar pit. Let’s get extinct. (MySpace.com/PaperCranesCollective)
nnJEBU Weapons of Mass DysFunkTion
nnOgden strikes again: Jebu’s stone-cold funk-’n’-soul attack is even more in-the-pocket here than on 2004’s already tight Phase 4, occasionally aspiring to classic Stevie Wonder heights of booty transcendence. If this doesn’t move your ass, it’s dead. (JebuMusic.com)
nnREAPER DeathSend: Shadow Psychology
nnSpeaking of: Jebu backs hip-hop emcee Reaper on the majority of this loose-concept disc about love, loss, violence and death with a fuzzy moral focus'plenty of great beats and rhymes, though. Think Scared Straight: The Club Mix. (DeathSend@hotmail.com)
nnLITTLE SAP DUNGEON Empty Rooms Breathe Heavily
nnWhile you were at Area 51, goth-industrial act Little Sap Dungeon disbanded; this final amalgamation consists of two new tracks and remixes of previous material'and it still flows together in a seamless dark wash. Dance, li’l vamps. (Dungeon-Recordings.com)
nnPCP Cross-Cutting in Cold Frames
nnStands for Perception Cleanse Perception, and the pan-industrial perception of Cross-Cutting is: Bush sucks, Amerika is a police state and the end is nigh'so why not live it up? PCP isn’t too uptight to have fun with the Apocalypse. (Dungeon-Recordings.com)