Disc of the week

Two Fingers
self-titled (Paper Bag)
With his pal from Brighton, Joe “Doubleclick” Chapman, and crafty MCs Sway, Ms. Jade and Ce’Cile, Amon Tobin offers a sneaky, snaky amalgam of smooth-flowing yet highly unpredictable hip hop, revisited drum & bass packed with tough, crepuscular menace and, most importantly, a vast array of unexpected sound snippets, arranged in a subtle and inspired fashion. A dense, intricate and intriguing effort—two thumbs up for Two Fingers! 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Bad Girl” (Rupert Bottenberg)

Grand Duchy
Petits Fours (Cooking Vinyl)
Former Pixies frontman Black Francis and wife Violet Clark team up for slacker pop-meets-synth dance. They share vocal duties, with Francis lasciviously grumbling like some flannel-clad Nick Cave while Clark yelps like Metric’s Emily Haines with an actual glint of intelligence and musk of sexuality in her voice. Petits Fours is broader than a mere Pixies revival—think New Order with scratchy guitars. 6/10 Trial Track: “The Long Song” (Erik Leijon)

DD/MM/YYYY
Black Square (We Are Busy Bodies)
Prog rock’s resurgence among the failed-beards-and-square-frames indie set continues with this Toronto unit’s hyperactive yet oddly modest exercises in sugar-kissed math punk, spaceman spaz jams and jazz-rock jerk-offs. Yay for the occasional lapse into faux-primal battle chanting, boo for the lack of focal melodic nodes and more so for the self-consciously awkward vocals. 6.5/10 Trial Track: “No Life” (Rupert Bottenberg) With Metz, Special Noise at Il Motore, Fri., April 17, 9 p.m., $10

The Decemberists
The Hazards of Love (Capitol/EMI)
Drawing from the tenuously connected British folk and metal scenes of the mid-’60s, and constructing a fantastical tale of ladies, gentlemen and a supernatural forest, the Decemberists deliver another would-be rock opera. Impressively ambitious, with nice guest vocals by Shara Worden and Becky Stark, the record is overly blunt, bloated and reliant on recurring motifs. English lit meets Off Broadway. Yawn. 6/10 Trial Track: “The Hazards of Love” (Lorraine Carpenter)

The Veils
Sun Gangs (Rough Trade/Select)
A croon with an emotive quaver, lovely piano work, well wielded guitars, memorable melodies and lovelorn poetry that’s timeless without leaning on cliché—it’s what you want from a British rock record (and a break-up album), and you’ve got it on the third LP by these London-based New Zealanders, led (incidentally) by the son of XTC/Shriekback founder Barry Andrews. 8/10 Trial Track: “The Letter” (Lorraine Carpenter)

Starfucker
self-titled (Badman)
As gooey and twee as it gets at points, one can’t fault the hook-studded, open-faced bedroom popcraft of Portland, OR’s Josh Hodges. His genial gems hop along with their wiggly synths, facetious falsetto and sticky melodies—the chewable “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” is a hard one to shake, for instance. The spindly “Holly” is a nice prep for the robust robo-baroque of “Hard Smart Beta,” which follows it. 7/10 Trial Track: “Mike Ptyson” (Rupert Bottenberg) With Guidance Counselor, Sweet Mother Logic at Il Motore, Sun., April 19, 9 p.m., $12

The Obits
I Blame You (Sub Pop)
Like an encyclopedia of garage rock, Brooklyn’s Obits tightly thrash through surf, rockabilly, punk, blues and myriad other retro guitar styles without sounding like they’re too entrenched in the past or too desperate to modernize either. An album that’s compact and filled with interweaving instrumental sections proves the Obits actually value technical proficiency over perfecting an über-cool Lou Reed stance. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Milk Cow Blues” (Erik Leijon)

Plunt
Cowpunkcockrock (Bongo Beat)
The debut from Montreal’s Plunt harks back to, if not really cock rock (though there is a tune called “Boner”), certainly thick ’n’ jangly cow-punk. Other late-’80s proto-grunge sounds too—Hüsker Dü’s guitar squalls, the Pixies arch aggro-pop (the vocals of Peeps G sound a good deal like Kim Deal’s)—plus the occasional stolen punk riff. Nuthin’ fancy, just comfort-food coolness. 7/10 Trial Track: “Chapi Chapo” (Rupert Bottenberg) CD launch with the Wrong Kind, Armedalite Rifles at 3 Minots, Sat., April 18, 9 p.m., $7

Dan Zimmerman
Cosmic Patriot (Sounds Familyre)
Within the first few seconds of Cosmic Patriot, Zimmerman’s thick Scott Walker/Lee Hazlewood baritone is guaranteed to knock you on your ass. With members of Bardo Pond and Why? pitching in and leaving their indelible mark, psychedelic moments flourish, but Zimmerman remains the expert storyteller, making sure things don’t get too cacophonic. 7/10 Trial Track: “Silence Is a Golden Mountain” (Johnson Cummins)

Zoroaster
Voice of Saturn (Terminal Doom)
Doom metal is a hard one to pull off, considering Sleep pretty much perfected the formula a decade ago, but this Atlanta band, armed with a wall of amps, know how to keep it slow and low, and still bludgeon. These six slabs of heaviosity, especially the devastating “Spirit Molecule,” are all more than a bit bong-friendly. 8/10 Trial Track: “Spirit Molecule” (Johnson Cummins)

numéro#
Sport de combat (Saboteur)
As entertaining as their tongue-in-cheek debut was, numéro# happily don’t try to rehash the concept here. Instead, Crube’s dreamlike production is more nuanced, less saccharine and monotonous, while Rocipon’s lyrics and delivery are more thoughtful and calculated. But the attempt to salvage serious themes from what was essentially an elaborate joke reveals as many limitations as it discards. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Arbandot” (Jack Oatmon)

Jadakiss
The Last Kiss (Def Jam/Universal)
The irrelevant, aging rapper syndrome strikes again, except this time it’s even more disappointing because Jadakiss is falling off the “Top 5 dead or alive” podium. Every corny and predictable R&B turn is in full effect and the only redeemable tracks are “One More Step” featuring Styles P and “What If,” where a Nas verse becomes the highlight of the album. 4/10 Trial Track: “What If” (Morgan Steiker)

Various
Defected in the House: Miami 2009 (Defected)
The latest Defected Miami edition, released following Miami’s Winter Music Conference, delivers delicious dance/house/electronic grooves mixed to perfection. As usual, the three-disc set represents day, evening and nighttime grooves, with each of this year’s DJs—Spen, Yass and Penn—serving up blazing tracks that defy motionlessness. Penn is particularly effective at keeping the energy peaking. 9/10 Trial Track: DJ Penn “En Mi Casa/What Is House (Kot Anthem)” (Gerard Dee)

Lorraine Desmarais
Big Band (Analekta/Select)
Desmarais’s 10th is her first with a big band. Regular trio mates Frédéric Alarie and Camil Bélisle are here, plus the cream of Montreal’s jazz musicians, with solos from Ron Di Lauro, Aron Doyle, Jean-Pierre Zanella, André Leroux, Richards Beaudet and Gagnon, Jean Fréchette and Dave Grott. Great originals by Lorraine—a must for lovers of excellent big bands. 9/10 Trial Track: “Blues 12” (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Lori Mechem April in Paris (Cognito) Excellent pianist, trio and mostly Basie-associated music. Pete Christlieb is a bonus. 9 (LD)

Jesse Winchester Love Filling Station (Appleseed) Even after taking a studio holiday for the past nine years, Winchester proves to be one of the best songwriters in Americana music. 8 (JC)

Various Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (Merge) The likes of the Shins, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie and Broken Social Scene cover Merge’s best and brightest, from Superchunk to Arcade Fire. 7 (LC)

High Five Drive Fullblast (Fond of Life) Skater punk at Nordic speed metal velocity, from Winnipeg guitar-tapping heroes. 6.5 (EL)

Easy Star All-Stars Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band (Easy Star) After Dark Side and OK Computer, these slick pop-reggae rascals retool the Beatles. Sports some big names, but still kinda lame. 5 (RB)