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 Kassav’
Saga (Zouk)
Responsible for bringing together various Caribbean styles, from compa to salsa to calypso, to create zouk, the multiple musicians that make up Kassav’ (so named after the cassava) have been keeping people dancing for the past 30 years. If you haven’t ever heard the ridiculously catchy sounds of zouk, Kassav will take you to school on this three-disc set that lives up to its name. 9/10 Trial Track: “Zouk-La sé sèl médikaman nou ni” (Erin MacLeod) With Ti Kabzy at Metropolis, Sun., July 26, 8 p.m., $39.50
 Eugene McGuinness
self-titled (Domino)
I presume that this graduate of Liverpool’s Institute of Performing Arts grew up on old movie musicals and Morrissey, or maybe Blur and Oscar Wilde, or the Beatles and Black Adder, given his verbose phrasing and clever lyrics, cooing vocals and playful pop stylings. It’s a bold debut that revisits that brand of Britpop that values brains over debauchery, artful pop over rehashed schlock. 9/10 Trial Track: “Rings Around Rosa” (Lorraine Carpenter)
Megafaun
Gather, Form & Fly (Hometapes)
From Eau Claire, Wisconsin, based in Durham, North Carolina, this trio build on the template of their debut, Bury the Square, further tweaking their folk reconstruction methods, folding in more stylistic strains, psychedelic effects and experimental samples. Their radiant arrangements of easy melodies, three-part harmonies and out-there infusions have the potential to attract folkies and freaks alike. 8/10 Trial Track: “Kaufman’s Ballad” (Lorraine Carpenter)
Eagle Twin
The Unkindness of Crows (Southern Lord/Sonic Unyon)
There has hardly been a shortage of releases hip to the doom and gloom tip lately, but the debut from this Salt Lake City duo is sure to raise even the stiffest brow. Eagle Twin flex their muscles, slinging sludge and pure power drone ballast, with the crushing riffs hung on singer Gentry Densley’s deep baritone. Melvins, Sleep and early Earth provide the foundation here, but it’s when the band stretches out beyond their inspirations that things really pick up. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “And It Came to Pass That Birds Rain Down Like Black Snakes” (Johnson Cummins)
Yob
The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)
Although Yob are unquestionably a doom band, they stray far enough from the pack through use of grim, blackened metal, post-rock innovation and heavy-handed psych, cooking it all up in epic proportions. With the five songs here weighing in at over an hour, this should easily appeal to fans lamenting the passing of Sleep, or provide a perfect starting place for noisniks and jazzbos just getting into doom. 8/10 Trial Track: “The Great Cessation” (Johnson Cummins)
El Grupo Nuevo De
Omar Rodriguez Lopez
Cryptomnesia (Omar Rodriguez Lopez Productions)
Guitarist, writer and producer for the Mars Volta, Omar Rodriguez Lopez has been spitting out solo albums since ’04, exploring jazz, rock and spacey jams washed in complex mathematics. Picking up the slack from the Mars Volta’s quieter and somewhat acoustic Octahedron, Cryptomnesia is charged with a frenetic energy, heavy hooks and Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala singing on eight of the 11 tracks. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Shake Is for 8th Graders” (Lateef Martin)
 Our Lady Peace
Burn Burn Burn (Coalition/Sony)
Holy hell, Raine Maida is a terrible lead singer. His overly emotive shriek is slowly aging into a more gruff mouthwash gurgle, but despite the years of supposed writing, he remains stuck at infantile monosyllabic rhyming. Every track on OLP’s seventh starts with some promise, until Maida crashes the party, sounding like a shrill grandmother being devoured by hyenas. 4.5/10 Trial Track: “Never Get Over You” (Erik Leijon)
Brokencyde
I’m Not a Fan...But the Kids Like It! (BreakSilence/Suburban Noize)
At first I presumed white suburbanite teens scream-rapping about fucking hos and getting crunked was a harmless satire of chauvinist rap. But the more I stared into the abyss of what is clearly a lost generation of young people gone horribly astray on a gorging diet of text messaging and energy drinks, I began to question whether this was a joke or a cry for help. 0/10 Trial Track: n/a (Erik Leijon)
 Data
Skywriter (Ekleroshock)
In one fell swoop, 23-year-old French kid Data manages to offer a comprehensive overview of what’s hot in his homeland lately. With Skywriter, he touches on hypnotic post-prog synthscaping (“Verdict”), overcooked mullet rock (“One in a Million”), hammering, hydraulic electro-baroque (“Aerius Light”) and light, congenial robo-funk (“So Much in Love”), and does so as well or better than many of the classics and contemporaries he’s aping. 8/10 Trial Track: “Renaissance Theme” (Rupert Bottenberg) With L.A. Riots, Don Rimini and more on the MEG Boat, Sun. Aug. 2, 11:30 p.m., $35
 Madcon
Conquest (Next Plateau)
This Norwegian hip hop duo benefits from interesting production, though the wholesome sound of the album gets flat quick. Their cover of Frankie Valli’s “Beggin’” is instantly catchy but mad fluffy compared to the original. Akon-sounding hooks matched with cheery, feelgood verses make the album pretty one-dimensional, but the Delroy Wilson sample on “Let It Be Known” is so, so dope. 7/10 Trial Track: “Let It Be Known” (Morgan Steiker)
The Alchemist
Chemical Warfare (E1)
Okay, where to start? Kool G Rap on the intro, Snoop Dogg and Jadakiss on the same song, the Eminem verse better than anything on Relapse, a lesson from KRS-One, the track with Blu, Evidence and Talib… So many highlights on this album and still what stands out the most is Alchemist’s production—dark, ominous and always reliable. 9/10 Trial Track: “That’ll Work” feat. Three 6 Mafia and Juvenile (Morgan Steiker)
Laura Izibor
Let the Truth Be Told (Atlantic/Warner)
Dublin-born singer/songwriter Izibor’s debut has been years in the making, thanks to record label politics. Regardless, her debut proves worth the wait as the fresh-faced vocalist delivers a set of well-constructed, soulful pop songs. Though she can be a bit too dramatic, like on “What Would You Do,” she makes up for it with the right amount of optimism on tracks like “Shine.” 8/10 Trial track: “From My Heart to Yours” (Gerard Dee)
 Sean Bones
Rings (Frenchkiss)
Hardly the only white kid resurrecting rocksteady and dirty reggae, Brooklynite Bones delivers a debut that more than holds its own next to Bedouin Soundclash, the Aggrolites and such. Rings is a richly textured and engagingly varied effort betraying Bones’s exceptional tune-crafting, incisive guitar work and restrained yet exacting production. Sweet stuff! 8.5/10
 Brock Van Wey
White Clouds Drift On and On (Echospace)
From the melancholic synth strings, lethargic piano progressions and static-washed, looped vocal samples down to the double-digit track lengths, billowing-white-cloud graphics and eighth-century Zen Buddhist poetry in the case, this double disc will have you achieving enlightenment weeks before those pesky Joneses. Sari and handmade figurines not included. 6/10 Trial Track: “A Gentle Hand to Hold” (Jack Oatmon)
Mini CD Reviews
Coalesce Ox (Relapse) These metalcore innovators may not be too prolific but prove once again that quality outweighs quantity. 7.5 (JC)
Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz Bangtown (Rookie/Cargo) Very melodic and less direct than most psychobilly records. 7 (EL)
Jónsi & Alex Riceboy Sleeps (XL/Select) Jónsi of Sigur Rós and Alex of Parachutes scale glacial heights, rarely slipping in their journey to the ambient peak. 7 (LC)
Magnolia Electric Co. Josephine (Secretly Canadian) Jason Molina’s third LP as MEC (or 10th overall, including his Songs: Ohia output) is another aimless trek over country-rock terrain. 6 (LC)
Spinnerette self-titled (Anthem/Universal) Former Distiller Brody Dalle is still a macabre, gutsy and formidable frontwoman, but moxie can take ya only so far, kid. 4 (EL)
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