Diva Leave it to Diva (independent)

Diva, subtitling themselves as No Man's Band, are a 15-piece outfit from New York consisting entirely of women. This is their second disc and they keep sounding better on arrangements from members of the band and people like Mike Abene, Jerry Dodgion and Tommy Newsom. Claire Daly, Ingrid Jensen, Virginia Mayhew and Melissa Slocom are among the excellent players in this band led by Sherrie Maricle. "Trolley Song" is a good place to start. 8/10 (Len Dobbin)

DJ Honda DJ Honda II (Relativity/Epic)

Start by taking an Afrocentric Asian super DJ/producer, combine him with some of hip hop's favourite MC's and underground bubblers, and you've got DJ Honda's new piece. Like his first album, Honda employs the microphone babblings of some of the best, holding his own beside names like Mos Def, Problemz, Dug Infinite and NO I.D. Honda is a formidable producer who seems to get better going toe to toe with a dream-team roster like this, but I feel like he could be a true production force if he keeps up the pace. This record sounds surprisingly like a Rawkus compilation. 8/10 (Scott C.)

Various Random (02): Mixes of Gary Numan (Beggars Banquet/Koch)

Last year's Random was a traditional covers-tribute to the Numanoid's synth-pop oeuvre, but Random (02) features full-on remixes of Gary's glitter by today's top techno producers. Dave Clark is ultra-faithful to the structure and sound of "Cars," while Mike Dearborn builds his "hard-jacking Chicago" version from a single sample. In between there's Robert Armani, Dave Angel, DJ Hell and others on equally familiar stuff. These friends are definitely electric. 8/10 (Chris Yurkiw)