Pentagram First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection (Relapse/Koch)
If the bands Andromeda, Sir Lord Baltimore, Savage Grace and Dust escape you, then chances are you probably missed out on Pentagram as well. Forming in 1971, Pentagram dripped pure heaviosity and ended up sounding a whole heck of a lot like their favourite band Blue Cheer—heck, they even admit it in the liner notes. Relapse, in their infinite wisdom, have released these recordings spanning from ’72 to ’76. If you really want to get at the stoner rock roots of bands like Nebula, Fu Manchu and Orange Goblin, then you have to check this out. When most bands of their era were still singing about flower petals and rainy nights in Santa Fe, Pentagram were bad trippin’ in the bringdown of Altamont and lovin’ every minute of it. Kudos to Relapse for saving this from obscurity and giving a much needed history lesson in metal’s first baby steps. Fuckin’ heavy! 10/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Joey Ramone
Don’t Worry About Me (Sanctuary/EMI)
The posthumous last hurrah from the monkey’s uncle of punk, recorded before his untimely death last year but only recently polished up for presentation. Can’t help but get all emotional over this, particularly because it’s some of the sweetest, coolest bubblegum punk ever to bear the Ramones crest—and that’s saying something. A cover of “What a Wonderful World” sets the tone, followed by all manner of street-level inspirational notions (“Live your life to the fullest and fuck everything”). Various pals drop in to lend a hand—including Capt. Sensible, Jerry Only and Dictator Andy Shernoff—which culminates in a fun cover of the Stooges’ “1969.” Essential listening for any real punk. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Alanis Morissette
Under Rug Swept (Warner)
The good news is that Alanis’s loathsome vocal flailing has abated. Slightly. And the radio-tailored innocuousness of this self-produced third album—or fourth, counting her “under rug swept” Paula-Abdul-rox debut—will help soften the blow of the radio bombardment that awaits us. But all this acceptable banality only emphasizes Alanis’s “healing and empowering” lyrics, each song crammed with more brutally simple self-analysis than Oprah’s book club. Of course most artist’s work functions as therapy, but when it’s this obvious, colourless and self-important, she should really pay us for the privilege. 5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Crossover Fantasmo
(International DJ Gigolo/Fusion III)
Golden Boy With Miss Kittin Or
(Emperor Norton/Outside)
Mark Ingram and Vanessa Tosti are Crossover, the “cozmik junk band” representing NYC in the international electro sweepstakes. Persistent ’80s synths and drum machinery back up the pair’s vocal play, ranging from rap and Eastern-inflected chanting (Ingram) to fake German and deadpan narration (Tosti). Drawing from British electropop as well as urban pop of the very early ’80s (hence Prince references), this is a fun debut disc until medieval storytelling takes over, making the last three tracks very skippable. If Crossover is street electro, Golden Boy and the ubiquitous Miss Kittin are rocking a chichi chalet somewhere in the Swiss Alps. Clearly coming from the Euro house school, Golden Boy (aka Stefan Altenburger) weaves a clean, dancefloor-oriented sound, aided on over half the tracks by Miss Kittin’s “sexy, witty” talk of candy, cars and killing, which brings colour to this sometimes too-cool synthpop. Both 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Nappy Roots Watermelon, Chicken & Grits (Atlantic/Warner)
If you like your hip hop Southern-fried, you already know that there’s a multitude of artists out there for you to sift through. Nappy Roots come sauntering in, repping Kentucky hard as the next group to holler about the life of good ol’ country boys ballin’ on a budget. The LP is alright, but the production offers no real surprises outside of the standard bounce tracks and slow-rollers. Nappy Roots also sound like they really want to be Outkast. At six MCs, they’re playing with fire, and get burned simply because four of them can’t rap. The other two sound like Andre 2000 and Cee-Lo, respectively, but I’m not buying it. If Outkast can play the weirdo card from the bottom of the deck and run with it, then the rest of these dudes should take a lesson in creativity and come up with the next shit. 6.5/10 (Scott C)

Beatnuts Classic Nuts Vol. 1 (Loud/Columbia)
I consider myself an original Beatnuts fan, having followed their production from Common’s Can I Borrow a Dollar LP, and the fabulous (incarcerated) Chi-Ali’s Beatnuts-produced debut. This new collection of Nuts tracks seems to be focused on their top sellers and a few of their earlier tracks, but fails to include most of the tracks that made the Nuts, both in underground and production circles. Luckily, there’s a couple of new joints on here to soothe the savage beasts who already own these tracks, plus all their other stuff. I’ll wait for the bootleg mix of all those hard-to-find tracks and serious remixes, because there’s a whole lot of them. 7/10 (Scott C)

Boards of Canada Geogaddi
(Warp/Outside)
Four years since their last full-length release, the Scottish ambient electronic duo have picked up where Music Has the Right to Children left off. Sweet childhood innocence is put to rest as the infant drifts off into a land of educating soundscapes, shaping the young impressionable mind with the tools needed to survive in the harsh adult world that is to come. Still done in a hypnotic, psychedelic lullaby fashion, accompanied by vocal spurts of factual information and dejected melodies, it’s a revelation of the human psyche’s dread of the unfamiliar. 9/10 (Heidi Chapson)

Quivver Transport 5 (Kinetic)
Tranport is a comp for devoted trancers who tire of steak and yearn for a little filet mignon now and again. Quivver (aka John Graham) serves up a throbbing mix that commences with a little Tenaglia-style dark house and then rumbles its way to the even darker pastures of progressive trance. Graham, whose own material has graced the playlists of his Kinetic labelmates Sasha and Digweed, shows painstaking deliberation in his musical choices and that he is not some newbie who became a turntable star after his first crate of records. Quivver, who has been track-sculpting since the mid-’90s, has a manic, edgy flow that makes him stand out. 8.5/10 (Peter Lightburn)

DJ Pfreud Yachting Love Story (Warner)
It seems that the Montreal electronic scene is divided amongst the ambient minimal glitchmeisters and the tech-house clubsters. DJ Pfreud falls into the latter. Funky energetic house and melodic trance is what his sets are best known for around town and at special events. With his album release scheduled for March 5, on major label Warner, this dancefloor-shaking DJ sets the pace on the tracks found here. Filled with an eclectic mix of full-on body groovers c/o St. Etienne, Underworld, Mateo Murphy and more, it’s diverse enough to satisfy the clubgoers and those in search of a little something to bring home. 7.5/10 (Heidi Chapson) CD launch at SAT, Fri., Mar. 1, 10pm, $15

Sam Moore Plenty Good Lovin’
(Swing Café/Fusion III)
Not a reissue but a genuine lost album from 1970, dredged up from a particularly bleak period in the life of Moore (the Sam in Sam & Dave). The bleakness doesn’t filter into this set, though. It’s a whole lotta tasty, Memphis-style pop soul, showcasing a voice we all know from hits like “Soul Man” and “I Thank You.” With assists from Bernard Prudie, Donny Hathaway, the Sweet Inspirations, Aretha at the keys and the late, great King Curtis at the board, you know there’s not a bum note in there. It’s not an absolute classic of the genre, but more than good enough to deserve a fate other than languishing in a vault. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Women of Excellence Mass Choir Where There’s a Will There’s a Way (TMG)
Anyone who doubts the power of gospel needs to have a listen to this disc. Recorded live in New Orleans, this is a spiritual revival of the musical kind. Various pastors take turns leading this rocking choir into a near frenzy—the excitement literally bouncing off tracks like “Victory in the Praise,” “Sinners Can Be Winners” and the title track. The vocals on this disc are powerful, but the real star of the show is the exuberant crowd, which supplies enough infectious energy to single-handedly usher in the Second Coming. 7.5/10 (Gerard Dee)

Merzbow/Jazzkammer Live at Molde International Jazz Festival (Smalltown Supersound/Fusion III)
Merzbow, the brainchild of Masami Akita, teams up with the Norwegian electronica duo Jazzkamer for some serious explorations in noise, random electronic blips and bleeps, free jazz and incredible improvisational moments. Merzbow has been dubbed the king of noise and if last year’s 50-CD box set is any indication, deservedly so. Working off of a drum loop, the first untitled piece plods along sluggishly. On the second, untitled piece, though, Merzbow is obviously in the driver’s seat as high frequency sonic assaults, white-noise static and shortwave sweeps mesh with kinetic electro/acoustic notes randomly coaxed before being sucked into a low-resonance drone. Really irritatingly good. 643.837773.473/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Misha Mengelberg Four in One (Songlines)
Pianist/composer Mengelberg is joined here by his longtime musical associate, drummer Han Bennink. They first met musically in the early ’60s and in 1967 were among the founders (in Holland) of the Instant Composers Pool. They are joined by a strong bassist, Brad Jones, who’s worked with Ornette and Elvin, and by Dave Douglas, one of the most forward-looking trumpeters currently active in the jazz scene. Three Monk compositions plus eight by Misha make for a diverse and riveting outing, and with titles like “Hypochristmutreefuzz,” you know you can expect plenty of musical humour. A winner from this Vancouver-based label. 10/10 (Len Dobbin)