ENTOMBED
Inferno (Music for Nations/Koch)
Entombed have always been ahead of the game. Just look at their career dating back to when they helped redefine death metal with the classic Wolverine Blues, or gave up a heavy dose of rock with the amazing To Shoot Straight. On this one, they once again don’t disappoint and perhaps have found the ultimate meeting ground of metal and rock. With last year’s Mourning Star, Entombed started to return to their metal roots and Inferno once again has them redefining the metal/rock hybrid that they helped create. This is guaranteed to be a big one in the underground metal world. Open up your mouth and say "Awwwwwwesome"! 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)

METRIC
Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (Last Gang/DKD)
It’s no surprise that Metric’s founders, Emily Haines and James Shaw, share breeding with Stars and Broken Social Scene. In fact, the pair is part of BSS’s rotating cast. This debut album pairs powerful, minimal guitars with sweet vintage keys, pausing the pop here and there for a quietly persuasive ballad. A handful of these tunes will happily nest in your head for hours, partly for their manipulative melodies, mostly for Haines’ beautiful, pliant voice, smart words and sense of humour. Without her tart intimations and syrupy la-la-las, this pie is all crust. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) At Casa del Popolo on Wednesday, July 23, 9pm

VARIOUS
New York Noise (Soul Jazz/Fusion III)
Setting its sights on the NYC underground c. 1980, this authoritative comp gathers tracks from the brief but bright clusterfuck where punk, disco, avant-jazz, funk and embryonic hip hop and world beat collided. There’s the mutant dance jams of Bill Laswell’s Material and Liquid Liquid, the jagged, schizoid jazz-punk of DNA and the Contortions, the left-handed funk of Konk, the Dance and Defunkt, the estrogenized, minimalist grooves of Bush Tetras, ESG and Lizzy Mercier Descloux and the protorap of Rahmelzee Vs. K.Rob. Anyone digging the "now" sound of the Rapture, Playgroup et al. pretty much needs this on their shelf, as it sets the stage for the Yes New York comp reviewed below... 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

MARS VOLTA
De-loused in the Comatorium (GSL/Universal)
One look at the album’s title and fans of At the Drive-In can relish the fact that vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala (how dope is that name?) is still delivering incendiary lyricism with a powerful voice. ATDI’s Omar Alfredo Rodriguez-Lopez handles the kinetic guitar on an album with the same trademark versatility and style that made At the Drive-In great. But Mars Volta stands strong as its own entity, delving into Latin grooves, dubby segues and intense jams - check out "Cicatriz Esp" for a clue. With bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante lending their funk to a plethora of vibrant tracks, this’ll be in my CD player for quite some time. 8.5/10 (Lateef Martin)

VARIOUS
Yes New York (Wolfgang Morden/Warner)
A quarter century after Brian Eno’s no wave comp No New York comes another 16-track scene document, this one representing the city’s recent rock renaissance. It starts with the Strokes, of course, and ends with a Yeah Yeah Yeahs rarity, but the real meat is in the middle (or the first two-thirds, really). Calla, Interpol, the Walkmen, four of DFA’s punk-funk productions and a few up-and-comers take us to shadow-wrapped, shimmering, revved-up and party-bound places. The highlights are sturdy and wonderfully diverse, but not quite plentiful enough to smother all the bum notes. 7/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

MICHAEL YONKERS BAND
Microminiature Love (Sub Pop)
History Lesson: Minneapolis’s Yonkers records this record in 1968 but doesn’t get it released until last year on some tiny label. Sub Pop picks it up and soon has everybodyscratching their heads, wondering what the hell took so long. Yonkers’ sound is somewhere between Cleveland proto-punkers Peter Laughner, Rocket From the Tombs and Thirteenth Floor Elevators. This is so good, one wonders why it took over 35 years for him to be discovered. This is no mere revisionist musichistory trip either - songs like "Smile Awhile" and "Puppeting" easily stand up today. This should appeal to anyone who wants to hear the beginnings of experimental rock as well as some serious paint-peeling garage. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)

THE LOCUST
Plague Soundscapes (Anti/Epitaph)
The aptly named San Diego fourpiece come on like a swarm of cacophonous, carnivorous creatures, devouring hardcore, punk, death metal and grindcore and spitting out their most painful and complex effort to date. In fact, their pained screeches and otherworldly guitar and keyboard explosions would do well as an alternate soundtrack for the apocalyptic epidemic zombie flick 28 Days Later (a logical step since their appearance in the a recent Troma film). With surreal song titles like "Identity Exchange Program Rectum Return Policy," quasi-poetic, postmodern lyrics that read like Gwar haikus and a sound of pure evil at 200 miles an hour, this is surely the epitome of the music your mother warned you about. 7/10 (Raf Katigbak)

DUDLEY PERKINS
A Lil’ Light (Stones Throw)
I’ve always been fascinated by people who have no notable singing skills to speak of, but seem to have no fear either. Dudley Perkins, aka Declaime, may not possess the greatest of crooning voices, but with the help of Madlib’s musical backdrop (sometimes bordering on ridiculous) these two are on to something. From the untamed poetry of D’s seemingly unscripted rants, or the simplistic shower-ditties that he haphazardly harmonizes throughout, I can’t help but feel this. The beats are tight, and even though some of the songs are straight up annoying, I still manage to sing along rather than skip to the next track. It all sounds like fun, but some of it ventures into classic material territory. 8.5/10 (Scott C)

FAT TRUCKERS
self-titled (IDG/Fusion III)
The production quality from Sheffield synth-punks Fat Truckers is great - hardline electro beats, simple and thrusting basslines and dirty fuzzed-out synths-as-guitars. Indeed, as an instrumental album this would have been great. Sadly, the monotone vocals and played-out lyrical subject matter (could we please stop talking about how much we love our computers!) drop this album from great to almost unbearable. Sure, maybe these tracks were meant for DJs who pick one song to play in their set (some wax slingers have already picked up on "Superbike," strangely enough one of the weakest songs on the album), but as a whole, this album gets pretty boring pretty fast. Pity. Check out Electronicat instead (see one-liner below). 5/10 (Raf Katigbak)

DJ FORMAT
Music for the Mature B-Boy (Genuine/PIAS)
As we all get older and try to figure out what it is that makes hip hop special to each of us, the process can be a touchy one. Format has cut to the chase here, releasing what he’s feeling right now, with no regard for "the in sound." Big drums and breaks with the b-boys in mind pepper this record, along with the air of serious fun lingering heavy in the room. Our own MC Abdominal gets mad love on this LP with no less than three tracks where he flexes his signature Abnormal flow, especially on my fave "The Hit Song." Although Format is from Brighton, he seems to have tapped into the undiscovered country of Canadian MC talent. It’s not like we’re using the good ones right, so why not? I like this LP because the DJs, the MCs and the dancers can all get off on some part of this record. 8/10 (Scott C)

ASHANTI
Chapter II (Def Jam/Universal)
Not as instantly accessible as last year’s surprisingly solid self-titled debut, Ashanti’s latest finds its strength in breezy mid-tempo grooves like "Breakup 2 Makeup" and "Feels So Good." Lead single "Rock Wit U (Aww Baby)" and her credible version of the Fatback Band’s classic "I Found Lovin’" are likable summer jams, but the best moments here aren’t happy ones. The fatalistic "Then Ya Gone" finds her reminiscing about a lover who died young, and she’s clearly at the end of her rope on the dramatic "Carry On." Too many interludes and Murder Inc. shout-outs bog this one down, but Ashanti’s story continues to unfold nicely. 7.5/10 (Gerard Dee)

MOODYMAN
Silence in the Secret Garden (Peace Frog/Fusion III)
A fitting album title for Detroit’s Kenny Dixon, aka Moodyman, who possesses the greenest thumbs in electronic music. Horns, Rhodes and electric piano hallmark the jazzy funk of the house cuts (de rigueur for his albums). The other material is haunting, bare-bones electro, inviting a foray into the garden of the psyche. A bossa nova jam with an analog beat-box feel turns out only to be a rest stop on the journey - too bad. "Yesterdays Party" meanders back and forth between an entrancing shuffle rhythm and a straight four-to-thebar loop. Ardent followers take note, "Silence" is typical Kenny Dixon: strange, wonderful and well, moody. 8.5/10 (Peter Lightburn)

JOHNNY HODGES
The Jeep Is Jumpin’ (Proper Box)
Another great (and inexpensive) four-CD set from this English label. Best known for his work with the Duke Ellington band, Hodges was an influential musician, once referred to as "the Lily Pons of the alto" by Charlie Parker. This set spans close to 15 years, from 1937 through 1952, and includes titles originally recorded for labels like Variety, Vocalion, Bluebird, Wax, Mercer, Vogue, Clef and Norgran. These are sides made away from the Ellington big band but that do include the piano of Duke (and Billy Strayhorn) as well as musicians like Jimmy Blanton, Don Byas, Oscar Pettiford, Quentin Jackson and Harold "Shorty" Baker. Besides the title piece, "Good Queen Bess," "Squatty Roo," "Passion Flower," "Jeep’s Blues" and "Day Dream" are among those included along with the usual informative booklet. 9.5/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

MARTIAL SOLAL NY-1: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note/EMI) Joined by François Moutin and Bill Stewart, this is the great European pianist near the top of his game. 9 (LD)

KY Doodling on Jazz (Fading Ways) Robin Black’s right-hand man lets loose on his own, and on an acoustic, no less. I know, sounds like a recipe for disaster but it’s cool. Like Redd Kross meets Bowie and T Rex. 8.5 (JC)

ELECTRONICAT 21st Century Toy (Disko B) Parisian producer balances just the right amount of rock, electro, singing and instrumentals to produce a well-rounded synth-rock album. For fans of Stereo Total. 8 (RK)

ROSEBUDDY The Scent and the Sound EP (independent) Local raunch-poppers still tilting at the silk-vs.-sandpaper windmill, and nailing it as often as not (though the vocals could use some cojones). 7.5 (RB) CD launch at Club One, Fri., July 18, 9pm, $5

THE TYDE Twice (Rough Trade) From California, some pastoral pop that rambles, jangles and sometimes spirals out into space. 7.5 (LC) With the Pernice Brothers at Café Campus, Wed., July 23, 8pm, $10

THE DAGONS Teeth for Pearls (Dead Sea Captain) With an unearthly lady singer and a penchant for garage rock and waltz time, L.A.’s Dagons deliver uneven, lo-fi fairy tales. 6.5 (LC)

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