• Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel.... It's been ten years since her last, so learning she had a new record out was a bit of a surprise. It was also a bit of a surprise to hear that she hasn't changed much - she's still doing the same kind of whimsical, angry, off-kilter songs centered around her piano playing and unmistakable voice. The difference this time is that the core of piano and voice is all there is. Her previous records decorated that core with layers and layers of instrumental ornamentation: keyboards, guitars, heavy bass lines, strings, etc.. This time, there's only some skeletal percussion to fill in the spaces: spartan. I kindof miss the rest of the stuff, though. I actually find myself mentally decorating these songs with typical Fiona Apple trappings - "and here's where you'd hear a circus organ doing a melody like this... la la, dee dee deeeee...". I need some more time to get past that.
• Disappears - Pre Language. Picked this up because (possibly defunct) Sonic Youth's drummer, Steve Shelley, is a member. They're loud, grungy, with a strong Sonic Youth vibe (and not just in the drums), and a touch of Joy Division-ish drone. Pretty good.
• Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse. Stoner garage rock with a singer howling from the bottom of a deep well of reverb. Some of it makes me think of early Yo La Tengo doing revved-up versions of early Pink Floyd, some of it is just plain old garage rock. I like it, but it's pretty heavy, so I'm not always up for it.
• Digable Planets - Blowout Comb. I've finally resigned myself to the fact that the only hip-hop I really like is the jazz-influenced, sample-based stuff made in the early 90s: Tribe, De La Soul, Digable Plants, mid-period Beasties. So, this is from 1994. It has the same deeply groovy but laid-back vibe as their fantastic first record: the same unhurried, smoothly-delivered vocals, the strong political element. Great stuff.
• Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle. Part of the same scene that A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul came out of, and pioneers of that jazz/hip-hop fusion. But, this one's a few years older than any of ATCQ's or De La's records (though ATCQ's Q-Tip shows up on a couple of tunes) and so it's got a leaner, rougher and relatively un-polished feel: much more of an old-school vibe - a lot of rapping over a bare drum beat. It's growing on me, though.
• Mos Def - Black On Both Sides. It's from 1999, but, it's still got a strong enough link to the early-90's golden age that I can dig it, even if it's a little on the shouty side for my taste. There are re-uses of samples that ATCQ used, and Q-Tip shows up here, too, on a tune that samples ATCQ's "Sukka Nigga". So: nice.

How bout you - got anything new?