Pitchfork

Pitchfork is celebrating the Fourth of July with...recycled content! Just as we did last year, we're marking the halfway point of the year by highlighting some records we've enjoyed that weren't selected for either our Best New Music or Recommended sections. Regular updates will return on Wednesday, July 5.

 

 

  AFX
  Chosen Lords
  [Rephlex]
  7.9
  Click here for full review

 

 

Richard D. James' first proper full-length since 2001's Drukqs is a masterfully arranged highlights package picked from the Analord bounty.


  Be Your Own Pet
  Be Your Own Pet
  [Ecstatic Peace/Universal]
  Rating: 8.2
  Click here for full review

 

 

Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace issues the debut LP-- sure to garner Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons-- from this young indie rock group.


  Cadence Weapon
  Breaking Kayfabe
  [Upper Class]
  8.0
  Click here for full review

 

 

Rising Canadian hip-hop artist (and, full disclosure: former P4k writer) offers underground-leaning lyrics over gargantuan synth riffs and decidedly non-boom bappy beats.


  Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
  Etiquette
  [Tomlab]
  7.7
  Click here for full review

 

 

 

Owen Ashworth crafts a delicate, affecting soundtrack to life in your mid-twenties.


  Espers
  II
  [Drag City]
  7.9
  Click here for full review

 

 

 

Now a sextet, this Philadelphia band's latest is far darker, deeper, and more ominous than its predecessors.


  Nathan Fake
  Drowning in a Sea of Love
  [Border Community]
  8.4
  Click here for full review

 

 

Debut LP from one of techno's poster boys delivers on the promise of his singles.

  FM3
  The Buddha Machine
  [Staalplaat]
  8.2
  Click here for full review

 

 

 

What looks like a small transistor radio, complete with two AA batteries, turns out to be an ambient machine programmed with nine continuous loops.


  Howe Gelb
  'Sno Angel Like You
  [Thrill Jockey]
  8.3
  Click here for full review

 

 

 

Giant Sand leader teams with gospel choir Voices of Praise on this delicately sparse album.


  Jesu
  Silver EP
  [Hydra Head]
  7.9
  Click here for full review

 

 

 

Justin Broadrick again shows the world's neo-shoegazers how it should be done.


  Nomo
  New Tones
  [Ubiquity]
  8.4
  Click here for full review

 

 

The Michigan group's Afrobeat-inspired music coalesces into a harder, funkier, and more galvanizing sound on its latest album, which includes a Joanna Newsom cover.


  Shearwater
  Palo Santo
  [Misra]
  7.6
  Click here for full review

 

 

Okkervil River keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg takes the reins on the latest record from this side project, resulting in the group's best effort to date.


  Voxtrot
  Raised By Wolves EP / Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP
  [Cult Hero]
  7.8/8.2
  Click here for full review

 

 

Indie pop buzz band impresses with its first two EPs, each full of deft arrangments and charming melodies that evoke Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, and the Lucksmiths.