Music

1. 

   1. Comets on Fire: Avatar

   With every album, Bay Area bad boys Comets on Fire just get better and better. Avatar has more of a classic-rock sound for the band, augmented by the chaos-punk-psych jams that ruled their earlier ...read more

2. 

   2. Citay: s/t

   This album actually came out a few months ago, but it somehow slipped my notice. Well, better late than never, as they say. Citay, a Bay Area band led by Ezra Feinberg of Piano Magic and Tim Green ...read more

3. 

   3. Espers: II

   In the last few years there has been quite a few bands openly embracing all things folk and psych but very few have released such a fully realized and carefully calibrated album as Espers have with...read more

4. 

   4. Evangelicals: So Gone

   Oklahoma’s Evangelicals’ debut So Gone seamlessly blends a colorful array of wayward musics into an evocative tapestry of pop, psychedelia and prog. Brandishing a miasma of high-energy ...read more

5. 

   5. Fresh Maggots: Hatched

   Incredible reissue from this obscure U.K. acid-folk duo! This, their sole album, was originally released on RCA in 1971 when they were both just 19! The record is filled with gorgeous acoustic inte...read more

6. 

   6. Psychic Ills: Dins

   These twisted Brooklyn kids have given us the true psych-jam of 2006, a reverb-heavy, drone-filled freak out that recalls everything from the Velvets to Spacemen 3 to Amon Duul.read more

7. 

   7. Animal Collective: Feels

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8. 

   8. Animal Collective: Sung Tongs

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9. 

   9. Animal Collective: Here Comes the Indian

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10. 

    10. Akron/Family: Akron/Family

    The debut from these Williamsburg freak-folksters was one of the best albums of 2005, an endlessly beautiful, rich and inventive record that established these youngsters as one of folk’s lead...read more

11. 

    11. Syd Barrett: The Madcap Laughs

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12. 

    12. Syd Barrett: Barrett

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13. 

    13. Syd Barrett: Opel

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14. 

    14. Robert Wyatt: The End Of An Ear

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15. 

    15. Robert Wyatt: Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard

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16. 

    16. Roger Rodier: Upon Velveatur

    To our ears, this is the best reissue of 2006. Often compared to the work of Nick Drake, Upon Velveatur is a dense and mysterious French-Canadian folk-psych suite, featuring beautiful melodies, lus...read more

17. 

    17. Oakley Hall: Gypsum Strings

    Following in the tradition of rock-psych-country legends such as the Grateful Dead and Flying Burrito Brothers, Brooklyn’s own Oakley Hall delivers an album full of explorations into the magi...read more

18. 

    18. Popol Vuh: Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin

    A very dark and cinematically vast 1981 Popul Vuh album produced by Klaus Schulze finally reissued. Features hauntedly beautiful chorus vocals from the Bavarian State Opera, which give Florian Fric...read more

19. 

    19. Six Organs of Admittance: The Sun Awakens

    A fabulous and lush new album by Ben Chasny, a.k.a. Six Organs of Admittance. On this album, his second for the always reliable Drag City, Chasney takes us on many musical voyages into the lands o...read more

20. 

    20. The Clientele: Strange Geometry

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21. 

    21. The Clientele: The Violet Hour

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22. 

    22. The Clientele: Suburban Light

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23. 

    23. Comets on Fire: Blue Cathedral

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24. 

    24. Comets on Fire: Field Recordings from the Sun

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25. 

    25. Comets on Fire: Comets on Fire

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26. 

    26. Dead Meadow: Feathers

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27. 

    27. Dead Meadow: Shivering King and Others

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28. 

    28. Dungen: Ta Det Lugnt

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29. 

    29. Roky Erickson: Gremlins Have Pictures

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30. 

    30. Espers: The Weed Tree

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31. 

    31. Espers: Espers

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32. 

    32. The Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics

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33. 

    33. The Flaming Lips: Hit To Death in the Future Head

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34. 

    34. The Flaming Lips: Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell [EP]

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35. 

    35. The Flaming Lips: Hear It Is

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36. 

    36. The Flaming Lips: Zaireeka

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37. 

    37. The Flaming Lips: A Collection Of Songs Representing An Enthusiasm For Recording...By Amateurs

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38. 

    38. The Mars Volta: Amputechture

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39. 

    39. Popul Vuh: 70’s Progressives

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40. 

    40. Soft Machine: Backwards

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41. 

    41. Soft Machine: Noisette

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42. 

    42. Soft Machine: Grides

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43. 

    43. Soft Machine: Virtually

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44. 

    44. Soft Machine: Spaced

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45. 

    45. White Magic: Dat Rosa Mel Apibus

    Freak-folk continues to flourish in Brooklyn, as shown on the second album by this shifting ensemble led by Mira Billotte (Quixotic). One of the aspects that sets White Magic apart from others on t...read more

46. 

    46. Deerhunter: Cryptograms

    Spectacular. Talk about a record coming out of nowhere! A surprisingly rockin’ record from Kranky, the label who in the past few years have been known for a steady output of electronica, ambi...read more

47. 

    47. Brightblack Morning Light: Motion to Rejoin

    I’m not sure there’s any record in recent memory that falls under the category of “grower” more than Brightblack Morning Light’s self-titled album from two years ago. ...read more

48. 

    48. Woods: Songs of Shame

    Words will never quite be enough for Woods. Not to suggest this Brooklyn outfit is The. Greatest. Thing. Ever!, just that when I tell you Songs of Shame is a collection of ramshackle floaty folk-ro...read more

49. 

    49. Wooden Shjips: Dos

    Wooden Shjips have a bunch of small-press vinyl releases, singles and even cassettes (a recent cassingle benefited SF’s Food Bank—nice one, dudes), but their one previous “proper&...read more

50. 

    50. Weekends: s/t

    Hailing from Baltimore, the mid-Atlantic’s unlikely cultural locus, Weekends have unleashed an essential CD-r of summer jams for both the all-ages set and the bitter, curmudgeonly thirty-some...read more

Tags: acid , americana , art-rock , avant-garde , classic , country , drone , experimental , experimental-rock , folk , free-jazz , garage , guitar , heavy , improvisation , indie , instrumental , krautrock , metal , off-beat , pop , post-punk , post-rock , prog , psychedelic , quirky , reissue , rock , singer-songwriter , soundtrack , space-rock , stoner , underground , williamsburg