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selector 23 - handpicked dub: Bobble is back under his alter ego, and comes correct with a handful of dubalicious choons on the way chill tip. Hoo-rah!

graham - house of dub: Serving as a solid soundclash champion companion piece to the selctor 23's offering, we have graham's latest mix of dub infused house. Woot!

keene brothers - Blues and Boogie Shoes: One part genius, one part audio pac rat, Robert Pollard returns with three seperate releases, all under different pseudonyms. To save you the hassle, you shouldn't bother with the other two (Pyscho and the Birds & The Takeovers). Out of the three, this is certainly the most accessable, and also my favorite, so there.

xiu xiu - The Air Force: Do these guys try this hard to suck so bad? This is as exciting as watching mud dry.

mission of burma - The Obliterati: I'm not afriad to admit that I never liked these guys the first time around even though they were somewhat required listening for the boston music scene. But because they were locals, they were also easily dismissed as a local band. My copy of vs. quickly became a coaster. After all we had the Bosstones, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, Gang Green Sebadoh, and Slapshot to listen to if we wanted to bask in Beantown pride. Re-united in 2004-ish, this is their second 'post-hiatus' album. Decent stuff for all you revivalists.

tosca - Souvenirs: Leaps and bounds better than last year's JAC, the album which features the originals to this album full of remixes. This is more in the vein of how the past two tosca full-lengths should have sounded. "You're a philosopher?"

jamie lidell - Multiply Additions: You guessed it, jamie hands us a bunch of extras to bookend the very well received multiply. Unlike the tosca remixes, these remixes and a couple of live cuts do little to eclipse their predecessor, which is perhaps for the best.

keane - Under the Iron Sea: Not to be confused with the aforementioned keene brothers, we have just plain keane, who are still hopelessly stuck in limbo between coldplay and pablo honey. Darker, and a hinting at a bit more depth, this is certainly a step up from their debut.

the sleepy jackson - Personality, One Was a Spider One Was a Bird: Sophomore set from these aussies is top notch. I've only listened through once so far, and it's already made it into my car. Maybe because it has some latter day mercury rev sounding elements, which I am a total sucker for.

junior boys - So This Is Goodbye: There was a lot of fuss surrounding their debut and although I enjoyed it, I was not particularlty amazed by it. Their follow up is also enjoyable but hardly amazing.