Jεllyfiѕн - Spilt Milк (1993)

One of the best pop albums of the 1990's by a hefty margin and a textbook example of how good power pop should sound without getting stuck into typical album pacing issues. Lots to love here, including the cool as cool strut of 'New Mistake", minor FM classics like 'Bye, Bye, Bye' and 'The Ghost Of Number One' and the plucky acoustics of 'Russian Hill' that blooms like a flower into vintage, glorious Brian Wilson territory.

In other words, an absolute classic from two decades back, and essential listening if you have any interest in alternative rock. Or, hell, if you have any interest in music at all.

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Tнε Hεαvy Bliиkεяs - Tнε Nigнτ Aиd I Aяε Sτill So Yoυиg (2004)

Young, Canadian and vitally alive with the tremendous, timeless spirit of late 60's baroque pop, Tнε Hεαvy Bliиkεяs are an indie bunch with a fine ear for orchestrations and harmony, making things tick like fine clockwork toward a certain confectionery perfection...an ambition brought to fruition in 2004's Tнε Nigнτ Aиd I Aяε Sτill So Yoυиg.

Distinctive in many fashions but cut from the same glorious genetic cloth as outfits such as The Zombies, Todd Rundgren and The Association, I can only hope these guys continue to bless this ADD-riddled musical world with more timeless melody as the years roll on, and I don't think I'm the only one who'd like that either!

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Tнε Exploяεяs Club - Fяεεdoм Wiиd (2008)

A fantastic young band who do their darndest to recreate early 70's Beach Boys sonically, but this debut album fares better than Wilson and co.'s output around that period on an overall songwriting front, especially when it comes to track-to-track progression.

Their sophomore release is actually coming out this year, so if you dig these classic-sounding power pop vignettes you are in for a sweet, sweet little treat within the next few months.

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Sαlyu x Sαlyu - s(o)uи(d)bεαмs (2011)

Bizarre, bodacious, bombastic, beautiful and brazen - these are but a few numerous adjectives that come to mind when I think of this glorious collaborative effort between J-Pop singer/songstress Sαlyu and the ever fascinatingly eccentric Cornelius behind the deck.

Avant-garde doesn't even being to describe the tendencies within. Delicious J-Funk ('Mirror Neurotic') cuts a swath through the eerie vocalizations of After Dinner inspired cuts like 'Rain Boots De Odorimashou' and the gorgeous 7-minute wonderland sprawl of a title piece. You begin to wonder after awhile just how much beauty and madness can get stuffed into a single set of recordings, but then give up somewhere halfway and let the whole morass sink in with a great wooosh.

Arresting, insane, passionate and occasionally catchier than a 15th century death plague, I could see myself giving this as a birthday gift to someone else's significant other. Maybe they'll stop listening to The Jonas Brothers after a couple of rounds with this sucker!

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Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - S/T (1987)

There's something soothing about the voices of people crying out together in harmonious enlightenment, alone in the vastness of an aged hall or the open sky. This particular beauty, the debut album of from a famous Balkan World Music ensemble, captures for me an elusive timeless spark, an oh-so-brief peek into the transcendentalist of music that goes back centuries beyond 2010 trends and conceptual ideas.

As the tide of this record washes past me, to mind arrives a poem by a writer I've come admire as of late, the macabre and talented Clark Ashton Smith, in which he describes a sunrise-

The moon declines in lonely gold

Among the stars of ashen-grey—
Veiling the pallors of decay
With clouds and glories, fold on fold.

Now, in a crystal interlude,
Stillness and twilight briefly rest,
Ere sudden gules illume the crest
Of peaks where solemn purples brood;

And from the low Favonian bourn
A sweet wind blows so lightly by
It seems the futile silver sigh
Breathed by the lingering moon forlorn.

This won't be everybody's cup of tea, but it certainly soothes like a motherfucker when you hit a certain state of mind. Ambient muzak for Eastern European horse farmers, lulz.  

Listen Here - "Polegnala e Todora"

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