If there's one thing Tim Hecker has mastered, it's consistency. He's been mining the same formula for four albums now, and although they may seem very similar on the surface, closer attention reveals a certain glacial progress.

Hecker's sound is similar to what I'd expect if Kevin Shields collaborated with the Hafler Trio. It's a dense, swirling buzz of feedback, static and distant shortwave effluvia organized into something resembling music. At first, it seems random and homogenous, but listen deeper and you'll find a wealth of carefully wrought detail. The washes of tempered noise and obfuscation hide the fact that all the underlying elements are carefully arranged and structured. This isn't ambient music in that it demands close listening and scrutiny to resolve the fine details.

This month's theme was "soundtracks."  Finally, a chance to put Ennio Morricone and Yoko Kanno on one disc!

If you'd like a copy, let me know.

This one came in under the radar for me. In the initial announcement from Warp, it was somewhere in the middle of the list, and since it wasn't immediately identified as the new Chris Clark record (apparently he's just going by his surname now), I didn't take notice.

The lack of a huge promotional push could be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm for the record, and the initial reviews were a bit lackluster, claiming the record was somewhat dull and monochromatic.

On first listen, I was inclined to agree. There's nothing here approaching the hell-on-wheels ecstacy of the first …

This happy little nugget is from the new Tool record. A friend bought me a copy for my birthday, and I have to say, it's quite good. Listening to it through headphones, I noticed the drums (Danny Carey is a wonderful drummer, BTW) sounded "mushy," particularly the snare. The decay on the cymbals was muted as well.

I went ahead and ripped it, which was no small feat, since the CD is copy-protected. Thank goodness for Linux and cdparanoia. My hatred for copy-protection is a whole other topic, but I did …

I've gotten quite a bit of mail asking me why I haven't reviewed Untilted yet. To put it as plainly as possible, I don't think I will.

You see, before reviewing something, I'll listen to it in its entirety at least twice–closely, and to the exclusion of all else. That's really the only reliable (and honest) way to get a true feel for a record.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to do that with the latest Autechre because it's just plain unlistenable.

I've bested every intellectual challenge they've thrown at me, and I've found beauty in their worst moments, but this is …

As far as most people know, 1974's Autobahn was Kraftwerk's first album. It's certainly the one that solidified their image and sound, and as far as the band is concerned, it's supposed to be their first record.

The truth is something different and far more interesting, however.

Autobahn was actually their fourth album. In fact, the band had been recording since 1970, going through a couple of lineup changes and honing their sound. Autobahn saw them settling on their now-familiar sound, which was largely dominated by computerized instrumentation and robotic vocals. The music was simple and repetitive, but …

In the last half of the 20th century, it took alot of nerve for composers in academic circles to write tonal, listenable music.

In the "serious" music world, if you wanted to be taken seriously, your work had to be an impenetrable, dissonant intellectual piece of unplayable wankery. I know; I was there. I spent countless hours poring over Carter's byzantine (and IMO, pointless) complexity, all the while wondering if anyone actually enjoyed this stuff.

I was an outcast for writing stuff that actually had recognizable harmonic structure. I was also the only guy in the department who didn't …

One thing I've always found disconcerting is the logic behind those "you might also like…" lists. You know what I mean; on Amazon and alot of online record stores, a computerized algorythm guesses your tastes based on other items you've purchased and tries to make reasonable recommendations.

It's especially hilarious if you spend some time browsing for David Hasselhoff and Yanni between your regular fare ("Customers who purchased this item also purchased The Best of Zamfir: King of the Pan Flute")

In any case, my tastes in music tend to run toward the esoteric stuff that leaves most people scratching their …

I'm not sure where to start on this one. Goldmund is the alter-ego of Keith Kenniff, a Boston-based musician who's done some superb electronic work for Type over the last couple of years. I ordered this sight-unseen, and although I expected something different, this took me completely by surprise.

Kenniff's discarded all his computerized trappings in favor of an album of mostly solo piano. There are thirteen short tracks, unified by the influence of American Civil-War music. It's an odd, elegaic and beautiful record, and certainly the last thing I expected.

I'm not sure what to …

Well, it's about damn time. This is a classic recording that's been out of print for almost ten years. I lost mine awhile back and regretted it ever since. The good folks at Ryko have finally acquired the rights and reissued it with an excellent remastering job.

I've always been somewhat ambivalent in my feelings toward the Kronos Quartet. On one hand, I'm grateful for the job they've done exposing the public to new and challenging repetoire, and they approach their work with a great deal of skill and enthusiasm.

On the other hand, their enthusiasm sometimes gets …

Sound waves are delicate and fragile things. They need a medium simply to exist at all, and any variations or interference in the ether can change their whole character.

Ever since 33.3 LPs started coming out in stereo, we've had an obsession with recording accurate sound. You can spend anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of million dollars setting up just the right acoustic space, you can position the baffles and mics just so, isolate and eliminate residual hum…you name it, just to get the exact right sound on tape (or these days, disk).

Some folks are just …

New mix up at AOTM. As always, if you're interested in a copy, let me know. And, no, don't ask how I got the Boards of Canada this early.

1) Broken Social Scene: KC Accidental

2) Menomena: The Late Great Libido

3) Architecture in Helsinki: Maybe You Can Owe Me

4) Sufjan Stevens: All Good Naysayers, Speak Up!

5) Butterfly Child: Young Virgins Cry for Mutiny

6) Books: There Is No There

7) Bark Psychosis: 400 Winters

8) Prefuse 73/The Books: Pagina Ocho

9) Boards of Canada: Dayvan Cowboy

10) Explosions in the Sky: Your Hand in …