Bear In Heaven - I Love You It's Cool buy this
I Love You It's Cool is the follow up release of the group's 2009 groovy cryptic classic Beast Rest Forth Mouth.Bear In Heaven turn in a slick Brooklyn laced Synth pop album that's has a feel that the Pet Shop Boys would be envious of. I dare you to not groove to this one.
-Noel

Matthew Dear - Beams buy this
Matthew Dear has been releasing albums for years now from the Ann Arbor label Ghostly International, always seemingly looking forward.Beams ignores the Electronic label/tag, and at times Dear seems to gleam a Bowie-esqe like figure of our generation in a style of all his own. Very danceable, dark soulful electro grooves.
- Noel

Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces buy this
Canadian artist Sandro Perri crafts some very imaginative landscapes within his lyrics and guitar work on Impossible Spaces.Musicians playing together in a restrained yet thoughtful way that leads some tunes to build up into a jazz inflected psych-synth bulidup.Impossible Spaces Is a sleeper album at the same time as being one of the more refreshing of albums released in 2012.
-Noel

Heavy Blanket - Heavy Blanket buy this
OKAY, so J Mascis gets together with his buddies in high school. They get stoned, come up with an awesome band just in time for one of the young trouble-makers to get caught and thrown in the pen! Present day: Dude gets out of jail, wants to resurrect The Masterpiece, thus Heavy Blanket is born!!! Basically, J Mascis in all of his righteousness, riffin' for 37 minutes :D WICKED!
Recommended if you like: J Mascis, marijuana, etc!
-A.A.M.

The Men - Open Your Heart buy this
c. 2012 It seems rare that rock bands combine both a wildness and energy & melody. 'Open Your Heart' is a rare outlier in this way, neither is sacrificed. The sounds on this album recall the 'smart-punk' of mid to late SST label classics, (ie. Dino Jr, Husker, Sonic Youth) but with a bit more devotion to groove & riff (think Motorhead or Stooges). They seem to possess a special gift for dropping in more far-flung influences that flow super naturally. I hear some twang, shoe-gaze, kraut, but the record still flows. It's been a long time since I've heard a stretch of songs as exhilarating as tracks 5-7 on this one. Very fresh.
-G.B.

Daphne Oram - The Daphne Oram Tapes buy this
This is an amazing collection of previously unheard, unreleased tracks from The First Lady of BBC Radiophonic workshop. She was truly one of the most experimental, visionary pioneers of electronic music, and left behind over 400 reel to reels of totally unknown recordings, of which the contents of this release were gleaned. If you dig on the warm, womb-y warbles of analog synths, this CD is for you. RIYL: Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, etc.!
*Also available on super-sexy triple gatefold LP! Yum!
-Danielle