Anaal NathrakhDesideratum (Metal Blade)
DawnbringerNight of the Hammer (Profound Lore)
Genre-hopping Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth pals around with a loose Internet-based network of like-minded artists, and since the release of last year’s Guilt Trips, that network has grown. These days he coproduces Tinychat-based concert series SPF420, and he’s launched a free Web label called Secret Songs. Musicians from both camps appear on Alone for the First Time: the shape-shifting post-R&B tune “By Myself” features cameos from local smooth talker the GTW (an SPF420 alumnus) and ethereal Swedish singer Little Cloud (who released “You” on Secret Songs last month). Hemsworth threads R&B, dance, hip-hop, and all sorts of other bubbling pop sounds into a serene, exotic-sounding mix that Hemsworth keeps plugged in to the constantly changing electronic underground. “Snow in Newark” includes a collage of bell-like synth blips that reminds me of the digital pop madness produced by mysterious British collective-slash-label PC Music; Dexter Tortoriello of Dawn Golden counterbalances those bright sounds with his weary, depressive singing. —Leor Galil
Radian & Howe GelbRadian Verses Howe Gelb (Radian Releases)
With the celebrated 2012 album Luxury Problems, Manchester producer Andy Stott established himself as a force within a certain subset of electronic music: the kind that’s minimal and harrowing, heavy on negative space and gentle, barely-there pulses that endlessly retreat from the core in which they were born. His new Faith in Strangers begins patiently with “Time Away,” a track that’s mostly ambient clouds of celestial noise, swelling and contracting at a barely noticeable rate. It’s not till the fourth of the album’s nine tracks, “Science and Industry,” that a discernible rhythm materializes—a rapid, motorik click-clacking—and it complements rather than compromises the starkness of Stott’s approach. His use of vocals—including those of Alison Skidmore, with whom he collaborated on Luxury Problems—is sparing, but on the title track their warmth offsets the tinny feel of the programmed beats. —Kevin Warwick
TV on the RadioSeeds (Harvest)
