Slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow month, with the strongest releases popping up on the industrial/dance/whatever side of the spectrum.

Blaqk Audio - Cex Cells (Interscope)
An expected progression given the interests of Davey and Jade, and Davey’s love of acts such as VNV Nation. Giving his best Dave Gahan impression, the tracks remind you of Depeche Mode at one moment and a VNV Nation track the next. The influences are worn heavily on their sleeves, and while not the most original thing on the block, it is still most impressive and a style that leaves the duo sounding like they are right at home.

KMFDM - TOHUVABOHU (Metropolis)
KMFDM reach an important milestone with their 15th studio album. Their third with a continuously steady line up, the group find themselves combining all sorts of influences while still maintaining their steady signature industrial sound. Always abrasive and politically punishing, the group continues to touch slightly on these angst-ridden subjects with some special touches, including voice mails left on the fan line.

Mae - Singularity (Capitol)
Mae has built quite a name for themselves through the good old fashion way over the course of their first two albums. With Howard Benson producing, the attention to the bass and guitar this time around and inspiration from 90’s rock lend to an enticing album that will appeal to a broader base from the Tooth & Nail days, but may leave some questioning what happened to their dear old Mae.

MIA - Kala (Interscope)
M.I.A. is always eccentric, and always blinding in her choice of colors. Most importantly she makes some damn catchy music that is a mish-mash of influences that create catchy and entrancing musical atmospheres. While it is a sophomore debut with a lot of hype to live up to given the popularity and strength of her debut, it for the most part holds it’s own.

Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight (Brute/Warner)
While they made a cult following with narrative driven tunes on More Adventurous, the follow up is more terse, intense, and flirty. While they never quite struck the chord with the most snobby of indie kids, their indie cred may be called into question this time around. It’s polished the least risky out of all their previous efforts as the group steps onto a major label proper this time around. It gleams from a fresh wax, full of wry and sarcasm, corrupted by the streets of LA.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 6:45 pm and is filed under New Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.