Greyboy
15 Years of West Coast Cool
Ubiquity
Street: 11.04
Greyboy = Nightmares on Wax + DJ Shadow
Fifteen years is a big chunk of time for a DJ to be around and have survived the decline of the solo turntable spinner that boomed and busted in the 80s and 90s. Greyboy, Andreas Stevens, made it out alive and long enough to release this best-of to fans of the hip-hop-spliced jazz he is respected for ushering in. I enjoy this shit and don’t have many gripes with it. I could do with just the instrumentals, though; I respect the guy’s ability to sample without having MCs and vocalists—which a few of the tracks do feature. If you could imagine a release of such chill beats and mellow interludes that would render your being utterly jazzed, you have Greyboy’s latest. This is fine spirit drinking music meant for makin’ rugrats and memories and not for those fiending for Adderall and tricked-out club computery. –JP

Guillotine
Blood Money
Pulverised Records
Street: 10.27
Guillotine = Destruction + Slayer + Kreator
From two power metal bands—one highly notorious in the scene, Nocturnal Rites, and one not as known, but just as killer, Persuader—comes Sweden’s Guillotine. A surprising output, considering both bands play distinctly different styles than what Guillotine is peddling. The band wears their influences on their sleeves without question; upon the immediate listening of Blood Money’s opening cuts, you hear all brands of thrash, but the strongest style coming through is German-style thrash metal. These guys basically have two speeds of playing: fast and even faster, with plenty of nice grooves and wailing solos. The neo-thrash movement may still be coming, but many of the bands I’ve come across are playing the Americanized thrash stuff, with lots of punk rock influences. Guillotine have more of a classic metal effect in their tunes. Once you’re done listening to this sucker, you’ll just go straight back to track one and love it all over again. –Bryer Wharton

The Happy Hollows
Imaginary EP
Heart
Street: 10.21
The Happy Hollows = The Eyeliners + Ditty Bops + Tilly and the Wall + Pixies
The Happy Hollows were on the brink of something amazing. Sadly, someone stepped on a booby trap and sent them tumbling into an out-of-tune, overly repetitive, screeching mess. Singer Sarah Negahdari has a sneaky way of using her voice. She starts sweet and only slightly annoying, then back-kicks you in the face with stalker ex-girlfriend rage. Take out the whiney screeches and lazy back-ups and there’s something great below. Negahdari’s guitar and simple “ooo-hoos,” mixed with quick rampaging bass to drumbeats, show that The Happy Hollows have talent—they’re simply trying too hard to be “abstract” to use it well. –Jessica Davis

Head Resonance Company + Peter Pixel
19 Tracks for Unknown People 1980-1984
Beta-lactam Ring
Street: 08.08
Head Resonance Company + Peter Pixel = Can + Tones on Tail + Psychic TV
Benjamin Heidersberger and Peter “Pixel” Elsner founded the Head Resonance Company in the late ’70s, an organization they used to explore space and time in visual and aural arts (the collective is still going strong today, as you can see on the accompanying DVD). This collection of dusty musical archives bears a resemblance to the global attitudes of the time (i.e., Berlin, New York), HRC using whatever instrument at their disposal to craft deft non-music in a post-punk/no-punk era. Scrappy drum machines crackle under walking basslines, synth bells and bit-reduced news reporters (“4”), delay pedals feedback wildly with horn fragments, thunderous brass and “warning!” sirens (“6”), and robots make they own version of jazz via Moogs and energy stabs (“10”). The Peter Pixel portion (the last five tracks) is less improvisation, more song structured, but about as pop as Einsturzende Neubauten. –Dave Madden

Hellveto
Neoheresy
Pulverised Records
Street: 10.27
Helvetto = Satyricon (old) + Bathory (melodic era) + Fear of Eternity
Hellveto is a one-man project from Poland, and the creator, L.O.N., has a few other projects, most of which he is the lone performer. Hellveto is the most active of the projects, formed in 1995, with quite a large discography. After plenty of listens to Neoheresy, I’m still on the fence about the artist, Hellveto is pagan/folk/black orchestral metal. I give L.O.N. credit where it is due, since I can’t fathom how it would be to write all the instruments in the music and have it all come together in the end. The songs on Neoheresy are highly atmospheric, and surprisingly diverse in instances, but also redundant in instances. Hence, my main gripes within the record: I am not a big fan of the creation of vocal-choir-type sounds with synths; it sounds like what it is: fake. At times, the main guitar is scathingly terrific, but then there are songs where the riff is just repeated. Initial listens will satisfy, but in the end, you, like me, may need something more. –Bryer Wharton