Wondering what to expect from this weekend’s special live collaboration between Carl Craig, Moritz Von Oswald and Francesco Tristano? Try a seamless blend of twitchy techno, jilted jazz and piano progressions that hint at neo-classical movements and house music, as heard in the trio’s set at Versus 2.0 last year…

A Short Review: Like a fog slowly wrapping its tendrils around a slow-moving car, Nurse With Wound’s surgically enhanced version of Sunn O)))’s ØØ Void record takes its sweet time building a creeping, pervasive sense of dread before bursting into flames three tracks, and more than 35 minutes, in. Scream/Goatsnake vocalist Pete Stahl also enters the proceedings around this point, muttering something about “ash on the trees” as om-chanting monks close a circle around him and the ravaged riffs of Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley.

A masterful piece of macerated minimalism, rounded out by brief, cloud-parting glimpses of hope.

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes · Spotify

Since his U.S. tour is set to wind down this Sunday at Le Bain in New York, we asked Beni to give us a quick tour of his record crate with an exclusive house mix. Here’s what he came up with…

1. Dj Raziek – Wake up (Zombie Disco Squad Remix)
2. Crazibiza – Back2house
3. Craig Hamilton – Glasgow Acid
4. The Rapture – How deep is your love (Cassian Remix)
5. Gene Farris – the deputy
6. Karol XVII & MB Valence – Crowded House
7. Beni – It’s A Bubble (Round Table Knights Remix)
8. Crazibiza – My Lips
9. Gesaffelstien – control movement
10. Phil Kieran & Green Velvet – Michael Jackson (Mic Jack In Version)

Beni’s House of Beni LP is available now through Modular.

Here’s a seemingly endless DJ set that’ll help you ease into the weekend: a five-parter from Prins Thomas, captured at Sur Bar in Kagoshima, Japan. Anyone want to help us decode all the rare disco records and locked grooves within?

Not content with simply offering a live album from their recent not-quite-a-reunion shows, Swans have printed up 1,000 woodblock-sheathed copies of their new double disc We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun In Our Head as part of a Kickstarter-like project for the band’s next studio album, The Seer.

Here’s an abridged breakdown, straight from the mouth of Michael Gira himself:

Represented in these discs are the best recordings we could provide of the (ever-evolving) shows. Those of you who attended the early shows realize that the first iterations of the music morphed and grew (seemingly with a will more expansive than our own) into something quite different by the end. This, in itself, was immensely gratifying. We also developed many new songs – or sonic events is perhaps a better way to describe some of them – along the way. In compiling these recordings and mixing them with my trusted friend and engineer Kevin McMahon (at Marcata Studio, Gardiner NY), we did our best to represent that transition… if you choose to acquire this 2 disc set, in my view it would behoove you to listen to the music at a generous volume level. This has absolutely nothing to do with an aggressive intent, as some mistakenly assume. Exactly the opposite, in fact. As with the live experience, it’s all about immersion…ALSO INCLUDED (ON DISC 2) herein are a few acoustic performances by me of songs that will be on the upcoming Swans album. These are the basic templates – the songs necessarily mutate into something else entirely by the time we’re through with them. These simple versions are included here to give you a picture of the process involved. They’re not meant as (and aren’t!) “great performances”. By the way, these are for YOU only. Please, please, please do not “share” these, or any of the other recordings on the goddamn internet or anywhere else. Would really appreciate your attention to this request!

Speaking of the packaging, the cover image is a drawing by myself that was expertly converted to woodblock, and then printed and numbered by my good friend Nicole Boitos. She also was kind enough to number them, 1 through 1000. I suppose if I weren’t perpetually holed up in the studio working on the new studio album, I would have printed them etc myself, but definitely the result would have been the smeared mess of a dim-witted 3 year old by comparison. Thanks to Nicole for doing such an expert job! But, I indeed served my time in the end. After receiving the finished prints I assembled the final package personally, signed each one, as well as did some additional coloration on each one (see pictures on this page). This is a labor of love. Or labor, anyway!

Check out more photos of this project below, and head to Young God’s official site for more details on how you can score everything from an executive producer credit on The Seer to a “simple, short, original song, acoustic guitar and voice, with customers’ name in the song, praising the customer.” Yes, really.

A Short Review: By largely sidsteeping the nihilistic noise and wry serial killer references that Whitehouse is notorious for, William Bennett’s Cut Hands project delivers on the hypnotic and heavy promise of his self-proclaimed “Afro noise” aesthetics. So while “Stabbers Conspiracy” and “Who No Know Go Knows” relish ravenous polyrhythms in the most visceral manner possible, things get downright ambient on “++++ (Four Crosses)” and “Rain Washes Away Every Thing,” cleansing one’s sonic palette until the mercury and chalkboard scrapings settle in.

Available At: Amazon · Insound

While it’s nearly impossible to make sense of all the music that floods our mailbox, inbox, and various Web browsers every day—not to mention the shelves at self-titled’s favorite record stores—we’re constantly looking for artists who make us stop what we’re doing and actually listen. Here’s one of them…

The Artist/Album: Blouse, Blouse (Captured Tracks, 2011)

The Vibe: Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s bassist (Jacob Portrait) provides the low end lashings in a steely, synth-glazed landscape that reminds us of the closing film credits from many a moody ’80s film. It’s more than that, though—quite possibly one of last year’s most overlooked acts in the not-quite-new-wave department.

RIYL: Graveyard sock hops; glassy eyes; synths that’re so expressive they oughta get a guest vocalist credit

Available At: Amazon · Insound · iTunes · Spotify

Yep, more Tri Angle love. oOoOO’s Our Love Is Hurting Us EP hits shops on April 10th.

Whether we’re talking about the Haxan Cloak, Vessel or the oOoOO EP that was just revealed yesterday, it seems like a week can’t go by without a new signing or release announcement from Tri Angle Records. We can’t complain, though; not with a growing roster that’s this consistent, right down to the Evian Christ mixtape that dropped today. A collection of high-quality antidotes to the YouTube rips that have been floating around, it arrives with the promise of a proper Tri Angle release later this year and a live appearance at the label’s London showcase this Saturday at Hackney Downs Studios, featuring Balam Acab, oOoOO, Holy Other, and DJ sets from the Haxan Cloak and the xx’s Romy Madley-Croft.

Stream/download all eight tracks—produced by a 22-year-old Brit named Joshua Leary, in case you’re curious—below…

A Short Review: We haven’t read the bird-watching J.A. Baker book that Lawrence English’s latest solo LP is based on, but judging by the producer’s sweeping, painterly ambient pieces, it must be the one of the deepest, darkest nature narratives ever written. Or are the very least, a slow-burning survey of what it’s like out there in the wild, whether you’re hovering above it all ever so peacefully or in the very heat of the hunt.

Available At: Experimedia

Watch a video from this album below…