The six sparse and spacey songs on Secrets of the New Explorers by Glen Phillips (the former frontman for ’90s alternative-popsters Toad the Wet Sprocket) could land this sonic astronaut some new fans. With low-fi guitars, minimal percussion and dreamy vocals, Phillips explores space travel and the mysteries of the solar system. The strongest cut here, “Solar Flare,” even invokes

Recently an anthology was released in the United States of chicha, the mildly psychedelic music of 1960s Peru. Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the world’s leading contemporary chicha groups is working out of multicultural Brooklyn, N.Y. Chicha Libre draws from old songs in the genre and original material, pulling the vocal and instrumental repertoire together into a playfully rhythmic yet often melodically

Ladysmith Black Mambazo unites native South African musical traditions with Christian sentiment and political context. It makes sense that the country’s premier vocal group would record an album honoring the iconic warrior Shaka Zulu. But instead of glorifying violence—Zulu imbued South Africans with an indomitable fighting spirit in the early 1800s—Ilembe (“The Greatest Warrior”) celebrates perseverance and commitment. By incorporating its signature a cappella harmonies and tongue clicks into a collection of songs that reference Zulu’s beliefs and practices . . .

It could be argued that the BoDeans have reached their greatest recording potential on the albums produced by T-Bone Burnett. That greatness continues with Burnett's third time in the studio deck with the nearly 25-year-old band from Waukesha.

Inspired by Eugene Chadbourne's experiments with thrift shop guitars, Milwaukee visual artist and composer/improviser Thomas Gaudynski took his own warped, secondhand acoustic ax through some unconventional maneuvers on Kay.

Three years ago, in reviewing Malkmus’ Face the Truth, I compared it to a bad Woody Allen film—if you’re already a fan, you’d find something to like. If that album was, say, Jade Scorpion, and Malkmus’ work with Pavement was Annie Hall, then Real Emotional Trash is The Purple Rose of Cairo. Some will love it.

La India Canela is a young woman who plays accordion at supersonic speed, leaving the fastest hardcore band or bebop player in the dust. She hails from the Dominican Republic and works within the tradition called tipico, a style of music born in the 19th century and bred from the marriage of European...

War may be hell, but Black 47 makes it rock. On Iraq, veteran Irish renegade Larry Kirwan and his band of pacifists attempt to conquer the current war with a song cycle of previously released and new material. The punchy melodies are Black 47’s best in years, as uilleann-pipe-fuelled rock, reggae, folk, jazz and traditional Irish music collide in a rewarding protest record.

In 1996, Nada Surf got lucky with “Popular,” although the song was practically designed to relegate the band to one-hit-wonder status. By the end of the ‘90s, they seemed bound for oblivion, but it turned out that they were just regrouping. 2003’s Let Go was a quietly stunning . . .

One of the sources of the psychedelic sound was the traditional music of the Near East. Iranian-American songwriter and singer Haale draws from her heritage as well as ’60s rock on her latest CD. The title of No Ceiling may refer to the roofless, heavenward vista of songs echoing the influence of Sufi trance and rock dance. One or two tracks veer close to shoegazer boredom, but most possess an urgent gravity reminiscent of Grace Slick’s early band, the Great Society, or some of the dreamier psychedelically tinged pop to emerge in the United Kingdom during the ’80s.