A voice as controlled as Shara Worden's has something in common with Alias' detail-oriented production skills. On this remix, the opening track from My Brightest Diamond's upcoming remix album Tear It Down, Alias inverts that logic. The original track (from last year's Bring Me the Workhorse) had a serviceable beat, but it was the string section-- and, as always, Worden's dynamic voice-- that swept the song forward.

The Alias remix favors complex rhythm (stopwatch ticks, insect wing shuffles) over the song's orchestral swells. When Worden gets to the chorus, she sings, "Everything is suddenly exploding..." and Alias follows along, punctuating her lines with reverberating washes of sound that linger like light trails across a black sky.

MP3: > My Brightest Diamond: "Golden Star (Alias remix)"
[from Tear It Down LP; due 03/06/07 on Asthmatic Kitty] | [PRE-ORDER NOW]

Over the past few years, IDM wizards Mouse on Mars have begun to stray from straight instrumental tracks and employ more vocalists in their work, from percussionist Dodo Nkishi, who joined them for both 2001's excellent Idiology and 2004's Radical Connector, to Tomlab sound experimentalist Niobe. But there are probably few more distinctive vocalists working these days (or any days, really) than the Fall's Mark E. Smith, who, along with the Düsseldorf duo, forms the new project Von Südenfed.

The three seem an unlikely match, but strikingly, "Can't Get Enough", the new track posted to their MySpace page this week, proves they're actually a surprisingly natural fit, Smith's gruff exclamations puncturing Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner's stiff beats and neon electro backdrops. If anything, this new cut draws more from the new school of harder-edged electro-- Justice, Crystal Castles, and to a degree, LCD Soundsystem, although Smith's vocal technique was a clear influence on James Murphy to begin with-- than from any of the artists' usual sound palettes. The result is a gritty, low-tech art-bangers pumped full of analog bass and Smith's wide-eyed, maniacal ranting. We like it!

Stream: > Von Südenfed: Can't Get Enough [MySpace]
[from Tromatic Reflexxions LP; due this spring on Domino]

No, it's not an MC Hammer cover. The sentiment's pretty similar, though, if a lot more solemn: "What you gonna do when the beans are gone?" Tom Waits asks. "Pray now," answers the band. The song is a dread-filled industrial blues, a clangorous call-and-response that magnifies the larger concerns that Brooklyn-based Book of Knots have been voicing for a few years now.

Like the group's 2004 self-titled debut, their upcoming Traineater looks west to dying Midwestern cities and wonders what became of the American ingenuity that built those towns and fed the populace. Fittingly, "Pray" is almost all percussion, rattling and coughing like rusted machinery running down; the harmonica sounds like venting steam. Over the din, Waits, in his usual growl, gives the verses a pragmatism that's humane, yet deeply fearful: Layoffs and shutdowns loom, the end is near, and the cold futility of his advice almost counts as painful irony.

MP3: > The Book of Knots [ft. Tom Waits]: "Pray"
[from Traineater LP; available 3/20/07 on Anti-]

Back in the first days of October, Pitchfork premiered a track by Atlanta-based noise-rockers Deerhunter as part of our not-so-Infinite Mixtape series. We'd only just heard their latest full-length at the time, but it only took one listen before we'd effectively begun using up all our best adjectives on their behalf. Seriously, look at this:

"Though one of the hip-hop world's fieriest hotspots, Atlanta isn't exactly known for its wealth of left-skewing noise-rock bands-- even indie rockers migrate to Athens. But every city has its anomalies, and after last year's truly deranged self-titled debut for Stickfigure Records, ATL-based Deerhunter have come into their own as a massive, psych-heavy, art-damaged four-piece, and one of the most inspired new bands we've heard in quite a while.

"Citing Jesus and Mary Chain as their core influence, but also incorporating Thurston Moore guitar squalls, the super-rich, static-heavy layers of MBV, Spacemen 3's lonesome, jangly blissouts, and the brooding, claustrophobic atmospherics of early Martin Hannett-produced Factory Records releases, Deerhunter's forthcoming Kranky debut, Cryptograms (due January 29)-- not to mention their absolutely fucking insane live shows-- is likely to make them one of the most talked-about bands of 2007."

Four months and countless Cryptograms listens later, it might be time to stage an intervention. Between the gauzy, psych-saturated flood of "Spring Hall Convert", the dream-pop haze of album closer "Heatherwood", and the mammoth, darkwave-ish title track, we're having a tough time picking a favorite.

MP3: > Deerhunter: "Heatherwood"
[from Cryptograms LP; available 1/29/07 on Kranky]

MP3: > Deerhunter: "Spring Hall Convert"
[from Cryptograms LP; available 1/29/07 on Kranky]

Deerhunter's imposing frontman, Bradford Cox, is the crux of the band's already-infamous live shows. Diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome, a non-fatal disorder that results in abnormally long limbs, exaggerated height, and long fingers and toes, Cox's stature and unpredictable stage presence won him a number of violent crowd reactions during tours last year with Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Those that missed them will have to wait until after SXSW, when they'll embark on an April tour with Chicago-based rock machine (and recent Matador signees) the Ponys. But then, that's all the more time to fall in love with their record...

Magic forests and spiky-haired shadow monsters populate the video for Annuals' outstanding debut single, "Brother". The video plays out in two halves, much like the song: It begins with a slow and dreamy walk in the woods (with a dog! Just like the lyrics!), but, like 80% of all walks through the forest, things get scary when a ground octopus sucks the band underground for the bombastic second half. Annuals aren't the best actors (sorry, guys), but they only look truly comfortable once they begin playing their instruments. Still, their enthusiasm here is so genuine even the shadow monsters have to give up chase for a little while.

MP3: > Annuals: "Brother"
[from Be He Me LP; out now on Ace Fu] | [ORDER NOW]

"El Es Gay", culled from Yo La Tengo's new iTunes EP featuring live-in-the-studio renditions of cuts from their 2006 I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass LP (plus a cover of "Luci Baines", Arthur Lee's tribute to Lyndon Johnson's daughter, originally by his pre-Love band American Four), is an instrumental original, and the kind of fire-breather it seemed they might be done with just a few short years ago. With a lot more reverb and a cleaner guitar tone, it could've sounded like the old-school surf tune it actually is, but Ira Kaplan kicks up the distortion and has a good freakout instead-- although he does nod to surf sonics by dropping a spring-reverb amplifier at the end.

Georgia Hubley's ever-underrated drumming pushes him powerfully through the overdriven glitterhouse, and Ira gets in a classic pick-melting run as the song reaches its wipeout conclusion. It works great as a set-up for the volcanic psych workout of this EP's version of "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind", but it's also a blast on its own, showing off Yo La Tengo in all their skilled yet humble glory.

Stream: > Yo La Tengo: "El Es Gay" [MySpace]
[from Yo La Tengo iTunes Live Session EP; out now on Matador] | [ORDER NOW]

Bands that break up after their first album are so depressing; it's so much dead hope and potential. It's even worse knowing that former members are just a MySpace page away from releasing their post-whatever, ex-better-band material.

Falsetto vocals and buttery, pliable guitar chords comprise the bulk of this sparse electro track from Sebastien Grainger's first release-- a split 7" with Jewish Legend-- since the demise of his previous band, Death From Above 1979. "In my hands it's a place for the broken-hearted/ In my sleeve there's a house for the disregarded," Grainger coos, and with just about a minute of vocals in a 3 1/2 minute track, he doesn't outstay his welcome. Every break-up song should be about a broke-up band.

MP3: > Sebastien Grainger: "When You Go Out"
[from Foggy Sea, Foggy Dew 7"]

Grainger's second new track, "The Rhythm Method", is a faster-paced instrumental made up of a wailing guitar solo and an embarrassment of handclaps to keep it company. No falsetto here-- Grainger swaps Prince's glass-shattering high notes for mangled guitar licks. Somehow-- maybe it's the pelvic-thrusting dance beat-- it does a better job realizing the sex-funk vibe that Grainger's seems to be shooting for.

MP3: > Sebastien Grainger: "The Rhythm Method"

I keep hearing this piano ballad, originally found on Ono's 1995 album Rising, as a prayer for a better world in the vein of John Lennon's "Imagine". But unlike its more famous forbearer, there's actually some tremendously useful information here. Ono breaks it down and meditates on the feelings of a single person, then one-by-one ticks off unpleasant emotions-- anger, sorrow, greed, jealousy, fear-- and blesses them because they draw from energy that can be transformed into something positive. She's talking about transformation and redemption in a way that makes them seem like tangible things within anyone's grasp and not just a movie plot's bullshit.

Okay, I know, you need more than love, sure, and we can only expect so much from a pop song. But you've got to hear how this thing comes across with Chan Marshall playing piano and doing call-and-response with Ono's verses. It's so simple and honest and direct you have to think that maybe there's something here anyone can latch onto. The way Marshall sings it's like she's been through something heavy and tunes like this were there for her to lean on. She pays Ono back in spades, doing a masterful job rearranging the original verses for maximum impact.

The track comes from Yoko's forthcoming remix album Yes, I'm a Witch, which also features reworkings of other Ono tracks by The Flaming Lips, Antony, Spiritualized's Jason Pierce, and others.

Stream: > Yoko Ono and Cat Power: "Revelations" [Windows Media]
[from Yes, I'm a Witch; due 2/06/07 on Astralwerks] | [PRE-ORDER NOW]

French producer Joakim's forthcoming album is all over the place, almost like a Psyence Fiction kind of thing, with a dozen styles, guest vocalists, etc. But the best track on it, this one here, nestles somewhere between genres. It starts with a four-note repeating synth line plucked from some 8-bit, candy-colored 2-D world. Then the midtempo beat kicks in and leads into a cave where creatures throw shadows on the walls, before a ping-ponging upper-neck bassline from New Order's "Ceremony" bubbles up from somewhere. As you follow it down, everything distorts until finally shattering into a cloud of finely pixilated mist.

But what's happened, really? Same blips pushing forward, no chord changes to speak of, same popping live drums still boring a hole through the center of it all. It's a song in no hurry to go anywhere that makes itself over from minute to minute, and it's one of the finer expressions of pure joy I've heard in a while.

Stream: > Joakim: "Three-Legged Lantern"
[from Monsters & Silly Songs; out now on !K7]

It's been a long, long wait for new material from the formerly Austin-based ambient duo Stars of the Lid. Their last full-length, 2001's ambitious double-disc epic The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid, scored an 8.6 from Pitchfork scribe Mark Richardson upon its release, and remains one of the most powerful and richly textured ambient releases this decade.

Six years later, following two separate solo releases-- Adam Wiltzie's The Dead Texan in 2004, and Brian McBride's When the Detail Lost Its Freedom in 2005-- the duo are set to release another two-disc outing, Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline on April 2 via Kranky.

We were beyond psyched to see that Kranky had made one track available through their offical website last Friday. At just under four minutes, that track, "Apreludes (in C sharp major)", is one of the album's shortest. And while it begins with optimistic muted horns-- not unlike the ones that open Godspeed You Black Emperor's Lift Yr Skinny Fists-- the piece eventually turns darker, alternating between major and minor chords.

MP3: > Stars of the Lid: "Apreludes (in C sharp major)"
[from And Their Refinement of the Decline LP; available 4/02/07 on Kranky]
[PRE-ORDER 2xCD] | [PRE-ORDER 3xLP]

Today, Pitchfork has the exclusive on an additional Refinement track, "A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process". Closing out the first disc, the piece drifts on a collection of somber, feather-light drones and intermittent piano chords. Like "Apreludes", it continually shifts between darkness and light, each chord coloring a different disposition. As with much of the duo's work, open space plays a big role here, providing room for the instrumentation to breathe and creating a sense of vastness, almost like a drone in itself. So far, so good-- we can't wait to hear the rest.

MP3: > Stars of the Lid: "A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process"
[from And Their Refinement of the Decline LP; available 4/02/07 on Kranky]
[PRE-ORDER 2xCD] | [PRE-ORDER 3xLP]

Producer Jazze Pha built the original "Get Up" on a foundation of tweeter-twerking electro whistles, a la "1, 2 Step". But Polow da Don, the force behind the sensual sound of "Promise"-- and one of the most creative hip-hop/R&B/pop producers working right now-- recognized "Get Up" for its erotic potential, and took it out of the club and into the boudoir.

Flexing his prowess with lush, quiet-storm sex jams, he re-envisioned "Get Up" as panoramic foreplay, deep with liquid synths and the ever-sexy ice-cream truck bell. Straight from the classic New Jack playbook, Polow pays homage to fellow Atlantans Silk, from which he borrows both his phone-sex ready "freak-me-baby" whisper and his open-shirted producer's swagger. It's a slo-mo re-shoot that brings out the inherent breathiness of Ciara's singing voice, recasting her as a kind of dancefloor Marilyn Monroe. And while the lyrics are still about pop-locks, rag-tops and body-rocks, the emphasis is less on the choreography and more on the voyeurism: "And I can see it in your eyes/ You want me/ You smooth as a mother/ You're so undercover /By the way that you was watchin' me." Oooh, ahhh: Keith Sweat couldna said it better. [Julianne Shepherd]

Stream: > Ciara: "Get Up (Polow da Don Remix)"

That remix isn't the only gift Ciara's Myspace page has to offer-- R. Kelly appears on a remix for "Promise". The song doesn't undergo quite the same transformation as "Get Up", but Kelly's clearly having a blast responding to Ciara's come-ons, even when his own fall flat. I mean, who wants to be told they'll "...scream like Michael Jackson?" [Jessica Suarez]

Stream: > Ciara [ft. R. Kelly]: "Promise (Remix)"

Like much of Junior Boys' 2006 full-length So This Is Goodbye, this live in-studio version of Last Exit's "Under the Sun" marinates for a while before cooking. At a hair over seven minutes, it has plenty of time to stretch its legs before truly arriving. In fact, this track, culled from an exclusive iTunes session, is all about slow preparation and deliberate movements, picking up and putting down each guitar note like a girl choosing an outfit in front of the mirror, while Jeremy Greenspan's inviting whipsers ("It's a sweet one/ Under the sun") sound like a lover's voice pulling her towards their anticipated meet-up.

[from iTunes Exclusive Live Session EP] | [ORDER]