Album

The American underground is currently full of unashamedly cosmic bands, like Sunburned Hand Of The Man and Tower Recordings, who mix folk and psychedelia with an unusually fluent understanding of improvised music. Unfortunately, most of their records are difficult to track down, as they're only released in tiny, elaborately packaged quantities. Thanks to Kranky, then, for reissuing Unknown Spin, previously a limited run of 300 CD-Rs. Charalambides are a Texan trio specialising in a kind of desert drone constructed from guitar, wordless female harmonies and spectral pedal-steel.

Eclectic Prefuse 73 man turns his hand to Latin ballads

Last year, in a fatally altruistic gesture, Japanese technocrat Cornelius invited visitors to his website to remix tracks from his excellent 2002 album, Point. PM (it stands for Point Mixes) purportedly compiles the best 12 from around 400 of those submitted, with largely dispiriting results. If Cornelius set out to showcase how the meticulous pastoral textures of Point could be desecrated, then PM is a triumph of sorts: only Masakatsu Inoue's "Pointer Remix", a beautiful hybrid of musique concrète and prickly ambience, really does the source material justice.

Magnificent six-CD compilation of gospel roots

DVD-Audio 5.1 Surround Sound version of Coyne and co's biggest-selling album

Four major US R&B releases show the once-thriving scene to be in a creative trough

Matthew Herbert and others retool the sublime avant-house dreamscapes of 2001's Born On The 24th Of July

Classy return to form following 2001's disappointing Argyle Heir

Sometime Queen Of The Stone Age Josh Homme indulges extracurricular interests, with PJ Harvey and others

Alan McGee may have had bigger fish to fry in 1994 (namely the era-defining debut of five scallies from Burnage), but that didn't stop him investing well-spent time and money on this, The Cramps' sixth album proper. A good job, too, since Flamejob is a blast; its tunes every bit as colourful as their preposterous titles (eg; "Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs"). If anything, it sounds even more current today, with The White Stripes reigning supreme, than it did 10 years ago in the shadow of their mono-browed labelmates.