Chicago indie jazzers' latest, featuring cover of Bowie's "Sound And Vision"

Unlikely as he is—a white, upper-class rapper who positively revels in his Ivy Leaguery—Paul Barman offers a surprisingly fresh take on hip hop clichés. The absurd sexscapade "Cock Mobster" balances graphic detail with literary conceit ("I think of the pube I got while reading the Rubaiyat"), owing more to Woody Allen than standard rap bravado. But attempts at gravitas ("Anarchist Bookstore", "Talking Time Travel") resonate with all the panache of a student union debate.

Ultra-hip German label gets birthday cake and bunting treatment

Retro '60s garage rock from Scandinavian quartet

Mysterious Californian outsider outfit release album written in wake of September 11

Fabulous neo-MBV guitarfest from happening Berlin electronica label

Impressive to excessive live foray from quartet

Original gangsta reforms

First and Third world meetings in music

Comeback album from early Dido prototype