Grinderman - Grinderman 2

Nick Cave teams up with Warren Ellis from the Dirty Three. Warren Ellis is sensational at making things loud. He plays the violin with the Dirty Three and the mandolin and bouzouki with Cave. I saw them play at Mona maybe ten or so years ago. The loudest instrument I have ever heard live - standing directly in front of a speaker off to the side. It's really interesting how he gets specifically folk instruments or ''organic'' instruments and just injects them with distortion. He is certainly a wild musician.

Yukihiro Takahashi - Neuromantic

Former drummer of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. This is fantastic and full of great songs. The Yellow Magic Orchestra or YMO was a pioneering synth-pop group from Japan, who lay claim to having the first technological concept album. Many believed it to be Kraftwerk's Computer World, but YMO predated it by a number of years.

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

The Flaming Lips appear on a major label but release dark and harrowing albums that incite the senses of the most ardent music fans. They effectively bring experimental rock digressions to the mainstream. They have had chart success, made films and explored avant-garde art experiments and been in the music scene, collaborating with many artists for a number of years. Releasing albums to rave reviews. This album actually got the most out of their discography, with many rave reviews on its release. Part of Pitchfork's ten out of ten echelon.

Scott Walker - Scott 4

Scott Walker, tremendous as he may be, veers dangerously close to a mainstream pop act. Maybe that is why he became so experimental, to maintain some dignity in the changing times. The fame must have got to his head because on one of his more experimental endeavours, The Drift he started banging a pig's carcass and used it as a rhythm track supposedly. The track that really stands out here is ''Duchess''. It has always been a personal favourite, thus why I have bought this album. 

Scott Walker - Sings Jacques Brel

Scott Walker, once famous with the Walker Brothers. Great pop icons of the 60s. Then he had forays into slightly darker crooning pop, then finally the fame got to him and he slipped away into Avantgarde. None can doubt his ability to sing, matched perfectly with the poetic ways of Brel. The crooning sounds of Walker are enough to send shivers down the coarsest of spines. Possessed with a superhuman voice, he has no equal. One of the great all-time singers.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Rush To Relax

Eddy Current Suppression Ring hark back to punk DIY ethics that dominated the 70s. Not many people know this, but members of Radio Birdman brought Iggy and the Stooges to Australia and there was a blossoming punk scene in Queensland way before punk hit London, with bands like The Saints. Eddy Current's minimalism, sound like psychedelic garage rock, approach to recording is all refreshing punk music out of Melbourne. They have a unique sound.

MGMT - Little Dark Age

This band were big in my college days. Their first album was massive, possibly five or six chart hits on there. They followed it up with their second album, which frankly, had not hit evident. It was amazing. Here was this band who had just headlined Glastonbury and performed their chart-topping hit ''Kids'', to follow it up with an album whose best song ''Siberian Breaks'' was twelve or thirteen minutes. They experiment with synths and get a ''freak-folk'' synth-pop sound. A group of accomplished musicians who make music, not for chart hits evidently, but an art form. Angular. Intriguing. Subversive.