Dylan Carlson - Conquistador (Sargent House, 2018)

With Earth seemingly on hiatus, Dylan Carlson has gone the solo route. A couple albums released under the Drcarlsonalbion moniker and then this, his first under his given name. It's a scant 32 minutes, and described by Carlson as the soundtrack to an imaginary Western. This is a little odd, because if you recall Earth's mighty comeback album Hex; or Printing in the Infernal Method was kind of a soundtrack to a Western that didn't exist - specifically, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Western themes have been a staple of current-era Earth so if this sounds like well-trod ground to you, well, it is. It's a mostly solo electric guitar effort with tracks ranging from droning and methodical like you saw on Hex to more noise-oriented, ragged, harsher explorations. Which is to say it's all well and good but no doubt a minor entry in the ever-expanding discography of Mr. Carlson.

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Playboi Carti - Die Lit (AWGE/Interscope, 2018)

Playboi Carti has never really been on my radar too much, but then Pfork gave this one a rave review, and I figured I was sleeping...but man, this album didn't do anything for me. Barely any song made any kind of impact. The production is interesting at times but Carti himself gets lost in both that and the whole mass of features all over the album. Nothing gelled for me, so I guess for me I wasn't missing much after all. Oh well.

Ami Shavit - Neural Oscillations and Alpha Rhythms (Finders Keepers, r. 2018)

Another one I wasn't expecting much from but Finders Keepers always gets a fair shake, this turned out to be surprisingly legit. Influenced by Philip Glass and Tangerine Dream in the 70's, "Ami embarked on an experiment with what he coined Alpha Mood – a state in which the brain is working in relaxation and in which he used music as a means of helping induce his own meditative state". These aren't the droney, spacey, meditative synth pieces you'd expect - they're hypnotic in an active sense, very stimulating and dynamic. Seems not much is left of Shavit's recorded legacy but I'm glad I gave these a shot, very neat.

Eartheater - IRISIRI (Pan, 2018)

Eartheater first came on my radar (and many others) with 2 Hausu Mountain tapes in 2015. She makes glitchy, disorienting music, combining electronics and synthesized percussion with voice, guitars and who knows what else. The whole thing is a confusing stew, kind of reminiscent of Inga Copeland but I would say even more detached from "song". Didn't do much for me.

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