With Pitch Balloon, Sndrft places his stake in the pantheon of current electronic composers. As a debut EP, this collection avoids the usual odds & sods approach, instead opting for a coherent mood piece that demonstrates the wildly divergent styles of the artist's formative years. The arrangements are complex, multilayered and unwilling to sit still for too long. Swells of ambience wash over dissident strings, playfully responding to synthesizers that sound as if they could evaporate any second.

A local critic was telling us that "Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo" (Bx3 to you!) sounds like TV on the Radio having a nightmare and trying to play Belle and Sebastian songs fronted by David Berman. We think this is pretty inaccurate and stupid, yet most things written by music critics would qualify as such. You be the judge! You have the power!

Are they really serious? The Old Bangers debut album has been called hiphop for the 2200 set, Anticon with precision and a trip through Dante's Inferno led by DJ Screw. The production tickles. The rhymes are fickle. King Lear even rated this his favorite album of 2006. Anyway, you'll love it...

"My Son is Gay?" is the debut digital single by Brooklyn, NY-based recording artist Carter Maness. Released under the name Jacques Derrida, the two tracks end up somewhere close to undanceable dance music. The style veers from his previous work in Brando Skirts and the identifiable influences are numerous. Mainly tweaking aesthetics of djing and hiphop production, these tracks touch everywhere from the Rza to the Field to Black Dice. Like John Mayer if his face was burnt with a blowtorch, subsequently became a junkie, bought Other Music, and lived inside an igloo. Uh, yup.

"You Don't Know my Stilo" is the second digital single by Carter Maness in as many months. Continuing with the narcotic dj aesthetics of the first cuts, these two tracks feature a hodgepodge of dance floor bangin, noise experimentation and a whole lot of drums. Look for more one-off excursions from Carter Maness as Jacques Derrida in the coming week!