Barabara Morgenstern began her career playing minimalist, kraut rock-influenced electro, but the release of 2006's THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER marked a shift towards classic pop song structures supported by unobtrusive electronic percussion. BM builds on THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER's canny pop leanings and features progressive luminary Robert on the standout "Camouflage".

HEAD ON (1971) is the most ambitious and adventurous work in Bobby Hutcherson's discography. Though the composer/bandleader/vibraphonist did contribute one tune ("Mtume"), HEAD ON mostly features the ambitious compositions and arrangements of Todd Cochran, who also plays piano on the session. The resulting music is dense and polyrhythmic, and bracing, drawing parallels to Miles Davis's BITCHES BREW and other first wave fusion albums. Cochran arranges for the 18-piece group here with a mad scientist's zeal but still manages to create precise orchestral textures. Elements of chamber music and funk abound, and Hutcherson's clear, cool marimba and vibraphone work shimmers throughout. This release marks the album's first appearance on CD, giving Hutcherson fans reason to rejoice.

While the On duo consists of Steven Hess and Sylvain Chaveau, for Your Naked Ghost Comes Back at Night the personnel was a trio, as Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) remixed its contents before formal release. The resultant effort is one of the more compelling, darkly beautiful drone/ambient releases of the early 21st century, at once a textural, almost sensuous sprawl of sound and a moody, minimal flow. Some song titles capture that feeling perfectly, like "Too Many Demons Still Haunt This Land," but others are more suggestive -- thus "Erotique," where a rumbling distant rhythm, almost a racing cascade of pulses, is subsumed under a steady moan of sound, chilling the more aggressive edge bubbling below. "Fa‡ade," meanwhile, sounds like a slow wave of a metallic rumble on an endless factory floor, deceptively quiet but never without the feeling of uneasy threat. ~ Ned Raggett