OUT THIS MONTH
Angel ceballos
Stres drops his debut LP, AlgoRhythms, on Sept. 24.
Sonny Bonoho.
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Quality of Living, Brothers From Another (9/1, Members Only, brothersfromanother.wordpress.com): MCs Goonstar and Breez offer a surprising 11-track album full of floating, feel-good beats and rapidly improving, character-rich rhymes that acknowledge their young standing within the scene, but show enough songwriting skill to do beats from Justo (The Physics) and Sabzi (Blue Scholars) justice. TODD HAMM
Destroy Your Self, the Shining Skulls (9/1, self-released, theshiningskulls.com): "Alt-rock" is an insult. Destroy Your Self is extraterrestrial and vastly sweet-sounding, with tracks "Carnivore" and "The Static in Between" teetering between rigorously mellow and painstakingly dreamlike, before the entire effort is thrust forward with powerful rock crescendos. JOE WILLIAMS
* American Goldwing, Blitzen Trapper (9/6, Sub Pop, blitzentrapper.net): While 2010's Destroyer of the Void found the Portland band focusing on sparse acoustic numbers, American Goldwing returns to the band's schizophrenic form. Dripping with the golden sheen of vintage country and Southern rock, this is pure open-road music. GREG FRANKLIN
Gold Parts EP, Cristina Bautista (9/6, Local 638, cristinabautista.com): The Visqueen bassist stays close to her roots on the track "Long Divisions," a hard-driving, defiant punch of power pop. She's not taking any sass. JULIA MULLEN GORDON
Rocky Votolato/matt pond PA split 7" EP (9/6, Polyvinyl, polyvinylrecords.com): Votolato's "Om Ma" is a delicate vehicle for his haunting vocals; matt pond PA's "Petit Oiseaux" doubles the guitar and waxes existential, making each side appear the reverse image of the other. GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT
* Earth Division EP, Mogwai (9/13, Sub Pop, mogwai.co.uk): Earth Division comprises four songs that didn't make the cut on Mogwai's last full-length, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will; that fact shouldn't speak for their quality—all four elegiac cuts, bolstered by a full string section, are gorgeously prismatic. ERIN K. THOMPSON
* Glowing Mouth, Milagres (9/13, Kill Rock Stars, milagresmusic.com): Milagres' KRS debut boosts them to the rank of Beach House and Grizzly Bear in terms of fine, diaphanous pop music—the songs, flowing with skyward melodies and piping organs, are utterly, memorably lovely. EKT
Haste the Day vs. Haste the Day, Haste the Day (9/13, Solid State, hastetheday.com): Haste the Day sacrifices its airy screams and schizophrenic drumbeats for a live experience that should be seen rather than heard. Ten years of material is butchered with pitchy vocals and a double dose of crowd interaction that will do nothing but hurt ticket sales. JW
Mountaintops, Mates of State (9/13, Barsuk, matesofstate.com): On their seventh album, married duo Mates of State still are writing the kind of immediately hooky, well-balanced indie rock that sounds like it was scored for children's birthday parties or minivan commercials. GF
* "Tucson" b/w "Meredith & Iris," Carissa's Wierd (9/13, Hardly Art, myspace.com/carissaswierd): "You've been gone so long," goes the first whisper these reunited slowcore darlings have put to tape in seven years, "you can never go home again." Not entirely true, but you bring the years home with you—in this case meaning slightly surer singing and, on the B-side, some of their post-CW projects' faint, reclining twang. ERIC GRANDY
Violent Hearts, Shimmering Stars (9/13, Hardly Art, hardlyart.com/shimmeringstars): These songs are brief, elevating bursts of reverbing guitars and vocal harmonies; the result sounds like a mix of the Beach Boys' ringing pop choruses and a choir of Gregorian-chanting monks. EKT
The Years EP, Memoryhouse (9/13, Sub Pop, www.memoryhouse): A rerecorded, remixed, and remastered version of the band's 2010 self-released EP, available for the first time on CD and LP. This expanded version includes two new songs, bringing the total to five, all of which are mesmerizing, dream-like ambient pop landscapes featuring the sultry vocals of Denise Nouvion. DAVE LAKE
Prison Boxing, Cataldo (9/20, self-released, cataldo.bandcamp.com): A distillation of the clichés of Seattle music 2011's greatest hits, full of catchy melodies that employ innocuous vocals, gentle strings, and a couple of horns. Easily enjoyable, yet forgettable. CHRIS KORNELIS
Visits, Tammar (9/20, Suicide Squeeze, tammar.bandcamp.com): The first full-length from the Bloomington, Ind., quintet is a seven-song cycle of psychedelic guitars, reverbed vocals, and driving rhythms. They wear their post-punk inspirations proudly, but it's hard to hear much of anything else amid all that droning. DL
Elba, Elba (9/22, self-released, elbaseattle.com) Elba's third record sounds bright, lush, and mature in all the right places, but still has the raw hunger of that band playing in the basement at those college house parties you wish you remembered more of. GF
* AlgoRhythms, Stres (9/24, self-released, stresisit.bandcamp.com): The slinking, lo-fi expertise of DJ Shadow and the eerie sci-fi-soundtrack music of Portishead (minus lyrics) haunt the debut of local instrumental hip-hop producer Stres, leaving a tantalizing look into what will hopefully be a long, twisted catalogue. TH
Breakers, Gem Club (9/27, Hardly Art, iamgemclub.com): These are songs of rainy days: just a reverb-drenched piano and a lonely cello to underscore the male/female vocals of the group's two members. Call it the ideal soundtrack to a breakup montage in a Miranda July film. DL
Children of Fire, Oh, Sleeper (9/27, Solid State, myspace.com/ohsleeper): Children of Fire rips and roars with fervent breakdowns and beautiful, melodic vocals, layering spastic instrumentation and time signatures with grinding, robust screams. Ruthless, meticulous, and stunningly emotional, Oh, Sleeper has set a bar few will reach in their career. JW
