Om: "State of Non-Return"

Al Cisneros is back after moonlighting with Shrinebuilder and a Sleep reunion with a return to his day job with Om. "State of Non-Return" wields elements of the Middle Eastern drone used to heavy effect on 2009's God is Good, but it primarily represents what many fans will embrace with open arms: the fuzzy stoner doom that Cisneros cut his teeth on.

Advaitic Songs is out July 24 on Drag City.
[UPDATE 11/1/12: added music video]:

Married in Berdichev: "Light Comes"

In the same manner that you can instantly identify anything recorded in the 80's by its compressed dynamics and dry, in your face percussion, I think one of the hallmarks of today's production considered decades from now will be the ubiquitous use of cavernous, almost cathedral-like space that modern recording equipment affords this generation's artists.

In the same way that 80's artists were merely taking advantage of new-at-the-time technology to achieve a crystal clean clarity that wasn't possible in the analog era, it's unlikely that modern artists are intentionally trying to all produce minor variations on dream pop ambiance so much as just trying to get the most out of the cutting edge technology available in 2012. Either way there's a lot of somnolent, lush avant pop bubbling up from the underground these days.

This Will Destroy You: "Black Dunes"

I always complain that the blogosphere gives superficial props to Austin while not really covering any of its bands, but damned if I don't turn around and post more shit from played-out-yet-still-relevant haunts like Brooklyn and Portland than I do from my own backyard. I am not a good diplomat for my city. Probably because I'm kind of an asshole, but I do honestly think that Texas bands are a little further behind the grade curve when it comes to self-promotion than many other local scenes across the U.S. The average Austinite's idea of self-promotion is to move to fucking Brooklyn (see Gibby Haynes, Will Sheff, Conrad Keely). I don't want to sound like a crybaby but all New York has given us in return is Billy Milano.

1990: "Arc Lite (Sonar)", Loop

More dissonant and metallic than Spacemen 3 (the band they would most frequently suffer comparisons to), Loop was nearing the end of its short run in 1990. The heavier drone and minimalist riff patterns on the band's final album, A Gilded Eternity, were a harbinger of things to come: Loop mainman Robert Hampson would serve a one year tour of duty in industrial titans Godflesh (playing on / touring for the Pure album) before starting Main with Loop bandmate Scott Dawson. Main merged the dense riffs of Hampson's previous bands with a menacing bouillabaisse of electronic styles and remains Hampson's longest running project to date, though the moniker has been officially retired since 2006. Hampson has since been releasing new music under his own name, while Dawson seemingly dropped out of the music scene.

1990: "Help Me Please", Sonic Boom

Pete Kember was one of two primary members of the neo-psych band Spacemen 3 in the mid-to-late 80s before going solo at the turn of the decade. He recorded one album, Spectrum, under the moniker Sonic Boom before changing the band name itself to Spectrum. Kember has since divided his time between Spectrum and another ongoing project dubbed Experimental Audio Research (E.A.R.) as well as more recently trying his hand at production duties, including the new MGMT album, Congratulations.

"Help Me Please" marries existential drone with lyrics straight out of a Hank Williams outtake, in the process inadvertently creating a left field chillout classic.