Lady Lazarus - mantic (Apartment Life, 2011)

Small parts of Azalia Snail, Lisa Germano, of The Dust Dive, maybe Pram, Grouper and Kickball too, Lady Lazarus's music is haunted and haunting.

Basically, these are songs Melissa Ann Sweat (from Savannah, Georgia) sings with reverb while playing piano, organ-like keyboard or accordion in an almost trance state. It is cheap and lo-fi, home recorded on a four-track, and not so original or extraordinary, but "Mantic" is a captivating album.

The Climates - clap if he's in the kitchen. clap if he's on the couch. (2010)

The Climates aren't reinventing the instrumental math-rock wheel, they are just reactivating it for a few cycles. 

"Clap if he's in the kitchen. Clap if he's on the couch." is both their debut and already last full length, it is now offered for free at a low bitrate (128 kbps) on last.fm.

Storms - lay your sea coat aside (2010, Plancha / Art Union)

"Lay you seat coat aside" is the debut album by Storms, a duo formed by Lori Scacco (Seely) and Eva Puyuelo (Savath & Savalas), but which could be almost considered as a trio, the lyrics were written by Ann Stephenson.

Lori (living in New York) and Eva (from Barcelona) met each other through their mutual friend Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73) and started a friendship which finally evolved into a successful collaboration.

Saito Koji - candle (2009, Resting Bell)

A long, warm, comforting, blurry drone by a Japanese musician who specialized himself into soft, long monotonous, elastic and hypnotic drones.

If some early works by Rafael, Toral, the most ambient tendencies of The Stars of the Lid, the more minimalist side of Hammock or William Basinski are obvious elements of comparison, Saio Koji is principally drifting in his own dreamy word.

Scissor Lock - broken english (2010, Hello Square)

Scissor Lock is the solo project of Marcus Whale, from

Sydney, New South Wales, AU, and "Broken English" is his first official album after various CDRs, splits and compilation tracks.

Using his voice as an instrument, he manipulates fragments, constructing ambient and vibrant pieces, processes these with electronic sounds and feedback, developing a strange universe where limits are slowly blurred, for a result both familiar and otherworldly, both luminous and icy, both emotional and broken.