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David Wingo is a busy man. In the years since the release of his last record as Ola Podrida, he's written and recorded soundtracks for several movies including Take Shelter (winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2011), MUD (starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon), and Prince Avalanche (starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch and co-composed with Explosions In The Sky), both of which are seeing wide release this coming spring/summer. When he had time in between films, Wingo assembled a live band featuring Colin Swietek on guitars, Matt Clark on bass, and David Hobizal on drums and began to bring his new songs in to the band. A first for Ola Podrida, the new album Ghosts Go Blind was recorded to tape in a proper studio, mostly live, with the full band. The resulting songs are energetic and accessible, while Wingo's abstract narratives are more personal and intimate than ever.

After releasing Freeclouds in 2011 under his own name, Carter Tanton toured the US with The War on Drugs and then joined Lower Dens. While on tour with Lower Dens, Carter had plenty of time to experiment with new ways of crafting songs using samples and other electronics. The resulting album, They're Flowers, is his first release under the Luxury Liners moniker.

Having played in various bands including Swords of Chaos and in Jónsi?s touring band, White Mountain is Úlfur Hansson's debut under his own name. With influences ranging from cult cinema, esoteric literature and contemporary music, Úlfur presents a unique twist on the supernatural.

In his own words: "Every track is a collage of field-recordings made while travelling. I met so many interesting people on the road (for instance, Alexandra of Mountain Man who did amazing vocals for "So Very Strange") and I always carry my tape recorder with me like a camera.

The title is a homage to Rene Daumal's Mount Analogue, as well as Alejandro Jodorowski's film Holy Mountain, but also something else?.Each individual sound has a very special memory attached to it, so the album creates these nostalgic nonexistent spaces, hidden places - an amalgamation of instances, situations that couldn't possibly exist. I imagine this White Mountain, an invisible imaginary place - a sacred place on the horizon. Maybe like a connection to the the universe above. An analogy of the journey of Man."

With a battery of custom built software instruments, samples, and 7 live lopers, Christopher Tignor and master percussionist Theo Metz saturate our senses with new colors reflecting the urgent vitality of their South Bronx neighborhood. At times the two seem to lock talons like eagles in a death spiral, as Metz's brutal percussive athleticism keeps pace with Tignor's machines in an aural game of chicken.

The inspiration and experiences that led Tignor to write Replicant are directly tied to his employment history and educational background. His undergraduate degree in Literature, Masters in Computer Science, and PhD in Music Composition are all reflected in Replicant's thematic and technical underpinnings. Prior to his current job as a software engineer for Google, he held a number of interesting jobs including working as LaMonte Young's personal assistant, an EMT, a sound engineer at CBGB, a bike messenger, and has had the opportunity to handle live sound for artists including Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Patti Smith. Listening to Replicant, it's interesting to contemplate how each of these experiences have made their mark on the man and the Replicant.

On Stranger Balmorhea continues the cosmic dialog they began with their eponymous debut in 2007. Though the spirit of Texas' early inhabitants and the weight of the night sky inspired previous albums All is Wild, All is Silent (2009) and Constellations (2010), Stranger shifts the focus from the celestial to the terrestrial, or more accurately, it begins to explore the celestial resonance in all things terrestrial.

Balmorhea's music has always been guided by the experience of living in Texas, but with Stranger the band moves beyond contemplative reverence for the land and the history of their home state. The most forward-leaning of their catalog, Stranger presents worlds of tenderness, aggression, estrangement, and freedom using an expanded sonic palette including guitar loops, vibes, synthesizers, ukulele, and steel pan drums. In addition to these new sounds, electric guitars and percussion take the stage once occupied by piano and acoustic guitars.

Opening with the electric guitar loops, synths, and steel drums of "Days", the band invites us to move forward with them as they explore without pretense or expectation. "Pilgrim" provides the perfect ending, blurring alpha and omega...a concluding gesture taking us back to our beginnings.

Playing music together for over 20 years has given the Bell brothers plenty of time to learn how to build off of one another?s strengths as they write, record, and tour. During the three years Michael and Jared spent writing and recording their new album Symbolyst, they spent more time apart than they ever had. After several years of steady touring in support of two full-length releases and an ep with This Will Destroy You, the brothers found themselves on opposite sides of the globe, with Michael living in Japan and Jared studying graphic design in Brooklyn. The geographic distance led them to rely more than ever on the trust they?ve developed over the years they?ve spent creating together.

Symbolyst draws on the band?s eclectic pool of influences?The Jackon 5?s funk, Jung?s dream theory, Bergman?s existentialism, Baudelaire?s prose, and Wright?s organic architecture. The distinctly catchy melodies and head-bobbing rhythms are immediately inviting, while the densely layered polyrhythms, harmonies, and countermelodies reveal themselves over multiple listens, making for an incredibly rewarding experience no matter how many times you?ve heard the album.

In 2008 we had the honor of releasing our first Balmorhea record Rivers Arms. Though the band?s sound and size has grown, the soulful collection of songs on Rivers Arms continues to resonate with listeners. From the contented isolation of "The Winter" to the hazy heat and hopeful longing of "San Solomon," their music captures the indescribable feelings of living and growing in Texas.

Now, 4 years later, we?re excited to make this limited edition vinyl version of Rivers Arms available with 4 bonus tracks and updated artwork. Still wearing their bathing suits, Rob Lowe and Michael Muller recorded the first two bonus tracks as children jumped and splashed in San Solomon Springs (Balmorhea State Park) in the background. These two sunny guitar pieces are followed by a powerful live version of ?Theme? recorded in Vienna, Austria. The final track is a version of ?San Solomon? featuring live drums, recorded in 2008 for their very limited tour E.P.

Trevor Montgomery is a craftsman. By day he's a skilled tile setter, a job taxing to both the mind and body. By night he's an equally meticulous and hard working musician, coaxing just the right tones out of his vintage drum machines and synths to carry his tales of love and redemption. As a tile setter and as a musician, his job is the same: assembling things of beauty to fill empty spaces.

Montgomery's previous album The Trickster (St. Ives) was inspired by his youth, wandering in the woods, riding trains, taking meth and heavy psychedelics, and narrowly cheating death on more than one occasion. On Navigated Like the Swan, his debut under the Young Moon moniker, he emerges like a shaman from the woods of his youth -- his darkness is filled with light, cynicism and macabre fixations washed away by a revitalizing and intoxicating love.

Raining is the third installment in the small music series and the first posthumous Rolf Julius release. The title piece "Raining" originally appeared as part of the 2007 installation "Drawing (Dot)." When played at a high volume the piece engulfs the listener in a dense world of rain, wind rattled trees, and soaked pastures full of life. However, when played through the small flat speaker Julius chose for the installation, the sounds become soft and cyclical patterns, like a lush landscape viewed from a plane miles above. The second piece "Weitflächig" is an example of what Julius called "Musik für eine weite Ebene" (Music for a Wide Plain) - using small sounds to create vast landscapes of sound. "Music for a Glimpse Inward" originally appeared in a 2005 installation. With small speakers placed along the edge of very large empty room, the music played softly, heightening the listener's perception of space and emptiness.

Despite feeling disillusioned, drained, and disconnected after an intense year of touring, Brooklyn-based recording artist Jesse Marchant, a.k.a. JBM, felt an insatiable need quietly gestating. After a much needed break, he relocated to a remote cabin in the Catskills and started the long process of writing and recording Stray Ashes, his followup to 2010's Not Even in July. Like a twilight journey through canyons, with noctilucent clouds on the horizon, these songs flow with refined grace and raw force.

Though he recorded most of the album in a large log house next to a frozen lake inhabited by hundreds of geese in upstate New York, John Congleton joined the project for additional recording and mixing. Congleton's contributions help to define a sonic space throughout Stray Ashes that perfectly cradles Jesse's earnest vocals, as do the additional performances of McKenzie Smith (of Midlake, Drums), and Macey Taylor (of A.A. Bondy, Bass) on several tracks, which were recorded by Congleton in his Texas studio. The gauzy sonic blanket Marchant and Congleton have created provides a foundation for the mysterious collection of songs on Stray Ashes.

Further Out / Perfect Pairs is a collaboration between Callers and Luaka Bop recording artist Delicate Steve. "Further Out" is a disjointed narrative about hotels and their occupants, left to tie up loose ends as life rockets past them, while "Perfect Pairs" explores the difficulties of maintaining relationships within relationships within relationships.

Here's what Delicate Steve had to say about the collaboration:"I met Sara through some mutual friends at a Deerhoof concert last year. Soon after that I checked out her band (on myspace!!) and was really into it. I sent her an idea I had for a song while on tour, then we met for a minute during SXSW, saw each other's bands, and talked about making a song when we were both home from tour. Next we met up at Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" concert in NY where our bands were both playing. I had an awesome time in the mosh pit with Ryan. A week or two later we started recording "Perfect Pairs" together with Don Godwin behind the board. Shortly after that, we made "Further Out" collaborating back and forth in our home studios."