... is definitely Squaremeter's "Aswad" (out on ant-zen). The record will certainly breathe new life into muslimcore. Not since Bryn Jones' unfortunate death has this genre gone really anywhere, but since Squaremeter has abandoned his microtonal clicks'n'cuts oriented IDM and ventured to explore arabic influences and dark ambient we can safely say that there is a new king. "Aswad"'s influnces also border on technoid and rhythmically many cuts borrow from sheer powernoise, but don't let that take away anything from the complex, refined soundcscapes that Matias is offering us. A brilliant piece of artistry.

Definitely worth checking out!

under my roof, it's !!!'s "louden it up".

I respect y'all's picks, but I'd go with several, including Yesterday's New Quintet's Stevie, Madvillain's Madvillainy, and Jill Scott's Beautifully Human. And with De La Soul, Beck, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and others on the way, this will be one of music's best years in a long time (IMHO).

nobody mentioning jimmy buffet 'lisence to chill'