Discoveries (2008)

RECLOOSE Cardiology (Planet E Communications) -- As any DJ worth his VI on to alter pop music on a grand scale. Inner City's past dalliance with Virgin Records aside, the local scene has remained insular and fiercely independent. But as the annual Detroit Electronic Music Festival (May 25-27) will attest, the town has mad talent, and Recloose, a.k.a. Matt Chicoine, is among the maddest. A hip-hop head from the Motor City mentored by label honcho and scene demigod Carl Craig, he's been a genre mutt from the get-go, and on this long-brewing debut, the tension between Chicoine's catholic tastes and techno's lock-groove formalism makes for heady sound clashes. Broken-beat shrapnel alternates with martial swing and turntablist wicky-scratch; '70s funk nuzzles dub reggae and house. The electro-R&B vocals don't always cohere, but even the disconnects have a hypnotic appeal. MOBY MOMENT The lush soul-hymn title track -- what the little bald guy might make if he spent more time in Tower's jazz section. A-

THE GOSSIP Arkansas Heat (Kill Rock Stars) -- Smoking even the group's excellent 2000 debut, this lives up to its title. Front-woman Beth is a butch bluesgirl to match Jack White's femme bluesboy -- a punk-schooled, lust-damp shouter from a state that's birthed many a great crotch-driven American. With a voice triangulating Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey, and Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker, she and her overdriven garage trio burn through five joints in under 10 minutes, then cap things with feedback rabble-rousing. A perfectly turned argument for the current EP revival. PUT YOUR FIST IN THE AIR ''(Take Back) the Revolution'' is the best new-punk shout-along since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' ''Our Time.'' A

SAGE FRANCIS Personal Journals (Anticon) -- Imagining rap less as a Martin Scorsese gang bang than as a Larry Clark coming-of-dysfunctional-age tale, Sage Francis comes straight outta Providence, and pledges allegiance to the loose-knit Anticon crew, known for eccentric lo-fi beats and rhymes that swing from stone abstract to hyper-emo. Like label affiliate Slug, Francis is in the latter camp, working the mic like a therapist's couch, dropping rhymes about detox drama and relationship angst over old folk, film-score, and tabla samples. Sorta like Eminem without the pandering BS. CHOICE OLD-SCHOOL PUNCHLINE On the breakup breakdown ballad ''Eviction Notice'': ''I'm in the house y'all/I'm in the house y'all/And ain't no new boyfriend gonna kick me out y'all.'' B+

MY MORNING JACKET Chocolate and Ice (Badman) My Morning Jacket/Songs:Ohia (Jade Tree) -- MMJ leader Jim James is an indie-rock longhair with a choirboy voice torn between reverb-drenched introspection and Southern-rock bronco busting. Two EPs on two labels take two approaches. Chocolate and Ice is the quieter, long on zero-gravity, sweet-harmonizing country rock that connects Neil Young's ''Expecting to Fly'' to the Meat Puppets' ''Up on the Sun'' -- though James throws in a twangy little 24-minute disco-funk-blues space opera just for the heck of it. The Jade Tree EP (which includes a brooding ballad by fellow alt-countrymen Songs:Ohia) salts savory melodies over Crazy Horse-play. A smidgen more songwriting focus and dude will be dangerous indeed. INDIE ROCK DOESN'T ALWAYS SUCK LIVE MMJ rock a stage with machine-gun-miming guitar-slinging and coordinated hair tosses. Why should dumb metal bands have all the fun? Chocolate: B+ Split EP: B

SHARON JONES AND THE DAP-KINGS Dap Dippin' With... (Daptone) -- As DJs unearth every ancient funk jam extant, fear has gripped rare-groove fans: What happens when there are no relics left to uncover? No worry -- revivalists are making plans. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are a hard soul revue that should have existed in 1965, but didn't, so in yet another impressive simulacrum, some of the Antibalas crew (see page 23) invented them. Would be nice if Jones & Co. put their own imprint on things, as British ska revivalists did in the '80s. But the tribute is so loving it's tough to begrudge 'em. HOTTEST GROOVE ''Pick It Up, Lay It in the Cut,'' with the sort of proto-Afrobeat drum-break that certain Bronx DJs would've once traded their dookie gold rope chains for. B+

THE ALLENKO BROTHERHOOD ENSEMBLE The Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble (Shanachie) ANTIBALAS Talkatif (Ninja Tune) -- With help from drummer Tony Allen (a.k.a. Allenko), Nigeria's Fela Kuti forged a brassy funk permutation called Afrobeat in the '70s. When Kuti died in 1997, most figured the genre went with him. Not true. Besides son Femi Kuti's rising star, Allen is evolving his own electro-minimalist brand of Afrobeat. The Brotherhood Ensemble mates his quicksand beat patterns with various global producer-DJ types; even when the mixers overdo it the grooves never quit. Meanwhile, Antibalas are a collective based in Brooklyn (!) devoted to keeping Fela's spirit alive. Talkatif's sound is so vintage you might mistake it for one of the countless Afrobeat reissues in the racks. But when the soloists start tag-teaming, the group comes into its own. SPACE IS THE PLACE Allenko's ''Brotherhood (piano mix)'' has British remixer the Cinematic Orchestra casting Allen's beats against Martian trumpet and soul-jazz piano. Like Sun Ra gigging at Rick's place in Casablanca. Allenko: B+ Talkatif: B

ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS The Day the Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs (Smog Veil) This set of demos and live recordings, made in 1975, is pretty much the only document of the band that would mutate into Pere Ubu, and here they sound as raw as the Sex Pistols in a snowdrift. The recording quality is dodgy, but by the time David Thomas' bestial wail morphs into Peter Laughner's steak-knives-through-sheet-metal guitar on ''So Cold,'' you won't care. PUNK EXISTENTIALISM Hearing the late Peter Laughner contemplate suicide in the bleak ''Amphetamine,'' while oblivious bar patrons yak it up. RIP, man. A-

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