Prepare yourself for a throbbing, harrowing journey to the center of your fragile, egg-shell mind.
Coil's long-out-of-print audio hallucinogen is back in circulation. Dais Records

Coil, “7-Methoxy-ß-Carboline- (Telepathine)” (Dais). It's strange to play something off Coil's Time Machines during working hours; this music doesn't pair well with daylight and responsibility. But I'm duty-bound to report that you should know the sainted Dais Records is reissuing this crucial 1998 album on October 13—in limited editions, damn it. Conceived by these British occultists as “4 Tones to facilitate travel through time,” Time Machines stands majestically in the pantheon of psychedelic masterpieces. This track here, as are all four of them on Time Machines, is named after a hallucinogenic compound, and it's truth in titling. “7-Methoxy-ß-Carboline- (Telepathine)” is a dense, burrowing experience, preferably heard in the dark, after midnight, and on something government officials—those meddling oppressors—don't want you to be on. The trip Coil take you on here isn't expansive and gregarious; rather, it's interiorized and perilous—a throbbing, harrowing journey to the center of your fragile, egg-shell mind. Nevertheless, it's genuine escapism, of sorts.

Karl Blau, "Slow Children" (Bella Union). Talented bassist for Dylan Carlson's Earth and prolific Anacortes-based solo artist Karl Blau returns with a beguiling tropical-quasi-jazz fantasia that should be ushering in summer instead of waving goodbye to it, but whattaya gonna do? Animated by high-spiraling Miles Davis-esque trumpet ca. Sketches of Spain, a balmy melody, and Blau's lilting, Paul Simon-y vocals, "Slow Children" is a teaser for Blau's Out Her Space LP, due November 17 on ex-Cocteau Twins member Simon Raymonde's Bella Union label.

Superorganism, “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” (Domino). Infatuation at first listen becomes increasingly elusive the longer you progress in your life as a music fanatic. So it's a profound pleasure to relate that your critic had such an encounter this week with Superorganism's “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” Sounding like a mix of early, devil-may-care Beck with charmingly garish one-hit wonders Whale (go YouTube "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" and be forever changed), this song boasts warped, woozy slide guitar and a rhythm that's simultaneously buoyant and sublimely sluggish. The vocals are like a more twee Kim Gordon deadpan, and the whole thing is basic minimalist brilliance. Smells like a novelty hit.

Wizdumb, "Bust tha Format" (Lo-Flydelity). Seattle producer Wizdumb (aka Alex Hupp) has proven himself to be one of the city's most accomplished beatmakers in the neo-old-school vein that harks back to early-'90s golden era business. For some heads of a certain age, that time will always represent hiphop's zenith, when deep cratedigging and inventive sampling and arranging skills coupled with intelligent observational verses... or at least clever braggadocio. And Wizdumb is a serious scholar of that aesthetic, as "Bust tha Format" decidedly proves. Lacing the track with vinyl static and deploying a ringing doorbell as hypnotic motif, Wiz drops one of the classic boom-bap beats and raps with authority about how his rapping deserves your respect. It's an old trope, but he executes it with cold-blooded flair. "See me on the block diggin' wax in Alhambra/But now I'm in the White House shootin' dice with Obama/The drums are so nice and so fat like your mama." (Wizdumb's Shadows album is out now on CD-r and Bandcamp.)

Do Pas O, "History of Comedy" (Hausu Mountain). Do Pas O is the solo project of Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte, main songwriter and percussionist for brill post-punk/No Wave dynamos Guerilla Toss. On "History of Comedy," he packs 10 pounds of eventfulness into a five-pound bag. This is overdriven funk filtered through a totally lit and fucked-up chillwave sensibility—something like Black Dice on potent Ecstasy. I need the extended 12-inch version for my next DJ gig to get the party started weirdly. This track's off the new Join the Fucking Drum Circle, which is a mighty fine title.

Noteworthy September 8 album releases: Neil Young, Hitchhiker (Reprise); Alvvays, Antisocialites (Polyvinyl); SPARKS, Hippopotamus (BMG); Ted Leo, The Hanged Man (Superego); Odesza, A Moment Apart (Counter); Deerhoof, Mountain Moves (Joyful Noise); Chad VanGaalen, Light Information (Sub Pop); Mount Kimbie, Love What Survives (Warp); Tony Allen, The Source (Blue Note); Zola Jesus, Okovi (Sacred Bones); The Dream Syndicate, How Did I Find Myself Here? (Anti-); Rostam, Half-Light (Nonesuch); Nosaj Thing, Parallels (Innovative Leisure); Living Colour, Shade (Megaforce); The National, Sleep Well Beast (4AD); Tori Amos, Native Invader (Decca); Gregg Allman, Southern Blood (Rounder); Death from Above, Outrage! Is Now (Last Gang).