Portland, Oregon's Old Time Relijun sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. They sound like what would happen if indie rock got into a fight with Japanese noise rock band The Boredoms. The beginning of every song sounds like it is based in traditional rock music, but then suddenly a discordant saxophone will appear, or a discordant trumpet. In a lot of ways, it sounds like the rock equivalent of experimental jazz.

Their album, Catharsis in Crisis, begins with the Indian-influenced sitar song "Indestructable Life!," before quickly dissolving into a trumpet and saxophone based cacaphony of drums and sound. It is all very energetic and fast-paced, which makes it a very interesting listen. Old Time Relijun's sound perhaps comes together the most clearly towards the end of their album in the song "A Wild Harvest," which manages to combine both jazz instruments, drums, and traditional instruments into a mad frenzy of music. 

Now that hip-hop is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, it is hard to think back to the 70's, when hip-hop didn't even have a name yet and it was completley cutting-edge and new. It was a sound being created and pioneered on the streets of the South Bronx by DJ's like Afrika Bambaataa. Now known as the "Grandfather of Hip-Hop," Bambaataa was probably the first well-known hip-hop DJ, creating rhythms and lyrics that became synonymous with the new genre in many people's minds.

Planet Rock was Bambaataa's first album. Released in 1986, is a collection of singles previously released on records. Almost all of the songs are immediately recognisable for fans of old school hip-hop. Even those who don't know the genre will feel like they've heard some of the songs before, especially "Looking For The Perfect Beat," because they all received pretty heavy rotation on early MTV and radio. 

The album is rounded out with the classics "Go Go Pop," "Planet Rock," and "Who Do You Think You're Funkin' With?" 

There's something cheeky about Québec band Numéro#. They are the anti-Miss Kittin: instead of singing about fame and glamour and success, they make fun of all of it. Their lyrics, all sung in French, ridicule the status obsessed world and those that live in it. This makes Numéro#'s 2006 album, L'Idéologie des stars (The Ideology of the Stars) a pretty intersting listen, even if their beats weren't as catchy as they are.

Their sound is up-beat and funky: electroindie, characterisitc of their hometown of Montreal. They are also quasai-celebrities in Québec: the delightful animated music video for their second single, "Chewing-gum fraise" ("Strawberry Chewing Gum"), was voted second best of 2006 by Québec-based music channel, MusiquePlus. 

In fact, their lead single, "Hip-pop," was so catchy that Canadian radio stations began to play it after downloading it off of their Myspace site: pretty rare for an independent band. They have even opened for French hip-hop supergroup TTC in their last tour.

Numéro# are an act to watch.

Sometimes I get stuck trying to describe how a group sounds and why they stand out for me (and why they should stand out to you too). It's not like that with Plantlife, or at least the one thing that is very clear, is why I like them. See, I was in love and Plantlife had love songs. Nothing makes me swoon faster than to hear some guy mourning over a psychadelic riff or contemplating the object of their affection. Whether Plantlife means it or not, it's really refreshing to hear somebody talk about love and their mistakes sometimes and not just the carnal satisfactions.

So what does Plantlife sound like? Think Prince over Parliament Funkadelic or the Isley Brothers over James Brown. They aren't retro, but they have that blue-light basement party funk vibe with a splash of electronic thrown in to wrangle the sound into the present. There aren't a lot of bands doing what Plantlife does, the closest being fellow Californians, Sa-Ra Creative Partners. Many groups could get the funk and groove part right and then lose you on the lyrics or a singer's whiny voice (which really kills the mood of the groove). Plantlife's got it all together though and on tracks like "Your Love", "Freeee!" and "Lovetoy" off their 2008 album Time Traveller.