Drumming is not something that often gets accolades let alone mentioned very often in the non-drummer press and I’ll be the first to admit that if the album isn’t one explicitly built around rhythm I pretty much ignore it which is why I Saw The Devil Last Night And Now The Sun Shines Bright leveled me when I first heard it. Bobby Theberge maintains such a level of power that you can feel him pounding the kit like it was your chest yet he manages such control that his work is lyrical, floating to the front of the mix without being overpowering. His stick work is hypnotic and compelling both in how it propels the group forward but also in how it is integral to the melody in each song.

Now, I know that I am not too dialed into the continually fragmenting sub-genres in the Rock world but I am not entirely sure how the Emo tag was applied to Moros Eros. Maybe it is the thin veneer of keyboards that drift in the background, but the band grinds out songs that fit more in the realm of mid to late 90’s post-punk. They have a strong focus on equity in their compositions with no song being dominated by one instrument’s ego at the expense of the others. The songs are balanced and organized while managing to swing in a sort of angular fashion that is reminiscent of Fugazi and Circus Lupus. The the opening track “Today is the Day” where the drums wrestle with the guitars providing a substantial and sharp sound where Zach Tipton’s vocals can stretch like they do on “When I Wake” where DJ Schulz churns out the melody on bass with care and precision are standouts in this regard.

Maybe the Emo label comes from the lyrical focus of the album laying bare the interconnectedness of the hopeless, the resigned, and the fearful though the wanderings of the Devil in the night. Here the Devil is less an antagonist and more a device to bind these disparate tales together and it is effective as they move from a story of lost love to one where the character is wracked by questions of morality. Moros Eros is tight lyrically as they are as a band, making for a fascinating listen, and one where I often feel compelled to shout out responses in the choruses.

This year has been filled with great releases but Moros Eros’ I Saw The Devil Last Night And Now The Sun Shines Bright, with its power and lyricism, manages to shoulder many of them to the side. It is sitting at the top of my list for one of the best releases of this year. You can stream two tracks off the album “Today is the Day” and “Satan Has A Heart of Gold” over at their Myspace page. Very highly recommended.

Opening with shivering strings, An Announcement to Answer imparts a tangible organic feel that wraps itself about the listener in warm, textured folds but it is over all too quickly, unwinding just shy of the forty minute mark. On this, his third release, Will Holland, finds himself digging deeply into the Cuban Soul and Funk diaspora from the 60’s and 70’s, layering them thickly alongside elements from Japan and Africa to create an album that is at once sunny and exotic but tinged with a sense of moodiness. It is an intoxicating journey from start to finish, one that left me a little breathless and looking to repeat it immediately.

this is an album for muggy August nights, strolling underneath pale streetlights casting an orange glow as a stray dog skirts about just on the edge of darkness. “Sabor”, with its swollen horn arrangements, nimble guitar work, and loping vocals builds a fantasy of summer streets late at night with people lounging indolently against dirty brick walls or stretched out on the steps of a building breathing in the scent of the city slowly. Closing out the album is the delicately sweet “”Tell It Like You Mean It” with a saxophone arrangement that strikes closely to the feel and flavor of Rova’s “Suite For A Better World” if it were dropped in the middle of a Brazilian Carnival with undulating bass lines and lightly skipping percussion.

This is what good music does, it is transportive, carrying the listener out of the mundane and to something more vibrant and nuanced.  Not many do this as well as Holland, under his Quantic moniker. An Announcement to Answer is sultry listen, one that is warm to the touch, confident and breathless at the same moment. For all its quickly evaporating thirty-eight minutes captured my mind and heart easily putting it on my Best of 2006 list. To get a feel, you can sample the album over at his website.

I first discovered the two names behind this double-disc set one trip to NYC where on a hot August afternoon a clerk slid copies of DJ Heather’s Tangerine and Colette’s In The Sun over the counter and with much gravitas recommended them both. Colette and DJ Heather at the time were part of Superjane and their work was generating plenty of buzz but sadly as life caught up I fell behind on their work along with everything else going on on the club circuit. Needless to say when I saw the two of them collaborating again and on the heels of last year’s sublime Hypnotized I found myself dancing like only a middle-aged white man from the suburbs can.

House of Om features many of the Om Records royalty from Caldwell to Kaskade and the first disc, a breezy and light journey, belongs to Colette. Her track selections are warm and expansive carrying that fat, round San Francisco sound out to the setting sun in a blissfully trance like way. “What Will She Do For Love”, from 2005’s Hypnotized, makes an early appearance with a high energy remix by Andy Caldwell that bangs its way from beginning to end with a huge back beat and an early 80’s Disco flair in the last couple of minutes which gently slips into the sublime minimalism of Late Night Alumni’s reworking of “I Knew You When”. The Latin tinged “No Problem” with its shuffling rhythm section and bouncing piano line, vaguely reminiscent of Rhythim Is Rhythim’s “Strings of Life”, provides a sharper flavor to the mix.

DJ Heather’s set settles into a late night Deep House mix that is at once spare and soulful; her aim appears to keep bodies moving and she does this through a tight mix with a focus on razor sharp beats. In contrast to Colette’s set, Heather’s is built around transitions and mixing artistry as she works groups of songs that are shorter and closer related yielding a greater sense of continuity. The passage from “Jus Trippin”, “Getting There”, to “To Do” is a great example as she steps from stiff tech driven beats to a warmer soul sound driven by a organ and saxophone line that will put a hitch in your step. Heather also takes a turn at the mic on the East Coast Boogiemen’s track “Picture of You” where she floats in indistinct and hazy with breathy vocals adding to the overall stickiness of the cut.

House of Om is a solid set and both discs stand well on their own buoyed by their individual strengths, be it Colette’s vocals or Heather’s instincts behind the decks. Highly recommended. You can grab a copy over at eMusic.