In a time when it seems to pay off more to play it safe than it does to take creative chances, Ran Blake and Sara Serpa provide refreshing respite on Aurora. Their second album deals a new hand to some jazz favorites

The Second Mechanism is, for all intents and purposes, the tale of a band reborn. The band is Diagonal, a UK progressive rock outfit. The rebirth came about as the result of some major line-up shuffling

To hear the music of Sumi Tonooka as she plays on Now: Live at the Howland is to hear music stripped bare. The album presents two solo sets recorded on March 22, 2010 at the Howland Center in Beacon, New York.

A lot of the time, it can seem like jazz music is bound a sequence of strict rules — at the very least an anthology of things you shouldn’t and things you should do or people you should be and people you shouldn’t be.

A vibrant and exciting live album, the aptly titled Live by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet finds the Austrian singer in her element and backed by a spirited and colorful band.

A dazzling and cosmopolitan trip, Into the Air finds Jeff Coffin and his Mu’Tet in fine form indeed.

A wave of bracing yet sometimes static sound, Broken Harbour’s The Geometry of Shadows picks up where the heft of his previous work Gramophone Transmissions left off.

Sludge metal titans Kylesa have presented their own gift for the holidays with From the Vaults, Vol. 1, a tantalizing record. The rarities and B-sides take hold immediately

The seventh full length from Sacramento’s Deftones exemplifies the energetic blend of the atmospheric and the heavy over the course of 11 tracks. It features extensive riffing, haphazard tempo shifts and Chino Moreno’s emotionally full vocals

With a mighty swarm of guitar riffs and funky-as-hell vocals, Indian Handcrafts takes to Civil Disobedience for Losers with an attitude that is all too rare in today’s cookie-cutter rock scene.