With ‘The Woods,’ the sagacious guitarist from Maine Ryan Blotnick has consolidated all his strengths into his most consistent effort yet.

Two experimental electronic music pioneers who also happen to be analog musicians at heart create an endlessly fascinating assemblage of artificial sounds rooted in human artistic instincts.

Released 55 years ago this month, the instantly familiar ‘Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon’ meant James Taylor wouldn’t go down as a one-shot wonder.

Mark Wade’s ‘New Stages’ is simply unclassifiable. Record stores might not like that, but listeners do because there is something for every musical palette.

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project’s ‘The Longest Way Round’ plays like a passport filled to capacity, moving seamlessly through genres and rhythms.

Here is “Like Swimwear (part one),” the advance single from Jeff Parker ETA IVtet’s upcoming album ‘Happy Today.’

Stephen Godsall’s fun, experimental ‘Tingling Skin, Buzzing Wires’ proves the banjo fits just fine into an ensemble. Along the way, he elevates this humble instrument to new heights.

Harriet Tubman’s ‘Electrical Field of Love’ is a welcome enough return on its own but their willingness to keep shaking things up by bringing on board Georgia Anne Muldrow signals that they haven’t lost any aversion to standing pat.

‘Fallows’ is different because the perspective is different. It’s up to us to find the beauty that transcends the chaos; Caroline Davis found it in the American Rockies and shares it with us through these recordings.

Bluegrass, I like. Styx’s Tommy Shaw, I like. But together? You couldn’t help but wonder, 15 years ago, if ‘The Great Divide’ would even work – but it did.