The more IDM acts mine cutout-bin luminaries the Art of Noise, the better. True, Autechre architects Sean Booth and Rob Brown specialize in harder, spazzier beats than those that powered that group's deathless '80s robo-jam "Close (to the Edit)." But get past glitchy irritants like "SonDEremawe" and an artful payoff of cerebral, booty-shaking decadence awaits on their ninth album.

Now in their third decade, this Kentucky-spawned, New York–based trio could pass for a bunch of eager newcomers who can't decide what kind of band they want to be when they grow up. Although the two-disc, 26-track Opus Mixtum lacks focus, the

American Music Club produced perhaps the most emotionally intense indie rock of the late '80s and early '90s. Singer Mark Eitzel can silence a room with his beautiful-loser conviction, but his brain is too abuzz with ambivalence to ever settle for simple angst or

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon spent last winter holed up in rural Wisconsin with his guitars, some recording equipment, and a broken heart. When the snow melted, he returned with ten sparse, searching songs that gorgeously evoke the desolate beauty of those surroundings.