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Some of the treasures that can be found whilst delving into Mozambique via Angola's undergrowth: Wilhelm Peters, the German zoologist credited with the discovery of the Almiqui, a fantastical menagerie of creatures both real and imaginary, a guest spot by Tove Jansson's mysterious Hattifatteners, musings on the nightmarish effect of children's entertainment and an obsession with a variety of hats.

Can coherent music be made by two people who have never met, and who have only recently delved into the world of music making? That was the question in mind as, fresh from their initial solo experimentations as Sister Ruth and Gnomefoam, Dean Birkett and Steve Bromley embarked upon a journey as fantastical as the creatures contained within these songs. Snatches of ambient noise and hints of melodies fluttered back and forth through the twisted tubes of the internet. These messages unfurled and blossomed into fully fledged recordings, they stacked upon one another in themes and narrative strands that matured into Mozambique via Angola.

Here, the sombre, sparse piano melodies of Sister Ruth wash up against the clattering cut-and-paste stylings of Gnomefoam. Effects-laden spoken word vocals proliferate throughout, at times bubbling below the surface of the music and occasionally bursting into the open to provide a lyrical focus. A variety of styles is on offer here – the warm strummed guitar and calm vocals of “Rodent squelch/ coffee beans”, the menacing drones and reversed laughter of “The Berlin Zoological Society” and the brittle beauty of “The wide-eyed jigsaw puzzle”. The album climaxes with the title track, “Mozambique via Angola”, in which the whispered tale of an old man and a flying saucer lies beneath the quietly intoned bullet points of a journey from Mozambique to Angola. All the while, a piano melody and a thumping beat pull the song - and album - onwards towards its conclusion.

"Things" is the debut full-length from Jason the Swamp.  It was originally released on CD-R by Popmonster in mid-2007, but Popmonster called it quits later that year.  So now it lives here, as a mission statement, in all of it's fuzzy, lo-fi glory.  

"I had been making music for a little while before I made this, but my previous methods never felt right to me.  My old music was missing a certain human quality.  It was too calculated, and without imperfections it lacked soul.  Then I discovered a Tascam, 4-track cassette recorder, in my basement.  I think one of my brother's friends left it there (you can't have it back).  Recording with the 4-track was kind of a de-evolution for me, but I felt like I had hit the main nerve of musical creativity.  I started to create things without trying too  hard; instead I was just trying things in general.  Eventually, an album began to take shape, and "Things" is what came out.  It's far from perfect, as am I."  

- Jason

Notes:
Moon River was written by Johnny Mercer & Henry Mancini.
Tracks 4 & 5 contain samples of Dion McGregor, sleep-talker extraordinaire.

OK, EP  1, ready to go, 2 songs, side A, side B, easy simple, ready to go, take it in the car with you, take it running, take it in the shower, drink it with water, let it hold your camera so you can take a beautiful picture of yourself and look narcissistic (maybe), it can back up your hard drive safely, talk to your friends, sign official documents, throw it like a frisbee, burn it on a cd and give it to them as the worst gift ever.  This album consists of: 1 dose of Telephone Orgasm and 1 dose of a terrible cover that was made in about 2 minutes of an amazing Professor Murder song named Free Stress Test, the title being based off of Scientologists (since when is that not in spell check), and Megazord made it and it was terrible and he didn't want to edit it because he had nothing on his MUSIC myspace page where he had no "music" to speak of. Included is some fractals, and a cat on a keyboard.

What are Moon Runners? Some sort of post-post-post-hardcore? Slow-Fi? Minimalist loud noisepop? Gazepunk? They don't care so much about writing songs, they just like to make sounds. So here is Moon Runners' Self Titled EP, a collection of sounds disguised as music. The EP was recorded in a matter of hours on a broken four-track (effectively a two-track), which died shortly after these recordings were finished. Only a few physical copes exist in the world, released on cassette. The band is currently working on a full length cassette (on a new 4-track) to be released Summer 2008.

Tyson one day hopes to record the perfect pop album, not pop in the sense of boy bands and divas, but the classic pop that was unleashed when the Beatles landed on the American shores. Strong influences of dreamy 60s pop and a healthy dose of the genre hopping likes of beck and Of Montreal give this music a feeling that it could go almost anywhere, from the country sound of "Forget the world" to the electronic touches of "The Golden Age of Ballooning". Kick back and let these poppy sounds swirl away in your auditory canals.

Austin, Texas has the official slogan of "The Live Music Capital of the World", a brave claim to stake, but with SXSW pulling in the flocks, then it would be a brave man to dispute that.

Straight out of Austin, battling through the masses come "These are Words", an exciting four piece, and with them comes Prism, an album that flows like honey from your 'Spoon' (Austin joke included).

From the shoegaze(y) sombre opening, the album takes a change of direction and sounds like some jewel left on the mantelpiece of music by the Elephant Six collective. Before you start to take in the change of pace, you are left moving uncontrollably to "Bird", a track which is guaranteed to get everybody moving. Counter fit, then turns the album back on its head again, with distorted psychedelic sounds that sound straight out of Austin.

A late night documentary, probably about death scenes in films, was the inspiration behind Sister Ruth, and his first EP. The name, and inspiration comes from Michael Powell's classic 1947 film "Black Narcissus", where temptation, lust, desire and madness play crucial parts in the script.

Using that inspiration, coupled with a love for artists such as The Caretaker, Sylvain Chauveau, and Library Tapes. Sister Ruth plugged in his keyboard for the very first time in early January 2008, to try and craft songs around repitition, found sounds, background noise, and importantly 'no noise'. Quiet could be the new loud.

"I wanted to do some simple songs that were really fun to make, and I did.  The two main focuses of this EP are the multi-part harmonies, and the poly-rhythmic, junk percussion, both of which are very fun to do.  All of the other instruments on there are merely for decoration, while the mouth sounds and drums are the real meat of it.  It's kind of tribal in that way.  Each of the songs were started and finished within a few hours, though on separate days.  No lyrics were actually written down.  They were just made up while recording, as needed." - Jason

Sounds Underground features vocals by the incomparable Jessi Lively.

The genre-defying Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit would like to introduce it's debut EP, Ex-Stinger. As much a collection of songs as it is a collection of ideas, scribbled thoughts and one-liners placed on radio-friendly melodies, TASRU brings you 6 brain-melting ballads about love, hate, aloneness, togetherness, and marine life so drenched in emotion and reverb that it will have you begging on your mortal knees for so much more. Pop on a pair of giant headphones, turn off the lights and enjoy the glorious sounds of TASRU.

Straight out of Dublin, this Duck Dispensary come to Rack & Ruin, with glockenspiel , drum machine, guitar, laptop and a whole feast of other instruments in tow. acupofteaandasliceofcake is their first full length, and what an excellent fuzzy pop album it is.

Featuring ten catchy fuzzy disjointed pop songs, this is bound to bring a smile to your face.