Mike Ladd is hip-hop’s Baz Luhrmann and its Alvin Toffler. A maniacally brainy, thirtysomething lyricist-producer, Ladd fashions Luhrmannesque opera from a crude mash of classic material and current mediums, then embeds ’em like Toffler with modern Alvin philosophical meaning. If MTV wanted for the Beyoncé/Mos Def Carmen to turn out…

More of a political movement than a band, Godspeed You Black Emperor! is Montreal’s collection of commune-dwelling, hard-core-loving psychedelic anarchists. And God bless them for it. Somebody has to be the voice of the opposition — even if they don’t actually speak. A near-orchestra (multiple drums, guitars and basses, plus…

Recordings of whale calls aren’t for everyone. Neither is Iceland’s Sigur Ros. But those hooked on this symphonic rock quartet — whose glacial sound mixes Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine and various 4AD atmosphereniks — are unlikely to find another group even remotely similar. With eight nameless songs, crooned in a…

As captain of the good ship Built to Spill, Doug Martsch wears a lot of hats, and he wears ’em well. One most becoming cap reads “Resident Guitar Genius.” That’s the one Martsch sports most prominently on Now You Know, the first side maneuver released under his own name. But…