Like its 2008 predecessor Alegranza!, the sophomore follow-up from El Guincho (real name Pablo Díaz-Reixa) plays like a celebration — a hybrid between Animal Collective’s brand of experimental pop and Brazil-entrenched tropicália. It’s surf rock for the southern hemisphere, a reverb-heavy set charged by an arsenal of drum samples both syncopated (“Bombay”) and full-bodied (“Soca Del Eclipse”). Of course, you may not understand a bit of what Díaz-Reixa is talking about unless you’re some degree of bilingual. Sung entirely in Spanish, Pop Negro’s muscle lies in the power of its rhythmic impressions. Every song has an audible clap, a smack that boosts the break in the beat — even the schizophrenic quickness of “(Chica-Oh) Drims”. Díaz-Reixa is a formidable frontman, and though his lyrical intonations can get lost in translation, his raw energy is eminent on album highlights “Lycra Mistral” and “Ghetto Fácil”. This is one the entire world should be able to get behind.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Buy this at Other Music or iTunes.

The North Carolina roots of brothers Brad and Phil Cook should explain the twang that emanates out of their “mini-album” but Heretofore is just as steeped in the ethereal folk of third member Joe Westerlund’s native Eau Claire, WI — home to like-minded songwriters Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Peter Wolf Crier of Peter Pisano. Call it a difference of two halves. Heretofore’s opening title track starts slow but builds to a charging stomp, giving way to the breezy AM rock of “Carolina Days”. “Eagle” and “Volunteers” both come straight off the back porch, slip-slidin’ on simple descending guitar riffs (the former) and Appalachian banjo lines (the latter). By the time “Comprovisation for Connor Pass” — an eleven-minute foray into some deep, stoned abyss — rolls around, Megafaun’s moved from the porch back to Eau Claire. “Comprovisation” and harmony-heavy closer “Bonnie’s Song” are decidedly more laid-back and somehow even more beard-friendly than the front-end of this sufficient holdover to an unnamed LP set for release later this fall.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Buy Megafaun records at Other Music or iTunes. Heretofore will be released September 14. After the jump, check out an intimate live performance of “Bonnie’s Song”.

Australian imports are usually packaged with a bolt of lightning — hard-charging rock explosions in the vein of AC/DC, Silverchair, and Wolfmother. With Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride, the Sydney duo of Aimee Nash and Scott Van Ryper emerges as the new face of Aussie rock: a drugged-up stew of distorted guitars fueled by the American bands Nash and Van Ryper toured alongside and brought into the studio to lend a hand on the recording. The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Ricky Maymi and Leah Shapiro and Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are just three of the reasons that Buy the Ticket boasts such a West Coast neo-psychedelic drone. “Gone Without Feeling” and “To Never Know You” dig up Oregon rockers the Dandy Warhols via Nash’s ethereal vocals.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Buy this at iTunes.

In February, Definitive Jux effectively closed its doors from making any more music, and El-P — the progressive hip-hop label’s founder, boss hog, and chief curator — stepped down from his post as the NYC label’s artistic director, effectively ending an era in indie rap that owes more than its fair share to El-P’s hard-hitting style. As we all could have predicted though, you can take El out of the Jux but you can’t take the Jux out of El. With Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3, he’s created an industrial shakedown of laser shots (“Take You Out at the Ballgame”), howls (“Drunk with a Loaded Pistol”), and fresh-to-death remixes (Kidz in the Hall’s “Driving Down the Block” and Young Jeezy’s “I Got This”). Void of any vocals, the album stands as El-P’s answer to J Dilla’s modern classic, Donuts. The instrumental medley thrives on succinct transitions through “Whores: The Movie”, “Meanstreak (In 3 Parts)”, and “DMSC”, before launching into “Time Won’t Tell”, a slow-building but pristine, driving beat that evokes one-time label-mate RJD2’s The Horror. Best is saved for last, however, with the Mothership Connection of “Contagious Snippet” and the hard-hitting 1980s drum-hype behind “Eat My Garbage 2”. On Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3, El-P reminds us all where he came from — what comes next remains anybody’s guess.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Buy this at iTunes. After the jump, check out an interview El-P did with Ford Models.