Pitchfork

Malawian-born, London-based singer Esau Mwamwaya teams with the European production team Radioclit for a hugely eclectic mixtape that veers from South Africa's marabi and kwaito music to Hans Zimmer scores to French and American hip-hop to Michael Jackson. While strong collaborations with M.I.A., Santogold, and Vampire Weekend include some surprising left-turns, tracks that lean away from the familiar work even better.

Microcastle and its bonus disc, Weird Era Cont., sidestep much of the art-damaged squall of previous Deerhunter records, but they don't embrace 1950s and 60s pop as dramatically as lead singer Bradford Cox had intimated in early interviews. Instead, this 2xCD set captures urgent and imaginative songs that reorganize 4AD haze, off-kilter indie pop, crashing garage-punk, forward-leaning krautrock, and hypnotic Kranky ambience into a singular-sounding call-to-arms, or at least call-to-guitars. Black Lips' Cole Alexander guests.

Robert Pollard's new band with Guided by Voices pal Chris Slusarenko and drummer John Moen of the Decemberists seems to have reinvigorated the prolific songwriter. Shedding the bloat and eccentricities of his recent projects, Brown Submarine is as direct and tuneful as anything since GBV's heyday.

The eccentric Englishman, who has worked with Saint Etienne and remixed Grizzly Bear and Franz Ferdinand, embraces organic instrumentation and pop song structure on this kitchen-sink examination of the Information Age.

Fronted by a former pro surfer and fleshed out by a bunch of dudes who look like the male cast of "The Hills", Japanese Motors sound like a West Coast version of the Strokes or Black Lips.