Kevin Bronson on September 9th, 2009

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[My e-mail is overflowing with notable new music, so in a probably vain attempt to try to catch up, I will start by highlighting new tunes from old friends …]

There’s no understating the Cocteau Twins’ influence on the dreampop and shoegaze bands that followed them; to this day the band’s ability to project emotion through its intricately layered soundscapes amazes. No surprise that one of the principals, Robin Guthrie, has gone on to work as a composer. His third album of instrumental finery, “Carousel,” is due Sept. 28 on Darla Records. It is at once meditative and transportive: Play, decompress.

||| Download: “Some Sort of Paradise” [link fixed]

Elephant 6 lives. And breathes, to hear the tracks from “Signal Morning,” the new album (more than seven years in the making) from Circulatory System. The band is the project of W. Cullen Hart (the Olivia Tremor Control) and includes members of that band as well as Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel. Pretty expansive stuff. The album is out on Cloud Recordings; the band is playing All Tomorrow’s Parties on Saturday, but no West Coast tour dates in sight.

||| Download: “Round Again”