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‘Master Mix’ an homage to composer Arthur Russell

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Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

Thousands of new pop, hip-hop, EDM, rock, country and R&B offerings have been uploaded and eclipsed since we all put away our Anna, Elsa and Lorde Halloween costumes. Where to start? Here are three albums worthy of a closer look:

Various Artists, “Master Mix: Red, Hot + Arthur Russell” (Yep Roc). The most recent in a series of benefit records in support of HIV/AIDS research, this newest collection honors the late New York (via Iowa) composer, cellist, post-disco experimenter Arthur Russell. It features a range of artists, including Hot Chip, Blood Orange, Sam Amidon, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Glen Hansard, Cults and others who have been touched by Russell’s emotionally charged, often exuberant, disco-damaged romps. Best known for his offbeat stompers “Go Bang!” and “Is It All Over My Face,” the artist cut a fascinating path through pre-HIV New York City, both as a composer and as the programmer of the Kitchen, an influential downtown performance space.

The tribute is a noble effort for an essential voice, but “Master Mix” also happens to be one of my favorite records of the year, a repeatedly thrilling celebration of Russell, whose presence was cut short when he died of complications from the HIV virus at 40 in 1992.

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Swedish pop master Robyn amps up “Tell You (Today),” Russell’s life-affirming ode to first-rush love. Singer Sufjan Stevens taps into the sweet sadness of longing within “A Little Lost,” a rhythmic, instantly memorable rendition of a song about a long-distance passion. Devendra Banhart adds a spooky darkness to “Losing My Taste for the Night Life,” a lyrically mysterious trip down rural roads, and woven throughout the album are odd excursions from Georgia visual artist and experimental songwriter Lonnie Holley.

Various Artists, “Five Years of Friends of Friends” (Friends of Friends Records). “Five Years of Friends of Friends” celebrates the anniversary of Highland Park-based electronic label Friends of Friends, an imprint that has expanded from early years documenting Los Angeles’ homegrown beat music scene to one with national and international recognition. Best known for its work helping to break experimental beat producers Salva, Tomas Barfod, Groundislava, Shlohmo and LOL Boys, Friends of Friends’ aesthetic focuses on expertly textured synthetic music — the kind in which the sonic artifice of computer-generated tones is harnessed in service of emotionally rich humanoid expressions.

The highlights are many on this double disc set of new, classic and remixed tracks. The well-crafted synth-pop songs of Barfod, captured best on “Broken Glass,” sound like android tragedies, the product of complicated machines expressing human-like breakdowns. Groundislava’s “Suicide Mission” is a gentle romance, one that both hums and bleeps while the singer-producer Baths lifts his voice in falsetto.

The second disc features an avalanche of beats remixed by artists including Ryan Hemsworth, Machinedrum, Jerome LOL and others and illustrates the bounty of producers who recognize Friends of Friends’ alluring vibe. New Yorker Nicolas Jaar flips Shlohmo’s utterly weird “It Rained the Whole Time” into a hypnotic low-end excursion with so much stereo panning and echoed effects that high-volume headphone listening will surprise and tickle the inside of the head. Such pleasures permeate the collection.

Parkay Quarts, “Content Nausea” (What’s Your Rupture). Parkay Quarts is essentially a pseudonym of the excellent New York guitar band Parquet Courts, and when all the permutations of the band’s name are considered, this is its second album of 2014. The first, “Sunbathing Animal,” manifested NYC fury as powerfully as any guitar album since the early years of the Strokes. “Content Nausea” is a step back, or to the side, or upside down. Recorded on a four-track in a few weeks, mostly by two of the group’s four members, it’s strange, inventive and often surprising — a dozen-song toss-off filled with reflex energy. Yeah, singing guitarists Andrew Savage and Austin Brown are flat as often as not, and the two sound better the more they strain, but attitude over finesse never stopped any self-respecting rock ‘n’ roll band.

Fans of post-punk visionaries Wire and Minutemen will find much to love on “Content Nausea,” especially on “Insufferable,” which accomplishes in a minute and a half what most bands can’t get done in five. The kicker, however, is the concluding, and relatively epic, “Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth,” a minor-key journey through the antebellum South propelled by a steady kick of maracas and the barrel of a gun.

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