Awesome instrumental new band, Ratatat

Totally digging Ratatat's "Lex", of their 2006 album "Classics." The band is just two guys with their guitars and a drum machine, but they just manage to create an unbelievably intricate, multi-layered sound. Really worth a listen to both this album and the album "Ratatat" and admire how they manage keep your interest with no essentially no vocals.

Norwegian Space Disco

This article "From our Bay to Norway" from the San Francisco Bay Guardian turned me on to a whole new world of music. It's about this very cerebral DJ culture with incredibly esoteric (often pretentious), but highly refined musical tastes who weave these styles through their own music. I'm not even going to try to describe it more, just listen to "Slow Burning Hands" or "Surf Wax", by The Sorcerer, here. The rest of the album's pretty crazy awesome as well.