David Chevan with Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi and The Afro-Semitic Experience, Yizkor: Music of Memory (Reckless DC Music, chevan.addr.com). Bassist/composer Chevan's setting of this set of Jewish memorial prayers feels both ancient and modern. Cantor Mizrahi's voice is the dominant instrument and it's rich and full of emotion. Throughout this cycle recur the band's subtle, murmuring crescendos and descrescendos, surging sounds from which hooky, worldly jazz grooves emerge, sometimes with determination, sometimes tentatively. There's aching sadness in these sounds, but also release and hope. Perhaps the dynamic rises and falls of the band's underpinning of Mizrahi's vocal suggests the mourner's sighs, and the grooves suggest the realization of divine or cosmic order hidden in the chaos, but that's just one interpretation. The musical and cultural semiotics of the Hebrew text, Chevan's setting and the ensemble's multifaceted interpretation are provocatively broad.

—Brian LaRue

Closely Watched Trains (Twin Lakes Records, myspace.com/closelywatchedtrainscwt). On this two-song single, there are two distinct styles. The first track is gentle and folky with finger picked acoustic guitar, xylophone, mellow keyboard sounds and sparse percussion over simple chord changes. The singer has a laid back, soothing delivery that's slightly slurred (in a good way) as if it were the morning after. Track two gets trashy with distorted sounds and an aggressive garage-rock feel. Even so, the gentler xylophone/bells remain along with the song's structural simplicity. At their loudest, Closely Watched Trains will never be offensively ear-splitting. This single is compelling and catchy enough to leave the listener wanting more.

—Mike Sembos