We at Under the Radar are a little late on the scene with Tamino but, fresh from wowing many at SXSW, it seems timely to draw attention to the debut album, Amir.

It would be a misnomer to categorize Sasami Ashworth as simply a guitarist. The Los Angeles-based polymath has been stamping her imprimatur onto film scores, orchestral compositions, and recently provided her deft musicianship to Cherry Glazer as their resident synthesist.

Lambchop, the Nashville alt-country/cabaret/masculine-zen band led by frontman Kurt Wagner, have released 14 albums, including their latest, This (is what I wanted to tell you), each of which utilizes Wagner’s signature baritone vocal delivery as a sort of totem pole, building atop with lush guitar arrangements, tight but often jaunty rhythm sections, and peculiar synthesizer and brass/string bits.

It’s difficult to envisage any other music scene in recent years that’s stood the test of time less than Britpop. Rooted in nostalgia and an arrogant sense of its own importance, most of its key players’ music already sounded dated long before the decade turned into a 21st century full of hope, adventure, and Coldplay.

This Canadian indie rock collective needs no introduction as they have been creating a sophisticated and multi-layered indie/art/prog rock hybrid sound that has influenced artists and entertained the masses since 2001’s Feel Good Lost.

Parting ways with Rough Trade following the mild disappointment of their 2017 English Tapas platter, the Nottingham austerity-punk duo Sleaford Mods have, for their fifth album “proper,” formed their own imprint and made a new record that is as bleak as it is bold, as funny as it is despairing, and as surprisingly tuneful as it is atonal and hard.

Any doubts that one may have about Karen O (enigmatic lead singer of Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and artist/producer Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells, Gorillaz, etc.) making strange bedfellows are quickly dismissed upon hearing the imaginative and gratifying Lux Prima.

In a robotic world, genuine rock ‘n’ roll is still worthy of acclaim. These days, the household names are Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs, and Courtney Barnett, but we might want to add Strand of Oaks to that list.

While listening to this latest dour record from UK art-rockers Foals, it is tempting to wonder what might have happened if they’d lent into the goofier side of their sound (“Cassius, it’s over!”/“One step!