In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Tony Cook collaborates with Dâm-Funk to revive 1980s disco funk (Chris Martins)

Read our review and download some serious funk after the jump.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Hanni El Khatib channels Black Keys and the Shangri-Las on "Dead Wrong" (Chris Martins)

Read our review and stream some malt-shop garage-blues after the jump.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

The Prids take flight with "Chronosynciastic"

Read our review, and download some downward-gazing tuneage, after the jump.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Bell Gardens: pretty pop grows from Stars of the Lid's ambient soil (Chris Martins)

Read our review, and download some pretty pop, after the jump.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Sunn O))) meets Desert Sessions as Goatsnake reissues 2.5 classics on Southern Lord (Chris Martins)

Read our review, and download some free thrash after the jump.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Sister Mantos' Manimal debut, "Tough Love" (Chris Martins)

L.A.'s Sister Mantos jumped onto our radar earlier this week with his lo-fi mutant disco revision of the Fool's Gold track "Poseidon," which with healthy doses of synthwork and canned drum tracks, becomes an even split between subtle etherea and deep dance. This goes a long way to explaining the sound that El Salvador-born Oscar Miguel Santos has carved out for himself. On Santos' full-length Manimal Vinyl debut, Tough Love or Fands of Hate, that mix can sound a bit fragmented and watery at times -- think Yacht submerged in a lake -- but that doesn't mean there aren't moments of divine, screwed-up thump.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Chris Martins

There's a key entry in the popular hand guide, Judging Various Media By Its Cover, about skipping over anything adorned with doll parts. But, as the introduction to that book sagely cautions, every rule has its exception and Mini Mansions proves that even this time-honored "indicator of bunk" can be misleading. The band's still young, but with ties to Queens of the Stone Age and Buddyhead's Wires on Fire (all three acts share member Michael Shuman), Mini Mansions knows a thing or two about balancing the bizarre with the brilliant.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Chris Martins

Echo Park's the Franks is due its very own 7-inch rise to fame. No Age did it, Best Coast did it, Dum Dum Girls did it, and this winning garage-punk three-piece should be able to do it too. There's no reason why their raw, hook-laden econo jams shouldn't already be trading for decent scratch on eBay -- except for the almost inexplicable fact that the Duh EP, originally released in February, is still available for purchase. Lucky you.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Chris Martins

"Ain't easy to make these things," reads the entry in the Stones Throw news feed announcing a fresh run of Toeachizown box sets, but that statement's only half true. While this luxe box set surely does require feats of modern manufacturing to justify its 50-dollar price tag, knowing Dâm-Funk's creative fecundity, he probably could've dropped three such collections in 2009 alone. For those just arriving at the Funkmosphere, Toeachizown ("to each his own") compiles the inaugural salvo of releases from one of L.A.'s most hotly tipped talents -- a man who has an unbelievable knack for reviving the synth sounds of '80s -- from New Wavers like Human League to electro rap pioneer Egyptian Lover -- without inviting irony into his house.

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

Read previous installments here, or email us here.

Chris Martins

Take, a.k.a. Sweatson Klank, is a beat scene affiliate and Low End Theory regular, but more than that's he's an Angeleno. He was born and raised in this city, so it's nice to imagine that you can hear L.A. in his music -- say, on the excellent Only Mountain LP that dropped last month. Well, thanks to All City Records' ongoing Los Angeles 10-inch series, you needn't imagine -- Take's three soul-steeped bangers are infused with sounds of the city, from car horns to street chatter. Also caught up in the mix are snippets of '80s R&B (see "Soul Particles") -- which brings to mind Lindstrom and Christabelle or Four Tet -- and edgy synth programming that seems to nod to vintage IDM.