Larry Ryan: Caught in the Net

One of the major albums of recent weeks is Dear Science by Brooklyn's TV on the Radio. Their previous effort, Return to Cookie Mountain, was named album of the year in 2006 by PitchforkMedia.com and the influential music site is slathering all over them again, declaring: "This is thrilling music... brainy and ambivalent, and more engaging for it. TV on the Radio remain a true 'event band', and the sign o' the times they capture here isn't audacious hope, or fierce revolution: it's confusion."

The whole thing is streamed at – www.myspace.com/tvotr, so you can road-test it before going in search of a download – or, heaven forbid, buying it on CD. I took the latter choice – it had cool sleeve-notes with all the lyrics presented as a letter to science; hence the album title.

Matching their confusing sound are some oddball new videos. First single "Golden Age" sees the band high on a mountain morphing into different colours, shapes and beings and locked in a dance-off with five police officers – http://tinyurl. com/4gpbnq. The clip for the second single, "Dancing Choose", combines Talking Head's "Once in a Lifetime" video, surrealist art and, some suggest, the opening credits of the award-winning television show Mad Men – http://tinyurl.com/4x7ah3. Equally different was a recent performance on Letterman: eschewing the confines of the TV studio, the band performed on the fire escape – http://tinyurl.com/3rpz2u.

TV on the Radio's producer and guitarist David Sitek has also become a sought-after producer for artists including The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars. Earlier this year he helmed Scarlett Johansson's album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head, and Foals' excellent debut Antidotes. The Oxford band's newest video, for "Olympic Airways", one of the album's stand-out tracks, is worth a look. They start out performing in idyllic pastoral splendour and wind up in a hipster Lord of the Flies – http://tinyurl.com/4ppalk.

Sitek's fellow Brooklynites, Telepathe (pronounced "telepathy", just because) are another band enjoying the fruits of his labour. An album by the hip-hop-loving electro-noise trio has long been in the works, but in the meantime an EP, Chrome's On It, released on 14 October, will have to suffice. Order it at http://www.iamsoundrecords.com/ and listen to some tracks on the band's MySpace page – http://www. myspace.com/telepathe.

All that, and both Telepathe and TV on the Radio can be seen late tonight at the Concrete and Glass festival in east London – http:// www.concreteandglass.co.uk/.

The exuberant horns popping up on TV on the Radio's record (and Foals' for that matter) are performed by Brooklyn's Afrobeat orchestra Antibalas (http://www.myspace. com/antibalas), who this year celebrate a decade together. You had to leave your indie cred at the door if you didn't declare a lifelong affinity with Afrobeat, but TV on the Radio are no blow-ins: both groups have been collaborating for several years. A short film on Current TV from 2007 provides a nice insight into Antibalas – http://tinyurl.com/ 48a8bw. They are also the house band for a musical running in New York about Afrobeat's pioneer Fela Kuti. It might find its way to these parts, meanwhile, the production's website has a fine video archive of Fela to show what all the fuss is about – http://tinyurl.com/4zlght.

Another eclectic New York band with a fine line in brass is Sway Machinery. Fronted by Jeremiah Lockwood, he performs like a Jewish cantor who just happens to be wielding an electric guitar. Several of their tracks can be heard at http://tin yurl.com/4muy5b. Two members of Antibalas are also in Sway Machinery, while their drummer is culled from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and another member plays with Arcade Fire. Incestuous, maybe, but when the music is good why knock it?

PICK OF THE WEEK

3VOOR12
Given that this website is entirely in Dutch you could say that it is a touch difficult to navigate; nevertheless it's a great source for new music. The site features a regularly changing roster of new albums – which you can listen to as often as you like – along with streamed dj sets and radio stations. To download, you have to find the right button in Dutch. The TV on the Radio record is their current "Album van den Week", with new records by Lambchop, Mogwai and Yo Majesty also streamed. One caveat: they do have Five O'Clock Heroes' execrable album on there too – oh well, nobody's perfect. (http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/)