Gold Panda: Globetrotting Techno Ace

It's no surprise to learn that U.K.-born electronica producer Gold Panda isn't much of a club-goer himself. While pulsating rhythms are his stock in trade, Gold Panda's music explores a wide range of worldly sounds, not just the pounding grooves of the disco underground.

Read: Around the World With Gold Panda

Amps For Christ: Do-It-Yourself World Music

DIY spirit is at the core of punk, but Pomona, Calif., electro-folk band Amps For Christ takes this commitment to a new level. The band handcrafts and hot-wires its own stringed instruments--as well as those titular amps--and records on reel-to-reel tape.

Read: Amps For Christ: The Power of Amps Compels You

George Kinney/Kohoutek: A Long, Strange Trip

As bandleader of the Golden Dawn, an unsung 1960s acid-rock group from Austin, Texas, George Kinney lived on the psychedelic edge of the era's musical explorations. Enter DC improvisational unit Kohoutek, who has offered to extend Kinney's long, strange trip by taking the outlaw troubadour on the road to present some of his old songs in a modern context.

Read: Kohoutek and George Kinney: A Long, Strange Trip

Brown Wing Overdrive: Plugged-In Improvisers

Jolting electronic jazz unit Brown Wing Overdrive rides high aloft the winds of change. Using a tangled mix of high-tech and crafty customized gadgetry, offbeat improvisers Chuck Bettis and Derek Morton channel a whimsical universe, revealing its awesome power in unpredictable bursts of sound and blankets of buzz.

Read: Plugged-In Improv: Brown Wing Overdrive

Washed Out: Cream Of The 'Chillwave' Crop

Bedroom-electronica upstart Ernest Greene, the artist known as Washed Out, had a great 2009. Amid the long arc of summer and the sweltering Georgia sun, the Peach State producer whipped up a batch of breezy "chillwave" tunes, posted it to the Web and waited for the fickle finger of fate to point his way. And Point it did.

Read: Dreams of the Summer: Washed Out's Ernest Greene

Leslie & the Ly's: All That Glitters Also Rocks

Discount diva Leslie Hall, the Internet sensation behind Gemsweater.com--the Web site devoted to big hair and nightmare knitwear--brings her curiously fascinating curves to the fore as front woman for dance-pop unit Leslie & the Ly's.

Read: All That Glitters Also Rocks: Leslie and the Ly's

Joan Braderman: The Heretics

Award-winning video artist and writer Joan Braderman chronicles the feminist influence in art and life in her latest film, "The Heretics," an insider's look into the New York artists' collective that produced Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics in the mid-1970s. The film tracks the collective's response to the transformative social changes brought about by the civil rights movement and second-wave feminism.

Read: Art Expansion: Joan Braderman on 'The Heretics'

Mary Timony: Come On Feel The Soft Power

Indie-rock songstress Mary Timony would be the first to tell you that Soft Power, her new band, is not her band per se. It's a D.C. foursome whose lyrical, psychedelic guitar rock is born of sonic synchronicity.

Read: Mary Timony: Come On Feel The Soft Power

Full Blast Trio: Heavy Swingers

Full Blast Trio, the Swiss-German improvisational grind unit featuring saxophone powerhouse Peter Brotzmann, wield a pile-driving skronk-rock sound mightier than that of most metal bands.

Read: Full Blast Trio: Hard Bop With Volume

Juana Molina: Dramatic Song Form

Argentine artist Juana Molina is a masterful creator of hypnotic, loop-infused pop music. Using both manual and mechanical means, Molina creates evolving patterns of wordless vocals and flowing guitar lines that interconnect and flower into dramatic song form.

Read: Juana Molina: Sprung From Earth