When a band radically changes their sound, they're bound to disappoint some fans. Ulver's 1998 album, Themes from William Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Jester), did just that, replacing the lo-fi black metal of 1997's Nattens Madrigal (Century Media) with a sort of operatic, industrial/trip-hop/metal sound that led many to brand them as traitors. Their later forays into minimal electronica and other arty subgenres didn't appease these disgruntled fans one bit, but so what? There are plenty of other metal bands that do churn out similar-sounding albums year after year. That said, Ulver's attempts to branch out have often been more interesting in theory than in practice, and some of them have been just plain boring.

Blood Inside is their most substantial release since Heaven and Hell, and it follows a string of experimental EPs and soundtrack releases as well as a (typically underwhelming) remix album featuring Kid606, Merzbow, and others. For all their genre-hopping over the past half-decade, Ulver's sound has evolved into its own being – a sort of romantic, digitally constructed art-song hybrid that's neither pop, prog, nor anything else identifiable. Vocals and instrumental passages, live instruments and samples, beats and ambient space – there are lots of opposites at work here. Yet standout tracks such as "For the Love of God" bring it all together in style.

There are subtleties here, as well as moments of outright strangeness, like the (switched-on) Bach quote at the end of "It Is Not Sound" and the sampled big-band orchestra that suddenly appears on "In the Red" – a rare instance of surreal humor from this typically stone-faced group. Still, the highlights are leader Kris Rygg's shape-shifting vocals, which encompass everything from a declamatory baritone to a deranged falsetto. At times he sounds like the evil twin of XTC's Andy Partridge, of all people. Ulver are as difficult as ever to pin down here, but it's nice to hear them making entertaining, emotionally convincing music again as opposed to just being "interesting." (Will York)

Lil John and the East Side Boys
Crunk Juice Chopped and Screwed (TVT)

Ying Yang Twins
USA Chopped and Screwed (TVT)

I've never dropped acid, which, I've been told, explains why I don't like the Grateful Dead. Nor have I gotten high off codeine, which is perhaps why I'm turned off by Michael "5000" Watts's "chopped and screwed" remixes of two of the biggest hip-hop CDs of 2005.

"Screw music," as it's called, initially appealed to hip-hop fans in Houston who sip cough syrup for its mind-altering effects. Created by DJ Screw (who died of a codeine overdose, in 2001) and further popularized by fellow Houston mixologist Watts, the rapidly spreading genre attempts to aurally emulate the codeine experience by slowing the music to a crawl. For his revisions of Crunk Juice and USA Watts drags beats and lowers pitches, inserts turntable scratches and rhythmically stilted drum-machine breaks, and runs melodic hooks through a phase shifter. He transforms what had been – for all their misogyny, homophobia, and general vulgarity – upbeat, humor-rich party records into hazy bad trips that, for me, bring flashbacks of the vertigo I once experienced while on an operating table in an ether-induced state of unconsciousness.

Watts's retarded tempos make the hoochie-mama come-ons that precede the Ying Yang's "Wait (The Whisper Song)" and "Pull My Hair" sound as if they're spoken, not by women, but by effeminate men. Way back in the disco day, DJs in San Francisco gay clubs played the Carol Douglas 45 "Doctor's Orders" at 33 1/3 rpm to achieve that effect. It was a rather funny in-joke, one I doubt Watts had in mind when he had lines like "I likes it rough, but you gots to ease me into it" delivered by ladylike baritones. Ying Yang Twins play KMEL Summer Jam, Sun/21, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mtn. View. www.ticketmaster.com. (Lee Hildebrand)

Black Mountain
Black Mountain (Jagjaguwar)

The last couple of months have seen this Vancouver, BC, quintet open for the likes of everyone from neo-soul beat-boxer Jamie Lidell to space rockers Kinski to Coldplay. It's made for some good wisecracking on indie music boards too – "Sure, I knew Chris Martin had good taste, but I had no idea Chris Martin had good taste," referring to the lead vocalists of both Kinski and Coldplay – but, more important, it speaks volumes about Black Mountain's wide appeal. Not surprisingly, it's a strange one to pin down.

Right out of the gate, on "Modern Music," the band employs one of the best saxophone lines to carry a song in two decades, redeeming the instrument from years of shameful misuse in pop music by Glenn Frey and his ilk – and that's just in the first couple of toots. The track evolves into a soulful rocker with vocalist Stephen McBean (the all-around mastermind behind this combo, Pink Mountaintops, and Jerk with a Bomb) channeling Jim Carroll as a whiskey-drenched chorus led by Amber Webber backs him up. You'd almost mistake it for a lost southern-rock gem if it weren't chased by the 1973 Trans Am-crashing sludge fest "Don't Run Our Hearts Around" and the Can-meets-Sabbath guitar party on "Druganaut."

Black Mountain mine more than a few licks from '70s metalheads and bluesmen throughout these eight tracks, but there's a sincerity to them that couldn't seem further from some ironic parody attempt. McBean and company are almost helpers in the sense that jumping these stylistic lines with such precision and panache introduces a host of lost points of reference to some relatively new things, not the least of which might be Coldplay's audience. Will having them on tour help that other Chris Martin guy continue to build on the indie cred he's established by covering Kraftwerk songs? Maybe. Will Coldplay fans give a shit about Black Mountain? Probably not. Will Black Mountain at least eat well for a month? Definitely. Black Mountain play with Coldplay, 8/19, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mtn. View. They also perform Aug. 28, the Independent, SF. (415) 771-1421. (Ken Taylor)