Bluegrass folk revivalists Joy Kills Sorrow celebrate stripped down acoustic melodies and rich, earthy vocals, while adding an original freshness to their sound. The Boston and Brooklyn-based five piece formed in 2005, finding their sound in the Boston area and soon releasing their self-titled debut. Their current line-up solidified in 2009: singer Emma Beaton’s mellow country noir voice is the absolute star here, but the banjo and mandolin set the overall tone with their rustic quality. The band’s most recent album, “This Unknown Science,” was released in 2011, showcasing a finely tuned melodic bluegrass with somewhat reminiscent of female-led Punch Brothers. Joy Kills Sorrow will be touring the Northeast this fall, including a December 5 appearance at The Rock Shop in NYC and a few show in New England – see here for the full schedule. – Devon Antonetti

If I start telling you about an exciting new artist who’s proposing to add a dose of spirituality to visually-based instrumental music experiments… you’ll promise not to run in the other direction, right? Good, just checking.

Through a series of unlikely collaborations, artist Maria Takeuchi has given New York something we least expected. An insertion of the mysterious and appreciation for spiritual distance in new EP “Doppelgänger.” The record feels like the soundtrack to an unreleased David Fincher film, complete with dense noise-scapes and percussive vocoding. As she’s prone to: Takeuchi creates music for “Doppelgänger” you can see as much as listen to.

So, please don’t be afraid. The music may exist in it’s own world, but it’s a place you’ll want to visit too. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

A not too new project from XXXChange and Devlin (of Devlin and Darko—Spank Rock’s tour DJs), NYC and Boston based electro-pop band Win Win has been gathering a good amount of buzz in 2012, after signing with Vice records. Their sound falls somewhere between MGMT’s catchy pop constructions and Brian Eno’s deadpan experimentation and delivery. Check out their new video of the single "After the Wait" here – also streaming below in mp3 format.

Just like their music, Glass Ghost always seem to be on the verge of percolating out to the mainstream. From a mountain of press commenting on their impressive debut ‘Idol Omen,’ to gracing the cover of the Deli, there’s no shortage of praise for the Brooklyn duo. Eliot Krimsky and Mike Johnson can’t seem to find an instrument that won’t make their music as lush and soulful as a spiritual, with the magic to cut like the diamond mentioned in their biggest song ‘Like a Diamond.’ And hey, if Sharon Van Etten is covering your songs … you really can’t go wrong. The band is playing with two of my favorite local acts (Strand of Oats, Yellow Ostrich) this Wednesday at Bowery Ballroom. See them there and buy tickets here. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Stream: Like A Diamond (via Youtube)