Eric Grandy on Major Lazer:

Major Lazer ft. Diplo and Switch, DJ Ayres, Tigerbeat

(Neumos) Diplo and Switch are clearly no strangers to this music or its makers—they're professionals who make their living in record shops and recording studios—but it's safe to say they're counting on an audience whose knowledge of dub and dancehall might not necessarily extend any further than what they've sampled in their previous productions or occasionally mixed into their DJ sets. So Guns is more of a casual survey, a vacation to Jamaica, than it is an academic guided tour. This isn't a Soul Jazz anthology we're talking about here; it's a Saturday-morning cartoon. It's dancehall for dummies, but it's not (all) dumb.

Also in Up & Coming:

Here We Go Magic, Final Spins, Brittain Ashford

(Chop Suey) Lavishly praised by indie-pop icons like Ben Gibbard and Sufjan Stevens, and media institutions like Rolling Stone and the Onion, Here We Go Magic (Luke Temple) is gifted with an angelic voice that somehow doesn't cloy. Temple pens rich and strange songs of enchantment, seemingly out of an altruistic urge to bring more fragile beauty into the world. "Tunnelvision" represents the zenith of his artistry: a breezy slice of psychedelic folk seemingly woven out of Stevie Nicks's blouses and stardust, and powered by centaurs' hoofbeats. But HWGM is also capable of creating seriously eerie ambience that wouldn't sound out of place on a Kranky Records release. Here We Go Magic? Truth. DAVE SEGAL

Key Element, Neema, Mad Rad, Spaceman, DJ 100Proof

(Nectar) If Fatal Lucciauno represents the gangster side of his label, Sportn' Life, then Spaceman represents its pop side. (Or, better yet, what sounds like pop to my ears—it may sound like something else to other ears.) Spaceman, who has worked with Jake One and other notable beat-makers in town, is more in the stream of national hiphop trends. Though based in Seattle, he very well could be based in Atlanta or Chicago—and this is no bad thing. It shows that hiphop here is not limited to sad sounds, or to an obsession with rain, clouds, and gothic atmospheres, or to political and social realism. Spaceman could be the next big thing to come out of Seattle. He certainly has the commercial appeal that's needed to reach the stars. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.

Deer Tick, Dawes, Widower

(Tractor) Providence, Rhode Island, band Deer Tick play pretty traditional folk rock, marked by delicate, careful fingerpicked guitar and banjo, gentle walking bass lines, upbeat snare shuffling, and, most distinctively, singer-songwriter John Joseph McCauley III's simultaneously reedy and gutturally growling voice, which he plies in service of typically hard-luck lyrics. "Easy," the lead single from new album Born on Flag Day, finds the band sounding more electrified and amplified than on their previous War Elephant, but soon the album settles back down into calmer rootsy territory. If you don't dig McCauley's dingy singing style, these sparer arrangements, which throw his voice way out front, will irk, but some ears will enjoy the dissonance between the sweet background sounds and that worn-down whine. ERIC GRANDY

Remember to check our online music calendar for a complete listing of bands, DJs and live music.