Yup — an arcane and at times foreboding incantation. We frankly weren’t sure what to think after the first listen, but there something gripping and powerful about Powell’s songs. They’re built around dark, imposing synthesizers and primal drum beats, and she sings in a striking, icy voice treated with subtle effects.

The whole package is the sonic equivalent of someone conducting animistic rites at dusk in an autumn wood. Which is sort of what’s happening in this video.

Anyway, the Chicago musician releases a new album, “Terrageist,” Tuesday. (Without a staff linguist we’re just guessing here: “earth ghost?”)  Click here to listen to some of the new songs, or grab two of them below.

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Demon Seed mp3
Another Time mp3

It’s not hard to see why Sub Pop was interested: with smart, incisive lyrics and bone-deep grooves mixing boom-bap beats and subtle electronics, the group has a taut alternative sensibility that’s rarely found in mainstream rap. No wonder Shabazz Palaces was recently the musical recipient of the Genius Awards bestowed in the fields of music, art, film, theater and literature by Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger.

After self-releasing a pair of EPs, the group’s full-length debut is expected sometime next year, but you can check out this five-song sampler right now.

Shabazz Palaces by subpop

According to press notes, the Los Angeles duo of Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson draws on the influence of long-format instrumental disco, which the pair refracts into more concise songs with vocals.

Kivel’s interest in disco stems from an “early in life” friendship with Alec R. Costandinos, a cult disco producer responsible for concept albums in the ’70s. Combine Costandino’s tutorials with a travel-writing job that took Kivel to exotic destinations around the world, and you end up with Kisses’ breezy jet-set aesthetic on “Bermuda,” the free song from the duo’s forthcoming full-length debut, “The Heart of the Nightlife.” It’s due Oct. 19 on This is Music.

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Bermuda mp3

They’re off to a good start: after releasing a five-song self-titled debut EP earlier this year, the band (one of them still lives in Baltimore) is back next week with “It’s OK to Like Biters,” another energetic collection of five power-pop songs full of jangling guitars, lean rhythm and insolent vocals. There’s a definite ’70s vibe happening here — think Cheap Trick or the New York Dolls — in all the best ways: the Biters makes music that’s loud, loose and super-catchy.

The band is giving away a pair of songs: “Hang Around” is from the self-titled EP, and “Melody for Lovers” is from “It’s OK to Like Biters.”

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Hang Around mp3
Melody for Lovers mp3

Things apparently went well when Damien Jurado enlisted Richard Swift to produce his new album, “Saint Barlett” — so well, in fact, that the pair has recorded “Other People’s Songs,” an album of covers they’re giving away online for free.

The 9-song tracklist includes versions of “Be Not So Fearful” by Bill Fay, “Sweetness” by Yes, “Follow Me” by John Denver and “Radioactivity” by Kraftwerk. Now that’s variety, and it shows that a good song is, quite simply, a good song, be it Denver’s or the Fleetwoods’ “Outside My Window.”

Jurado and Swift recorded the songs Aug. 21-22, with both men singing. Jurado also played guitar and percussion, and Swift played guitar, bass, drums and various keyboards.

“These recordings came about spontaneously, and we wanted to share them in the same manner,” the pair writes, before dropping a hint of songs to come: “Look for another one around Winter time.”

Anyway, after giving away a track earlier this year, the Goodnight Loving is back with another free rootsy power-pop jam, called “Doesn’t Shake Me.” It’s fast and loose, with bright, punchy guitars and an instantly memorable melodic hook. The song comes from the band’s recent album, “The Goodnight Loving Supper Club.”

Summer’s going fast, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better collection of songs to help you close it out with a bang.

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Doesn’t Shake Me mp3

In addition to releasing last year’s “Major General,” his solo debut, Nicolay collaborated via his band Guignol with another group, Mischief Brew, on last year’s “Fight Dirty”; wrote a book of short stories; hit the road as a touring member of Against Me!; and somehow found time to record a second solo record.

“Luck & Courage,” out Oct. 12, follows the characters Felix and Adelita, through adventures in songs whose sound was inspired by disparate sources: Lyle Lovett’s “I Love Everybody” and 16 Horsepower’s “Low Estate.”

The free song, “This is Not a Pipe,” certainly has an arid, mournful country sound, abetted by sweet male-female vocal harmonies, pedal steel guitar and the steady plink-plunk of a banjo. It’s a haunting song from a musician who continues to demonstrate just how valuable he is as a front man and not just a side man.

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This is Not a Pipe mp3

Photo by Miles Kerr

“Amoral,” due Nov. 2 on Friendly Fire Recordings, mixes a slew of influences — the band cites ’60s psych-pop and thrash metal, among others — into a driving, slightly chilly post-punk sound packed with skittering percussion and layers of synthesizers on free song “Acid Reign.”

It’s not the only free offering from Violens: the band is also giving away its “Summer Mixtape,” featuring remixes, weird-ass mashups and a handful of songs by friends’ bands, including Bethlehem and Dead Can Dance. You can grab it here.

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Acid Reign mp3

Photo by Tom Hines

“Penny Sparkle” is the New York trio’s first album in three years (not counting the 15 tracks they wrote to score the documentary “The Dungeon Masters”). Recorded in New York and Stockholm with Swedish production duo Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid (Fever Ray, Massive Attack, Bat For Lashes), “Penny Sparkle” comprises 10 songs, full of moody atmospherics and reverberating vocals.

The band is giving away not one, but TWO free songs from the record. Check ‘em out.

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Here Sometimes mp3
Not Getting There mp3

Photo by Pier Nicola D’Amico

It does not, however, include Radiohead’s Philip Selway.

Selway knows the deal: “It’s a cardinal sin for drummers to come in to rehearsals with the comment ‘I’ve got this song!’” he cracks in the press notes for his solo debut, “Familial” (Nonesuch).

That makes sense when your band boasts a principal songwriter as talented as Thom Yorke, but Selway demonstrates on “Familial” that he’s no slouch, either.

It’s a ghostly record, full of whisper-quiet songs Selway was inspired to record after his mother died in 2006. It’s elegiac, then, but softly optimistic too — an album he says is less about grieving than “that process of having everything shaken up.” (NPR streams the record here.)

The songs reflect that sentiment in subtle ways. His lyrics focus on elements of family: his mother, of course, and also his wife and children and the emotional and blood ties that unite them. Recorded with Lisa Germano, Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg and Wilco members Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone Most of the songs are built around acoustic guitar and close-miked vocals, with understated musical textures and minimal percussion that often comes from loops.

The simplicity lends added weight to the damp, crackling electronic noise that bubbles up through “Beyond Reason,” or the somber strings on “Falling” that gleam with the faint brightness of wet leaves beneath a full moon. Selway murmurs a serene vocal melody on “Don’t Look Down” as dissonant piano rolls distantly beneath a droning organ, building to a scratchy, enveloping  blanket of sound that includes loose, clanking percussion like rummaging through a box of hinges.

It’s a beautiful song from a musician who demonstrates on this elegant and assured solo debut that his musical persona extends far beyond the drum parts on “OK Computer.”

— Eric R. Danton