Decades before the contemporary era of electronic music, which includes both synthesized soundscapes and computer-generated electronica, there were experimental works called Musique concrète. Painstakingly crafted from recorded natural sounds and manipulated on bits of magnetic tape, this futuristic music was pioneered Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, yet was soon raised to an art by such innovative composers as Edgard Varèse, Iannis Xenakis, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and popularized by The Beatles and Frank Zappa.

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Field Music's fourth album is their most precise, most musicianly, most progressive album to date. Plumb is the sound of the Brewis brothers refining and perfecting their sound, breaking it down to key elements and keeping a tight rein on the individual songs and the album as a whole. Unlike Field Music (Measure), which seemed to last forever, Plumb rushes by quickly in a whirl of quirky (in a good way) arrangements and stirring performances. This time out, the brothers embrace the prog rock elements that have always lurked around the edges of their sound and have brought them out into the light.

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By some measures, 1986 may be the most '80s year of the decade. Sure, Michael Jackson was absent from the charts but his impact could not be denied, nor could his little sister Janet who had one of the year's defining albums in Control. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis gave Control a Minneapolis flavor just as Prince continued to mine the Paisley Underground for inspiration on his decidedly weird Parade. Counteracting this neo-psychedelia -- also apparent on the gorgeous Skylarking by XTC -- was the rise of Americana in the form of debut albums by Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle and hip-hop breaking into the mainstream via Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell and Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill. American Underground began to inch its way into the mainstream through Husker Du signing to Warner and R.E.M. working with John Mellencamp producer Don Gehman, and MTV still kicked out plenty of one-hit wonders like the deliciously weird Baltimora and his "Tarzan Boy," all of which gives us plenty of reasons to love 1986.

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