"I Belong To This Band: Eighty-Five Years of Sacred Harp Recordings," the latest release from the consistently excellent Dust-To-Digital reissue label, serves as a companion to the documentary feature "My Soul," but is also a fine introduction to the Sacred Harp choral tradition of the rural south. The album is split between vintage recordings dating back to 1922 and live performances of songs from B.F. White and E.J. King's Sacred Harp songbook from 1844. This version of "Antioch 277" was recorded at the Henegar-Union Sacred Harp Convention in July of 2006 and stands as a fine specimen of the vocal style with its robust polyphonic textures and tone of solemn exaltation. Sacred Harp music gains its power from the enormity of its choir groups and this piece of music sounds especially huge -- as though every voice in a city joined together for two minutes of super-concentrated faith and reverence.

Though Clinic's sound seems to be in a musical holding pattern following the rapid artistic growth displayed on the band's early singles, their latest album "Visitations" is a fine piece of work that develops their unique style in subtle ways. The record's first single "Harvest (Within You)" finds the band in a characteristically spooky mood with a twitchy bass line and a rumbling percussive groove. The song is filled out with a recurring creepy organ drone and the unsettling clanging of muted guitar strings. Singer Ade Blackburn's voice remains a strange and compelling thing; in this track he murmurs and moans nearly indecipherable lyrics that hint at spiritual themes echoed throughout the new album. Even when it barely sounds as though he is enunciating actual words, his peculiar cadence and timbre provides more than enough depth and subtext.

Though the Postmarks hail from the eternally balmy city of Miami, their song "Summers Never Seem To Last" laments the passing of the summer months as if they were residents of a northern climate with four clearly defined seasons. Vocalist Tim Yehezkely sings with a soft, thin tone as though she can barely muster the energy to raise her voice above a slight whisper. The song drifts along with the laziness of a quiet sunny day, but the vintage keyboards and light percussion evoke crisp, cool air and an endless horizon of indistinct gray clouds.