Julia Holter’s ‘Have You in My Wilderness’ is a breathtaking and rewarding listen

Julia Holter, “Have You in My Wilderness” (Domino). A breathtaking headphone record that rewards amplified, focused listening, Holter’s new album can be best understood through her choice of instrumentation. Rich with strings, piano, brass, harpsichord, shakers and various acoustical tools, the 10 songs highlight delicately placed tones and textures as old as the ages, but harness them to create defiantly contemporary work.

This shouldn’t be much of a surprise to those who have already learned to trust the instincts of this Los Angeles artist. Over the last decade, the California Institute of the Arts alum, whose visual aesthetic is as striking as her compositional reflexes, has issued a series of albums, mixes, cassettes and digital files that illuminate her skills and evolution as a songwriter and arranger.

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Her last album, “Loud City Song,” was one of the best of 2013; “Have You in My Wilderness” is even better. Imagine Joni Mitchell’s meandering, fluid approach to structure mixed with strings that suggest Van Dyke Parks’ liquid arrangements and Brian Wilson’s joyful percussive accents. The harmonies woven through “Lucette Stranded on the Island” seem to carry Holter’s voice as if on waves, and when percussion arrives, it strikes like a tempest. “Everytime Boots” is a piano romp about riding a motorcycle. The smoky “Vasquez” is propelled by jazz-accented double bass. Each song is a new adventure; combined, they create an essential Los Angeles record.

Protomartyr, “The Agent Intellect” (Hardly Art). The disgruntled Detroit post-punk band’s previous album, “Under Color of Official Right,” pushed through the increasingly flaccid independent rock scene like a unexpected punch to the gut. Recalling the cavernous tones of the Birthday Party, Joy Division, Public Image Ltd. and other beaten-and-broken defeatists, the band’s fiery approach suggests that losing at life can pay dividends in the art department.

That doesn’t seem to be of much comfort to Protomartyr singer-lyricist Joe Casey, whose words are filled with creeping paranoia and no small amount of menace. “I had to show them that the weakest hands can still make impressive fires,” he sings on “Cowards Starve.” The searing “Boyce or Boice” opens with a simple question: “What have they wrought?” In “Uncle Mother’s,” Casey opens with a greeting before advising that it’s best to leave the children in the car.

The same could be said for “The Agent Intellect,” a record whose pessimism can be dangerously infectious. Like contemporary kindred spirits Iceage and Total Control, Protomartyr isn’t worried about placating the easily bummed. It’s built for wallowing, but once the eyes adjust to the darkness, the light within glows.

MED, Blu, Madlib featuring MF Doom, “Knock Knock” (Bang Ya Head). The first track from a forthcoming album-length collaboration among three underground luminaries of Southern California hip-hop has generated 200,000 Soundcloud spins in a little over a week. Makes sense. Featuring a typically propellant, elastic beat by producer Madlib, “Knock Knock” is both catchy and complicated, and it highlights lyricists as playfully incisive as the beat is bouncy. Guest rapper MF Doom opens the track by imagining sneaking into his collaborator MED’s place to borrow DVDs and drink beer. Blu shines in his concluding verse “like a Benz on La Brea.” The full album, called “Bad Neighbor,” arrives Oct. 30 and features guest spots from artists including Hodgy Beats, Anderson .Paak, Aloe Blacc and Mayer Hawthorne.

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