Earplug (US)

The 12k label favors a soft, crushed-velvet approach to minimalism, rejecting the strict, ascetic contours that usually define the genre in favor of cross-pollination with post-rock and utilitarian electronica. This lands it close to the Kranky label, and like that Chicago outpost, its releases sometimes hover near the polite or soporific. But Blueprints, a compilation introducing six new acts to the 12k roster, avoids that trap: from the sticky, gurgling buzz of Christmas Decorations to the rich harmonic accumulation of Jodi Cave’s “Untitled” or the sweet, muted melancholy of Australia’s Seaworthy, most everything here reflects a humbled, everyday sublime. (JD)