Bill Brewster and Frank Boughton made a splash a few years ago with Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey. It wasn’t perfect, but it did attempt to outline a comprehensive history of the deejay. It still stands as the only real reference for dance music history. The Record Players serves as something of a companion piece, giving us an oral history, publishing over four hundred pages of interviews.

On the heels of Optimace’s Used Future, a collaboration between DJ Optimus and DJ Mace, Optimus comes right back with his solo debut. The DJ/producer from Rotterdam might not be a name you’re familiar with, but the work on Double Helix DNA is so strong that you’re going to want to keep an eye on his career as it develops. Optimus isn’t changing the game, but he is offering an album that sounds like it’s produced by a veteran.

Junk Science is a Brooklyn-based duo. Baje One is on the mic and DJ Snafu makes the beats. They met in high school in the ‘90s, but made their mark in the mid-2000s after winning a Scion-sponsored contest in 2005 that led to them releasing their sophomore album, Gran Dads Nerve Tonic on Embedded/Definitive Jux. They are part of a larger collective known as The Nuclear Family, of which Scott Thorough is also a member.

Hail Mary Mallon is the new collaboration between Definitive Jux label mates Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic, along with DJ Big Wiz. The three toured together and decided that they might as well collaborate on an album. They took their name from Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, a cook who became known as the first healthy carrier of the Typhoid virus. I imagine that had this album come out earlier, it would have been on Definitive Jux, but with their hiatus last year, the album found a home on Rhymesayers.

I want to like BrassBastardz more than I do. Sure, I think this London-based Lithuianian act has an unfortunate name. But I have no idea what “tUnE-yArDs” means and ocassionally refuse to abide the moniker’s “kooky” formatting, and I still took to Merrill Garbus’ bent-ear, global-minded pop. Likewise, BrassBastardz should be in my wheelhouse. When this publication’s founder/editor handed over Timeline, he hailed Deee-Lite and TLC as reference points. Indeed, “Butterfly,” my favorite song here, sounds a bit like “Runaway” in the verses and uses the chorus to celebrate Dionysian activities like drinking under the stars, which might be how Lady Miss Kier spends every Thursday night.

There’s not a lot of information floating around about the artist known as Castle, but it is known that he is responsible for the artwork on Has-Lo’s In Case I Don’t Make It. As it turns out, he’s also a very talented musician. He has announced that he’s taking an indefinite leave from making music, but not before leaving everybody with a couple of releases. Cyberpunk is a short collection of instrumental songs.

It’s been ten years since Cannibal Ox’s stand-alone debut, which established Definitive Jux as a label and set the tone for much of the harsh, sci-fi-inspired hip hop that would be coming out of New York in the 2000s. There has been talk of a second album for years, but the half of the duo that is Vast Aire has been going strong as a solo artist. Ox 2010: A Street Odyssey is his third solo album and follows 2008’s Deuces Wild.

Animal Farm is a group out of Portland. The city may not be on many people’s radar as a big hip hop town, but it actually has a thriving scene. It is home to acts such as Lifesavas, Mic Crenshaw, Cool Nutz, and Ohmega Watts. Animal Farm released their first album in 2008, but remain largely unknown to a national audience. With an excellent sophomore effort featuring guest spots from Talib Kweli, Abstract Rude, Rob Swift, and DJ Wicked, I have a feeling they are going to enter the lexicon of hip hop fans everywhere.

Formerly known as L.O.S.T (Last of the Soldiers Taken), MC Elijah Black is a young emcee from New York. His debut album should be coming out later this year. To whet our appetites, he’s released this mix tape, inspired by John Sayles’ movie The Brother From Another Planet. If nothing else, it will hopefully inspire people to watch the movie. The premise might seem novel (an alien that passes as an African American crashes his ship in Harlem), but it is actually a poignant film about race relations and immigration.

Kid Presentable!!! and Morbidly-o-Beats are both part of the relatively new Paper Lantern Collective, a group of artists based in mostly Southern California. They got together over a love of music and antiestablishment need to break free of the restraints of the traditional label system. As a result, they made all of their albums free to download. On this album, Kid Presentable!!! mostly works as an emcee, but does a little bit of production as well.