A double album’s worth of sleepy, orchestral trip-hop/chill-out music with dub studio effects and disembodied female vocals–kind of a relaxed, after-the-fact South Asian answer to Giorgio Moroder, but with cool sitars and tabla instead of machine grooves.

Friday: Bobby Bare, The Moon Was Blue, Dualtone.

Most people remember Bare for one of two things–the resigned recitation of working class tribulation that is "Detroit City" ("By day I make the cars, by night I make the bars") or novelty tunes, like "All American Boy" and the incredibly strange "Dropkick Me Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life)." This album–his first in 20 years–features no new material but instead has Bare set his lugubrious vocals to a careful selection of covers: Fred Neil’s "Everybody’s Talkin,’" Percy Faith’s "My Heart Cries For You," a stately take on "It’s All In The Game." Bobby Jr. takes on production duties here, and he does a fine job of adding slight contemporary elements to his father’s classic country-politan style.

Saturday: Young and Sexy, Panic When You Find It, Mint Records.

More fragile, melancholy pop music from the Vancouver masters of such. It’s hard to guess at intent sometimes with titles as impenetrable as "The Night Wears a Sombrero," but inscrutability is fine when you can come up with songs as sweetly resonant as "Without Your Love."

Sunday: Various Artists, Transamerica Soundtrack, Nettwerk.

Excellent soundtrack for the recently released comedy/drama/road movie starring Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman as an about-to-go-under-the-knife transsexual discovering that he has a son from a failed heterosexual relationship. Ex-Dylan sideman David Mansfield provides the score, while Old Crow Medicine Show, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Miriam Makeba, Duncan Sheik ("I Am A Pilgrim"), Jim Lauderdale, and Ralph Stanley chip in with acoustic folk, country, and bluegrass numbers.

Monday: April Verch, Take Me Back, Rounder.

The Ontario native has the violin chops, no doubt, and the taste to pillage Buddy Miller’s songbook, but she sounds best when sticking to trad fiddle tunes, whether French Canadian or Ottawa Valley. That’s not an underhanded dig at her voice–her "Take Me Back," for instance, while no patch on Julie Miller, is fine–it’s just that’s where it sounds like her heart really is.

Tuesday: Gerry Mitchell & Little Sparta, Scalpel Slice, Fire Records.

Street-poet Gerry Mitchell teams up with Londoners Little Sparta, a scruffy garage-pop outfit led by ex-Edmontonian Al Boyd (Kentucky Church Bus, The Gruesomes), with the addition of Mekons’ violinist Susie Honeyman. The band sounds nothing like they do on their own, preferring to dabble in harmoniums, acoustic guitars, and measured rhythms. It’s like the Dirty Three crossed with The Dylan Group rather than crash and burn rock ’n’ roll, but that’s the perfect backing for Mitchell, who rants and raves in a guttural Glaswegian accent, dropping venom all over those pretty melodic lines.

Wednesday: Various Artists, Ruckus Compilation Part 3, Independent.

The third and possibly last in the Ruckus compilations holds its own against its predecessors with a heady mix of funky new wave (Chris Waterton, "The Sting"), yelping punk rock (Dead City Serpents, "Fight"), and damaged DJ manipulations (Four Day Weekend, "Los Calcetines del Tobillo"). As with the other two releases, there are recording or mastering issues. But considering the sheer scope of the project, which attempts to grab from as many genres as possible while diligently pushing forward bands just out of the spotlight, that’s just a minor quibble.