Coming off a 2012 Grammy nomination for songwriting on Steve Riley the Mamou Playboys' Grand Isle, Quintron remains utterly unique on Spellcaster II: Death in Space. As the title suggests, the album touches on a lot of the act's history. A sequel of sorts to 1996's The Amazing Spellcaster (which was also the namesake of Quintron and Miss Pussycat's basement club), it features the drones of the Weather Warlock, a weather-controlled synth companion to another of Quintron's inventions, the Drum Buddy. More importantly, it also features one of the best balances of his equally distinctive sounds -- blobby electronics and fired-up garage rock -- in some time. Where Sucre du Sauvage sometimes felt a little uneven, Spellcaster II calls to mind an interplanetary journey with a stop for a wild shindig. As always, the album's spacier moments have just as much character as the louder ones. There's a silent movie soundtrack charm to "Wonder Mt.," and pieces like the playfully spooky "Mirza's Marsh" and the murky, hallucinatory "Death in Space" make it easy to hear why they're part of the score to Brent Joseph's sci-fi short Mirza the Miraculous. Meanwhile, Quintron and Miss Pussycat sound as ready to party as ever on "Carnival," where the bulbous synth-bass suggests this celebration might be on the moon, and "Do the Raid," where lyrics like "We're gonna break into Abe Lincoln's house" make its excitable garage-pop as surreal as the instrumentals. Quintron even nods to the more experimental parts of his past with "Fatal Harmonic" and "Home Invasion," where atmospheric drones hark back to his late '90s work. Playing like a tour of his moods and sounds over the years, Spellcaster II: Death in Space makes the most of the sense of fun and wonder in Quintron's music. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

1		Wonder MT
2		Death in Space
3		Carnival
4		Do the Raid
5		Home Invastion
6		Mirza's Marsh
7		Something's Wrong with Jim
8		Steve
9		Fatal Harmonic
10		Death in Space [Reprise]
11		Mirza's Marsh