Buddha Machine
Who says a boxed set has to include CD’s? “Buddha Machine” is, literally, a small plastic box with a built-in speaker, a headphone jack and a little switch you use to toggle between nine different and quite lovely ambient electronic compositions. It’s the product of FM3 (www.fm3.com.cn), the Beijing-based duo of Christiaan Virant (who compiled the recent Sublime Frequencies CD “Radio Pyongyang”) and Zhang Jian. The members say their device is a modified version of a popular Chinese gadget that intones Buddhist prayers; this new model is a weird, mesmerizing, beautifully useless thing. Available in the United States through forcedexposure.com. $23. KELEFA SANNEH
Johnny Cash
The Legend
The somber-voiced country singer Johnny Cash was almost a mythological figure during his lifetime; two years after his death, his legend has assumed Mount Rushmore proportions. Yet, as the biopic “Walk the Line” asserts, the Cash mystique had as much to do with human fallibility as with faith and redemption. That might explain why the deluxe version of this set feels so formal, despite an abundance of snapshots, testimonials and scrapbook reproductions: it captures the legend better than the man. The musical selection on both editions is unassailable, although most of it has already been thoughtfully repackaged in recent years. Previously unreleased material – including, in the deluxe edition, an early radio broadcast and a DVD with highlights from a 1980 CBS special – reinforces Cash’s workmanlike professionalism, which is no small thing. But for a more intimate portrayal, turn to the 2003 collection “Unearthed” (American Recordings), which undercuts its monumentalizing tendencies with a chilling mortal clarity. Columbia/Legacy. Five CD’s, one DVD and a limited-edition coffee-table book. $199.98. (Also available as just four CD’s. $39.98.) NATE CHINEN
Children of Nuggets
Original Artyfacts From the Second Psychedelic Era, 1976-1995
Lenny Kaye’s two-LP set, “Nuggets,” collected mid-1960’s one-hit wonders that were blasts of garage-rock on the verge of psychedelia. Released in 1972, it was activist rock criticism: a fuzz-toned counterattack against overblown 1970’s rock. And it worked, stimulating both punk-rock and widespread 1960’s revivalism. The revival once called the Paisley Underground – mingling garage-rock, folk-rock and power pop – fills this collection. It mixes long-running bands (Flamin’ Groovies, the Fleshtones, the Posies, Teenage Fanclub) with side projects (XTC as the Dukes of Stratosphear) and obscurities. As on “Nuggets,” the songs are terse and catchy, the equipment is vintage and distortion-happy, and the recording budgets sound minimal; girl trouble is still the perennial subject. The difference is a broad streak of self-consciousness, but it rarely takes the fun out of the songs. Rhino. Four CD’s. $64.98. JON PARELES