No Rest for the Obsessed returns this month with another towering stack of tapes, CD-Rs and records (with a few bookmarked tabs to boot). So much music, so little time!

Until the end of November, Calgary’s Kris Ellestad offers a stream for his latest opus, No Man Is Land, at krisellestad.bandcamp.com. Following 2008’s Hibernation EP and 2006’s Third Person, this 15-song epic is yet another treasure trove of painstakingly crafted, achingly lovely (and slyly funny) orch-folk delivered in Ellestad’s signature Steve Martin croon. If there’s any justice, it’ll finally make his name a household one, too.

Ellestad also donned his producer’s cap for Gang Crimes, the swoon-inducing new mini-album from Calgary campfire rockers Church of the Very Bright Lights, available for gratis download as well. Though primarily the recording project of singer-guitarist James Cullen, here the Church counts Women’s Chris Reimer and Matt Flegel amongst its flock for eight wonderfully understated tunes.

As Depatterning, former Calgarian Gary Mentanko (now based in Dublin, Ireland) recently slipped out The Liminal Farm EP on his own Wist Rec imprint. Like a musical lava lamp, these soft-focus ambient pieces alter any room’s mood with quivering electronics, field samples and snatches of dialogue. Haunting, beautiful and highly recommended.

Fellow Albertan expats (Medicine Hat, in this case) from the Fan Club Music Club label now call Victoria, B.C. home, but they’re far from coasting. Recent releases include a top-shelf split tape shared by Edmonton’s heart-shattering Sans AIDS and Victoria’s Lake Country, a shambling full-length blowout Great Canon from B.C.’s Fuji Hakayito and the rustic rambles of Brett Nelson’s debut long-player, Buffalo Jump Arts & Crafts.

Best of all from this Club is a cassette clearing-house of recordings from Freak Heat Waves and Funs, two new projects from members of Mt. Royal. While the arch vocal mannerisms of FHW bring to mind psychedelic trickster Kevin Ayers, Funs channels the ’70s through the spirit of Aladdin Sane with hip-wiggling glam stompers, sultry slow jams and classy sax blurts from producer Arran Fisher.

Crossing coasts, Halifax continues its slack-pop supremacy with newish group Quaker Parents, featuring members of the similarly skronky Long, Long, Long and Gamma Gamma Rays. Though Quaker Parents’ debut cassette Huge Mask clocks in at only 15 minutes, it manages to cram in more hooks than a tackle box. Oh snap, see what I did there?

With the burl of Hüsker Dü and blur of Eric’s Trip, fun lovin’ Halifax three-piece Bad Vibrations riffs through the Under Pressure 7” EP for Sewercide Records. Meanwhile, Bad Vibes bassist Evan Cardwell travels a wholly different spaceway to arrive at Blackest Blackest, the latest cassette from his oscillating electro-psych cult-of-one, Secret Colours.

Montreal’s Arbutus Records has been on a total tear as of late. The label’s newest LP is the mega-fun Mutual Feelings of Respect and Admiration, a mirrorballin’ soft rock disco makeover from falsetto lothario Sean Nicholas Savage. Just prior to that came Halfaxa, the second full-length of 2010 from cherub-like sci-fi pop freakazoid Claire Boucher (a.k.a. Grimes). Melding Mariah Carey-pitched trills with wispy Enya synths and stuttering beats, the closest comparison to Boucher’s unique soundworld might be Burial’s processed vocals, minus the dubstep.

Finally, after blazing all year with his comic, cosmic spin on 1990s House and R&B, former Haligonian turned Montrealer D’eon drops his long-awaited Palinopsia LP this month. On-point electronic label Hippos in Tanks is responsible for this jammer, packed with feel good anthems to remind you that rhythm is a dancer.