Record Label/Real Records
Format/Single
Street Value ***

A remix of a remix. A reworking of the Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - only with rapping on top. The aural equivalent of stealing a car and driving it into a wall. Later this afternoon I'm going to play Depeche Mode' 'Personal Jesus' and record me talking sh*t all over it then upload it to myspace.

Record Label/Skandal
Format/Single
Street Value **

Hip, hop, dubstep and grime walking the earth with the spirits of living dead - notably those living in abject poverty and those succumbing to a life of crime. Industrial rap with a hairsplitting techno edge. Already had extensive support from Kiss FM.

Record Label/Sound Easy
Format/Single
Street Value ***

It's never like it is in the movies, is it? Ventriloquist aka poet/producer, Chris Redmond punches a big uncomfortable hole in glorified violence: it ain't big and it ain't clever. Against a backdrop of squeezy, jazzy key strikes and sizzling, snazzy beats Redmond tells the story of a clumsy school yard scuffle and mashes it up with the grandiose vernacular and mythology of China’s most successful export: Kung Fu. We’ve all been there and we’ve all had the bloodied nose and suffered the slightly awkward silences that come after smacking someone hard on the side of the neck. Adding insult to injury are XFM’s John Hillcock and Radio 1’s Rob Da who square up on the side of Redmond.

Record Label/Counter Records
Format/Single
Street Value **

Get this fella - rubbing shoulders with the likes of Thom Yorke at Exeter University (even starting a band with him) and adding violin to Radiohead's, 'The Bends' and even stealing Yorke's illustrator for his own record sleeves. Taken from his upcoming album, 'Stories From The Watercooler - due out in June - 'I Will Disappear' sees the frightfully unfashionable Matthias doing what he does best; hypnotic, emotional, estranged and multi-layred folk-rock. Buy it out of curiosity or out of pure, besotted love.

Record Label/Counter Records
Format/Single
Street Value ***

Pop Levi is back! And so what. Whilst there is clearly a maverick and stunning talent amongst all the hyperbole, the last album proved that Levi was rarely more than the sum of all his influences. It also left the bitter aftertaste of someone perhaps just trying too hard. It was like he was trying to squeeze every major cult success of the last four decades onto one eager and occasionally inspired record. Anyway, this could be different. The metrosexual genius spent the autumn in Hollywood recording studio, Westlake, Quincy Jones's old studio where Thriller & Off The Wall were recorded. Never Never Love - the album - is released on July 14th. Check out the Pink Enemy remix. Hardcore candyfloss.

Record Label/Sunday Best
Format/Single
Street Value *****

So that's him singing, then, the bloke who's unhinged passive-aggressive bang-on witticisms-in-batter had us in stitches on last year's brilliant sub-hip-hop 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' single? Yup, that's him singing. But even though that first single was very much a one off in its singular zeitgeist-grasping awesomeness, the singing very much works here, as does the ensuing colloquial beat-poetry suckered to a succulent PM Dawn via Beck bout of bedroom trip-hop. The fact that they are every bit as good as they promised they were is becoming a prospect worth believing in.

Record Label/www.lucyandthecaterpillar.co.uk
Format/Single
Street Value ***

Cute, certainly. Sweet, twinkly, cosy, wide eyed folk from a bright young thing and her guitar (that's the caterpillar, we understand). Packed with quirky lyrical kicks and jaunty vocal flourishing. File alongside Laura Marling or a fresher faced Regina Spekor. Tis is a pirouetting april shower of a single, with rainbows bouncing out of flower pots, that sort of thing. It's pretty. But it would be so much better if only it didn't remind us so very very much of Kate Nash. Because we think she's probably better than that.

Record Label/Columbia
Format/Single
Street Value ***

Twisted Wheel are essentially the Young Knives, Oldham division. But prettier and younger, which is bound to be a help. Singer Jonny carries a gruff, unavoidable northern twang too which he spits out like his tonsils have been freshly sandpapered by Columbia execs looking for the next Alex Turner. Jauntily-kneed ska powers an irresistibly repetitive loop of elastic bass lines, cliched guitar licks and frothing at the mouth, vaguely tuneful shouting, which all crashes into a fairly appealing ball of elbows and distorted shrapnel. Not amazingly memorable but impossible to ignore at the time.

Record Label/FLYKKLLR RCRDS
Format/Single
Street Value ****

If you didn't know Stephen Hilton, the production-whizz half of clinical-goth electro-poppers FlyKKiller, had worked on Siouxie Sioux's return to form album last year as a co-writer, you could guess within about 60 seconds of hearing 'Shine Out Shine Out' - the same qualities are abundant; acerbic seduction from the vocals of Pati Yang, muscular industrial beats, melody falling in a drizzle of sparks, distorted future-punk throbbing like a main vein. Anthemic like early-Garbage, meticulously blunt like Suicide and bang on like Faithless pursuing ecstatic throes. Quite a package.

Record Label/Safehouse
Format/Single
Street Value ***

At the tender age of 18 he landed a deal with EMI only to blow his advance on drugs and friends and get kicked off the label. He landed on his feet of course and is set to release his new album produced by Grammy nominated producer, Andy Bradfield (famed for his work with Rufus Wainwright and Damien Rice amongst others). Born in Scotland and into a family of lay preachers (his father) and hymn writers (his grandparents), Campbell takes his cue from raspy-voiced folk heroes Ray Lamontagne, David Gray, Stephen Fretwell and a host of other 'proper' songwriters. Good stuff.

Record Label/Taboo Music
Format/Single
Street Value ***

'Don't Expect Too Much' sayeth the instructional EP title, and truth told it's good advice. Although we get caught in such a tangle with our quantity and quality expectations, it could be easy to miss that what they do have (and that's a trim, frazzled hubub of The Jam and Buzzcocksian guitar pop), while not much, is done pretty bally well indeed. It's an EP packed with fairly incontestable direct hits from the raucous Salford gunslinging duo that make much of the post-Libertines generation seem like they're firing blanks. Which of course they are. Satisfying if inconsequential.

Record Label/EMI
Format/Single
Street Value ***

If I was to be brutally honest, I'd have to say this was really rather bland. What is it exactly? House? Electronica? Pop? None of them really. And what happned to all that really quirky, 'mad as cheese' eccentricity that made all her early output such a reckless delight? Bit like Kylie used to be but not half as horny.

Record Label/Great Hare Records
Format/Single
Street Value **

Unlikely to be a major hit, but thank god for that, as it means our tousled, throaty London chap must be something right. Fractured, stormy and unmoored, the single provides the perfect introduction to Conil's earthy, bone rattling folk music; a gritty combination of the liberal Black Arts and acoustic Grunge. Mixed by Tom Waits and Pearl Jam producer, Tchad Blake. Decadent but darkly beautiful.

Record Label/1-2-3-4 Records
Format/Single
Street Value ****

A tremendous quake of pulse-driven, strobe-lit angst-melancholy, dipped in Manc heritage and with drums the size of Salford, this would do well to cling tight onto the coat-tails of The Verve comeback and see how far it can go. The unmistakable Joy Division-esque bass-line and reverb-heavy aircraft-hanger production immediately pairs Lowline with Editors as nearest obvious kin, but there's something more searing and urgent too, which we'd link to Reverend & The Makers if we didn't think that might taint it with the wrong impression. It's big anyway, a bit shiny maybe, but big nonetheless. You can't miss it.

Record Label/Fiction
Format/Single
Street Value ****

And you thought Elbow were all about the sauntering melancholy, grey skies, regrets and mournful ballads. Well, cop a load of that trunking great RIFF, brothers and sisters! Pulling the comeback trick probably better than they ever have before, Elbow return sounding exactly like Elbow, but much much more so, brandishing backroom blues, mechanical rhythms, a sly winding structure and no real chorus, yet still managing to sound utterly anthemic. And that's before we even get onto how enraptured Guy Garvey sounds. Mint.

Record Label/Rough Trade
Format/Single
Street Value ****

"EASY! EASY! EASY!" goes the chant, "EASY! EASY! EASY!" it continues. And they damn well make it seem so, while also actively encouraging listener participation. Bowling very much in a forwards motion out of the canon with that new-found momentum that sweeps third album 'Do You Like Rock Music' to hectic climaxes aplenty, 'No Lucifer' pulls the BSP trick of sounding contemplative and insightful whilst simultaneously managing to batter the living bloody daylights out of the idea. Twinkling eloquence weaved with firm hands over a bastard chugging riff, it's that simple. And it's not even the best on the album.

Record Label/RCA
Format/Single
Street Value ***

This sounds almost exactly like Debbie Harry with a cold jamming Tom Petty covers with The Strokes. And that, if you were wondering, is a good thing. She's got a curious voice, has lead singer Ida, it's not a traditionally strong female lead, it splinters and crackles all over the shop, but it is burgeoning with passion to spare and holds a deep beating heart and we find it rather endearing.

Record Label/Transgressive
Format/Single
Street Value ***

Try as you might to hate these pseudo-academic pretentious twerps (this opinion is informed purely by the pictures we see and the articles we read), whenever we actually HEAR them we fall immediately into line, drilled by their incessantly hyper formula jerk-rock, like we've been impregnated by a potent mind-control drug. And we don't think we have. And this single's no different (although the bit that sounds like an Irish jig in the middle just reminds us of that Bill Bailey sketch where The Edge's guitar effects disappear and he's left playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). And it's less inaccessible than they have been known to be. Though we're not at the stage yet where we want to dance like we're in a Skins promo.

Record Label/Virgin
Format/Single
Street Value ***

I think it's already been more than adequately demonstrated that this song is evocative of Buggle's 'Video Killed The Radio Star' but that shouldn't take anything away from what is by and large one of the most blustery, forthright singles of the year so far, not least because it sounds like a vaguely excited David Sylvan bursting like a rainbow out of a raincloud. Superb in a giddy, chunky and retro fashion. Didn't The Lover Speaks do this kind of thing in the eighties?

Record Label/Echo
Format/Single
Street Value ***

This, the man Jacob largely alone with his guitar and a gust of atmospherics whipping things up out-of-focus as a backdrop, reminds us a little of a lot of things. Bright Eyes certainly, The Mountain Goats' solitary song-weaving, Jeff Buckley's ethereal flutters, Simon & Garfunkel, Elliott Smith, Josepth Arthur, Eels in reflective mood. And he holds his own in such company. He does nothing remarkable, but he definitely holds his own. There's plenty in the detail to unravel over coming listens too.

Record Label/Highly Rated Entertainment
Format/Digital
Street Value ***

A smooth, rolling combination of jelly rhythms, hypnotic flows and sweet orchestral hooks bringing together Beckz Winter, XPloder (former Aftershock member) and D Dark. The crew formed in 2007 and has gained airplay on BBC Radio 1, 1 Extra, Choice FM and Heat FM. Not bad.

Record Label/Dealmaker Records
Format/Single
Street Value **

Debut single from turntablist, Red out on Nottingham based Dealmaker Records. The orginal version of the track was created entirely from scratch BY scratch. BBC1's Huw Stephens even went so far as to describe it as 'scratching beatboxing genius'. The drums are scratched. The riffs are scratched. It's all scratched. Red has a number of shows coming up including a Full Fat session at the BBC's Maida Vale studio and support slots for the Audio Bullys. As crinkly as it is fizzy.

Record Label/Polydor
Format/Single
Street Value ***

This starts off like 'Stand By Me' (which is of course one of the greatest pop songs of all time, obviously, and which they bubble under throughout hoping presumably to assimilate some of its magic), picks up some orchestral flourishes, struts in an unapologetically walking-down-Carnaby-Street-in-a-mini-skirt-in-the-late-60s fashion and belts it out like Lulu way before Take That were even twinkles. It's hard not to like it, to be honest, it’s classic, classy and the voice is almost uniquely effortless. Just don't go and see her live - you will want to maim her session band as they drown the track’s power and potential. Enjoy it while you can, you’ll probably be sick of it in 6 months.

Record Label/Weekender Records
Format/Single
Street Value ***

Big news in Wolverhampton, apparently. Stop laughing at the back. Seriously. Local boys, they've sold out both the Wulfren and Civic Halls and this single does hold hints for such rampant regional celebrity. Upper echelon indie, beholden of the kind of anthemic quality that's done so well fellow Midlands lads The Enemy, a decent swagger and an epic outline that sounds like it could sit nicely in such big rooms. Somewhere between The Verve, The Libertines and Reverend & The Makers, if you can imagine such a thing. Don't let your mind run too wild, mind, but it's alright.

Record Label/Universal
Format/Single
Street Value ***

And thus the monochrome life of the world's most reliably monochrome band (riff, howl, boom = song!) finds the colour balance tweaked as it takes a peculiar little foray into funk with, of all people, uber producer and frankly unnaturally slick fiend Pharrel Williams in the driving seat. We're not convinced with the results - which incidentally sound like N*E*R*D and Tears For Fears playing simultaneously - but it certainly doesn't not work. Try everything once, right? And then go back to what you know.

Record Label/Wichita
Format/Single
Street Value ****

A ludicrously, insanly, piercingly sweet, careering neumatic banshee of a bastard melody drives this, easily the most accesible 4 minutes Les Savy Fav have unleashed, to its delicious ends. Never thought we'd refer to the crown prices of experimental aggresion as delicious, but we just did. We didn't think we'd ever call them moreish either, but they damn well are. Awesome.

Record Label/Moshi Moshi
Format/Single
Street Value ***

Floating vaguely between Bjork, Bat For Lashes and that song by Liberty X that was all you could hear anywhere a couple of years ago neutralized in an abstract vacuum where electronic steel drums mate with synthesized atmospherics and something stringed that could be a mandolin chiming away in the corner, on a loop that pulses away lusciously, endlessly. Imagine that, but an awful lot less pretentious sounding. Right? Classy, anonymous minimal electro pop with an organic handle, basically. Delicious, anyway.

Record Label/679 Recordings
Format/Single
Street Value ****

Don't listen to those bothersome Kiwis, your hands are quite important to you and you might need them in the future. And besides, they've still got theirs from what we've seen in pictures. But on the other hand (oh yes, it's a laugh a minute in this review) you really should actually listen to them because they chime out chiselled pop of the highest order with Elvis Costello's purr, Franz Ferdinand's hips and Hot Hot Heat's soft centre. 'Oh Girl' make Crud want to dance hard and Crud doesn't dance.

Record Label/Blue Note/Metro Blue
Format/Single
Street Value ****

Always enchating, the Bird and the Bee released the One Too Many Hearts EP in time for Valentines Day. The four song EP includes three new songs by the duo, touching on everything from frothy Serge Gainsbourg, Astrud Gilberto, Pat Ballard and Irving Berlin. Brought bang up to date, of course. Delicious, delicious, delicious, delicious.