July 2010  Jaga Jazzist Banafluer Overalt EP  Ninja Tune Describing Jaga Jazzist as Norway’s most famous ‘nine-piece jazz, alt.rock, prog, baroque, afro beat maters’ may be a little like describing Hammacher and Schlemmer – inventors of Metal Detecting Sandals – as New York’s leading feet prospectors but it suffices in the context of this warped and dreamy selection of remixes from their recent album. Cockoo, Final and SprutBass are amongst those doing the makeovers. Format: EP Street Value: ** Street Date: 12/06/2010

June 2010  Herve Blaze It  Cheap Thrills Here’s another track taken from Herve’s Ghetto Bass 2 mix album. This one has a lovely rubbery bass thing supporting some bone rattling, cudgel beats. The additional snap crackle and pop leaps from the speaker to make this as lively and as fiery a prelude to the summer as any release so far. Some great dimensions. The single comes backed by an even tastier Reset remix, which has a bit of the Fatboy about it. Wimbledon postponed by acid rain. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 07/06/2010

April 2010  Andreya Triana Lost Where I Belong  Ninja Tune The singer whose past credits include Mr Scruff, Flying Lotus, Theo Parrish and Bonobo releases the first single from her forthcoming debut album, ‘Lost Where I Belong’ – produced by Simon Green aka Bonobo. Sublte amd soulful slice of jazz inflected soul. As lush as a field of daisies and as uplifting as Minnie Ripperton. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 05/04/2010

March 2010  She and Him In the Sun  Double 6 Not strictly terrific first single from new album by upcoming girl-boy, man-lady, lad-lass, guys and dolls outfit, ‘She and Him’. The dreamy yet half-arsed vocal from Zooey Deschanel doesn’t help and compared to the pair’s charming and understated debut, this has all the feel of a rehearsal. There’s a lovely song here just waiting to slip out. Sadly, the sun has got his hat on. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 15/03/2010

March 2010  Bonobo Eyesdown  Ninja Tune Simon Green is pretty ubiquitous of late. Not only has he produced the new Andreya Triana single, 'Lost Where I belong' he's also been busy combining all the spacey otherworldliness of dubstep with the warmth and emotional reach of traditional soul. Classy, contemporary and melancholy. Remix duties are taken care of by Floating Points and Warrior One. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 08/03/2010

February 2010  Archie Bronson Outfit Sharks Tooth  Domino Records Not sure how anybody else feels but I feel the roaring success of the Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets has led to a slip in quality control at the otherwise hard to fault Domino label. It’s a bit like having one or two great players but not having the depth of squad to complete a season. The Archies were one of the most promising Domino acts a few years back, bagging a South Bank Special t’boot. So why do I feel shortchanged here? Perhaps because labelmates Clinic have been doing this kind of little shop of horrors trick (only better) for years. Bleak, esoteric and still full of the blues but now with a fairly contrived dance ethic courtesy of DFA member, Tim Goldsworthy. Four years in the making has to tell you something. Trail blazers become trail followers. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 22/02/2010

January 2010  Freestylers Past Present and Future EP  Freestylers Records The growling, scuzzy 'Cracks' is okay with grumbling acid breaks and parps but it's a squarely nostaligic thing. Listening out for further techno/house twists on new album, 'Calling Me Home'. It does a passable job. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 25/01/2010

January 2010  Brouhaha Brouhaha EP  4th Note Records Brouhaha play arty, muscular funk. Grizzly guitar riffs are adorned with mad horn arrangements and underpinned by drums courtesy of Animal from the Muppets. Off beat film samples make perfect sense in the midst of it all, adding a little bit of B-Movie kitsch to tracks like Thunderbone.Brouhaha sound like a thousand TV cop show themes put through a blender – and I mean that as a compliment! Format: EP Street Value: ** Street Date: 11/01/2010

December 2009  Ape School Remixes  Counter If memory serves us correct Michael Johnson used to be in the Lilys – the retro-band that had a sizeable hit in the UK with ‘Nanny in Manhattan’. Not that he had much input there, if truth be known, which will come as no surprise to those who have heard his likeably deranged whoops and grunts on the ‘Ape School’ debut. And what we have here is everybody else’s take on those whoops and grunts – a remix EP featuring the best of what Ninja Tune and Counter records have to offer: Daedelus, Pop Levi, Yppah. They were good tunes then. They’re good tunes now. Only they’ve dropped a little more acid. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 07/12/2009

December 2009  Asobi Seksu Layers  One Little Indian Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 07/12/2009

October 2009  Lucky Elephant The Reverend Tilsley and his Magic Lantern  Sunday Best This jaunty little indie track sounds like Toploader playing the old Grange Hill theme. Dusty rhodes keyboards skip along under Manu’s French accent bringing to mind a quotation by iconic Victorian art critic John Ruskin: “One cannot be angry when one looks at a penguin” Happy and sunlit, Rev Tilsley scores top marks for penguinicity Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 12/10/2009

August 2009  Diskjokke Rosenrod  Moshi Moshi Singles Club Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 31/08/2009

June 2009  Swimming Panthalassa/Crash The Current  Colourschool The 80s revivalists continue their rummage through the vault of neo-psychedelia with a rather frantic burst of energy. Intense, determined and as hopelessly overwrought as Got Talent’s Susan Boyle. Packs in elements of Sparks, The Teardrop Explodes, The Cult, Hüsker Dü, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and The Associate’s ‘Party Fears Two’. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 15/06/2009

June 2009  Wave Machines I Go I Go I Go  Neapolitan What a chirpy, fizzy, happy happenstance comes tumbling out of Merseyside. On the evidence of ‘I Go I Go I Go’ alone the noughties is about to embrace the kind of breezy, kooky electro-pop that made bands like Red Box, Blacmange and Stephen Tin Tin Duffy such an unorthodox pop joy in the 1980s and Simian such a one-hit-wonder in the 90s. Here’s comes summer! Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 08/06/2009

May 2009  Dub Pistols Back to Daylight  Sunday Best The boys who first came to our attention for taking in waifs and strays like Terry Hall and Ian Brown and contributing to all manner of movie soundtracks release the first single from their new album, ‘Rum & Coke’, the follow-up to last year’s ‘Speakers and Tweakers’. The single –Ashley Slater from Freak Power – recalls the perky, soulful, feelgood grooves of mid-eighties disco with just a dash of acid. Reggae legend Gregory Isaccs turns up on the flipside. It’s a bit frivolous and light but it might be the only real substitute we have for summer this year. ‘Rum & Coke’ is released on Sunday Best in June. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 18/05/2009

May 2009  Kill it Kid Send Me An Angel Down  One Little Indian Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 18/05/2009

May 2009  Fenech Soler The Cult of Romance  Vulture Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 11/05/2009

April 2009  Art Brut Art Brut vs Satan  Cooking Vinyl Format: Album Street Value: *** Street Date: 21/04/2009

April 2009  Redjetson Other Arms  Gizeh Records Format: Album Street Value: *** Street Date: 20/04/2009

April 2009  Mr Bones and the Dreamers Are These Actual Miles?  CatCutter Records Take the trembling vibrato of a young (or even elderly) Feargal Sharkey, clue-in heaps of euphoric strings and the drama and intensity of a tornado whipping through Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and you have the wonderfully named ‘Mr Bones and the Dreamers’. Describing themselves as a ‘literal and symbolic sanctuary from the ills of the modern world’ Kieran Goddard and his crew of rhapsodic exiles offer up an open-mouth, hair-tugging taker on Epic Rock. Bullshit aside, this is really quite good. Timing seems a bit off going into the chorus, but given the faintly hysterical condition of the band, it’s probably inevitable. Shamelessly overwrought and overblown but all the more fantastic for it. A bit like putting The Dears in a bag with The Fureys. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 06/04/2009

April 2009  Lady of the Sunshine Smoking Gun  Flock For those who don’t know, Angus Stone is the male-half of Australian brother-sister act, Angus and Julia Stone – loved by all manner of hirsute bands, including The Magic Numbers. An album that threatens no end of stormy weather but ends up blowing only the kindest of sugar-kisses. More absorbing than any dry suit. Sweet yet existential Format: Album Street Value: ** Street Date: 06/04/2009

April 2009  Gomez A New Tide  Eat Sleep Records Gomez mark a return to their freewheeling and experimental roots with the release of new album, ‘A New Tide’ on April 6th on Eat Sleep Records. So prepare whirling psychedelia of ‘Win Park Slope’ and ‘Bone Tired’; the country-fried rock of ‘Little Pieces’; and the eccentric, elasticated blues of ‘If You Ask Nicely’. Format: Album Street Value: **** Street Date: 06/04/2009

April 2009  Twisted Wheel We Are Us  Columbia The second track to be taken from their forthcoming debut album – released April 13th. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Dave Sardy (Oasis/Marilyn Manson). Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 06/04/2009

March 2009  The Rank Deluxe You Decide  Fat Cat Format: Album Street Value: *** Street Date: 30/03/2009

March 2009  Ian Archer  To The Pine Roots  Black Records Format: Album Street Value: ***** Street Date: 23/03/2009

March 2009  Pete Doherty Grace / Wasteland  Parlophone Over hyped underachiever or unrecovered genius: who knows? Recorded over a month of sessions in autumn 2008 at London's legendary Olympic Studios with producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, Cranberries, Kaiser Chiefs), the album features Graham Coxon, Dot Allison and the kind of classic Morricone string and production signatures that put The Last Shadow Puppets firmly on the map. Patchy in places but a wooziful return to form. Format: Album Street Value: **** Street Date: 16/03/2009

March 2009  Blatta and Inesha Confused 90s - Switched on Ramirez  Hell Yeah Recordings Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 09/03/2009

March 2009  Speech Debelle The Key  Ninja Tune She might bang on to the likes of The Guardian about how 'ard it's been living on the fringes of society after a brutally middle-class Jamaican upbringing but hard-luck stories aside this has to be one of the best debut singles from a complex talent in a long time. Dripping with smart and sexy poetry and showcasing one of the finest oboe riffs on record, 'The Key' packs an emotional punch in an increasingly crude and superficial world. And so creamy smooth with it. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 09/03/2009

March 2009  Shuttle Tunnel EP  Ninja Tune We are talking 80s retro, but not 80s retro in a poppy and chart-friendly MGMT or Empire of the Sun way, but rather the kind of thing that would have had Warp and a bus-load of Sheffield nite-lifers positively gizzing at the mouth had it been cast in the city of steel in its bonkers 80s heyday. ‘Tunnels’ wet swampy bass and warm fuzzy keys ooze like Barbarella’s love-stuff over stuttering beats and some hot, steamy uprisings. Good for pressing trousers if another immediate use fails to spring to mind. Touch of acid-indigestion elsewhere on the EP, but that’s okay, as it’s more than ably resolved by some fruity, skittish vocals and heaps of android love. Punkish and frisky. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 09/03/2009

March 2009  The Broken Family Band Please and Thank You  Cooking Vinyl Format: Album Street Value: *** Street Date: 06/03/2009

March 2009  The Long Lost The Long Lost  Ninja Tune Crazy experiemntal dude, Daedelus and his crazy Ophelia wife sort renew their marriage vows in the most unexpected and magical of ways. A bit like bossa legend Astrud Gilberto strung out on acid and stroking a cat. It really don't get more mellow than this. Format: Album Street Value: *** Street Date: 02/03/2009

March 2007  Ladytron Tomorrow  Nettwerk Productions Third single to be taken from the current album, 'Velocifero'. The band have just confirmed an Eastern European tour with Depeche Mode in May, which will be preceded by a South American headlining tour and a co-headlining US tour with The Faint. They also appear to be penning songs for daft old mouthy pop bint, Christina Aguilera. They only love you when your seventeen, when you're twenty-one, you're no fun. Format: Album Street Value: ***** Street Date: 02/03/2009

March 2009  Brakes Hey Hey  One Little Indian Lead off track from a new album on which ex Delgado Paul Savage features (whose past work includes Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, The Twilight Sad and Malcolm Middleton amongst others). The single comes ahead of solid new album, 'Touchdown' which gets its release in April. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 02/03/2009

March 2009  Bat For Lashes Daniel  Parlophone Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 01/03/2009

February 2009  Thunderheist Sweet 16  Big Dada Not sure which is the more seductive: the sleazy, ruffling beats, the anxious, stabbing keys, the groaning, horny vocal, or the controversy the song quite clearly intends to whip up. Clue in a touch of Studio 54, throw in some ice and a dash of DFA and you have a fun and chunky slice of dirty-disco. Makes under-age sex seem positively risk-free by comparison. Here come the girls. The little girls ... Format: 12" Ltd Edition - digital download Street Value: *** Street Date: 23/02/2009

February 2009  The Qemists [featuring Wiley] Dem Na Like Me  Ninja Tune Every so often you need a big throbbing synthy bass thing to wake you up and this satisfies that kink quite squarely. Tough as gristle, loud as semtex and thought-provoking as a gruelling hard-shag by a Greek Philosopher of your choice. Some folks might remember them for their 2005 remix of Coldcut’s ‘Everything Is Under Control’ and for a series of touch-ups that include The Cooper Temple Clause, Dr Octagon and Roots Manuva. The hammer of the gods title track comes backed with shitloads of edits and dub mixes. Available as a 12" limited edition and download single. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 09/02/2009

February 2009  Asobi Seksu Familiar Light  One Little Indian Apparently, Asobi Seksu is colloquial Japanese for 'playful sex'. So should you wander into a record store in either Tokyo or Osaka looking for New York's Asobi Seksu please be mindful of how you make your request to the girl or boy behind the counter as you may get a trifle more than the enormously sparkling ‘Familiar Light’. Flooding the speaker like some kind of sonic tsunami brought on by a multitude of angels flapping their wings, the band’s new single sees the band tiptoe and thrash their way through the traditional vagaries of overwhelming love. Reminds me of tumultuous French bands like M83 whipped around in candyfloss and lacquered in honey. If you get my drift. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 09/02/2009

January 2009  Xrabbit Follow The Leader  Big Dada Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 12/01/2009

January 2009  Lauren Harris Your Turn  Demolition Records Oh boy. The world’s first ever time-activated digital download (released one second into the New Year at a precise 00:00:01). Blink and you may have missed it, and the fact that the greater part of the world’s population was either drunk, standing outside the backdoor waiting to come in or waiting for the chimes of Big Ben to subside so old Joolsy could fumble his way over the next introduction on his now sadly missable ‘Hootenany’, suggests we did miss it. Which probably accounts for the charts not being activated in quite the same way by the release. The daughter of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris intends to covet the crown of ‘searing’ rock thorns currently worn by the likes of Miley Cyrus and Avril Lavigne. Everybody has their 00.00.01 minutes in the spotlight, so why not Lauren? Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 01/01/2009

October 2008  The Asteroids Galaxy Tour Around the bend EP  Small Giants The band have been together less than a year, which is less than what’s customarily needed to form an opinion, regardless of all the plaudits bestowed upon it by the press-sheet. What we do know is that they are from Copenhagen, are led by Lars Iversen and Mette Lindberg, feature in ads for the new iPod Touch and craft the kind of genre-bending electro pop more commonly associated with kooky indie groups like The Ting Tings and sly party-organisers like Tim Deluxe. Bendy and peculiar. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 28/11/2008

November 2008  Florian Meindl 8-bit Romance  Hell Yeah Recordings Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 24/11/2008

November 2008  Cass McCombs Crick in My Neck  Domino Records Throbbing away like a persistent headache or the proverbial thorn in one’s side, the former 4AD artist’s new single is a thrashing celebration of couldn’t-give-a-fuck vocals, swooning guitars and slippery organ fondling. The single is taken from the LP, ‘Dropping the Writ’ released earlier this year. The release coincides with a string of dates in Ireland and the UK. Classy and upbeat miserablism. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 17/11/2008

October 2008  Nitin Sawhney Distant Dreams  Cooking Vinyl Maybe it’s because I imagine myself living in a Raymond Chandler novel, but I’m a sucker for plaintive muted trumpet lines. Nitin Sawhney’s Distant Dreams is trendy bar jazz but with gorgeously nuanced string arrangements and pensive lyrics and threads some tastefully understated trumpet around Roxanne Tataei’s Corinne Bailey Rae-esque vocals. Never mind marks out of ten, my CD got scratched and I was gutted. Nuff said. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 29/10/2008

October 2008  Dido Don't Believe In Love  Sony 'No Angel' is still the UK's biggest selling debut album by a British female artist. 'Life For Rent' was number one in 26 countries and in the UK top 2 for 10 weeks. She has 4 Brit awards. She has racked up nearly 10 million digital sales. She won an Ivor Novello award with 'White Flag'. It's believed that one in 6 homes own a Dido CD. So how come this is so very very crap? Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 27/10/2008

October 2008  Roots Manuva Let The Spirit  Big Dada Third single taken from the bard's 'Slime and Reason' LP. Produced by indie-funkster, Metromony and including a sky-reaching, snappy-clappy gospel church vibe. The radio-edit is mixed by Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Kano, Kate Nash) but the real gem is the flipside's snazzy, fizzy and joyfully squelchy Hot Chip remix. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 20/10/2008

October 2008  Lesser Panda Ghostdance  Superdark Music Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 06/10/2008

October 2008  Wired Desired Barely Illegal  Don't Know, Don't Care Somewhere along the line Alice Cooper and Bon Jovi had a regrettable one night stand and this was the result. A highly preposterous riff and racket production that manages to lift every grotesque cliche in the book and amp it up to 11. Shocking that there's still people out there with mullets to match. You heard of shock and awe tactics? Well here's the shocking and the awful. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 06/10/2008

October 2008  M9 Strange Fruit  Dented Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 06/10/2008

September 2008  Nigel of Bermondsey Overload  Mint Recordings Something like this has the potential to be as bemusing as a Disney ride through dioramas of various dystopian nightmares while a choir sings ‘It’s a Small World After All’ but Nigel Hoyes (formerly of Gay Day and writer to Lee Ryan) has added to his bizarre musical CV with a song that wraps its black streak up with some lovely indie pop (think Lightning Seeds and OMD). It’s charming and unnerving and what could so easily have become ‘Springtime for Hitler’ manages instead to become a mini pop version of Dr. Strangelove. Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 29/09/2008

September 2008  Olympus Mons Nothing's Gonna Spoil My Day Today  Dad Records Format: Album Street Value: ** Street Date: 22/09/2008

September 2008  The Phone Discreet Affair EP  Attractive Records The newly founded Attractive label is a labour of love for designer Steve Lippert. Its first release, ‘Discreet Affair’ EP by the Phone, is a stabbing slice of minimalist synth redolent of John Foxx-era Ultravox and early Depeche Mode. From mournful vocals name checking European cities to stick-thin electric snares, everything you want back from the early 80’s is here. To paraphrase Dave Gahan - Just pick up the receiver, they’ll make you a believer. Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 21/09/2008

September 2008  Niyi I Love You Al/Poached Eggs  Holloway Hit factory Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 16/09/2008

September 2008  Pirate Robot Midget It's My Beat Now  Hell Yeah Recordings Worth buying for the simple joy of having the name repeated again and again and again: Pirate Robot Midget - an Italian French electro outfit based in Amsterdam and responsible for one of the seediest, sweaty, club banging releases so far this year. It bangs, it buzzes, it sizzles and it stomps. Features Rapper, Grand Agent on vocals and a handful of dutiful remixes from Dyno and Riva Starr. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 15/09/2008

August 2008  Anthony Reynolds Bees Dream of Flowers and Your Summer's Meadow Breath EP  Hungry Hill/Spinney The lead-up track, 'Just So You Know' is a delightful reworking of a song on Reynold's solid, convincing debut, 'British Ballads' this time featuring oldy Godmother of 'freak folk' and TMobile star, Vashti Bunyan on vocals. Producer and remix hat is worn by Anthony Whiting (M.I.A, Eugene McGuinness, The Mules). Elsewhere Charlotte Greig pops up on 'Like The Sun Feeds From Flowers'. Two additional tracks, 'Now It begins' and 'Girls With Glasses' are available with the ITunes release. Format: EP Street Value: *** Street Date: 18/08/2008

August 2008  Tine Tempah Tears  DL Records At 19 MC and writer Tinie Tempah has toured alongside Sway and Dizzee Rascal, shared his thoughts and views on Knife Crime on several news networks (including Sky and the BBC), scored a couple of playlists (Kiss and BBC1Extra) and racked up three A Levels. He's also going to feature on Wiley's second album, 'Play Time Is Over'. But this is what he's up to now: a beefy slice of r&b with some tasty techno buzzsaw action. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 18/08/2008

July 2007  Circuits Bright As Midnight  Try Science Bristly, scratchy, spiky, combustible indie youth types with a dash of the Police, a dash of Scouting For Girls, shitloads of stormy guitars and punchy agit-vocals. Applauded by Steve Lamaqc, XFM and Sony imprint, Lil Ballet. White Reggae seldom had so much spunk. Handsome debut. Format: Album Street Value: *** Street Date: 07/07/2008

June 2008  Roots Manuva Buff Nuff  Big Dada Roots is back. Frisky electrode ‘Buff Nuff’ is the first single to be taken from Manuva’s forthcoming album, ‘Slime and Reason’ – out August 25th. Described as a ‘slice of Sheffield dancehall' the song is mixed by Ross Orton (M.I.A) and augmented by Rodney Smith. Propulsive and compulsive. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 30/06/2008

June 2008  Digga Broken  Blaquesheep Records Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 23/06/2008

June 2008  CirKus Fools  Tent Music Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 16/06/2008

June 2008  L Star and Tweeti Sweet Dreamx (Rmx)  Real Records 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 09/06/2008

June 2008  Fear Of Music First To Go  Columbia Energy abounds from this fiercely intent young Manchester four piece, all dark lines, rough edges and sweeping chinks of light. Echoes of early Nirvana with more money (hello, Columbia Record$), Biffy Clyro with less facial hair and Placebo with their gushing early magnificence intact, and little of the frigidity. Recalls also the unhinged vibrancy of The Crocketts, way before the insipid Crimea were even a gleam in Davey's eye. Decent. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 02/06/2008

June 2008  The Levellers Burn America Burn  Lettersfromtheunderground.com The anarchy practically screams out from the front cover of this single by formerly washed up old hippie punks who were known for having a dreadlocked didgeridoo player and singing ironically with fields full of people that there's only one way of life. Shame it doesn't soak all the way through really, but that it is a fairly typical rousing folk shout-along turns out to be its strength. It's passion simmers on the brink (though never going over) and the fiddle carves up a merry old dance and we feel like linking arms with our nearest and giving it some welly. It's nice they're not trying to write pop songs anymore anyway. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 02/06/2008

June 2008  Pin Me Down  Cryptic  Kitsune The shy looking boy with the fringe from Bloc Party striking out on his own. So does he pan off into uncharted swampland with an experimental divining rod, like his mentor Johnny Greenwood did with his 'me time'? Umm, no. He puts out a single that sounds like his own band's 'Hunting For Witches' done by a Gwen Steffani fronted Blondie, but which ultimately comes out of the wash sounding like forgotten 90s club-indie fly by nights Republica. You can dance to it, though, which is a plus. Half decent pop tune, but probably not worth trying to make your name with it. Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 02/06/2008

June 2008  Joan As Police Woman To Be Loved  PIAS Well, it's as warm and delicious as you imagined it might be. Of course it is. Joan Wasser knows consistency like you know breathing is a decent pastime that you enjoy without having to really think about it. Sumptuous piano lad mid-pace smoky slickness, with just a tiny hint of cabaret. Only the hint of an underlying saxaphone nearly ruins it. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 02/06/2008

June 2008  The Metros Last Of The Lookers  1965 Records When was the last time a current band last reminded you of Ian Dury & The Blockheads? It's not that they're so sacred people can't/won't even touch them/him, surely. Which is one reason that The Metros stand out more than we thought they might from their vital stats. And this is such a jaunty damn care-forgetting tune that in spite of the occasionally over-egged horns they win through again. Fun fun fun. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 02/06/2008

June 2008  Laura Marling Cross Your Fingers  Virgin With girls and acoustic guitars ten a penny at the minute, why should you listen to still fresh-faced 18 year old Laura Marling? Because she makes you. Simple as. Not by force or bribery or hypnosis, or even just because of her gentle but persuasive Feist-esque tones, nor because the broadsheets have told you to, but because she draws you in and holds you there with beautiful word arrangements and evolving tales, lilting linking harmonies and a genuine sense that the world she sketches out might be ripe for exploring. This single carries that tradition on well. No need to cross your fingers anymore. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 02/06/2008

May 2008  Magic Wands Black Magic  . As far as two-piece girl-on-boy pop action goes, if the Tings Tings are too flagrant and demanding for you, The Kills too full of it and in The Sun far too often, and Blood Red Shoes just too damn noisy, Magic Wands are quite possibly the ones you secretly have the hots for. Sultry, unforced, minimalism synth pop in a satisfyingly breathy and stark vein, 'Black Magic' is demure like Joy Zipper and vintage disco like Daft Punk. And I don't know whether it's teasing but I think it has the hots for you too. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 26/05/2008

May 2008  Red Light Company With Lights Out  Lavolta Lavolta Records, who are putting out Red Light Company's debut single, were born from Lizard King Records who brought The Killers to the UK as smart young upstarts. Seems they've developed a house style then (kind of like comfort eating), as 'With Lights Out' does sounds an awful lot like The Killers. In a good, if mildly derivative, way - particularly that Brandon Flowers vocal quiver. Bluster of the second album and hook-laden light-fingered pop of the first. Catchy as sticky-back-plastic too. Reminds a little of bright-eyed Danes The Kissaway Trail too. Glasto headline-slots and the like seem a very distant possibility, but if they pull a few more tricks their bulb might burn brightly enough to make an impression. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 26/05/2008

May 2008  Skandal EP  Skandal Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 19/05/2008

May 2008  The Cure The Only One  Polydor Ahh, yes, this is definitely The Cure. How do we know? Well it starts exactly like (like, EXACTLY like) 1992 single 'High'. Same melody, same light-fingered, summer-compatible jangle, same bass-line chugging away, same sort of creased Robert Smith tones. Which means it is of course entirely brilliant, vintage indie, one to have on your headphones to encapsulate the joys of an arriving summer, if not the bastion of evolving creativity. We can forgive backwards-looking indulgence when it's this lush though. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 13/05/2008

May 2008  Ventriloquist I Know Kung Fu  Sound Easy 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 12/05/2008

May 2008  Cazals Somebody Somewhere  Kitsune Pitched between Babyshambles' louche posture and Franz Ferdinand's clipped art-indie precision, Cazals make gaunt, fashionable strides onward with the follow up to 'Life Is Boring', pulling their bootlaces tighter for a functional verse launching into a chorus that's largely worth that formality, so resplendent in jagged shapes and surging kinetics. It's The Jam done by the Pigeon Detectives, which might sound like an insult, but merely references its unfussy instistence. B-side 'Success' falls below the Razorlight quality benchmark, mind, but you can't have everything. Maybe next time. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 12/05/2008

May 2008  Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Keep Singing Out  Atlantic He's awfully earnest, isn't he. Means every word, yes? "Don't let society restrict," sayeth he, before erupting into a plain, unfussy indie chorus of hope and uplift, garnished with trumpet and keyboard trimming so joyous you will probably try to punch the air at least once before it's over. Life is good, he suggests, in spite of all the mucky disappointments and missteps. It's a nice thought. It's also an exact splice of James and The Kooks. Which is fine, but not really what you want when your theme is that there's more to life than the same old. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 12/05/2008

May 2008  Black Lips Bad Kids / Leroy Faster  Vice Records Punk bluegrass. Cool. Irresistibly catchy to boot, from the sort of band who sound like they might roll into town on the back of a backfiring pick-up, sully the town's lady-folk and scarper with the liquor store's best and the sheriff's hat as a souvenir. Like the White Stripe's 'Hotel Yorba' drunk, really really very drunk, with Jack trying to look up Meg's skirt. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 12/05/2008

May 2008  Death Cab For Cutie I Will Possess Your Heart   Atlantic Death Cab For Cutie have grown so articulate in the field of radio-friendly emo(tional) quasi-grunge that it is very hard to pick fault with their output, though these days it certainly comes sounding much more calculated than it once did. This is a perfectly fine example of such craft, though we should take exception to its single edit, clocking in at 3 and a half minutes vs. the album's more serious 8 and a half. It's no crime in the vein of The Stone Roses' '... Resurrection' or Elbow's 'Newborn', but the longer version makes much more sense, feeling its way carefully, intuitively, deeply. Advice - wait for the album. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 05/05/2008

April 2008  John Matthias I Will Disappear  Counter Records 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. Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 28/04/2008

April 2008  Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip Look For The Woman  Sunday Best 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. Format: Single Street Value: ***** Street Date: 28/04/2008

April 2008  Lucy & The Caterpillar Lucy's Opinion  www.lucyandthecaterpillar.co.uk 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 28/04/2008

April 2008  Pop Levi Never Never Love  Counter Records 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 28/04/2008

April 2008  Twisted Wheel She's A Weapon  Columbia 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 21/04/2008

April 2008  Phil Campbell Maps  Safehouse 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 21/04/2008

April 2008  FlyKKiller  Shine Out Shine Out  FLYKKLLR RCRDS 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. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 21/04/2008

April 2008  The Deodates Don't Expect Too Much  Taboo Music '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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 14/04/2008

March 2008  Conil Strange Part of the Country  Great Hare Records 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. Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 31/03/2008

March 2008  Roisin Murphy You Know Me Better  EMI Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 31/03/2008

March 2008  Lowline Monitors  1-2-3-4 Records 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. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 17/03/2008

March 2008  British Sea Power No Lucifer  Rough Trade "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. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 10/03/2008

March 2008  Foals Cassius  Transgressive 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 10/03/2008

March 2008  Ida Maria Stella  RCA 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 10/03/2008

March 2008  Elbow Grounds For Divorce  Fiction 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. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 10/03/2008

March 2008  Highly Rated Blackstars  Highly Rated Entertainment Format: Digital Street Value: *** Street Date: 03/03/2008

March 2008  Royworld Man In The Machine  Virgin 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? Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 03/03/2008

March 2008  Jacob Golden Out Come The Wolves  Echo 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 03/03/2008

March 2008  Red Seen  Dealmaker Records Format: Single Street Value: ** Street Date: 03/03/2008

February 2008  Duffy Mercy  Polydor 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 25/02/2008

February 2008  The Hives We Rule The World  Universal 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 25/02/2008

February 2008  Les Savy Fav Patty Lee  Wichita 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. Format: Single Street Value: **** Street Date: 25/02/2008

February 2008  The Lines Domino Effect  Weekender Records 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 25/02/2008

February 2008  Lykke Li  Little Bit  Moshi Moshi 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. Format: Single Street Value: *** Street Date: 18/02/2008

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