Cribsheet

The one and only big list of all the forthcoming artist albums in Beatmag's discerning hands, listed alphabetically under release date and including a brief summary.

For a listing in The Cribsheet send albums to...
Thomas H, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 9FG, UK

Cribsheet

July

10th

The Animators ‘How We Fight’ (Angelhouse)
Remember The Rembrandts, those guys who did the theme from ‘Friends’, well that’s what this saccharine jangle-pop is reminiscent of. Frighteningly, it may well have commercial potential…

Rui Da Silva ‘Praying Mantis’ (64)
The first album on his own 64 Records sees the producer of the worldwide millennial hit ‘Touch Me’ embrace a Spartan glitchy dancefloor minimalism that has just the right amount of artistic insight to be rather gripping.

Dr Feelgood ‘Down By The Jetty’ (EMI)
Forming a stepping stone to punk when released in 1975 this collection of rough’n’ready rhythm’n’blues rockers by Wilco Johnson and Lee Brilleaux’s four-piece is now spread over two CDs with bonus tracks, live cuts and stereo mixes.

Lostprophets ‘Liberation Transmission’ (Visible Noise)
Pontypridd’s finest pop-metallers return with a long-player produced by Bob Rock in Hawaii and, while there’s plenty of punchy FM rock songs, the bombastic anthemic qualities often overshadow their appealing punk edge.

Micah ‘Everything’ (Accidental)
Produced by Brazilian avant-garde punk-jazzer Arto Lindsay and sung by Micah Gaugh, a Panamanian-Texan musical eccentric, but the results are a very listenable combination of electronic glitchiness and sweet soul.

Amy Millan ‘Honey From The Tombs’ (City Sland/Arts & Crafts)
How good is this? One of the singers from Toronto’s extravagant indie sorts Stars cuts loose with her own solo set. She deals in broken-hearted delicate acoustic country that’s run through with the latest late night moments of the Velvet Underground.

Jeff Mills ‘Blue Potential’ (Uncivilised World/Axis)
The Detroit techno DJ returns with that staple of ‘70s prog bands - an orchestra - in this case the Montpellier Philharmonic. The results, while never ludicrous, simply sound like incidental music from a Hollywood blockbuster, with occasional beats.

Namosh ‘Moccatongue’ (Bungalow)
Unsurprisingly Berlin-based, this Persian-Bavarian favourite of Bjork grits his electro-rock with cabaret sleaze and nightclub sex. Raw, funky and very now. Includes ‘Cold Cream’ DVD of milk-vomit farm-hand action!

Peaches ‘Impeach My Bush’ (XL)
The outrageously rude Canadian Berliner returns with a whole heap more electro-grunge filth. Her third album may be her nastiest yet and comes on like a Suicide synth assault fronted by a nymphomaniac. She’s a one–off. Great stuff.
Osaka Popstar and the American Legends of Punk ‘Osaka Popstar and the American

Legends of Punk’ (Rykodisc)
Ageing American punk rock ‘supergroup’ including Marky Ramone, Misfits associate John Cafiero, Misfit Jerry Only, Black Flag’s Dez Cadena and Voidoid Ivan Julian. It’s a fun if unreconstituted Luddite take on the original formula.

Plaid & Bob Jaroc ‘Greedy Baby + DVD’ (Warp)
That rare creature, a successful visual/music project. The longstanding WARP duo occasionally miss the boat but their amalgamation of electronica, politics and thought-provoking visuals mostly works, especially the biting ‘Super Barrio’ animation.

Planningtorock ‘Have It All’ (Chicks On Speed)
Bloody Berlin again but bloody great too. Brit performance artist Janine Rostron tells the strangest tales in a unique musical voice that combines Kate Bush, electro-rock, classical touches and top pop suss. The song ‘Bolton Wanders’ is a minor classic.

Ray ‘Daylight In The Darkroom’ (Pito)
A second album of widescreen big-voiced indie rock from London that contains hints of nascent U2 grandiosity. They sound hungry for glory but the music’s plain. May succeed on the basis of a hefty work ethic. Particularly in the US.

Rodelius ‘Works 1968-2005’ (Gronland)
Krautrock pioneer (with Kluster) and instigator of much wibbly anything-goes experimentalism. A fascinating character whose proto-soundcsaping, loops, mantric riffing, etc, is an addendum to his lifelong socio-historical adventure.

Sebadoh ‘III’ (Domino)
Lou Barlow left Dinosaur Jnr and hooked up with home studio malingerers Eric Gaffney and Jake Loewenstein, as well as a bale of weed. The results, originally released in 1991, here with extras, hailed a new dawn for lo-fi indie Americana.

Technasia ‘Popsoda’ (Technasia)
The latest from the Japanese-Parisian techno duo who have a strong following in mainland European clubland. It follows a rather dry late-‘90s blueprint veering between deep housey electronica and fiercer Dave Clarke-friendly bangers.

Cortney Tidwell ‘Don’t Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up’ (Ever)
Girl-fronted guitar pop from Nashville songwriter whose material is intriguing and far from saccharine. There’s a faint whiff of the Cocteau Twins but she’s developed a style that’s thoroughly original, stiletto sharp hip but also easily accessible.

Underworld ‘Misterons Mix’ (underworldlive.com)
Available to download from July 10th, it’s a mash-up of the three ‘Riverrun Project’ downloads from underworldlive.com (‘Lovely Broken Thing’, ‘Pizza For Eggs’ and ‘I’m A Big Sister, and I’m A Girl, And I’m A Princess, And This Is My Horse’).

Zao ‘The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here’ (Ferret Music)
Great song titles – ‘Purdy Young Blondes With Lobotomy Eyes’. Nice! The band are favourites of crossover acts from their scene such as Fall Out Boy and Trivium. Their latest is even produced by Steve Albini but it’s still mundane thrash growling.

17th

India Arie ‘Testimony: Vol 1, Life & Relationship’ (Island/Universal)
After her two million-selling ‘Acoustic Soul’ in 2001 the new age soulstress thankfully hasn’t embraced bling or Nelly Furtado’s ‘sexy’ reinvention but retains an appealing blend of generous-spirited modern R&B and gently classic meditations.

The Beach Boys ‘Very Best + DVD’ (EMI)
You’ve heard ;em all many time but they remain gems, however, the selling point is a DVD of mucho TV footage from the ‘60s.

Travis Blaque ‘The Many Facets of…’ (Unique)
Hardy perennial of the UK hip hop scene delivers a worthy intelligent slice of MCing that has Roots Manuva’s thoughtful head on but is somehow not dramatically dynamic.

Calaisa ‘Calaisa’ (Wrasse)
Sweden’s answer to the Dixie Chicks with a dose of The Corrs thrown in for good measure. Two sets of attractive sisters whip up harmonic roots pop that’s begging for a multi-million dollar marketing push.

Nasio Fontaine ‘Universal Cry’ (Greensleeves)
Dominican Rastafarian whose music is sweet, socially aware Jah-infused reggae touched with a soulful voice. It’s slightly too smooth to make a broad impact but sweetly persuasive in small doses nonetheless.

Haco, Hans Fjellstad, Jakob Riis, Marcos Fernandes ‘Haco Hans Jakob Marcos’ (Accretions)
Beatmag’s favourite Californian avant-garde jazz extremists Accretions Records’ latest is an admirably unhinged racket recorded by label top dogs and their friends in Tijuana. Reference points: whirring aliens, vacuum cleaners, rattling abject drums.

Hawksley Workman ‘Treeful Of Starling’ (Universal Canada)
Fifth album from Canadian who’s often compared to Jeff Buckley but his occasionally arch shownman manner has more in common with Rufus Wainright. Solid chugging narrative folky Dylan-esque stuff in any case.

Helene ‘Routines’ (Series 8)
A duo rather than a woman’s name, theirs is a girl-fronted strummery of a not unpleasant order, country acoustic born of a long lost outfit called Barefoot Contessa.

Hexes & Ohs ‘Goodbye Friends, Welcome Lover’ (Noise Factory)
Canadian couple Heidi Donnelly and Edmund Lam deal in electro-songwriting that comes on like New Order deconstructing and distressing their sound, which works OK quite a lot of the time.

Huey Lewis And The News ‘Greatest Hits’ (EMI)
Did you know Huey Lewis had a US No.1 in 2000 with a duet with Gwyneth Paltrow? Us neither. Over twenty years of good-hearted MOR rock’n’roll blandness that’s easy to loathe, including the ‘Back To The Future’ hits, so let’s get loathing.

Isoul8 ‘Balance’ (Sonar Kollectiv)
Sounds just like the awful ‘80s soul (think Atlantic Starr) that casuals used to inflict on Beatmag at teenage parties but is actually the work of Enrico Crivallaro assisted by contemporary jazz-funk luminaries such as Kaidi Tatham and Valerie Etienne.

Magoo ‘The All Electric Amusement Arcade’ (Series 8)
British five-piece who sound like ‘Automatic For The People’-era R.E.M. fronted by a woman, and with a smidgeon of T-Rex thrown in… but not as cool as that.

Mia Doi Todd ‘La Ninja’ (Plug Research)
LA chanteuse, whose territory is melancholy downtempo with a pinch of leftfield, lets unconventional remixers, including Nobody and Dungen, rejig her ‘Manzanita’ album, and adds three new numbers. The results are light but convincingly cool.

Mekon ‘Something Came Up’ (Wall Of Sound PIAS)
Wall of Sound original and former Psychic TV sidekick John Gosling delivers a set of roaring muscular punk-breakbeat rockers featuring the likes of Bobby Gillespie, Alan Vega and Roxanne Shante. Loud and lively, if a bit one note.

Norrisman ‘Home & Away’ (Greensleeves)
Rootsy reggae toasting from the ever-reliable Greensleeves, however it doesn’t ever push the quality needle above ‘Pleasant’.

The Occasion ‘Cannery Hours’ (1965)
New York band whose sound is tinged with psychedelic electronics but at its core is sweet eccentric songwriting that comes on a bit like Lambchop. Good.

Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada ‘El Nino Y El Swol’ (ESL Music)
Martin Perna, of the New York afro-beat group Antibalas, hooks up with Quesada of the Texan Hispanic band Grupo Fantasma and the results are more computer-reliant than either of their groups - a lazy sunny afternoon Latintronic jam, in fact.

The Pipettes ‘We Are The Pipettes’ (Memphis Industries)
The idea of 21st century Phil Spector girl-pop sounds worth a novelty single or two but that’s all, so it’s a happy surprise that the trio’s debut is a cracker, contagiously tuneful and laced with a parochial lyricism worthy of Arctic Monkeys.
SEE FULL REVIEW

Ivete ‘Ivete Sangalo’ (Wrasse)
One of Brazil’s biggest stars, she moved on from the Latin pop sensation Banda Eva at the turn of the millennium but this compilation of her solo material reveals her to still be dealing in bland cheesey Hispanic pop. Comes with a DVD.

Ali Farka Toure ‘Savane’ (World Circuit)
The late Malian guitarist and singer is always fascinating to listen to as he provides an almost direct sonic link to the blues’ African origins. As ever transposing his native jerkel and njarka music for guitar his last album is a World music treasure trove.

Ultravox ‘Ultravox’, ‘Ha! Ha! Ha!’ + ‘Systems Of Romance’ (Universal)
Those only familiar with their electro-pomp hits will be surprised by these pre-Midge Ure albums from 1977-8. Produced respectively by heavyweights Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite and Conny Plank, they sound like a faintly Numanoid punk Roxy Music.

Urkuma ‘Rebuilding Pantaleon’s Tree’ (Baskaru)
Apparently a concept album based on the mosaic floor of Otranto Cathedral in Italy, an intriguing starting point, playwrite Stefano De Santis conjures a thoroughly obtuse avant-garde soundscape of steam train hissing and scrap-yard clanking.

Whomadewho ‘Green Versions’ (Gomma)
The Scandanavian disco-rock band, last seen supporting the likes of Mylo, Soulwax and Art Brut, reappear with their debut album re-jigged as a downtempo acoustic strum-fest. Works surprisingly well.

24th

Dr Alimantado ‘House of Singles’ (Greensleeves)
Collection of early singles and obscurities from one of the great toasters, from 1967 to the late ‘70s, travelling from his days as Prince Winston through to being the ‘Best Dressed Chicken’ in town. An enjoyable trawl into reggae and ska history.

Bugz In The Attic ‘Back In The Dog House’ (V2/Nurture)
After a decade together, the great hopes of modernist Brit-funk finally get it together to create an album which efficiently ticks all the boxes marked electro-soul, and features Michelle Escoffery on vocals, as well as bonus track ‘Booty La La’.

The Isles ‘Perfumed Lands’ (Melodic)
New York group with the appropriately dark eyelinered look who sound just like The Smiths with a little extra groove added. Not bad but very, very Morrissey.

Nitzer Ebb ‘Body Rework: Remixes’ (Novamute)
Nitzer Ebb were one of the leading lights of Electronic Body Music, a style that’s currently undergoing something of a revival, so it’s no surprise to find the likes of Black Strobe, Motor and The Hacker polishing their oldies up for the dancefloor.

Quantic ‘An Announcement To Answer’ (Tru Thoughts)
Unbelievably, Will Holland’s eighth album, his fourth as Quantic. Recorded on a laptop all around the world, it’s a curiously retro chill-funk stew that’s thoroughly palatable if not saying anything drastically new.

Jenny Wilson ‘Love And Youth’ (Rabid/Cooperative Music)
A Stockholm-based mate of The Knife and signed to their label. Her debut solo effort is admirably unique – Joni Mitchell meets Supertramp but with a thoroughly crisp original modern twist to the proceedings. Great.

Vitalic ‘OK Cowboy – Collector’s edition’ (PIAS)
One of the best albums of last year, from techno Frenchman Pascal Arbez, receives a deserved re-release/re-promotion with the excuse being a second CD of B-sides, remixes and un released tracks, most of which maintain the ravishing quality.

YT ‘Straight Outta Britain’ (Sativa)
White East Anglian reggae singer/toaster Mark Hull embraces all manner of Jamaican styles to conscious and substantial effect, notably on the startling ‘Wicked Act’ where he becomes one of the first artists in any genre to confront the 7/7 London bombings.

31st

Body Count ‘Murder 4 Hire’ (Escapi)
Ice T’s long-lasting heavy metal-meets-rap outfit has lost three members to illness and murder over the last decade but return unbowed with their barracking broth of ‘Licensed To Ill’-era Beasties, political ranting and grindcore guitars.

Dirty Rig ‘Rock Did It’ (Escapi)
Second album from Kory Clarke’s post-Warrior Soul outfit who turn from any of his previous band’s political fury in favour of hick-rockin’ punky thunderers with titles such as ‘Hot Porno Star’, ‘Drunk Again’ and ‘Suck It’. A gonzo rampage.

Union Of Knives ‘Violence And Birdsong’ (Relentless/EMI)
Scottish electro-rock three-piece upon whom high hopes rest. From the sound of their debut, they are MUSE pretending to be Joy Division and, unfortunately, astute listeners will see straight through the disguise. May well sell a bundle, mind.

Mahatvar ‘From The Sun, The Rain, The Wind, The Soil’ (Escapi)
A Jamaican, a Pole, and two Israelis form the core of this New York stoner metal outfit whose hardcore is tempered with threads of melody.

August

7th

The Associates ‘Wild And Lonely’ (EMI)
Eight years after his initial success with Alan Rankine, Billy MacKenzie released his last Associates album in 1990 and it’s typically opulent orchestral synthesizer soul-pop that probably sounds better now than it did then.

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band ‘Unconditionally Guaranteed’ + ‘Bluejeans & Moonbeams’ + ‘Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)’ + ‘Doc At The Radar Station’ + ‘Ice Cream For Crow’ + ‘Live In London (Drury Lane 1974)’ (Virgin/EMI)
Re-release treats for fans of John Peel cult favourite Don Van Vliet, dating from 1974 to 1982, with the concert previously unavailable. The material ranges from relatively straightforward raucous backwoods R&B to shriek-laden avant-blues mentalism.

Es Waves ‘Nakatomi Plaza’ (Inaspace)
Hippy chilltronica from someone called Stephen Woolridge that’s really rather platable in a spliffy sort of way.

John Foxx ‘Tiny Colour Movies’ (Metamatic)
The original Ultravox main man and all round synth pioneer drops a session of cool spacey doodles redolent of Vangelis’ ‘Bladerunner’ soundtrack, all influenced by Arnold Weizcs-Bryant’s collection of leftfield arty shorts and found films.

Heaven 17 ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ + ‘The Luxury Gap’ + ‘How Men Are’ (EMI)
Always rather underrated, Sheffield’s Heaven 17 saw the potential of electro-pop as industrial age dance music very early and these albums from 1981 to 1984 jump effectively between the clubby, the Top 40 and the political. Recommended.
SEE FULL REVIEW

Billy MacKenzie ‘Outernational’ (EMI)
Post-Associates, MacKenzie continued to put out classy pop records that owed not a little to Bryan Ferry’s suave style, but no-one paid much attention and the Edinburgh singer committed suicide in 1997. Well worth reinvestigating.

McPullish ‘Dub Harvest’ (Charlie’s)
Cottage industry operation from Denver, the sixth in his‘Night Owl Dub’ series. It’s sweet electronic dub for heads available from www.tantyrecordshop.com. There’s a wonderful snap on the sleeve of him amid the Colerado snow outside his studio.

Neimo ‘From Scratch’ (Big Fields)
Big in Paris (where they’re from), cool fashionista scenesters, with a welter of friends in hip places, but the music is lame punk-funkery with little to recommend it.

Rubicks ‘In Miniature’ (Sharp Attack)
London duo that sound like a full-blown band. Vanessa Redd is guitarist and vocalist and Marc Makarov is bassist and electronic whiz. Together they go for a choppy tuneful guitar sound, like an electro-punk-pop Cocteau Twins.

Alice Russell ‘Under The Munka Moon II’ (Tru Thoughts)
A compilation of bits and bobs from the great new British soul voice, including productions with Bugz In The Attic, Susumu Yokota, TM Juke, DJ Vadim, Bonobo and others. Both old-fashioned and smokily timeles, it’s class jazzual soul stuff.

The Separatists ‘Akilak’ (Soma)
Percy X, who has been creating techno from his Glasgow base for at least fifteen years, joins forces with Marco Bernadi and John Hospital for some efficiently spacey if hardly groundbreaking techno.

Various ‘The World Is Gone’ (XL)
A brilliantly confusing name for a band, this enigmatic bunch haemorrhage hip, with unique cover art and music that’s leftfield electronic but with dynamics and lyrics that both ‘Mezzanine’ Massive Attack fans and electro-rockers will appreciate.
SEE FULL REVIEW

14th

Mark B ‘Delta The Lostralian’ (K Boro)
Having finally left the ‘& Blade’ collaboration tag behind the British hip hop producer’s latest discovery is one of Australia’s top MCs. However, despite some spiky lyricism the album as a whole is a bit lumpen and unfunky.

Killa Kela ‘Elocution’ (SonyBMG)
The Brit-born, Pharrell Williams-declared “best beatboxer in the world” is certainly a contender for that title but his album feels self-important, an over-produced hip hop-soul concoction that lacks identity and memorable songs.

Lambchop ‘Damaged’ (City Slang)
Always one to pluck melancholy from a song Kurt Wagner is truly down-in-the-dumps for his eighth album and his misery draws the best from his wonderful voice on ten songs of wrist-slitting lushness that recall ‘Laughing’ Len Cohen’s gloomiest.
SEE FULL REVIEW

Eliot Lipp ‘Tacoma Mockingbird’ (Hefty)
An associate of Prefuse 73, whose label released his debut album, but whatever the post-hip hop aspirations it’s basically a set of upbeat synth noodles that jog along affably.

Nova Dream Sequence ‘The Dream Sequence’ (Compost)
Leftfield soul-houser King Britt decides to make his very own techno album paying tribute to all those early Detroit influences, so that’s what you get – flat 4/4 techno primitivism which, in 2006, doesn’t create quite the buzz it hopes for.

Lou Rawls ‘Best Of: You’ll Never Find Another’ (EMI)
One of soul’s most recognizable voices for five decades died in January this year and his ‘Very Best Of’ naturally showcases the smooth clear voice to great effect. Just check ‘Dead End Street’ for a stone cold classic.

Spearmint ‘Paris In A Bottle’ (hitBACK)
Hugely ambitious but, at the same time, determinedly indie, the longstanding London outfit return with a concept album about the intertwining lives of four people who met in Paris. It’s a widescreen musical romance loaded with melancholy and sweetness.

21st

The Concentration Camp ‘Part One’ (Twelve Jewel Productions)
Scratch-heavy UK hip hop offering where the word ‘underground’ simply masks a group catering to their niche and no-one else. Not gripping.

Dashboard Confessional ‘Dusk And Summer’ (Vagrant)
Hugely successful American rock band whose straightforward epic oeuvre is slightly relieved by a very faint resemblance to The Cure.

Deepchild ‘Lifetime’ (Future Classic)
The press release suggests a stew of Dre, Moroder, Herbert, Carl Craig, Kraftwerk, Marvin Gaye, Peter Tosh and others. Wouldn’t that be ace! I’d eat my hand to listen to that. But it’s not. It’s broken beats glitch-soul that’s passable if not too special.

Mister Who ‘Be Home Before Dark’ (Grinnin’)
Having worked with Morcheeba, Tricky, Tony Thorpe and Ed Rush & Optical, amongst others, this MC approaches hip hop from an alternative perspective, and his album is dult speckled with clever quality UK hip hop.

The Mules ‘Save Your Face’ (Organ Grinder)
Invigorating Oxford outfit who tear through a set of fifteen songs in 38 minutes, unsure whether they’re the White Stripes, Stump or an Irish folk band. Whatever they are, they’re original and filled with offbeat lyrics and spikey spirit.
SEE FULL REVIEW

Tortoise ‘A Lazarus Taxon’ (Thrill Jockey)
A three CD, one DVD box-set of rarites, remixes, and live material, including the out-of-print ‘Rhythms, Resolutions And Clusters’ album, by a band who applied the idioms of electronica to guitar music with great success.

Viva Voce ‘Get Yr Blood Sucked Out’ (Full Time Hobby)
The groovy husband/wife psyche-popsters from Portland, Oregon, return with another fab album of chewy off-kilter yet melodic guitar-based songs, including a new balladeering tangent and an occasional likeness to the Jesus & Mary Chain.
SEE FULL REVIEW

Natalie Walker ‘Urban Angel’ (Dorado)
Dull delicately mournful jazzy singer-songwriter stuff from New York. Produced by Stuhr, who helped created Bebel Gilberto’s sound, which boded will but unfortunately it slips by unnoticed.

28th

Amp Fiddler ‘Afro Strut’ (PIAS/Wall of Sound)
If Young Disciples-ish soul-jazz is your bag, Joseph ‘Amp’ Fiddler’s smooth café-funk and slick clear old school singing style will probably appeal.

Justine Electra ‘Soft Rock Album’ (City Slang)
Nothing to do with the 1970s or ‘Guilty Pleasures’ the soft rock here is acoustic guitar given a lick of electronic paint, and the singer, from Melbourne, Australia has a most original inventive approach, hinted at by her collaboration with Schneider TM.

Tim Exile ‘Nuisance Gabbaret Lounge’ (Planet Mu)
Cabaret – Gabbaret – geddit? And that’s exactly what you get, absolute beats mentalism and electronic silliness interspersed with moments of onstage banter. Sounds like it’d be unhinged in a live environment.

Freshlyground ‘Nomvula’ (Tinto Tinta)
Sunny light jazz-funk from South Africa. Inoffensive but the only real aspect of note is its point of origin.

Clara Hill ‘All I Can Provide’ (Sonar Kollektiv)
Second album from singer-songwriter who hitches her wagon of mellow jazz-funked folk to electronic beats and rhythms. Not very interesting.

Ice Cube ‘Laugh Now, Cry Later’ (Virgin)
Hollywood superstar who still feels drawn to the microphone booth and, while he retains a sharp lyrical wit, his constant conviction that he’s a ghetto gangsta thug is beyond ridiculous. Loads of name guests but a tad unnecessary and obsolete.

Para One ‘Epiphanie’ (Naïve)
Parisian producer who deals in pokey instrumental electro with a slightly frantic techno edge for the dancefloor. It’s quirky nighclub fodder but not much more.

Strange Fruit Project ‘The Healing’ (Om)
From Waco in Texas come MCs Myth, Myone and Symbolyc One, their group named after the famous Billie Holiday song, touting mellow spiritual hip hop featuring the likes of Erykah Badu and Little Brother. Gentle conscious stuff.

September

4th

Laura Lopez Castro ‘Mi Libro Abierto’ (Four Music/Nesola)
Stuttgart-based Castro is accompanied by guitarist-composer Don Philippe for a beautiful album of laidback Hispanic balladry. It’s all in Spanish but filled with emotion and spaciously luxuriant rather than sentimental.

Fireworks Night ‘Fireworks Night’ (Organ Grinder)
Original Devonshire act whose oeuvre sits somewhere between archaic folk music and modern singer-songwriter duets. Skilful and different but initially hard to digest en masse. A grower.

Kasabian ‘Empire’ (Columbia)
Leicester’s laddish yet addictive druggy electro amalgamation of Oasis and the Happy Mondays return touting a broader canvas which dips back to ‘70s glam and Faces balladry whilst retaining their post-rave edge. We only have a sampler, mind.

Krafty Kuts ‘Freakshow’ (Against The Grain)
Brighton’s Martin Reeves’ has an intrinsic understanding of pop simplicity and his album is full of catchy unpretentious bouncers illustrating where hip hop crashes into Wiseguys-style old school Big Beat jollity.

Shawn Lee ‘Soul Vista’ (BBE)
This Lebanese-Irish-Native American dude has been around a while, on the majors then on Wall of Sound back in the ‘90s. He pops up with this previously Japan-only release of purest Californian soul-folk that’s sunny and easy like Sunday mornings.

The Rogers Sisters ‘The Invisible Deck’ (Too Pure)
Sometimes Jennifer and Laura Rogers run a New York bar, sometimes they knock out albums of lean sinewy punk rock with their mate Miyuki Furtado. Their third is lithe and fierce with an iron funk to it that mingles with their Pixies/Clash powerblast.

ZerodB ‘Bongos, Bleeps and Basslines’ (Ninja Tune)
The Ninja Tune quality renaissance continues apace with this rocking dance stew from Chris Vogado and Neil Combstock. The pair unleash a rampant fusion of salsa, drum & bass, bleepy warp techno and jazz to sharp effect.