Recorded at Unit in Tokyo recently this is Japanese multi-instrumentalist and producer Anchorsong. Gaining widespread recognition from his live shows including appearances at SXWS, Anchorsong has also enjoyed a bit of Radio 1 airplay…

The Knesset debut album ‘Coming Of Age’ is a wonderful record that I’m finding it hard to stop listening to, full of well written and carefully crafted songs. Their sound is one full of expansive melodies, lush vocals, and dreamy pop hooks, yet all delivered with a quiet confidence . . .

The Orlando duo of Ates Isildak and Lauren Dwyer produce a diverse mix of music, creating beautiful droning mellow moments…

Bare Mutants are a Chicago five-piece formed by a group of friends out of the urge to just play some music together. I hear you say ‘isn’t that how every band is formed?’. Well, mostly yes, but few fall together so effortlessly and beautifully as Bare Mutants do…

Astonishingly prolific, Toronto resident Dean Tzenos has apparently written almost 100 Odonis Odonis songs, including the brilliant, newly-arrived ‘Busted Lip / Handle Bars’ 7”

I could throw around reference points all day, but Mazes mostly remind me of early Pavement, in places they go as pop as Weezer, and in others (like the IBB tape) they remind me of bands as prolific as Guided By Voices or Sebadoh. Out of the thousands of bands taking from these influences, Mazes are one who actually stand out

…the excitement and the prospect of contributing to something you love is like a drug I guess. Like so many vices once you’re hooked you’re locked in for life.

Talons are a difficult band to ignore. With 6 members including 2 violinists, a bagful of crushing guitar riffs and one of the most ferocious young drummers around, I’ve used the term “soundtrack to the end of the world” on more than one occasion to describe their incredible live performance, and now they have a studio recording to back it up…

In performance Hart’s whole body shakes like Elvis’ hips in the early years and he contorts his voice like an exorcism of the angst evident in his songs. He is backed up with the sun-drenched harmonies of the devastating duo Jada Wagensomer and Katya Nadia Hubiak, and a wrecking crew of a band that look and sound like they formed a tight bond over a night discussing each other’s previous misdemeanours and felonies.

“We’re not really in a rush to do anything, we just take things as it comes, it just is what it is. We have a CD-R coming out on Yew Nork Records that the guy from Faux Fur set up. We just think you should do what you want, do it for fun.

Despite the hours it consumes, it’s rare for our newfound 21st century staple of “MySpace surfing” to yield something genuinely special. Of course, it does happen – but the amount of exciting music uncovered is nowhere near proportionate to the amount of time spent looking.

With a name inspired by the terrible Father’s Day gift compilation CD genre of the same name, Dad Rocks! is the new solo project from Mimas frontman Snævar Njáll Albertsson.

The perfect summer-sounding band Glass Bricks are about to self-release their debut mini-album Craquelure, while a Midwest/East Coast tour is on the offing. Chance meetings, internet grooming and mid-state relocations have seen this band produce some upbeat saccharine-sweet music.

With summer looming and the sun finally starting to smile down on us, we should be looking forward to and planning our summer escape. With the eruption of an Icelandic volcano and British Airways staff striking, however – why not try the classic British beach holiday?

Last Friday I witnessed something novel almost unseen these days. It was February’s Dirty Bingo and the shackles of trend were off. On the bill were Colours, Sex Beet and Fair Ohs. Colours took to the stage. Fresh from their support slot with hotly tipped US band Real Estate.

With only three years until we hit those troublesome teens it seems the naughties flew by in the blink of any eye yet a hell of a lot happened. Our jeans got tighter than the economy, we saw the slow death of “Indie” music and the emergency of something far more exciting and fresh.

Hailing from Wolverhampton Inertia Blooms have an expansive sound. Songs peak and dip, taking you on a dramatic ride, one moment in a state of calm the next engulfed in an intense screaming guitar lead break. Moving stuff.

Listening to Shards you first wonder whether it’s going to burst into a hard house floor filler, and yet it turns out to be something quite different, but equally compels one to jump up and down erratically. A proper floor filling monster.

Wise Children are an indie-folk band from the South Coast of England made up from Robin Warren-Adamson, Charlie Richards and Jamie Wilson

On first glance with a name like that you’d be fooled into expecting perhaps a Jazz fusion band may be on offer. Oh no. The JCQ play garage hardcore with intense ferocity that would probably make any jazz musicians explode into tiny particles upon one short blast of a listen. They’re working on a new [...]