Farewell Summer

1. These New Puritans – Elvis
British bands rise to the surface these days like amoebas dividing and reproducing. It’s easy to tell where the majority of the genetic material came from for These New Puritans, a heavily plugged band last year called The Klaxons. Elvis has a similar but catchy, speedy bassline and dancefloor-cymbal work. It also follows up with rocking guitars riffs and there’s the same British voice that sounds like it’s singing about things you’re not smart enough to fully understand. If you liked the Klaxons you’re likely to enjoy These New Puritans, though they’re a little heavier and don’t seem quite like the band to cover any 1999 house anthems just yet.

2. Ghostland Observatory – Heavy Heart
A lot of electronic music sounds very technical, but Ghostland Observatory performs their drum-heavy synth rock with power and soul. The result is beeps and synthesised rhythms colliding at high speed with organic, funky bass and passionate, over dramatic singing. Heavy Heart begins with dominant, pulsing energy before front man Aaron Behrens brings it home with that mournful soul over pulsing electric church organ chords. It’s like channel surfing virtual reality between stadium rock and the dancefloor.

3. Mindless Self Indulgence – Mastermind
Similar to Ghostland Observatory’s electro-rock sound is New York’s Mindless Self Indulgence who has been pumping out smog-billowing industrial dance for years now. You can guess just by lead singer Jimmy Urine’s name that the lyrical content of this group focuses on the offensive and immature, but unlike earlier releases it’s much subtler on this new track. The years of experience show as Jimmy whispers, screams and sings appropriately over distorted heavy rock samples and lightning-like digital string sequences. It’s a heavy ruckus indeed.

4. Tipper – Deez Bass Lessen
Turn your bass up for this one, because when music is produced by the man who owns the world’s loudest car it’s made to be booming and heavy. Tipper self released his latest album this year and it’s currently available online from his website. His sound continues to be orientated to meaty sounding breaks or more ambient sounding bass voyages. Disappointingly there’s not much here that sounds like 2005’s heavy hip-hop LP Tip-Hop, but tracks like Deez Bass Lessen provide excellent background music for things like driving down highways during storms, colonising planets with a swarm of robots or programming. There are more than enough low frequencies in this track alone to give your subwoofer a work out too.

5. The Black Keys – Psychotic Girl
The land of Blues Rock is a better place with the Black Keys amongst its population. However when it was announced last year that legendary Hip-Hop producer Danger Mouse (Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, and a little LP called The Grey Album) would be behind the sound desk on their 2008 album Attack & Release eyebrows were raised. Psychotic Girl shows just how awesome this combination actually was, with Daniel Auerbach’s banjo and mournful voice drawling over a slow, funky hip-hop drum-beat. Psychotic Girl is a song of pure, head nodding, heart-string plucking bliss.

6. Cloud Cult – The Will of a Volcano
Besides the frantic sea-shanty accordion to start this short indie-rock number there’s not much here to speak of the ocean. So an erupting volcano is definitely the right analogy to use for the explosion of drums and guitars that come with little warning and a lot of fire. The percussion is by far the most noticeable aspect in The Will of a Volcano with admirable rolls and frenetic drumming right up until the final, rattling crash to finish. Cloud Cult, perhaps the most eco-friendly band in the world, release Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) in April.

7. Xiu Xiu – I Do What I Want, When I want
The new album Women as Lovers opens with I Do What I Want and it’s a haunting lullaby from Jamie Stewart. Xiu Xiu are a notoriously experimental band, there is a thick barrage of sounds here most noticeably xylophones, whistles and Oriental sounding chimes as well as a glorious spread of flanging splashed through different parts. It’s not a cheery song by any means, the dark synthesiser tones juxtapose with the merry saxophone at the song peaks which makes them cancel each other out into emptiness. This leaves front and centre the murmured sing-talk of Stewart and digital echoes of his whispery claims. It’s catchy and creepy.

8. Vampire Weekend – M79
The majority of material off Vampire Weekend’s self titled album has been around since last year. However if you’re yet to hear anything of this New York band (another one!) then M79 is the perfect introduction to their cheery, classical sounding indie-pop. M79 (inspired by a bus route, not the grenade launcher) opens with keyboards that sound like harps and classical strings that conjure up images of a royal party in an 18th century gardens. The sun is out the whole time too, because for four minute of pop bliss there’s nothing but laid back percussion, surfy sounding guitar riffs and lazy basslines.

9. Atomic Hooligan – I Don’t Care
UK breaks act Atomic Hooligan have produced and remixed some classic breakbeat tunes in the early 2000's, most noticeably the White Label Born Slippy/Cowgirl rework of Underworld. Lately they're also guilty of following the trend of a lot of break acts recently who can now be found splashing giddily in the pee-filled public swimming pool that is Electro during its defining summer.
Fortunately the production work on their new LP Sex, Drugs and Blah Blah Blah doesn't sacrifice hard hitting breakbeat basslines while it’s adding those electro flavours and the combination produces excellent results. It's obvious that effort has been put into making this album as a complete record rather than a collection of EP tracks. The majority of songs are full of vocals rather than samples though there are a few instrumental bangers. I Don’t Care is a particularly pulsing example of vocals, breaks and electro.

10. Clark – Volcan Veins
The music produced by Warp Records musicians, such as Battles, Aphex Twin and this year Clark typically is more electronic for the mind rather than the feet. Though on his new LP Turning Dragon Clark tries for both and ends up with a Frankenstein’s monster of hacked together IDM and techno stitched to a stomping dancefloor beat and cut up samplings of party time Missy Elliot-esque club calls. Volcan Veins pounds around like a confused, angry abomination but somehow Clark choreographs all its flailing limbs into the Monster Mash. At breakneck pace to boot.

11. Ghislain Poirier feat. Mr Lee G - Dem Nah Like Me
Ghislain Poirier hails from the French side of Canada and doesn’t travel too far across the border to recruit Brooklyn MC Mr. Lee G to drawl political, raga rhymes over his latest thick dancehall riddims. I think it’s the contrast of lazy, slang filled Jamaican accents preaching serious lyrical context that makes the dancefloor spirit so much more electrified than just what is coming from the Casio. Dancing for a cause is made easy by most of No Ground Under, the new LP available now on Ninja Tune.

12. The Bird and The Bee – Come As You Were
The Bird and the Bee are producing sugar sweet pop melodies like they own a secret factory line for them. This one is smattered with bubbly piano and handclaps. It’s a complete, dreamy canvas for Inara George’s soothing voice to sing her special words to you on. The rest of the instrumentalism is taken care of by Geggy Tah member Greg Kurstin. The One Too Many Hearts EP was released on Valentine’s Day. Doesn’t it make you mushy?

13. Destroyer – Dark Leaves from a Thread
There’s probably a metal band out there right now that’s pissed they can’t be called Destroyer because some indie-pop band has been successful enough to now release their tenth album under the name. Daniel Bejar (also of New Pornographers and Swan Lake) is responsible for Dark Leaves from a Thread and its ambiguous tale of a girl called Susan takes on a Stars sounding twist. Starting off with gentle, strumming guitars it takes little time to evolve into a faster, regretful “morning after” pop ballad.

14. Supergrass – Rough Knuckles
It must be tough being one of the original Brit-Pop bands of the mid 90s, struggling to swathe through the stack of competitors who in interviews mention your first album as one of their inspirations. Yet Supergrass faces this challenge after receiving less admiration for their later efforts following their initial glory days. Fortunately, to no one’s surprise there’s still a market for up-beat, guitar heavy, glam pop featuring boys with British accents and the album Diamond Hoo Ha – whilst not sensibly named – sounds like a return to form.

15. The Mars Volta – Goliath (El-P Remix)
Cedric of The Mars Volta has an attention grabbing voice that screams and spits like it was made to be the seventh string on a guitar. When he sings of corpses on Goliath it sounds macabre but brilliant, though like most of Bedlam in Goliath it does tend to, well, drag on a bit.
El-P escalates the whole thing into hook filled new territory. He doesn’t ask for permission to slam a left-left-right sucker-punch beat between the scorching guitar riffs. Overall Goliath is improved solidly with some digital tweaking and a Hip-Hop drumbeat. And probably the greatest enhancement is that it’s now three minutes shorter.