According to some, the future of pop is female, which seems in some contexts a strange statement. I can imagine it is the sort of comment LoneLady would give pretty short thrift to, and I wouldn’t blame her. To be an amazing pop star has never been a gender specific achievement, and although she is being marketed as one and being proclaimed as such by the likes of ueber scribe Paul Morley, I am not sure that is what Julie Campbell even wants.

However, for good or bad, that is what she is set to become. Hooks aplenty, oblique lyrical…

I don't minding putting my neck on the line and stating that there are very very few musicians with the skill, breadth (and to use an english phrase) nous, of Matthew Herbert. His latest album - the first part of a trilogy that should include One Club and One Pigcould serve as a valuable piece of evidence if I was ever dragged off to court and forced to defend my opening statement. Taking the concept of a 'solo' album to its logical conclusion, all of the songs on One One have been written, recorded and produced by Herbert alone. Chronicling…

Created over a three-week period last summer, Modern Deep Left Quartet is the second album from the threesome that is now a foursome, following the edition of our favourite Canadian comedian – The Mole.

There is certainly something to be said for the creative methodology adopted for this album – circling banks of equipment and jamming out the tracks, though I have to admit that my attention was not really arrested until the third track started. I felt like I was listening to very well produced, but readily available house music. However, when a bass sound I would more associate…

New Erykah is the Badduist !

Erykah Badu is back after a two-year hiatus and of course another child, and boy is she back in style. New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh, the second of four installments of her current project is a luscious, soulful affair that is yet to do any wrong.

In 2008 Badu released the futuristic New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War that came after a 5 year sabbatical. The album brought the kind of critical acclaim that only the likes of Erykah Badu deserve; it was received well universally. However, there was small…

242nd album from the masters of Sheffield glitch, who show no signs of ever getting bored with the scratchy electronic sounds that are in evidence on much of their work. Abstract atmospheres and intense sounds crash together to make me feel as if I have got trapped inside the The Large Hadron Collider. And that is actually pretty exciting. Unlikely to win them many new listeners, but certain not to disappoint their extensive fan base either, this is British conservatism at its best. The IDM equivalent of a nice orderly queue.

electronic beats
autechre
oversteps
warp

One half of Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, sometime Psychic TV member and somewhat inexplicably creator of the novelty-esque chart bothering 'Swamp Thing', Richard Norris is certainly not someone who likes to be pinned down. Havingbreleased two 'mini albums' - Volume One and Two - and a couple of singles, his latest project The Time + Space Machine has slowly slipped into the general consciousness, rather than arriving with any kind of fanfare.

Finding a home on Tirk Recordings, Set Phazer to Stun is something of an oddity, even considering a resurgence of interest in progressive and psychedelic music. Sounding more…

Kitsuné are treading on thin ice at the moment. Recognizing the fact they have their finger on the pulse, they have moved up a gear from lazier efforts (installment number eight) to this new infectious concoction: The Petit Bateau edition or The Cotton Issue.

Irritating to say the least, I can’t help but feel the magnetic pull of Kitsuné’s saccharine taste. What can I say? I’m a self confessed pop addict.

Granted some of the artists have shamefully overdosed on the sadder aspects of the ‘80s, ala cheesy UK duo Hurts, and the annoyingly sissy sounds of nu-disco duo Silver…

If Radiohead tried to make ‘proper’ jazz and not the half-baked hybrid it attempts to now, it would perhaps sound somewhat like the Portico Quartet.

This is a four piece jazz band that deserve honorable mention alongside ECM’s finest, a group who transcend genre boundaries and who are also stunningly talented musicians.

Hailing from Britain, the Portico Quartet aren’t as obscure as you might think, their pop culture markings run deep. Nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007 for their debut Knee Deep In the North Sea, two years later they recorded this album Isla in Abbey Road Studio 2…

Back in 2006, a whole bunch of noise was made about the elusive UK production duo Various Production. I sat there anticipating some masterpiece; when it came, I was deeply unsatisfied.

Well, now another hotly tipped production duo has arrived and this time the hype might be justified. Californian Producers of the highest order, Lando Kal and Low Limit (aka Lazer Sword) have released this extended EP which is dangerously addictive, like putting ‘crack in your cornflakes’ addictive.

Think Major Lazer without the ‘Major’ part in it, maybe more Jimmy Edgar, Flugeance and Akufen than anything, salted with the deep…

At the risk of laboring a point that has been made for ever, there is only good music and bad music. Whatever style, or type of music floats your boat, there will be good and there will be bad. There will be songs that are universally accepted as brilliant, and of course those that are universally accepted as, er…, not good. Then there will be the middle ground occupied by people who (I have a sneaky suspicion) like arguing and being a smart ass more than they like music. And finally, there will be those people who just don't give…