THE RIP

2017 has been a thoroughly depressing year, with wave after wave of shit being flung at us from all directions. From the black comedy of Brexit negotiations that would be funny if we didn’t all have to live through it, to the continuing presence of Trump in the White House, and David Attenborough reminding us quite how much we’re fucking up the environment in Blue Planet II, there’s been very little to bring cheer this year.

When looking back over the albums that have most resonated with me this year, its clear that the global mood has affected my listening choices, with a heavy dose of melancholy reining over all of my top ten picks. From the downbeat shoegaze of Chastity Belt, to the aural assault of Converge’s latest (and possibly finest) album, there has been a wealth of misery music to get you through the year.

Its been a particularly strong year for ambient music, which has acted as a soothing balm to help shut out the world. Bibio’s Phantom Brickworks was the biggest surprise package, an album of stunning beauty and a real left-turn from the producer, and Bing and Ruth returned with another album of gorgeous layered pianowork.

Its difficult not to mention Mount Eerie’s A Crow Looked at Me, and it felt almost wrong to rank it alongside other albums. Phil Eleverum’s 11 meditations on life after his wife passed away from cancer are some of the most heartbreaking songs committed to tape, and it is such a difficult listen I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to record.

So please do have a read of my list, there’s been a real variety of great albums this year so hopefully you’ll one or two new things you missed during the year! 

There’s a Spotify playlist at the bottom with all albums featured.

75. Chino Amobi - PARADISO

74. Kedr Livanskiy - Ariadna

73. Thurston Moore - Rock n Roll Consciousness

72. Shinichi Atobe - From the Heart, It’s a Start, a Work of Art 

71. Stormzy - Gang Signs and Prayer

70. Various Artists - Outro Tempo: Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil 1978-1992

69. Rafael Anton Irisarri - The Shameless Years

68. Makthaveskan - III

67. Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft - Passive Aggressive

66. King Krule - The Ooz

65. Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Illusions

64. Allison Crutchfield - Tourist in This Town

63. Daniel Brandt - Eternal Something

62. Hammock - Mysterium

61. Future - HNDRXX

60. Alessandro Cortini - AVANTI

59. Alice Coltrane - World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of ALice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda

58. Aldous Harding - Party

57. James Holden and the Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits

56. Migos - Culture

55. Waxahatchee - Out in the Storm

54. Alvvays - Antisocialites

53. Ryuichi Sakamoto - async

52. GAS - Narkopop

51. Karen Gwyer - Rembo

50. Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds from Another Planet

49. Richard Dawson - Peasant

48. Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent

47. DJ Python - Dulce Compania

46. Fever Ray - Plunge

45. Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now

44. Peter Silberman - Impermanence

43. Lawrence English - Cruel Optimism

42. Blawan - Nutrition

41. Mogwai - Every Country’s Sun

40. 2 Chainz - Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

39. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps

38. Call Super - Arpo

37. Offset / 21 Savage / Metro Boomin - Without Warning

36. Colleen - A flame my love, my frequency

35. Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

34. The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die - Always Foreign

33. Various Artists - Mono No Aware

32. Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference

31. Amber Coffman - City of No Reply

30. Four Tet - New Energy

29. Talaboman - The Night Land

28. LCD Soundsystem - american dream

27. Blanck Mass - World Eater

26. William Basinski - A Shadow in Time

25. Sampha - Process

24. Thundercat - Drunk

23. Lee Gamble - Mnestic Pressure

22. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

21. The Necks - Unfold

20. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

19. UMFANG - Symbolic Use of Light

18. Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy

17. Hand Habits - Idle (Humble Before the Void)

16. This is the Kit - Moonshine Freeze

15. Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound

14. Visible Cloaks - Assemblage

13. Varg - Nordic Flora Series Pt. 3: Gore Tex City

12. (Sandy) Alex G - Rocket

11. Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives

10. Big Thief - Capacity

9. Chastity Belt - I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone

8. Bing and Ruth - No Home of the Mind

7. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

6. Jay Som - Everybody Works

5. Converge - The Dusk in Us

4. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me

3. Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness

2. Bibio - Phantom Brickworks

1. The National - Sleep Well Beast

In recent times, I’ve found myself becoming drawn more and more frequently to dreamy Americana-leaning records, such as the latest album from Cass McCombs, Mangy Love. Perhaps this is me growing older and settling into comfier, less challenging musical clothes, or perhaps it’s an escape from the depressing and disappointing real world of 2016.

I’d hazard its likely to be the latter, what with the slew of excellent albums released so far this year in a similar vein from Steve Gunn, Woods and William Tyler, among others, suggesting there are a lot of people pretty fed up with the world they see and looking for a little escapism from it.

McCombs is something of a master of the genre, and this, his 8th album, is arguably his best yet. There is a languid beauty to the album, from the twinkling guitar lines on opener Bum Bum Bum, to the slow majesty of I’m a Shoe. The richness of the music is more than matched by McCombs’ voice, which sounds fuller and more lived in than on previous albums.

Whilst the music is something luxuriant you can relax into, the lyrics are often far from it, with Cass using the soft rock cloak to mast darker, sometimes political musings. Lead single Run Sister Run explores how sexism creates challenges for women in achieving their dreams, whilst highlight Opposite House seems to muse on returning home and not recognizing the place you left. Mangy Love shows that as tempting as it is to run away from the problems of the world, they cannot be ignored.

It's the end of 2015 and I, rather self-importantly, have put together my list of what I think are the best 40 albums of the year for you to peruse. It's a very stupid thing to say, but it has been an incredible year for music, and I've found myself feeling an emotional attachment to far more albums in 2015 than recent years. As such, it has been very difficult to pick a favourite, with a number of albums affecting me in different ways. I don't think an album has ever made me happier than Carly Rae Jepsen's, but does this make it better than Sufjan's ruminations on family and death? As a result, I've gone for the album I've listened to most, the one that's fit any mood I'm in. In a year where rap has been pushed into weirder shapes than ever, where electronic music has increasingly become a form of high art, I never expected that my favourite album would come from a singer songwriter, but it has been a strange year. 

Here's a Spotify playlist with a track from each album, have a listen as you look through the list! 

40. Floating Points - Elaenia  

39. King Midas Sound and Fennesz - Edition 1 

38. Container - LP 

37. Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - Never Were the Way She Was

36. Visionist - Safe 

35. Viet Cong - Viet Cong 

34. Jamie XX - In Colour 

33. Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls 

32. Ghost Culture - Ghost Culture 

31. Rival Consoles - Howl 

30. Low - Ones and Sixes

29. Young Thug - Barter 6 

28. HEALTH - DEATH MAGIC 

27. Holly Herndon - Platform 

26. Flying Saucer Attack - Instrumentals 2015 

25. Rabit - Communion

24. Nils Frahm - Solo

23. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier 

22. Girlpool - Before The World Was Big

21. Jlin - Dark Energy 

20. Beach Slang - The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us

19. Max Richter - From Sleep 

18. Bjork - Vulnicura 

17. Four Tet - Morning/Evening 

16. M.E.S.H. - Piteous Gate 

15. JME - Integrity> 

14. Arca - Mutant 

13. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars 

12. The Staves - If I Was 

11. Grimes - Art Angels 

10. The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Harmlessness 

9. Trust Fund - no one’s coming for us

8. Majical Cloudz - Are You Alone? 

7. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete 

6. Drake - If You're Reading This Its Too Late 

5. Carly Rae Jepsen - EMOTION 

4. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 

3. Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp 

2. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell 

I have successfully been participating in a dry January over the last month, so thank god its been an excellent month for new music. January itself is usually considered a bit of a dry month for music, with very few big hitters releasing anything until the ball starts rolling in February, but we have been spoilt with a smorgasbord of quality releases, towered over by the unfortunate for her, lucky for us, early release of Vulnicura. It's also a great opportunity to catch up on all those albums from 2014 you missed that were featured in one of the million end of year lists. So carry on reading for the ten best things I've heard in over the last 30 days, hope you enjoy x

Bjork

Vulnicura is a masterpiece. No question. It must be listened to as a whole, and it seems sacrilege to extract one track from the heartbreaking journey that the album takes you on, but Black Lake peers deep in the dark heart of why a relationship failed and does not flinch from the details that most would adorn with flowery metaphor. It is my album of the month, I implore you listen to it in full.

Viet Cong

Until I heard Black Lake, I already thought I'd heard the best 10+ minute track of the month in Viet Cong's debut album closer Death. The album as a whole is a truly ugly piece of work, and Death might be the ugliest cut of the lot, but it is a chugging juggernaut of a track. Check them out live at Birthdays Dalston this Feb.

Makthaverskan

I have really slept on these guys. This album was released in March 2013 (?!!!) and only now I'm hearing their beautiful fuzzy pop punk? 

Waxahatchee

Katie Crutchfield is BACK with the gorgeous first cut from new album Ivy Trip, out in April. She is so much more than just another singer songwriter.

Ghost Culture

Another excellent January album was the debut from Phantasy signing Ghost Culture, whose assured synthpop has more than a touch of label head Daniel Avery about it.

Gage and Kevin JZ Prodigy

I'm not gunna admit I know much about ballroom, but it seems that Kevin JZ Prodigy is something of a legend in the scene. Gage has produced a banging grime track for Kevin to do his shit over, and its pretty damn impressive.

GFOTY

GFOTY's mixes are some of the highlights of the PC Music release schedule, and when a new one drops with a rework of Mysterious Girl and All the Small Things included, its reason to get very excited. 

Steve Gunn

This album was a late 2014 discovery, and can be filed somewhere next to The War on Drugs as an album that I imagine would sound amazing cruising across America. 

A l e x a n d r i a

I'm not typing that out again. She quietly released one of the best rnb albums of 2014, and is further proof of just how fertile Atlanta is right now for new hip hop and rnb. The first track from her Bad EP, produced by Ethereal,is an absolute treat.

Bing and Ruth

Their RVNG Intl. released album Tomorrow Was the Golden Age (confusingly the work of one man) is a beautiful ambient, minimalist suite that is perfect to sink into on wintery walks.

January. A time for hibernation and introspection. A month where nothing truly happens for the majority of the population as they prepare for the year ahead. Making a wet January Monday night the perfect time to take a trip to The Garage in Islington to watch a band perform their latest heart-wrenching, cathartic album on dealing with the loss of a best friend.

The night began with opening act King No-one, a young indie band from Yorkshire who don't yet appear to have found their voice. Their songs veered from the desert-stomp of late Arctic Monkeys to a sound that was not a million miles away from the insufferable The 1975. Perhaps not the most appropriate warm-up act for the night ahead, I would recommend these guys expand their musical horizons beyond Radio 1 indie, because its not a good sign when the most interesting thing about your set is the frontman's McDonalds hat.

As anticipation grew for the headlien act, the lights dimmed and GZA's eerie Liquid Swords into played out as the band entered the stage. The set began with the melancholy LOSE album closer, 2 Hip Soul. It immediately becomes clear that this is Joseph D'Agostino's show, and who can deny him that as he plays out the majority of an album that is likely a raw and emotional trip for the guy. His vocals range from punk growls, to whispers, to yelps, all whilst hammering out some of the most intricate guitar lines you'l likely hear in modern day indie.

That's not to say the rest of the band aren't just as key to the quality of the evening's entertainment. The drums are powerful, the basslines provide a warm base for D'Agostini to float above and the keys add atmospheric touches throughout. They rip though the cowpunk of XR, sweat dripping from the brow as the lyrics tell of a childhood friendship, and how drugs brought it to an early end. They slowly build tension through set highlight Jackson to a thrilling climax, the track growing in stature with restrained peaks and troughs before exploding into life.

The most impressive thing about the set is the band's command of melody and ability to craft singalongs out of tracks with highly unconventional song structures and wordy, albeit highly poetic lyrics. D'Agostini's writing and impassioned performance allow stories to unfold in the most thrilling manner.

As 2014 croaks its final dying breath, I, along with every other music blogger in the world, attempt to pin my colours to the mast and give you an insight into the albums/EPs/mixes/radio shows that I've enjoyed most this year. 2014 has felt like a year where all musical boundaries have fallen down, where albums are no longer king, and where the distinction between alternative and mainstream has been completely blurred.

I found it really difficult to narrow my selection for this year down to my usual 50 albums, purely due to the sheer number of incredible, exciting and challenging music that was released in the last 365 days. As such, here are my top 75 musical things I've enjoyed this year, hope you agree with some of my choices and maybe discover something new!

For those with Spotify, there's a link to a playlist at the bottom with tracks from as many of the artists included in the list as possible.

75. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

74. Rich Gang - Tha Tour Part 1

73. Shellac - Dude Incredible

72. Yamaneko - Pixel Wave Embrace

71. Brood Ma - Populous

70. Her Records - Volume 3

69. Merchandise - After the End

68. Copeland - Because I'm Worth It

67. Pharmakon - Bestial Burden

66. Giant Claw - Dark Web

65. Actress - Ghettoville 

64. The Bug - Angels and Devils

63. Kiasmos - Kiasmos

62. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Fuck Off, Get Free We Pour Light on Everything

61. Mica Levi - Under the Skin OST

60. Mr. Mitch - Parallel Memories

59. Kane West - Western Beats

58. Arca - Xen

57. Boxed - Vol 1.

56. Alex G - DSU

55. Mark Mcguire - Along the Way

54. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE

53. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atomos

52. Travi$ Scott - Days Before Rodeo

51. Untold - Black Light Spiral

50. D/P/I - MN.roy

49. Blacknecks - Blacknecks 006

48. Ben Frost - Aurora

47. Black Portland - Black Portland

46. Iceage - Plowing Into a Field of Love

45. Lorenzo Senni - Superimpositions

44. The Square - The Formula

43. SD Laika - That's Harakiri

42. Oliver Wilde - Red Tide Opal in the Loose End Womb

41. Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron

40. Honeyblood - Honeyblood

39. Christopher Owens - A New Testament

38. Fear of Men - Loom

37. Kassem Mosse - Workshop 19

36. Objekt - Flatland

35. Grouper - Ruins

34. Function & Vatican Shadow - Games Have Rules

33. Lee Gamble - KOCH

32. Perc - The Power and the Glory

31. Real Estate - Atlas

30. Murlo - Into Mist EP

29. Ian William Craig - A Turn of Breath

28. Scott Walker & Sunn O))) - Soused

27. Call Super - Suzi Ecto

26. Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

25. Vessel - Punish, Honey

24. PC Music x DISown Radio

23. The Body - I Shall Die Here

22. The Antlers - Familiars

21. K9 - Mad in the Cut

20. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sea When Absent

19. Ilovemakonnen - Ilovemakonnen EP

18. Leon Vynehall - Music for the Uninvited

17. Todd Terje - It's Album Time

16. Ought - More Than Any Other Day

15. Brontide - Artery

14. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace is There

13. Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty

12. Inventions - Inventions

11. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream

10. Dean Blunt - Black Metal

9. Andy Stott - Faith in Strangers

8. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2

7. Swans - To Be Kind

6. Caribou - Our Love

5. YG - My Krazy Life

4. Taylor Swift - 1989

3. Sun Kil Moon - Benji

2. FKA Twigs - LP1

1. Joyce Manor - Never Hungover Again

Welcome back to this regular feature where I run through the ten best things I've heard in the last week, be it new, old or anything in between!

VESSEL

Vessel has been one of the more prolific members of the Young Echo Collective from Bristol, a forward thinking group of electronic musicians whose output spans dub, techno, grime and noise. Vessel's new album Punish, Honey is a truly punishing listen, an industrial slab of noise that repeatedly beats you over the head.

CYMBALS EAT GUITARS

The third album, LOSE, from this New York band with a penchant for unconventional song structures, poetic lyrics and noodly guitars partially attempts to deal with the aftermath of the loss of a close friend. Whilst this may sound like a bleak listen, the music is so cathartic as to make you recognise and consider the joy that is to be alive.

FKA TWIGS

This album simultaneously makes me feel very sexy and very unsettled. A deeply confusing listen, but one of the best debuts of 2014.

CAYETANA

A recent discovery through the always excellent Crack Magazine, this pop punk group make insanely catchy tunes similar in vein to Joanna Gruesome. Super rad.

FUTURE BROWN

This underground electronic supergroup of NGUZUNGUZU, Fatima Al Qadiri and J-CUsh have just dropped their first track after being signed to Warp, and its an absolute banger, featuring Tink and 3D Na'Tee.

TAYLOR SWIFT

I can't stop listening to Shake It Off. #Taylor4lyf

DALEK

There's been a fairly interesting chat on Drowned in Sound today about classic hip hop albums from the last decade, and of course there are loads (mostly from Kanye). The chat did remind me of these guys though, who pedal some of the darkest rap music I've ever heard, drawing on influences from Einsturzende Neubauten to MBV. Abandoned Language will be hailed a classic in years to come.

kane west

That's not a typo. The latest despatch from PC Music is a weird mixtape of beats from kane west, a producer who appears to hail from bournemouth. No further info is available, but his beats are crazy.

IAN WILLIAM CRAIG

His recently released album A Turn of Breath is one of the most staggeringly beautiful albums I've ever heard. Ian, a classical trained singer, creates ambient soundscapes of decaying vocals which sound just so ethereal and heavenly. Seek this out.

VINCE STAPLES

Welcome to a new feature where I'll be running through the 10 best things I've heard in the last 7 days, be it a track, album, label, microgenre, whatever. This is inspired by the (much loved) radio show I presented during my unidays, where me and my co-host didn't try to just bring you the ten hottest tracks of the week, but instead gave the listeners a killer hour of new and old tunes that we loved and wanted everyone who tuned in to love too. 

Given that this is the inaugural week of the feature, I'll be looking back over the summer at the music that has soundtracked these sunny months for me.

PC MUSIC / SOPHIE

This is punk in 2014. 

ILOVEMAKKONEN

A very recent discovery for me, but ILoveMakonnen is about to go huge, thanks in no small part to Drake getting involved with the remix to 'Tuesday.'

JOYCE MANOR

Their latest album Never Hungover Again is just the most perfect piece of pop-not pop-punk and makes me feel happy, sad and everything in between in 20 minutes.

YG / DJ MUSTARD

If I'd been out clubbing at all this summer and DJ Mustard's skeletal beats weren't pounding out for at least 80% of the night, I'd have left a very disappointed man.

CARIBOU

Dan Snaith continues to toe the impressive line between intellectual dance music for the indie crowd and absolute bangers.

BRONTIDE

New album Artery is a thing of mechanical beauty, like looking at the inner workings of a precision Swiss watch.   

THE VAN PELT

After the cock up that was ATP Jabberwocky 2014, I passed on the opportunity to go and see these guys at one the fall out gigs. Such a mistake. Intricate guitar lines weave their way through Chris Leo's spoken word vocals on their excellent 1999 album Sultans of Sentiment. 

AIRHEAD

On his Believe EP, Airhead decided to drop the (albeit pretty) post-dubstep sounds from his debut album, a market seemingly cornered by friend James Blake, for something which goes straight for the dancefloor. The results are stunning.

MUMDANCE

I do feel like its slightly disingenuous for a white, roughly middle class guy to be getting into grime about 10 years too late once its been recontextualized and intellectualised, but after seeing a roomful of them go absolutely nuts for a Mumdance set at a Boxed Records night recently, its hard not to feel like instumental grime is one of the most fertile grounds in electronic music at the moment. See also: Her Records, Slackk, Fatima Al Qadiri

NICKI MINAJ

So here we are, at the end of another year, with yet another list of albums to peruse over that this (sporadic) blogger has found to be particularly enjoyable. There is absolutely no such thing as a bad year for music, but there can be very good ones, and 2013 has felt like an especially good year for music. Sure there have been some disappointments from big releases like Daft Punk and Boards of Canada, but never before have I felt so much like I'm drowning in a deluge of great and exciting music. In my opinion, this has been both a blessing and a curse, because whilst I could never bemoan the fact that there is a mountain of amazing art being produced at a time when we're lucky enough to have instant access to all of it, it does make it very difficult to spend time with a record and really grow to love it. That being said, I began the process of putting this list together with a shortlist of over 100 albums and EPs that I really did feel a strong connection to, which either says that the quality of music produced this year has been of a superior nature to usual, or I have spent too much time hiding away in my room on Spotify. 

Whatever the reason, I'm sure you'll agree that it has been a phenomenal year and I hope you find some records in my list that you also loved, and a few that may have passed you by.

50. Sandwell District - Fabric 69

49. This Town Needs Guns - 13.0.0.0.0

48. Non-Plus Records - Think and Change

47. Special Request - Soul Music

46. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris

45. Logos - Cold Mission

44. Zomby - With Love

43. Kerridge - A Fallen Empire

42. A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord

41. Burial - Rival Dealer

40. Dean Blunt - The Redeemer

39. Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe

38. Arcade Fire - Reflektor

37. Lanterns on the Lake - Until the Colours Run

36. Livity Sound - Livity Sound

35. Darkside - Psychic

34. Ciara - Ciara

33. The National - Trouble Will Find Me

32. The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die - Whenever, If Ever

31. Death Grips - Government Plates

30. Beyonce - Beyonce

29. Tyler The Creator - Wolf

28. Oliver Wilde - A Brief Introduction to Unnatural Lightyears

27. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

26. Keysound Recordings - This Is How We Roll

25. Daughter - If You Leave

24. James Blake - Overgrown

23. 65 Days of Static - Wild Light

22. Forest Swords - Engravings

21. Danny Brown - Old

20. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

19. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap

18. Joanna Gruesome - Weird Sister

17. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience

16. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

15. Drake - Nothing Was The Same

14. DJ Rashad - Double Cup

13. Pusha T - My Name is My Name

12. Julia Holter - Loud City Song

11. Local Natives - Hummingbird

10. Jon Hopkins - Immunity

9. Factory Floor - Factory Floor

8. Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus

7. The Haxan Cloak - Excavation

6. Kanye West - Yeezus

5. Young Echo - Nexus

4. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

3. Volcano Choir - Repave

2. These New Puritans - Field of Reeds

1. LOS CAMPESINOS - NO BLUES

Noisy shoegaze Bristol band Spectres massively stepped up their game on their recent Hunger EP, a 5 track collection of some of the darkest, most downright nasty sounds to emerge from the extremely fertile Bristol guitar scene of the last couple of years. Yesterday the band made the EP's final track, 'Threshing Machine' available as a free download, along with releasing a new video which can be viewed below.

You can download the track from their bandcamp, and can catch the band live at Arctangent Festival, near Bristol, 29-31 August. 

Music videos serve a somewhat redundant function for the modern music fan. Sure, you'll click the Youtube link when a band releases the first snippet from their new album, but how often do you actually watch the video rather than click back to one of your other multiple tabs? 

The video to Girl Like Me, the standout track from Slava's recent album Raw Solutions is a must watch though, demonstrating that the video form can still be a powerful force. The Eugene Kotlyarenko directed video shows the development of a questionable relationship between a young brother and sister (think a modern day Lannisters), and coupled with the looped vocal refrain of 'I know you've never had a girl like me,' conjures up a sinister storyline. The power of the video is helped by the strength of Slava's dark take on footwork, which builds a palpable sense of tension over the course of its 5 minutes.

Here is the first taster from Pity Sex's debut album 'Feast of Love,' out via Run for Cover on June 25th. It will be the follow up to the Michigan band's excellent 2012 EP 'Dark World,' and is a potent slab of fuzzy, emotive shoegaze pop. 

Upbeat, summery music tends to be intrinsically linked to those particular months where it soundtracked your freedom from the drudgery of uni work and exam revision. As such, it is it usually assumed to be disposable, only to be returned to to rekindle memories of good times past. This, however, is not the case with Fair Ohs’ 2011 debut Everything is Dancing, an infectiously catchy album of afro-punk that could very well be the perfect soundtrack to summer. The three-piece began life as a hardcore band, playing short scrappy punk songs, before realising they shared a mutual admiration of Paul Simon and deciding to meld together their chaotic punk intensity with the joyful abandon of African pop. Second album Jungle Cats is not a huge departure from the winning formula of their debut, with opener Green Apple Milk sounding like it could easily be an offcut from their first album sessions, but the band do flirt with math-pop on the excellent lead single Ya Mustafa whilst pushing their hardcore roots right to the forefront on Citric Placid, which manages to find the previously unexplored middle ground between Talking Heads and Black Flag.