A presence on the Spanish house circuit since 2010 – when ‘Sunshine’, arguably his breakthrough single, came out – foil-faced producer John Talabot released his debut album ‘fIN’ to broad critical plaudits earlier this month. A previous collaboration with Glasser’s Cameron Mesirow (one-off single ‘Families’) led to a partnership with label Young Turks, which has also released the new record.

And YT’s investment, at least, seems safe, given that ‘fIN’ proves Talabot a natural at unravelling the seam at which deep house, disco and dance-pop interlace, otherwise known as that rarest of sweet inter-genre spots. There’s a clement Mediterranean sheen to the shapes, segues and phrases in ‘fIN’, from the bracing coastal grooves of ‘When The Past Was Present’ to the tamped-down heats of final track (and a second featuring Pional) ‘So Will Be Now…’, that places it on a cliff’s edge of sheer excellence. Sighing audibly of sun, sea and blue Barcelona nights, the LP comes to represent a sort of moment-in-time snapshot of Talabot’s accumulated expertise to date, auguring well in terms of scale and quality for future projects.

Now accompanying SBTRKT on his Australian tour, Talabot is also booked in at this year’s Primavera Sound for what he bills his ‘first ever live show’. So as we all ponder how exactly we’re to afford tickets and an airfare for that, here’s ‘fIN’ poster track ‘Destiny’ to remind us that if it’s not meant to be, it’s just not meant to be.

Formerly known as Majorian, Scarlet Chives released their eponymous debut album in their native Denmark a year ago this month. A milestone they marked with two shows at last week’s by:Larm festival in Oslo, one of which I managed to catch, squeezing into the tightly packed Rockefeller Annex venue.

Subsequently I’ve learned that the band features Brian Batz, whose solo project Sleep Party People recently appeared in this very column too. Scarlet Chives is a very different beast though. The diverse vocals of frontwoman Maria Mortensen – for whom I’ve been failing to come up with a better description than ‘an indie Cher Lloyd crossed with Björk and Kate Bush’ since Friday – move from pop to the fringes of opera, and roll across the band’s music, which itself can switch from twinkling guitar pop to ferocious, percussive rock in a very short space of time.

You can hear the album in full here, or check out the video for single, ‘Don’t You Put Your Hands There’, below.

So, last week’s Ninja Tune takeover of the London-based Boiler Room featured an unofficial set by the label’s Mica Levi, aka instrumentalist and producer Micachu. She wasn’t even billed to attend but, despite the short notice of her summons, proved more than a match for Ninja peers Bonobo, Dels and Lapalux, who also appeared at the live-streamed event.

Flaunting a technical scope as studied as it surely is instinctual, Levi ransacks a kitchen-sink-cacophony (ie everything but) of effects, arrangements and shiftless rhythmic flux to engineer her 30 minute mix. Never averse to a little reverb, she constructs much of the music to sound as if pressed through a mesh of low-res static (a signature staple of both her solo work, and that with one-time band The Shapes), and yet builds in moments of comparative clarity in the likes of ‘I’m Not Dancing’ – a collaboration with Tirzah – which sounds all sweetness and light as compared to the onomatopoeic swarm of Michachu singlet ‘Oscillator Snaz’.

Catch the full mix, plus its accompanying video, here.

Tracklisting:

Matthew Herbert – November (Micachu’s pig remix)
Pete Wareham & Micachu aka Amen – Ape
Micachu – Beat 68
Micachu feat Brother May – More Red
Micachu – Blip String
Micachu – Slide Git
Micachu feat Tirzah – I’m Not Dancing
Micachu – Oscillator Snaz
Roots Manuva – Dub Style (MATHES remix)
Micachu feat Brother May – Bars Off The Top
Micachu feat Tirzah – Go
Micachu – Fucking Sunny

Brazil’s carnival season is upon us, though if a trip out to Rio seems unlikely, well fear not, because everyone’s favourite London-based Brazilian bar is having a six day carnival all of its own, celebrating life, love and music. There was a warm up party last night, but things really get going this evening, with the 25-strong samba troupe Ritmos Da Cicade taking to the stage, promising to make you feel like you really did make it to Rio itself. There’s extended opening hours all weekend (until 4am) and over the next week loads of great Brazilian bands and DJs, not to mention samba dancers and Capoeira performers, will be in the house. Plus there’ll be plenty of happy hours to keep the carnival celebrations going, even as the streets outside freeze. Perfect.

Friday 17 Feb – Wed 22 Feb, Guanabara, Parker Street, London, WC2B. Times and Prices vary, for full Carnival details visit www.guanabara.co.uk

Erik Luebs formerly went by the name Death By Panda before switching to Magical Mistakes. He also formerly live in California, but last year upped sticks and went to live in a small village in a forest on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Not the first place you’d think of when talking about the creator of glitchy, psychedelic, hip hop-influenced electronic tracks, but it seems to work for him.

Luebs released his debut album as Magical Mistakes, ‘Dislocation’, last summer, the first two tracks revealing at the very least an above average interest in Japan by featuring lyrics written in Japanese. It’s an enthralling record, that sits somewhere between Caribou and The Books, at times beat heavy, and at others like the calm centre of a storm.

His latest release, an EP called ‘Special Friends’, is a collection of new solo material, collaborations, and remixes of other artists, and is available via Bandcamp. Opening track ‘Running Water’ instantly shows a progression from the tracks on ‘Dislocation’, with a deeper, warmer sound that is just spellbinding.

Listen to ‘Running Water’ here:

What with Chairlift, Nite Jewel and John Maus hitting their respective strides just as the soundtrack to road heist ‘Drive’ veers toward cult status, it appears the 1980s aesthetic is – musically speaking, at least – back in style. US trio Selebrities, too, are apt to mine this most unabashedly brash of pop troves – all slowdowns, sleaze and self-serving electric guitar solos – having released an album to that approximate effect in their 2011 debut ‘Delusions’.

The band’s new single ‘Night Heat’, which stands apart from the LP, could easily be taken for the theme from the Canadian cop drama (need I say more) from which it steals its title. A suave embodiment of what the band themselves characterise as “voguish summertime goth”, singer Maria Usbek’s acerbic sigh saunters in to coax the track’s smoke-and-mirrors mirage back into contemporary focus, thus rendering it more clever pastiche than new wave knock-off.

Set for release via Cascine on 20 Mar, you can experience ‘Night Heat’ in the here and now. And look, there’s even a colour-coordinated video, as directed by Selebrities’ own Jer Robert, to match.

I’ve been following the progress of Rose Keeler-Schäffeler, aka Keel Her, closely over the last few weeks. Everyday almost. Which possibly sounds like an odd thing to say, until you see her phenomenal level of output, with new recordings posted to her SoundCloud profile on an almost daily basis. In fact, in the last six months she’s posted over 70 songs. What’s more, her hit rate is incredibly high for someone so prolific.

Her lo-fi recordings may be covered in fuzz with levels ramped up into the red, but that does nothing to mask her talent for writing short, urgent pop songs. And the speed with which she uploads new tracks only adds to that urgency, conjuring up visions of someone who writes both compulsively and eagerly.

At the beginning of February, Italian Beach Babes Records pulled together eight of those songs for a cassette EP, which promptly sold out of its limited run. Still, it’s not like she hasn’t got enough material for another to be produced soon. If the prospect of her SoundCloud page seems daunting, you can also find handy compilations on her Bandcamp page. Although if you’re eager for more, you could also check out her work with American singer-songwriter R Stevie Moore.

For a quicker introduction, listen to ‘Cyber Goth’, here:

Rumour has it that one or both halves of ultra-secretive LA-based duo Rhye are really European, not to mention that they’ve both spent stints in other bands. Rumour has a lot of things where Rhye are concerned. Not, based on the serene sounds of first single ‘Open’, that they seem in the slightest bit concerned. One of three tracks featuring on Rhye’s debut EP, out now via Innovative Leisure, it bodes beautifully as a first introduction to an act entirely at ease within their favoured form of orchestral soul-pop collage.

Shades of Sade wax and wane throughout ‘Open’, sounding out in the sweet and yielding timbre of Rhye’s androgynous voicebox (who is, in fact, Canadian electronic artist Mike Milosh) as he implores a lover, as one perhaps would the owner of a post-midnight off licence, to “stay open”. As also set to appear on Rhye’s tbc long player, unwrap ‘Open’ here:

A little bit further north than its Brixton origins fifteen years ago, Paul ‘Trouble’ Arnold’s Chew The Fat night takes over XOYO in Shoreditch tonight.

Dedicated to all things breaks, the rather capacious basement main room will be headlined by house head and UKG original legend MJ Cole, preceded by the now big hitter Foamo, Hot City and French Fries. In the smaller (but still fair sized) second room, you’ll find Well Rounded, Donga, Gongon, Spatial and Leon. Should be a wild one.

Friday 11 Feb, XOYO, 32-37 Cowper Street, London, EC2A, 10pm-3am, £12adv, more on door, info at www.xoyo.co.uk

Kindness have been flitting about for years now, sparking subtle commotion (and a CMU SNAP Of The Day piece – if you remember those) when their first single, a glitter-ball spin on The Replacements’ ‘Swinging Party’ and its B-side ‘Gee Up’, was released via Moshi Moshi in 2009. All but silent between then and late last year, when a contract with Universal’s Polydor guaranteed a sign-off on debut album ‘World, You Need A Change Of Mind’, the band have at last produced promos to match past single ‘Cyan’ – and the aforementioned ‘Gee Up’.

One for lovers of Friends’ funk-fangled school of groove-based pop, the track is perfectly fine by itself, but benefits from a ‘Spinal Tap’-style video in which Kindness toy with artist caricatures and, best of all, neglect to take themselves too seriously. Unless it’s all a sophisticated bluff, in which case I’ve been had.

“This is a joke. It’s a bloody circus”, remarks the faux French film director, looking on with disdain as willowy Kindness figurehead Adam Bainbridge manipulates the limbs of the model embodying his ‘stunt legs’, “They’re like boy scouts high on drugs!”

‘World, You Need A Change’ is out 19 Mar via a partnership between Polydor and the band’s own label, Female Energy.

Fill part of the interim with a glance at that ‘Gee Up’ clip:

Amplify Dot has been popping up here and there for a while now, but in 2012 she seems to be preparing to push full steam ahead, beginning with the release of her new EP, ‘Short Back And Sides’, as well as a collaboration with fellow UK rappers Lioness, Lady Leshurr, Mz Bratt, Baby Blue and RoxXxan, ‘Rock The Mic’.

A prolific collaborator, she also appeared with all of those artists on the Female Takeover Remix of Tinchy Stryder’s ‘Game Over’, and as part of 367 with Lioness and Lady Leshurr on their great remix of Ms Dynamite’s ‘Neva Soft’.

The ‘Neva Soft’ remix appears on ‘Short Back And Sides’, as does A.Dot’s own ‘Semantics’, featuring Kano, which was originally released last summer. But for now let’s concentrate on ‘King Kong’, which came out as a single in December and is elevated to my favourite track in part for the way she delivers the already amazing line: “I’m piecing ‘em together, call me Legoland Windsor”.

When Blood And Biscuits  announced it had signed Sleep Party People last month, a quick check on YouTube to see what they sounded like ended up in an hour long trawl of online videos featuring the band, starting with this entrancing live version of ‘I’m Not Human At All’.

Hailing from Denmark, the project is the work of Brian Batz, plus a gaggle of fellow rabbit-masked accomplices for live performances. The songs are slow, twisted pop that sit somewhere between dreamlike and nightmarish, each linked by Batz’s effects-heavy vocals.

Having already devoured every SPP video and static-image-over-music that YouTube had to offer, I was quick to hit play on ‘A Dark God Heart’ when it popped up in my inbox. Taken from the band’s debut album, ‘We Are Drifting On A Sad Song’, out on 9 Apr with tour dates later the same month, the track is attached to visuals that are simple but moving (and NSFW, I should add), though it’s not the first SPP video preoccupied with death – see also ‘The Dwarf And The Horse (Trentemøller RMX)’.

Many, many critics (even those impossible-to-please Pitchfork types) have been swarming adoringly of late over ‘In The Same Room’, the latest preview of LA soloist Julia Holter’s forthcoming LP ‘Ekstasis’.

While ‘In The Same Room’ is really very good indeed (as you’ll note by tuning in here), I’d rather talk about album track ‘Goddess Eyes’ (which also appeared in an earlier form on her 2011 album, ‘Tragedy’), having first heard it featured on Young Turks’ recent FBi Radio takeover mix, and been duly stunned.

Far too skeletal to be deemed a pop song in the traditional sense, it instead takes the scant shape of everything a great pop song should be. A knot of spectral, glassy-eyed minimalism sculpted around a single, repeated line; refrain and counter-refrain are kept at close odds, rarely is so much transfixed in so bare, so basic a form.

‘Ekstasis’ isn’t released until 8 Mar (via RVNG Intl), but you can look into ‘Goddess Eyes’ right this very moment:

Seven years since his untimely death, this is the sixth annual outing for a night held in tribute to the life and works of one of hip hop’s leading lights, James ‘J Dilla’ Yancey. This year the DJs (all spinning for free) will be joined on stage by last year’s surprise guest, Dilla’s mother Maureen ‘Ma Dukes’ Yancey. One of Dilla’s close friends and collaborators in the shape of Detroit’s own Phat Kat will also come to host proceedings, and perhaps even perform a couple of his Dilla-produced classics, while the dynamic Ronnie Cash will also return to the night for the third time.

One of the major events in hip hop calendar, with a refreshed line up of DJs and an extremely special guest lined up, this is going to be another party to remember in The Scala. And it’s all in aid of charity too – all proceeds from the night are donated to the J Dilla Foundation and Lupus UK, the latter supporting people with the same blood disorder J suffered from.

Sunday 5 Feb, The Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London, N1 9NL, 7pm – midnight, £6 standard, £30 VIP, more info here.

Jez Berns, or Bernholz, releases his debut single, ‘Austerity Boy’, through Anti-Ghost Moon Ray Records (home also to Gazelle Twin) next month. An homage, or perhaps response, to Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’, it’s pop with its roots firmly placed in experimentation.

In fact, we can trace how Berns reached this point back to his first two releases last year, ‘Consequences 1 (Variations On A Theme)’ and ‘Consequences 2 (Faking It)’. Both released as free downloads, the first is a collection of ideas more than fully formed tracks, while the second is an extended improvisation of ever building looping layers abruptly cut off after fifteen minutes. They had something but weren’t wholly satisfying. However, when reigned in and forced into a pop structure, the Bernholz sound becomes altogether more intriguing.

‘Austerity Boy’ bounces urgently along, rushing to reach its climax, while Berns’ vocal holds it back, focussing on the central hook – the strangely catchy line, “No prosperity for this austerity boy”. Once he sets himself proper boundaries, and stops allowing his mind to wander, Berns has the ability to deliver something great, as is also proved on his cover of Etta James’ ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’, released in tribute to the late singer who died earlier this month.

Released on 19 Mar, ‘Austerity Boy’ will be given its official launch with a gig at the Green Door Store in Brighton on 23 Mar. Bernholz’s debut album, ‘How Things Are Made’, is due for release later this year.

The lifespan of ‘alternative pop’ creature David’s Lyre, alias singer-songwriter Paul Dixon, might be all but over, but there’s a vital vigour and verve to debut album ‘Picture Of Our Youth’ that almost impels you to believe otherwise.

Without doubt deserving of the big release for which it was intended; the album is the very ‘Picture’ of Dixon’s flair for ‘folkloric pop’ made real, sounding serenely unscathed by any sense of the “tension” to which he has alluded as reason for his apparent fall-out with ex-label Hideout Records.

Take ‘The Fall’, which, like much of the LP strikes a delicate, diaphanous balance between pastoral folk phrasing and synthetic production. Arranged and executed with so slight a touch as to seem easily-done, it’s really a labyrinth of layers, high-flown sentiment snatched from the air (and the florid borders of hackneyed balladry) by a rhythmic anchorage of furrowed synths and spiny xylophone refrains.

It’s also part of what proves a well-stocked mid-section; ‘These Trees’ (seen here serenading a skip) brims with grace and beauty, tending towards a breathless, heart-bursting pitch; ‘Heartbeat’ owes its rosy romanticism to Dixon’s unfettered tenor, which roams the breadth of ‘Pictures’ like that of a world-wise choir boy; ‘Picture Of’ runs to a blood-rush beat of angst and desire; while abject penultimate ‘Only Words’ acts as the evening shadow to previous tracks’ sunlit lustre.

‘Picture Of Our Youth’ is set for release on a pay-what-you-want basis on 20 Feb. Paul will provide solo support on Spector’s forthcoming tour, before rejoining his band for a last live swansong at London’s 100 Club on 1 Mar.

Until then, you can stream the album in full just here:

For a notably prolific band, it’s hard to believe that Saint Etienne’s forthcoming new album is their first in seven years. They’ve hardly been idle in that time (lush reissues, a Christmas album, Best Of and two films kept them busy) but it’s still good to have them back.

According to Bob, Pete and Crackers, ‘Tonight’ is “about how the unadulterated thrill of a great band or gig can sometimes feel like a hotline straight to your heart”. Of course, if you had to entrust one group to deliver a song that is both great pop and about great pop, Saint Etienne would be number one every time.

Produced by ex-Xenomania man Tim Powell, it’s an inevitably fizzy pop delight that proves a particularly welcome distraction for four minutes in these oppressively bleak times.

Released on 7 Mar, the track is up on Soundcloud now:

Particularly attentive CMU readers may recall my review of Battles’ ‘Gloss Drop’, an album which I was not exactly complimentary about. However, in the interests of balance, here is a more favourable piece on their new release, which consists of remixes from said album by various electronic types. ‘Dross Glop 1′ is the first in a four part twelve inch series, and it’s quite good too, if only (ie primarily) because it, er, doesn’t sound much like Battles at all (sorry, Battles fans).

The Field’s technofied remix of ‘Sweetie And Shag’ is somehow simultaneously epic and minimal, whilst Gui Boratto’s nu-disco take on ‘Wall Street’ keeps minute fragments of the original, but builds the track around a mariachi-esque brass refrain and twangy Spaghetti Western guitars, amid precision-tooled beats.

Released on 6 Feb, both tracks are up on YouTube now.

Sweetie And Shag:

Wall Street:

This rather decent club under the arches at Elephant & Castle has a very good vibe about it, and I think I’ve mentioned before how much I like the outdoor terrace bit. Plus the sound rig is definitely well crafted. But what about the talent? Well, this weekend should be extra good because Trouble Vision are taking over on both Friday and Saturday.

Tonight they present Dutch beatmeister Martyn, he riding high after his awesome album on Brainfeeder (check here or here for more from me on that). He’ll be playing alongside Kyle Hall, Dark Sky, The Nextmen, The Heatwave, Mr Solid Gold, Oli DAB & Robin, Arsequake and Hylu & Jago.

But as if that wasn’t enough, Saturday sees something even better, the techster duo of Kristian Beyer & Frank Wiedemann that are also known as Ame, who will appear alongside Deetron, Session Victim, Nicholas, Casino Times and Hesseltime. All in all, it should be a good weekend south of the river.

Friday 27 Sat 28 Jan, Corsica Studios, Elephant Road, London SE17 1LB, 11pm
- 5am, £12 advance, £15 door, info here.

A luminous communion between twin Scandinavian flames now, in the form of a pre-emptive preview of Miike Snow’s second LP ‘Happy To You’. First preview track ‘Black Tin Box’, with a guest appearance by Lykke Li, is propped and propelled by an insistent percussive will; it moves through swathes of writhing synth scales, frosted steel pans, and phrasings weighted with black symbolism; even absorbing a glacial strings arrangement in what proves a truly radiant final sequence.

The Swedish trio find a worthy counterpart in countrywoman Lykke Li – also co-founder of the band’s and Peter, Bjorn and John’s INGRID label – whose role is so well integrated as to bypass that jarring, deliberately ostentatious quality that defines too many music cameos. Plus, it’s Lykke Li.

With ‘Happy To You’ set for release on 26 Mar, unwrap ‘Black Tin Box’ here: