Still as irksome and tuneless as ever, this Brooklyn trio are one of the very few bands that can claim to be even less catchy than the similarly cacophonic Melt Banana. Still, their squall of found sounds and electronic rhythmia isn’t entirely free of direction and nuances. With no melodies or hooks allowed within a 10 mile radius of their recording studio, ‘Broken Ear Record’ will not be to everyone’s tastes. And possibly not ideal for dinner parties, either.
www.blackdice.net

The Rebel
'Prawns'
Junior Asprin

The newest album by Country Teasers frontman BR Wallers can only be described as ‘bonkers genius’. Even further off-kilter than his dayjob, the self-proclaimed Rebel has discovered the true might of the Casio keyboard, and damn, if he ain’t gonna use it. Incorporating a bastardised version of the Swastika into his logo, Wallers probes and mocks politics and the fascist regime on twisted classics like ‘Hitlers & Churchills’ and ‘Hiel Hitler’, while a brilliant – and surprisingly poppy – new slant is lent to The Coasters’ classic ‘What About Us?’ Songs by Killing Joke and Leonard Cohen are also tackled on this fascinatingly abstract work.
www.junioraspirin.com

The Idaho Falls
'Concrete Prairie'
Tone2

Led by singer/songwriter Raymond Richards, whose CV includes work with Hope Sandoval, Mojave 3 and Lisa Germano, California’s The Idaho Falls play country the old fashioned, deep south way. Those only keen on the mellowed-out modern stylings of Ryan Adams and his ilk may not warm to the foot-stomping bar room folk of cuts like ‘Jasmine’ and ‘Luck in Love’, but underneath the LA polish lies a warm heart, beating in time with its country rockin’ great old ancestors.
www.theidahofalls.com

The Junior Varsity
'Wide-Eyed'
Victory

Those Brand New boys start re-writing the rules of emo-pop and the floodgates are thrown open. ‘Wide-Eyed’ is rather one-paced, over-zealously produced and not as emotionally connective on a lyrical level as either the aforementioned ‘New or labelmates Spitalfield, but is partially saved by a knack for immediate melodies and surface-level hooks. Fans of the genre should find this enjoyable and the band certainly have promise. Things could look much brighter for them in a year's time.
www.thejuniorvarsity.com