Remember the other week when we brought you the wonderful music of The Candle Thieves via our MySpace Trawl feature? Of course you ruddy do!

It appears the band have been able to use all sorts of pretty colours and sellotape them together to create a video for The Sunshine Song. Don’t go thinking its a botched job down on a hand held camera for £20.

Oh no, what we have is a wonderfully crafted video which perfectly reflects the sound of the song. Thank God for that, the last thing we wanted to see was the duo standing on a building looking moody in the rain.

Follow hecklerspray on Twitter!

With quirky upbeat and addictive songs such as Digital Accordion, it remains a physical impossibility for anyone to sway along or attempt to sing the songs.

The band is made up of David Blackwell and Holly Ross, who was at one point in some sort of Brit girlband called Angelica. We can’t remember them, so they must have been a bit rubbish. Anyway, their musical decline must have been for a reason – so she could write and record glorious nursery rhymes with dashings of weird and wonderful sounds with The Lovely Eggs

Their quirky nature and approach to songwriting is something that we are literally going mental over. Invest in their music now before they become bigger then Fern Britton once her gastric band snaps.

For more:

The Lovely Eggs MySpace

Whilst away in foreign shores, we found the lack of music amazing. Each night we were treated to tribute acts that varied from laughable to ghastly. A personal highlight included the P Diddy and Usher rappers who kept on forgetting the words. Never a good start.

But getting away from all things, er, gangster we thought we’d direct you towards the funktastic Mr Scruff.

Coming from Manchester, you’d probably expect him to be one of those guitar types. You know – stupidly make your debut album the best of your career and then try to make the follow ups really piss poor in comparison.

Mr Scruff might play the guitar, we don’t know. If he does, it’s buried somewhere between his jazzed-up beats and toe-tapping rhythms. To us, there are two types of jazz. The old crusty stuff that sounds a bit dated that old people listen to in smoky clubs. Alternatively, there is the more modern nu-jazz sound which makes everything sound a bit crisper with powerful vocals and more traditional instruments.

The distinctive sounds created by Mr Scruff – aka Andy Carthy – sounds more old-school jazz than contemporary. Many opt to go all modern and hope that Giles Peterson will pick up their record for a brief fifteen minutes and make them the next big thing.

However, blending the old with the new works amazingly well for Mr Scruff. Poorer producers out there could maybe get the sounds to become a modern take-off an old song – but not in this case. Yes the trumpets and pianos may sound a bit creaky, but the over-polished and slick use of these instruments really would sound a bit gash.

Go listen and enjoy to some warm-sounding music. We can’t promise that the various tunes – taken from album Ninja Tune, will defrost your frozen bollocks from standing at the bus stop, but give it a try at least.

For more:

Mr Scruff MySpace

In a slightly personalised trawl this week, it’s time to expose you in to one such artist who has a strong reputation in the live Newcastle/Sunderland music scene.

Already tagged as a UK equivalent to LCD Soundsystem, Razmataz Lorry Excitement aka Kevin Dosdale serves up electro with soul that carries punk elements and doesn’t have an electronic boys and girls sound. Another plus point is the use of back-to-basics hardware in live performances and the creation of actual tracks. In an age where bedroom producers rely on software, it is refreshing to see someone actually work like a loon behind stacks of samplers and other music-making toys that’ll boggle your mind.

Don’t get us wrong, we like electronic music and when it’s done live, it can be improvised more easily than anything a guitar band can muster up. But seeing someone hunched up over a laptop? Hmm, that’s less impressive, especially when you question how ‘live’ it actually is. On the Razmataz Lorry Excitement MySpace page there are video performances of a typical set that will force even the most timid gig-goer to don their disco dancing clogs and join in the party.

Hot damn, there’s even vocals by the man himself, which cuts out another age-old problem of electronic performers sampling vocals they’ve used in the studio or borrowed from elsewhere.

We like Razmataz Lorry Excitement and so do the higher powers at The Guardian who loved his performance at the recent Leeds Festival so much that they dedicated a whole paragraph to him. Read their kind words on his MySpace page whilst you listen along to some songs.

Amongst the studio works, other tracks up for listening include remix and bootleg work. All equally impressive, but it’s more the original recordings that we look at first. Make It Break It – an exclusive track for North-East music Bible NARC magazine combines straightforward but effect-heavy vocals over synths and pulsating beats. This track isn’t breaking creative boundaries. However, if we wanted that, we’d turn to an artist who hates modern technology and basic songwriting methods.

There’s remix action going for Ever Since The Lake Caught Fire – another ace band you should really seek out – and there’s some smashtastic bootleg action! Some people may think Foals and Bloc Party may be a bit of a mess when spliced together, due to them being very similar in sound. But enough work and tinkering has been done to make a danceable song which should surely get the nod from both bands.

With Radio 1, The Guardian, local press and – to a lesser extent – hecklerspray singing his praises, we hope that Razmataz Lorry Excitement will either get his name out on a support tour or get support from radio stations at a sociable hour – not 4am grave shifts.

Read more:

Razmataz Lorry Excitement MySpace

Mostly through headlines on grubby downmarket tabloids, we are always reminded to hate the Germans because of the war and the Scottish due to an old butchering rivalry, with the other country that deluded working class white boys high on cider and bad drugs seem to hate being France.

Now why should we hate the French? They’ve given us plenty of things to like – from wine, through Va-Va-Vaoom and even a strange love of horse burgers (it’s like a tough steak). Granted, the last choice is more for animal protestors to piss and moan over.

But no, getting drunk off a Frenchman’s grapes isn’t good enough; we have to assume they all eat baguettes, cycle everywhere on crap bikes and wear necklaces of garlic instead of buying stuff from H&M. Thank the lord for Telepopmusik then eh?

Hanging around the music world since 1997, this trio have made some gorgeous laid-back beats that you probably have heard before. Thanks to the subtle power of advertising you’ve probably listened to one of their songs while some company attempted to make you buy a car or a tin of paint – scroll to the second track on the Telepopmusik player and you may understand what we’re blabbing on about.

Breathe comes from their debut album released a dog’s age ago, but still sounds like it could have been created just the other day – the balance of the vocals combined with the majestic harmonies work ridiculously well. Not that we’re experts in advertising, but we’re positive that a fancy brand of cosmetics have used them in the background when some stick thin model slaps some product all over her stupid face.

There’s been bugger all news from the Telepopmusik camp for a while now, but a track called Ghost Girl featuring the vocals of Kim Wayman may explain where the band are headed, and the new album is set for release ‘Fall 2008′ – that’s Autumn to our British reader(s). With fine detective work like that, we do wonder why MI5 aren’t knocking down our door to hire us as fast as possible.

A selection of songs that showcase their career so far are available for your listening pleasure; from remixes to new records, there should be something to please you. If not, you’re just a bloody awkward git and we can’t be arsed with you.

No crap competition either this week, as last weeks winner didn’t come forward. Still if you want the unclaimed prize, tell in the box below. Or we’ll auction them off for gin money or something.

For more:

Telepopmusik

Most of the time it will be quite accessible, but then we may crank it up a notch to leave you with a horrible taste in your mouth. You know, like when slurping down some two month old milk complete with that yummy lumpy flavouring.

After the last few weeks of giving you nice and pleasant stuff to download and share it’s about time to offer something that will hopefully make you laugh. Or if you’re Mary Whitehouse, send us verbal abuse for us to ignore.

Kunt And The Gang offer an alternative view of love songs. Well that’s what we think anyway. Whatever the case, they still amuse us.

Unless you’re a bit slow, you’ve probably not realised that any band with the word Kunt (that’s ‘kunt’ with a k) isn’t going to be in the best of taste. For any train spotters out there, it’s also hecklerspray’s second band in recent times who have the word ‘cunt’ in the name. So are we just being annoying and writing about stuff that will confuse most of you? It would appear not.

Listen to a song on mainstream TV or radio and you’re not going to be listening to anything with any sort of humour attached to it. All we get are blokes sounding like they’ve been kicked in the knackers before belting out shite ballad after shite ballad. Why can’t we have some fun?

Our previous discoveries in the humour department have led us to Cassetteboy – the only slight difference between the two is that Kunt And The Gang don’t seem to piss over copyright laws as much. We say “as much”, because we aren’t sure that Carol Vorderman would approve of herself being the centre of a brilliantly crafted song all about various sexual acts.

The music of Kunt And The Gang isn’t to be taken seriously at all. When looking at reviews for some of their records, such as – I Have A Little Wank And I Have A Little Cry and One Last Wank And One Last Cry it appears that the reviewers have got the wrong end of the stick. Amazingly enough, this is meant to be funny and to get people to laugh.

Ignore all the swearing and have a laugh – seriously, if you don’t smile during songs such as Fucksticks you don’t deserve to have a sense of humour. Hell, the people behind this project work so quick that there’s even a tribute song to Barry George on there (remember – he was stalking other women at the time and not Jill Dando).

If anyone can tell us the inspiration for the band name, leave it in the comment box and we’ll send you a whole packet of Space Raiders. Or failing that, some used pens. You can decide.

For more:

Kunt and the Gang

Ever since we found this bunch of rock ‘n’ rollers hiding in the shadowy corners of Myspace on one of our trawls, we have been firm fans.

Nowadays it appears that you can get a one way ticket to brief musical stardom by brandishing an Argos syringe and screaming “look at me I’ve just pricked the skin and all this yellow gunk is squirting out!”

Whatever happened to the good old days of bands getting up to all sort of fiendish antics which resulted in everyone getting a laugh and some poor bastard suffering for a little bit? Can you count on The Kooks, Scouting For Girls or some other indie twonks to do this?

Don’t be daft – you need a real band. After an overdue absence Medusa have returned with another tale which sounds so random that it belongs in one of those Family Guy cutaway scenes.

After recommending the band to you, the welcoming and sometimes friendly hecklerspray readership, we thought we wouldn’t hear from them again, at least not until new releases and tours came about did we expect to push some information your way.

But it turned out that other people had caught on to the buzz surrounding Medusa. Big haired funny man and dodgy author Russell Brand invited the band round to his gaff to play a set and help them get signed. The Sun reported the band simply nicked a naff looking gnome, but thankfully Julian from Medusa told us the truth:

“Russell Brand was gonna set about helping us to get signed a couple of months back, and organised us to play privately at his house. The band got a bit wasted afterwards and bass player Amadeus De La Fontaine had a piss on what turned out to be a ridiculous porcelain statue of a trout wearing pyjamas. Russell went psycho (and he started lecturing us about how much things cost). He told us the deal was off. I stole a garden gnome on the way out.”

Hoorah! Some national press for the band and a chance to laugh at Russell Brand a bit more. But the stories didn’t end there, and in another odd encounter between the two, another bodily fluid was used to annoy people and – even stranger – a goat was involved.

Russell had forgiven Medusa for the gnome nicking incident and invited them on to a pilot of a yet to be seen program. For a reason we are still unaware of, the band smuggled the hairy beast into the studio where the presenter’s clothes were eaten and his shoes shat in. Amadeus De La Fontaine told us what happened at the time:

“We snook the little bastard in inside a bass cab that we use to transport contraband. Shoes’ the goat was in the dressing room on his own for a good 20 minutes and chewed up a couple of Russell’s frilly shirts, shat in his pointy shoes and helped himself to some of his hair products. It was fucking shitting all over the place. Russell was prancing around in a tizz complaining that one of his cravats was missing too. It was marvellous!”

If this isn’t worth the keys to a brewery or a Page 3 factory then we don’t know what kind of award is worthy of them.

After a quite few months of gigging, getting drunk and working on new material, we have been told of a new shenanigan that these rascals have been up to. Moving away from stealing, destroying items and the improper disposal of bodily fluids, the band have this time been involved with comedian and singer Ken Dodd. Yup, we’re confused too. We’ll let Julian explain what happened:

“Medusa got asked to play a gig in the back garden a friend’s birthday. Her mother is a close family friend of Ken Dodd’s and it was held at her house in Liverpool. Our bass player Chrissy had made some space cakes for the night’s festivities. Early on, after we had set up the gear, sitting in a Gazebo, he took them from his bag and put them onto a plate, about to eat them but went off to answer a mobile phone call, when he came back Ken was saying how good they were as he had almost finished one, believing they were part of the buffet. We didn’t tell him, and after about an hour, he began acting a little strange.

“Later on he was in a gazebo entertaining people and put a colander on his head, making people laugh [especially us], then he went off and cooked a ridiculous amount of food in the kitchen, especially concentrating on the gravy wearing an apron and singing Queen’s ‘I want to break free’. He then poured gravy on the birthday cake. We noticed Ken doing a bit of old man dancing during the gig too. Me and our drummer Paul Brynes got kicked out shortly after for feeding the goldfish to the family dog.”

Forget all your mindless destruction to hotel property and shagging fifty groupies in a single session. This is what we want to see happening more often – old people getting involved in amusing incidents against their will. It’s just another day in the life of Medusa really.

The band play Lark in the Park in London on August 31st. Go tell them hecklerspray sent you. Space cakes may be offered. Or a hug at best.

Well they do if you don’t meet their demands of fetching them super strength cider and the occasional packet of Benson & Hedges. Talking of our cherished youngsters, we are apparently meant to respect them because they’re the future of tomorrow.

Granted, that statement is true to an extent – you won’t see a pensioner dishing out chips in a café or cleaning pigeon shit off the roads. Those jobs are for kids with their energy and eagerness. However, it’s not always great to praise everything the younger generation do. Especially when they’re ridiculously better at it then you. Khonnor is only 18-20 but he’s already crafted albums and EPs of electronic beauty. The rascal.

We say 18-20, because we aren’t actually sure how old he is. According to the press release for his first physical release, he’s 16 – but this was back in 2004. Because Khonnor isn’t splashed around the music papers everyday, we’ve had problems keeping track of what he’s been up to.

Sadly we’ve had to resort to the poor man encyclopaedia – otherwise known as Wikipedia. You know the one where any retard can make it seem that Stuart Heritage killed the last dragon known to man, or that CJ Davies single-handily built the Edinburgh to London railway. For once however, we must praise Wikipedia for spewing up a few interesting bits of information. But the best thing is the links to lots of free releases by Khonnor in various forms. Linky at the bottom for you money-shy folk!

In his short life, he has released music under the names Grandma, Gaza Faggot and I, Cactus. For the time being, Khonnor seems to be the alias he chooses to go by. Probably because he’s called Connor Kirby-Long. We know. We’d make ace detectives.

So what’s good about him apart from his age? Most importantly it’s the sheer quality of the music coming out from him and his basic set-up. There are no £1000 bits of complicated-looking hardware and priceless microphones to capture a clean vocal. From what we know about him, his production is done using things that pretty much anyone can afford and experiment with.

Frequently floating between haunting ambiance and light electronica, the releases have been compared to other Godlike geniuses performing this sort of stuff. From Aphex Twin to Brian Eno, people are not scared to associate him with those names. Tracks such as Cantelopps flicker and break gently before bubbling twinges of soft electronic orchestral delight take over. Whilst it’s not on his debut album Handwriting, it is out on the internet for download.

Oddly for us, we’ll hint at what we’ll bring you next week. In only seven days, you can look forward to another youngster making ace music. However, the nerds may be out to shout at us again. It’s the return of Chip music! Oh no! After looking at his gear, we are sure it qualifies as this, but we’re ready to use our newly installed panic room in case we get anyone upset and face a backlash of Lucozade bottles and sausage roll wrappers being thrown at us.

For more:

Khonnor MySpace page

Khonnor’s Wikipedia

If anything, we’d prefer the latter, not because it’ll make us look big, hard and more attractive to socialites but due to the fact we have bugger all to our name. If a Hollywood superstar wants our collection of cigarette packets or dated takeaway menus, then let bring it on! 

This week’s band – Dananananaykroyd hail from bonny Scotland. So naturally, we assumed that they’d be red headed, wear nothing but tartan and have a diet that consisted of only deep-fried Mars Bars and gallons of Irn Bru. Oh, and we thought that bagpipes had to feature somewhere. Apart from the bagpipes, we aren’t sure if our assumptions on the band are true, but maybe in a probing interview one day we can find that out. For now, we’ll concentrate on their music. 

Hailing from Glasgow, the sound of the band has been described as 'fight pop' and hardcore. OK, hardcore is a little easier to understand, but fight pop? Maybe it’ll become the soundtrack to crazy Japanese videogames where characters are the mutation of monsters, flowers and people and have stupid names that mean something in Japanese but end up sounding a bit silly once they've been translated fifty or so times. 

You needn’t worry about the hardcore tag. The six members that make up Dananananaykroyd haven’t made a collection of songs that will blow you against the nearest wall. Yes, elements of that style do pop through now and again, but to place them in that category is a bad thing and could deter someone who has a hatred of that genre. We put it down to lazy people not listening to their songs properly or going off what their mates told them down the pub. 

Are we going to try and give them a defining tag? Well we’ll try, but don’t come ringing our doorbell telling us we don’t know what we’re talking about.

The safe option would be rock, but for the person who likes to categorise everything, then can we suggest the badly titled 'fuzztronic epica rock'? Yeah, we know it’s a bit wonky, bit it's cutting edge enough for the NME to probably steal it off us. We use that term because unlike hardcore/grindcore songs they don’t last 5.4 seconds and instead have multilayered parts that keep everything interesting. The formula of 'words, chorus, words, solo, chorus' doesn’t apply here.

All four songs are taken from their latest EP, Sissy Hits. Older material is limited, deleted and trading hands for silly money. This release is the first real record where a lot of people can get their hands on it. For once, we can’t pick a song we like out of the ones available to us. It’s not because we’re rush writing this, but we really to do like each track. Think of it as picking a favourite child. The decision is that tough. 

Sometimes hecklerspray is accused of not researching things or giving out facts, so we are happy to give you a Dananananaykroyd fact. Bass player Laura is engaged to Barry from The Futureheads. More than likely this fact will be used in every bit of press they will ever have, so let's start it happening here.  

Read more: 

Dananananaykroyd MySpace page

We don’t really like people sending us messages telling us how awesome a band’s friends think they are. Usually a band’s mates have been bribed with jelly sweets to win their praise. Even if they’re shit. So when we got a mini message from a band called Trifonic saying we’d like them because we were fans of Four Tet, we naturally took a listen. And we liked what we heard so much, we thought we’d share it with you.

Nowadays, the term electronica seems to mean as much as err… “Pasta.” There are plenty of different types and variety of the same labelled product. Was that a good comparison? Probably not, but it’ll have to do. Basically, there’s lots of variety to be found, and each person has an individual taste as to what they find tasty and appealing.

The calmer, mellow and chilled side of the electronic genre is out to play here. Perfect for listening to as the Sun’s orange glow breaks across the blue and white background, it’s just the sort of music needed for summer. Soothing, ambient and the soundtrack for a lazy day out. Be it at the beach or at an evening BBQ just before you’re served up a selection of uncooked salmonella-laden chicken, sausages and burgers. We can’t really think of anything to listen to as your insides are pushed out your arse as the night continues.

There are plenty of influences from indie, pop and various dance outfits. Out of the six tracks up on their MySpace player, we got the feeling of a track being too similar to the previous one, or a carbon copy of someone else. If anything the track Lies is something that Portishead would have been proud to put out. The vocals are distinctive and fit perfectly with the woozy, laid back soundscape.

Now, we all know that Radiohead did their own adventurous thing with the release of In Rainbows. Whilst Trifonic aren’t quite offering the same scheme, there are a variety of payment plans on the band’s website. Amongst options to buy a physical copy of the album, there are also other options to get your hands on an album full of gorgeous tracks. Yes you can get it for free, but why not just spend a little bit of money on a sound investment? It’s not going to bankrupt you and if anything it’ll payroll the two brothers making this music, thus helping them to carry on and create more.

In a time when music is screaming out for creativity and interesting new artists, hecklerspray has found an act that fits that description. We want to find more of these guys and not be force-fed dire indie pop that is apparently cool and hip. Or as we call it, music for posers in coffee bars.

Drifting around the sunny shores of California, the next step for Trifonic is to use the old fashioned “hassle” approach. Sending a few demo CDs to the odd alternative radio and TV station will surely do them no harm. They’ve got the songs, ideas and creative flair. We just hope they reach a wider audience than the murky world of MySpace.

For More:

Trifonic on MySpace

Last week’s recommendation of chiptune seemed to annoy a few people and get too nerdy and technical for our liking. Seriously, if something made out of a razor blade, phonebook and a mobile phone makes us feel grooved up, we’ll listen. We’re only snobby about our crisps. If they ain’t Walker’s cheese and onion, they simply won’t do darling.

Because it seems a few folk were pissed off with a few bleepy sounds and beats, we thought this week we’d give you the chance to listen to a band that pushes all boundaries. Be it their tasteful name or song subject matter. We believe everyone will love a slab of sheer anger from Anal Cunt. Or send us sackfuls of hate-filled comments because its not the sort of music that would appear on Skins. Boo fucking hoo.

Anal Cunt produce music that makes every supposed hardcore punk look like a little fairy who prances around with cupcakes whilst riding on a rainbow in pixie land.

Normal service may be resumed next week. Unless you want more of this?

For more:

Anal Cunt MySpace page

Here at hecklerspray towers, we love everyone. Especially those who occasionally send us free things. Random presents are always appreciated, be it boxes of crisps or half-drunk bottles of wine.

One thing we don’t like is when big artists treat everyone else like dog doo. You may be a multi-platinum superstar, but nothing angers us more when someone pushes in front of us at the pub. That is unless you’re buying something for us. Even still, we prefer artists who firstly make great music and wouldn’t mind talking to us before/after a gig. We think David E Sugar would.

Sometimes it’s cool to like certain genres/artists. At one point, we couldn’t get to the corner shop for our fizzy pop due to a swarm of Slipknot fans. Everywhere we looked there was something to do with the naff overhyped noisy act. From belts to hoodies, lunchboxes, t-shirts and socks, no clothing garment was safe from the image of a mutilated clown.

Dance/electronic music has been helped by bands like The Klaxons and their use in Skins. But the crossover of genres has never really cemented them as firmly dance or just a group of stupid blokes with guitars and the occasional synthesiser. It has been hard to find an accessible dance-sounding artist who’s not the sound of two genres fighting together.

Messing around with all sorts of dance genres from sleazy electro to chip tune and slabs of ambiance, David E Sugar is clearly having a good time and can successfully make music of conflicting styles. Our favourite isn’t even a song on his page. Well, that’s a slight lie. If you scroll down and look on the left hand side, there are a few music videos. Click on the third one and listen to the brilliant We Weren’t Put Together. It’s a mental-sounding chip tune combining a rough techno edge with hints of guitar and lyrics that we can only assume talk about shitty times.

Whilst that particular song is a little harder then the rest, the four remaining tracks are a lot more chilled and relaxed. To Yourself is an ace electro song that just needs one play on a populist radio show to gain an insane amount of interest. Whilst we don’t like comparing people, imagine the sound of David E Sugar to Hot Chip if they lost half of their members but are still able to keep a crowd dancing in a sweaty compact club at daft o’clock in the morning.

Footage of him in action can be seen in one of his blog. It may be from a few years ago, but a man making live sounds from Gameboys, laptops and other confusing-looking instruments is more then what we could ever do.

For more:

David E Sugar MySpace page

Over the last year and a bit, the UK has spat out quite a few of these creatures that have gone on to sell many records. And subsequently make some fat man in a suit rich enough so he can wipe his arse with £20 notes.

Most of them, though, have come from the bloody Brit School of music. This place is worse than Borstal in terms of unleashing dangerous musical predators on to the street. Frankly, we are a bit sick of one place churning out the same thing. It stops other females such as the already trawled Beth Rowley and Laura Marley a look in.

Such dominance from the same band of artists also stops top class foreign females from getting an airplay. So this is why we have to bring Lykke Li to your attention.

Coming from the wonderful land of Sweden, Lykke Li, aka Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, has her songs on permanent rotation in our small and smelly workplace. We don’t really know how to describe the sound, but her voice is something else. At only 21, she can sing like the stuff of legends. Her gorgeous subtle tones will make you stop and listen as they edge over a bed of mixed sounds.

One of the main reasons why we like Lykke Li so much is because of her lyrics. Over in the UK, we are constantly hearing sodding Lily Allen and Kate Nash bang on about how crap their lives are and how men are total tossers. Great if you love diluted feminism for an idiot generation. But there is no real feeling of heart and soul in what they sing about in their annoying cockney accents. Amy Winehouse, on the other hand, is more famous for being a quivering drug-addled skeleton than for any of her actual songs.

Just listening to any of the tracks from Lykke Li shows a girl with her head screwed on straight who’s in it for the music, not the fame and celebrity status. As we listen to tracks like Tonight for the millionth time, we can’t help wonder why someone like this hasn’t shone in from the UK who hasn’t had to win it through a talent show or has battled through the live circuit like most indie bands have.

Tonight is a simple piano ballad with soaring vocals that is simply just fucking amazing. It is also available for download, and we really urge you to partially own something that oozes in warmth, beauty and soul. If this track isn’t used in some TV/film scene where everyone is a bit weepy, then some music executives need to look somewhere else for a job. What makes it even better is the fact it’s a demo.

A steady and brisk drum tap is all that’s needed on Dance Dance Dance with a gentle pluck of a guitar. Combine some wonky sounding brass towards the end and it makes for a different sound that just seems to complement her vocals perfectly. This is our favorite song to listen to that is available on her MySpace, and it is on her soon to be released album, Youth Novels.

With loads of tour dates around America and Europe to support the records release, you’d be a bit daft to miss out on seeing her live. With a voice like this, it’ll only sound better live then on a slightly compressed record.

For more:

Lykke Li MySpace

For this week’s musical offering, we remain in Manchester. Everyone loves Manchester; it gave us Oasis who made two decent albums many years ago. We also got a comedy grump in the form of Morrissey. The meat hating rocker has many a follower.

But those two particular artists lack a certain sound. It’s the hint of any electronics, or if you’d prefer to call them, ‘those computer-sounding bits.’ Ever since New Order got all pissy with each other, the city needs a new dominating electronic-influenced band. We may have just found one with Daggers.

While we’d like to say one day that we were the voice that elevated Daggers into the mainstream, we have to be honest and say that the big boys in the media have already beaten us to it. Among their fans are The Independent, The Guardian and, to a lesser extent, the NME.

So what has generated the band so much attention? Unlike some bands that are more popular for their haircuts and blinding coloured trousers, Daggers have a self-dubbed Disco House sound going on. Yup, it may be another confusing genre, but we can sum it up pretty easily for you. Be it a real genre or not, it’s plain and simply fun. Not only is the music catchy, but overpowering on synths or guitars. It’ll also get all the kids up and dancing at the local disco – be it an indie shindig or a rave up in a barn.

Usually we don’t pick bands with only a few songs on their MySpace page. But we are so impressed by them we thought we’d do so anyway. And it helps that the available remixes are all top notch. The two studio tracks are a DJ’s dream to mess around with. Each part of the song has something that can be manipulated and turned into something else.

After Midnight has all the potential for a progressive dream and base remix or even a chunky breakbeat number. We do get strong feelings of New Order when listening to this song. The entire nu-rave scene is dogged by bands overusing their Korgs and samplers and simply sounding like a second-rate dance act. Daggers don’t fall in to this trap, in fact they make other electro pop bands sound daft and bereft of ideas.

It’ll be a travesty if Daggers don’t burst through into the mainstream. In their favour, they are from Manchester which is always full of A&R men looking for the next big thing. However, we’ve always found that when people say “that bad from Manchester is ace,” they are usually talking shit. Too many bands from cities with historic musical backgrounds automatically assume they will get somewhere. Listening to this band, though, they could be from any old shithole and still ride high – their sound is that bloody good.

If you live in York, Sheffield or Manchester then you can go and see them for yourself! They are on tour towards the end of this month and if their energetic sound is already capturing our imaginations thanks to a few badly compressed MP3s, a live gig should be a hundred times better.

For more:

Daggers MySpace page

But then we realised we’d already reviewed Underworld in October, so doing it a few months later would be daft. And we couldn’t be bothered with the random and strange abusive comments we’d probably be left. But that’s a slight lie. This briefer-than-normal trawl will bang on a bit about our live encounter with Yoav.

Because we’re naive, we presumed Underworld would bring some sort of electronic band/artist with them. We were wrong. Instead of practising our dance moves, we were simply greeted with one man and his guitar. Instead of another dire James Blunt or James Morrison, though, we were presented with a man who was smacking his guitar like a drum, sampling the noise and building layer upon layer of up-tempo noise. Chopping bits out and mixing bits in with ease via his guitar pedals, he quickly got the crowd interested in what he was doing. That was our blind introduction to Yoav and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Checking him out online at his MySpace doesn’t disappoint either. A good variety of songs from an acoustic-based artist is always a positive start. We would go on a bit more, but we’ll let you listen blind to him just like we did.  

Read more: 

Yoav MySpace