Probably the best kept secret of 2007, if the number of listeners on Last.fm is anything to go by. Liz Tormes ‘rocks’ according to her website, but if she does, she does so in the most understated way.

Crossing the boundaries between alt-country, first-generation Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star, plus the aforementioned rockisms – subtly blending noisy fizzing guitars with their acoustic neighbours, plus piano and organ, her songs and her voice are warm and inviting.

Maybe You Won’t comes from her self-produced and self-released debut album Limelight. It features vocals from Teddy Thompson and cuts back the instrumentation to drive the rhythm and hint at the melody which is carried by Liz and Teddy’s voices.

Liz Tormes’ website
Limelight – iTunes Plus UK
Limelight – CD Baby

Northsea’s remix takes Slippershell’s vocals and bells then scatters gentle nuzzlings of IDM over them like a winter’s snow shower. Part of the recently launched KristinHersh-RW section of CASH Music.

Listen here.

The first release from Kristin Hersh’s CASH Music project. Here’s the general idea:

Every month, CASH Music brings you Kristin’s newest recordings in several formats including lossless audio. For each song, Kristin also provides lyric sheets and a “Works in Progress” demo version of each song. Kristin also offers her songs to the CASH community in “Read-Write” format — by making available her Pro Tools mix stems!

Subscription opportunities exist at either $10 or $30 per quarter.

There are also sponsorship opportunities, ranging from ‘Studio Level Support’ so you can visit a recording session, to ‘Executive Producer’, which includes an Executive Producer credit on Kristin’s next CD (not sure about this one, because it seems as detached as Executive Producer credits in TV shows, unless such sponsors can shout ‘no, no, we need to get Tanya to do backing vocals! Give me the phone, now, dammit!’)

Oh, you’ll want the download links too: here they are.

I’ll say it again: when you have something to release, release it. The old model of teasing post-production doesn’t work. If you want to tease, do so during production. This can apply to electronics manufacturers, software developers, and particularly one other group: musicians.

Leading on from my post yesterday, suppose you rather like Bodyrox’s new tune What Planet U On? Maybe you’ve heard it on the radio, or watched the rather day-glo kitschy video for it? Perhaps you’d like to (gasp) buy it?

You can’t: Amazon lists it as being released 7 January 2008. This despite the fact I’ve been hearing this for at least a month.

So what’s a boy to do? Find an unauthorised download? Be happy that it can be watched on YouTube (especially now that he has an iPhone)? Find a torrent for it?

Well, he certainly can’t buy it.

For those who know this track, yes, that’s the clean title. Dutch DJ Junkie XL continues his legendary career with – in this comprehensively remixed format – a progressive trance number featuring vocals from Lauren Rocket (who sounds a bit like a weedy Luciana Caporaso – think Bodyrox’s Yeah Yeah et. al.) The original version is typically confrontational, but if you like harmonica-organ riffs, you’ll love this remix.

iTunes UK

Laurent Véronnez’s Planisphere project has spawned three versions of its latest album. This is a live two hour mix that successfully re-imagines and remixes the original and remixed tracks (plus some older tracks) into a beautifully constructed seamless piece of music. Borrowing heavily from the ambient trance style of his Airwave project, this mix nicely warms up the chilled nature of Solarism but never to the extent that it becomes too heavily dance-oriented.

Unfortunately, I’m too unfamiliar with Solarism to pick out every track, but suffice it to say that the drop of No Sugar Added makes me a very happy bunny. Probably the best dance (remix) album of 2007 and ideal for Sundays.

Solarism (Hybrid Edition) – iTunes Plus

Disappointed that Morcheeba went drippy, repetitive and uninspiring after their second album? Missing the soul in trip-hop? Try Gothenburg’s Little Dragon.

Scribble Paper is the extraordinary final track on their eponymous debut, borrowing the strings and upright bass from a thousand 4 Hero songs, then diverting them through Sufi-style chill out, William Orbit bleeps and late-night jazz ramblings. Yukimi Nagano’s vocals lightens the mix, making this six minute song far too short.

iTunes UK
Amazon UK

My music jury is out on this song from M.I.A.’s new album Kala – an album which was left un-iTuned on my desktop for months. I think perhaps it’s intended for those people who don’t know what M.I.A. is really about, because whilst Kala is more approachable than the one tone melodies that ruled Arular (think two and three tones instead for Kala), Jimmy is shockingly commercial Bollywood disco.