Listening to math rock band Battles’ debut full length album Mirrored brings with it the realisation that the majority of western popular music is the result of 12 tones repeatedly organised by tradition and convention. Whilst Mirrored never obviously escapes into the world of microtuning, there’s enough mis-invention to allow your musical senses to become reset. The rhythms, tunes and vocals are surprising, and on repeated listens you start to become accustomed to the ways that each track evolves. It’s not in the slightest bit unlistenable – friends and neighbours may think otherwise.

French punk from four nineteen-year-old women. It’s a stark reminder of the debt owed to popular music by the movement that broke (away from) the indulgences of long haired prog-rock. There’ll be more of this from France in the coming years. Plastiscines add genuine musicality, fun, and some lovely harmonies to make something a bit different from tedious protopunk and new rave xeroxisms.

[LP1: Amazon UK]
[iTunes UK]

Hello Saferide’s Annika Norlin released her new album in February 2007. The eponymous Säkert! is her first album in Swedish. Consequently, I haven’t a clue what she’s singing about, but that doesn’t really matter, because this language provides a new aspect to Annika’s voice. The musical style is the similar, but veers towards C86 power pop in places. Är du fortfarande arg? is however purely indie introspective with its simple guitar lines and piano.

[Klicktrack Music Store]

One of the most incredible things you can do with a song is start off very small and quiet. And stay that way. Subtle variations in volume, or an alteration to the way an instrument is played can be surprisingly effective. Essie Jain’s track Glory begins and ends small and quiet. The middle’s the same too. But the additional voice, tiniest supporting guitar lines, and the almost-absent ambient musical washes build something powerful. You might even hear Hugo Largo. It’s brilliant.

You can listen to Glory on Essie Jain’s website or better still, buy the album
We Made This Ourselves from iTunes.

I remember the first time that music really challenged me. Not the Throwing Muses epiphany which just swept into my soul like it was always meant to belong there. Rather the time I saw My Bloody Valentine supporting Pixies at one of the International clubs in Manchester during the late 1980s. I’d never heard their queasy drug-influenced love songs before, thus I was pretty repulsed by the sound, as were my flat mates. However, three days after the gig, I was longing to hear more. And, yes, after buying Isn’t Anything, I continued to be repulsed but intrigued for weeks, until all the conflicts and ambiguities resolved themselves in my head. I’ve been told by some that the Throwing Muses experience can be much the same.

Shara Worden’s solo project My Brightest Diamond isn’t anything like that. She’s a classically trained opera vocalist, bringing those skills and range to artful indie rock. This debut album, Bring Me the Workhorse (as My Brightest Diamond) reminded me of that first encounter with My Bloody Valentine. “Oh yes, this is going to be fun,” I thought, because I know where the journey will take me. Every listen generates more Tetris blocks for me to assemble, with bonuses along the way for each completed row.

You can put your hand down now.

[iTunes UK]
[Amazon]

Spooky. Not this song, you understand. But many weeks and months ago, for some reason that I cannot recall, I put Anna Nalick’s Wreck of the Day album on my Amazon wishlist. I probably put it there during some random link clicking on Last.fm. Anyway, today I find a remix of the opening track turned up on A State of Trance’s Top 20 of 2006.

[Amazon UK – Import]

This is taken from So This Is Goodbye, the Hamilton, Ontario duo’s second album, just released. And it’s phenomenal. Having three remarkable techno / pop albums released in one year is great news. (The other two are The Knife’s Silent Shout and Ellen Allien and Apparat’s Orchestra of Bubbles)

On first listen, First Time is a bit fey, but by the time it ends, it demands to be listened to a second time.

This is music for your soul, or maybe it’s just for mine.

By rights, Painted By Numbers should be the prime track of the day. Or, better still, all of the tracks on The Sounds’ second album Dying to Say This to You, should be. allmusic included this album in their lengthy lists of best albums released in the first half of 2006. Quite correctly, their review includes the following words:

• Hooky
• Compelling
• Sassy
• Synthesizers
• Spunky
• Fun

Here’s one they don’t mention: Blondie.