On her Facebook page self-declared misanthrope Cathi Bruns cites Tracy Chapman as one of her influences. Vocally she shares the same urgent vulnerability but overall my ears and heart detect a closer similarity with Tina Dico, taking the hemp out of folk music, replacing it with pop sensibilities and more personal thoughts.

Over is the excellent lead-off from her debut living-room-recorded album Inner Radio and begins with thoughtful guitar twangs and strums before the song bursts forth. The beauty of this song is revealed inside the unexpected two-stage chorus.

Inner Radio – Amie Street Music Store
Cathi Bruns – MySpace
Cathi Bruns – Facebook

PS: Inner Radio is also an album for those who like Liz Tormes, Sofia Talvik, Säkert! or Hello Saferide.

‘Is that it?’ I asked myself, while listening to the latest installment in Trent Reznor’s disruption of the music industry. Perhaps I’m in a mental over-extension, treating albums that are 44 minutes in length as mere EPs in comparison with Ghost’s 36 tracks. But I think this is in part to the galloping beats that dominate much of The Slip.

The other part is that while The Slip is a great consequence of the creation of Ghosts, it doesn’t Climax enough. Maybe it shouldn’t. The appropriately titled Discipline is the best merger of the clatter and flow of Ghosts, matching corrosive drum exercises and noisy guitars with a single piano line that provides the female yin to the others’ yang.

The Slip – Download

In the context of the Beautiful So Far album and probably much of her work, Closer is a micro-ballad – being just a tick-tock beat and electric organ to accompany Bertine’s aching tale of love, loss and desire, best summed up in the refrain ‘Feel me / Heal me / Soothe me / Breathe me’.

Beautiful So Far – iTunes UK

When Terami Hirsch announced her side project Story of My Ghost last year, I was rather taken with the meeting of typewriter rhythms, breakbeats and piano of Checkerboard. (Listening to it now reminds me of someone else, particularly during its quieter moments.) I didn’t expect so much edginess in her fourth album A Broke Machine – perhaps I should have read her blog post more carefully.

At the moment A Broke Machine lives in the section of my brain labelled ‘Interesting..’ which means it will get listened to far more often than if it lived the almost-identically-named ‘Interesting’ section.

Wasteland ties filtered industrial broken beats to the legs of one of the prettier ballads on the album and together they jump around like a new born lamb. That means I like it.

Terami Hirsch Official Website
A Broke Machine – Terami.com
A Broke Machine – iTunes UK

Without each other, country music and rock music wouldn’t get a look-in here. Kathleen Edwards is the only artist I know who can blend them together in such a way that enchants me. I’m not sure which genre takes the lead, it doesn’t matter. Her third album, Asking for Flowers, released over the pond last month, is now available in the UK. Whilst it doesn’t have the rocking highs of previous albums, nor should it given its subject matter, it’s altogether her most accomplished work – every song is essential.

Asking for Flowers – iTunes UK
Amazon UK
Official Website
MySpace

If you like your music in a Cat Power / Mazzy Star mash-up style, but several magnitudes quieter and more delicate, The Brooke will be your tea bag. As one of my Last.fm friends says “Everyone should be listening to The Brooke” – and he’s right:

Wobbly Boat (Demo 1):

Official Website
The Brooke YouTube Channel
The Brooke Last.fm – for free music!

Jo Gabriel’s forthcoming Fools and Orphans could well turn out to be her signature album. Whilst it bears elements from her previous releases and may be open to inevitable musical comparisons, what’s exhibited in these new songs is fiercely individual and nothing short of staggering: musically inventive and lyrically impressive.

Like all of the tracks, Of Love and Ether has this paradox of richness and sparsity – in this instance bringing together a duo of string instruments (and birdsong) to join Jo’s piano and unique voice in a delicate yet powerfully emotive poem.

Fools and Orphans has an artist’s limited release from 7 May through Ephemera and will also be released in Winter 2008 through Kalinkaland.

Jo Gabriel – Official Website
Jo Gabriel – MySpace

M83’s second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts passed me by. It nestles in my collection – a quiet existence, undisturbed by such demands as being listened to. Truth is it disengaged me. Perhaps the context that I yearn for in listening wasn’t there that critical first time.

Saturdays = Youth is a different matter. This album inevitably hooks into the continued rebirth of shoegaze, but time travels a quarter of century into the past and in doing so removes the word ‘shoe’, because this is music so shimmering and reflective that it feels like standing in a wind tunnel full of stars.

Much of my change of heart is to do with the arrangements – more songs, more structure and vocals. Guest appearances from Morgan Kibby ride beautifully alongside Anthony Gonzalez’s breathy vocals. Skin of the Night is one such occasion – it devastates musically and emotionally. In amongst these mid-teen desires, the micro-dramas, the angst.. there is bliss.

Saturdays = Youth – iTunes UK