Quite a surprise all round on the winner on the Mercury Music Prize with Speech Debelle, who many considered to be the token urban act, came through and picked up the prize. Whilst her album doesn’t always hot the right notes with me I do appreciate what she’s doing surrounding herself with great musicians and bringing hip hop away from the pure production studio environment that has defined it for much of recent history. It’s a airy, breezy acid jazz to all intents and purposes, with Speech Debelle throwing some …

You have to hand it to the French for putting Sebastien Tellier on Eurovision and throwing a decent tune at the competition back in 2008. He may not have won but anything that will get his music in front of more people can only be good news.
The man himself is back with the last 12″ release from the wonderful Sexuality in the form of Fingers of Steel/L’Amour et La Violence EP, which you can pick up looking pretty on pink vinyl. Now Fingers of Steel is good tune with the …

“Just let the comets lead the way,” sing Fanfarlo on this album’s fourth track, ‘Comet’, and indeed this is perhaps the best advice to be given to listeners of the band. Here is a group of musicians full of colour, beauty and energy in its melodic offerings, and the London five-piece are totally awe-inducing and reverent in their refusal to stop at boundaries that other less eclectic bands have drawn.
Fanfarlo easily slip a unique and raw vocals depth alongside violin melodies that send shivers down your spine. Their songs range …