US indie rock seems to be flourishing underground these days and Flat Worms are another welcome addition to the party. Energy levels are high throughout this cracking debut which is rooted somewhere between Scottish power pop and North-American garage grot - check out PAWS' majestic 'Cokefloat' album from 2012 for a similar example. The hooks hit the ceiling on every track and you can picture the band banging out these tunes with big smiles on their faces. There might not be any cash in making music like this any more but you'll be making people very happy if you're this good at it.
It seems to have been universally acknowledged that the only appropriate soundtrack 2017 is angst-ridden introversion. In which case Alestorm's preposterous pirate metal is about as far out of synch with the times as you can get, and all the better off for it in my view. 'No Grave But The Sea' is another giddy platter of keytar-led party tunes bolstered by huge choruses, massive riffs and a refreshingly silly sense of humour. There's shades of The Darkness here but these guys know their metal well enough to avoid descending into self parody. If you're anything like me this will make your year.
Cristiano Crisci aka Clap Clap is based in Italy but his musical inspiration is straight out of Afrika-ka-kaa. 'A Thousand Skies' eschews straightforward sampling and instead incorporates the colour and spirit of its source material into a spicy blend of global influences that Gilles Peterson would go wild for. There's a skill in filtering these ingredients in to sit side by side with your own influences and Crisci's spot on with his execution here - I hate to talk about 'fusion' but you know what I mean. This is intriguing, complex and above all hugely danceable. Even Paul Simon likes it!
Switzerland's Adieu Gary Cooper sound like they'd be perfectly at home on French mainstream radio but there's a knack for writing crafty pop hooks and an embrace of melody that should see them win fans in a much wider sphere. Bands singing in French can often view their choice of language as a barrier to overseas success but these guys aren't afraid to let their mother tongue define their sound and lead them through ten monstrous potential singles that'll stay in your head all day regardless of whether you understand the lyrics. 'Outsider's delivers maximum enjoyment for minimum effort.
Fancy a Fjaak? You will when you hear this! These boys are a trio of Berlin-bred studio boffins who over five years of experimental noodling have finally settled on a signature sound that owes as much to their hometown's cold Techno clunk and Eastern-bloc analogue stylings as it does to the slow building festival epics of the Chemical Brothers and Underworld. They travel between 3am anaesthetic bleep ('Snow') to full on capture and release bangers ('Fast Food', 'Against The Clock') with the grace of seasoned craftsmen so for a debut release this is a startlingly accomplished package.
Akercocke breathed new life into the British Death Metal scene at the turn of the millennium with a string of elegantly ferocious albums before calling it quits ten years ago. The thrills served up by their newer projects always threatened to lead them back to another collective trip to the underworld and this stonking comeback completes the circle. Their Satanic bombast remains as unsettling as ever but the boys' musical chops have gotten even slicker and the new stuff flows like late period Chuck Shuldiner or Megadeth at their most labyrinthine. They still have the devil in their fingers.
The interface of Africa's vast musical landscape with Western stylings is often reduced to self-consciously eclectic hybrids but you'll need no background knowledge to get into this one. Ibibio Sound Machine have one foot in London and the other in Nigeria and play to the strengths of both sides with the smooth UK studio production allowing the West African funk influences and buoyant delivery to hit home from the first note. There's shades of Sly Stone, 80's funk and even 'Thriller' era MJ in here and vocalist Eno Williams is surely one break away from global superstardom. Groovy stuff.
Based purely on the title of the band/album I was expecting a deafening barrage of militaristic steroid Techno here and whilst the end product is lean and drilled to perfection the execution is more graceful bob and weave than full frontal assault. Bicep are two barry blokes from Belfast with expansive musical imaginations and a refreshingly short attention span - they cover a lot of ground here whilst maintaining a tight turning circle as they switch lanes between jarring breakbeat, sub-bass shudder and mid-90s Glastotechno. Dextrous, emphatic and fresh as it comes.
Last year's 'Liquid Cool' struck a perfect balance between late 80s R'n'B and modern day dream pop so when LA's Ramona Gonzalez dropped the follow up just over a year later I was bracing myself for mild disappointment. Thankfully she's kept her lens clean and if anything the cuts here are sweeter and smoother this time round. 'Real High' rubs up even closer to the loved-up glow of classic Strictly Rhythm soul - my missus thinks it sounds like Toni Braxton and she's not far wrong. If 'Liquid Cool' was your soundtrack to the wee small hours then cue this one up for the long glorious lie-in afterwards.
I follow Justin Broadrick's musical output closely not just for musical reasons but for an insight into how to approach life. His spectrum for expression takes in everything from violent nihilism to serene introspection with disarming precision and each record is the soundtrack to a new era. His decision to reanimate the Godflesh project a couple of years back tallies neatly with technology's resurgent role as source of modern day anxiety and 'Post Self' gives way to greater use of electronics in its exploration of humanity's friction with the digital world. His input remains as vital as ever.
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