DEMO: ILLNESS (www.myspace.com/illnessband)
There’s something absolutely brilliant about Illness. There’s something brilliant about a band who sends you a CDR covered in marker pen with scribbled out logos, a letter written in green felt tip capitals and a demo that sounds like it was recorded on a broken cassette recorder in the corner of some pizza box-strewn room. Just guitar and drums, you might think they were halfway through auditioning for the rest of the band and just thought “ah, fuck it.” In fact, we hope this was the case. They’re looking for support slots and while they wouldn’t take up much room on the stage, they make a hell of a noise. Love it. (NC)

DEMO: NULLIFIER (www.myspace.com/nullifiermotherfucker)
If Tangerine Dream were sped up, dragged through a puddle and fed through a Commodore 64 they might end up sounding a bit like this. My Device’s Todd and Jim of Tumbledown Estate have gone intergalactic, donned silver space suits (spiritually, if not physically) and teamed up to bring us Nullifier’s glorious melodies and stomping electronic rhythms which render sitting still impossible; throw in a whistling solo and this year’s catchiest choruses and we’ve got an indie-space-disco riot on our hands. (LB)

DEMO: THE SHOESTRUNG (http://www.myspace.com/theshoestrung)
“We’re too young too have a biog,” says The Shoestrung’s MySpace admirably. And having caught them playing rock’n’roll song in the street for change and fun, we’d say that was right. But there are already good songs and a loose bluesy take on the 50s sound that’s coming through at the moment. Bleed Steam For Blood builds to a sloppy crescendo, and there are plenty of layers of harmonica, cymbals and guitars across the other four tracks. We hear that they’re off to London soon, so catch them before their pavements turn gold. (JK)

DEMO: TROUSSEAUX (www.myspace.com/trousseaux)
A dramatic Anglo-French audio alliance, Trousseaux make a cerebral and sinister sound experience that tends towards a rather unnerving listen. It’s a swathe of synthesizers cut across eerie Kubrickian piano and fuzzed out guitars, while singer Virginie threatens ever so sweetly over the top in trans-channel tongues. This doesn’t sound like the kind of band you can talk through at the bar, they simply demands a hundred percent of your attention. They’ve apparently done a couple of Brighton gigs recently, only we hadn’t heard of them then. Next time. (NC)

DEMO: IAIN WOODS (www.myspace.com.iainwoods)
Wee Iain Woods (he’s only 21, bless him) calls his brand of dirty pop ‘groul’; a compound of grimey soul; but such a tiny word absolutely fails to sum up the far-reaching ambition of his debut release, The Stanislavky EP. At times this is a darker, dubbier Hercules and Love Affair complete with richly fragile Antony Hegarty-style vocals; at other moments the record channels early blues and gospel, particularly evident in standout track Gospel (Fuck the Phelps). Woods’ grand aspirations are impressive, more so because he surpasses them on more than one occasion – it will be interesting to see how this translates on stage. (LB)