ALBUM: ANAGRAMS •
We Form A Shelter (Aspidistra)
Bands seem not to describe themselves as ‘indie’ too much these days – usually keener to ascribe something more arch or post-modern to their sound. But Anagrams take the term back and run with it. This debut album was largely self-recorded in a local school hall, but rather than bringing any sonic constraint this frugal approach has resulted in some beautifully resonant acoustics, a real room-filling sound that hints at future venue-packing success. Some great songs, with some lovely structural builds, make us want to hear more. (NC)

ALBUM: ESBEN ANDTHE WITCH •
Violet Cries (Matador)
Since, and, ahem, principally because of, appearing on our cover exactly one year ago, the Esbens have elevated beyond local hopefuls into a national prospect. The BBC included them in their Sound Of 2011 poll and they narrowly missed out on a Q Magazine ‘Next Big Thing’ award. This astonishing sounding debut album fulfills all this promise and more – it’s a haunting and ethereal take on gothic pomposity that ramps the horror atmosphere to the max, with swirling loops of vocal extremity amid caustic crashes and amplified nightmares. You won’t exactly be whistling any of the tunes, but this will still knock you sideways. (NC)

ALBUM: SHONA FOSTER •
The Moon & You (Beach Hut •)
The last couple of years have seen a resurgence of accomplished female vocals, repeated affirmation that it needn’t all be Cheryl and Gaga pulp pap. Shona Foster is the latest to stick her flag on the summit of atmospheric pop. Occasionally vocally redolent of Beth Gibbons, it’s backed with a fully rounded band, taking in dramatic baroque, simple folk and psyche wig-outs – successfully ambitious in the scope of the sound yet retaining a definite keen eye on accessibility. (NC)

ALBUM: MIRRORS •
Lights And Offerings (Skint •)
In all the years of SOURCE, no band has enjoyed the unanimous love of the staff as much as Mirrors. They ran away with our 2010 writers’ choice top spot in December – one writer even took a self-funded trip to Germany to see them live. It’s perhaps odd for an album to have so much internal office hype to live up to, but we’ve all been really, really looking forward to this. We already knew all the tracks individually, but as a debut body of work this is simply peerless – layers of electronics providing a soulful warmth and atmospheric accompaniment to dramatic and epic songs, making up a package that’s long outgrown its lazy comparisons with synth pop’s ancestry. It’s brilliant. (NC)

ALBUM: BEN OTTEWELL •
Shapes And Shadows (Eat Sleep)
The songwriter and distinctive voice of Mercury-bagging indie shamblers Gomez finally releases his debut solo album. Five years in the making, it’s generally a move away from the full band sound of Gomez, happier to exist in more sumptuous simplicity. There’s no sparseness to the arrangement though, it’s room-filling epic balladry with lush strings peppering the mix. It sounds like the songwriting contribution from Tuung’s Sam Genders has helped the music find its own identity outside of Gomez, while obviously retaining a definite vocal familiarity. (NC)

ALBUM: WILDCOOKIE
Cookie Dough (Tru Thoughts •)The Freddie Cruger (aka Red Astaire)
Concerned with making this record isn’t a teen-slaying pizza face from the movies, but the tunes at his fingertips are as sharp as knives. Alongside vocal collaborator Anthony Mills, who’s sung on records from Winehouse to KRS-One, he’s made an album that takes in soul, hip hop and r’n’b via breaks, beats and sweet synths – all with that hypnotic voice pulling it together with the sweetest melodies – often freestyled on the spot. Get the free digital single ‘Heroine’ from wildwookie.bandcamp.com. (NC)

ALBUM: ENSEMBLE
Excerpts (FatCat •)
Montreal resident Olivier Alary’s Ensemble takes the bilingual watermark of his origins and spreads its disparate musical and lyrical reference points liberally across this fine and beguiling album. Orchestral and cinematic in tone, it nevertheless treads a decidedly poppy and accessible path, helped along by the honeyed vocals of long term collaborator Darcy Conroy. Interestingly, for a record so layered with contributory studio elements it’s recorded entirely organically, with no recourse to sampling or software of any kind, allowing the richness of the musical textures to the fore. (NC)

DEMO OF THE MONTH:THE FORESTEARS •
(myspace.com/forestears)
A pair of tracks arrived from this local outfit, presenting the light and shade of the band’s repertoire. ‘Tally Ho’ fittingly leads the charge, a Leveller-y stomp nicely brightened by some stirring brass. ‘Messiah’ takes the tempo down somewhat allowing the vocal more of a centre stage against a shuffling beat. Again the brass adds an individual polish to the track, uncomplicated in arrangement but the perfect condiment to the main dish. Promising stuff. (NC)

SINGLE: MATT FINUCANE •
Wet Dream Disaster (Light Crude)
With his eerily unromantic refrain of “show us yer sex face” and the unfortunate titular nocturnal teenage trauma, it’s perhaps unwise to expect much bedroom finesse from Mr Finucane. The song is billed as an edgy confessional; we couldn’t really piece together too much of the narrative to that end, but it’s presented with a nice laid-back guitar groove that you’ll find tricky to prise yourself away from. Rather like Matt’s sheets, in fact. (NC)

SINGLE: LANU feat. MEGAN WASHINGTON
Beautiful Trash (Tru Thoughts •)
This was an unexpected piece of unadulterated pop from Tru Thoughts, not in some awful Saturdays expression of the genre, more like if someone like Sheryl Crow had a cooler husband with a killer record collection that she soaked up through domestic osmosis. No irony, no post modern edge, just a great optimistic pop song with a hook that Captain Hook himself would look enviously at. It’s followed next month by an album, ‘Her 12 Faces’ – look out for it. It could well be the long-awaited sound of the spring. (NC)

EP: CRYPSIS •
Choir For The Carrion (myspace.com/crypsismetal)
Thrash metal isn’t something we seem to get sent too much of – a less worldly-wise SOURCE person might think there was no metal around anymore. But the Lectern and the Hobgoblin of old would insist otherwise, and here’s a pretty decent local example. Crypsis systematically yet non-cynically tick off the thrash wishlist – guitar duels powered by virtuosity and velocity, angry-as-fuck vocals and just the right amount of Mötley Crüe swagger to sidestep the po-faced potential of the genre. We bet they’re ace live. (NC)

EP: LIONS ARE SMARTER THAN I AM
Pop Idle (myspace.com/lionsaresmarterthaniam)
It seems this local trio may in fact be smarter than a pack of wild cats. Here’s an EP bursting with promise and what sounds like a similarly bursting pedal board. A post-rock band with influences from Mogwai, but a sound distinctly their own. A lack of structure to the songs creates the occasional unexpected turn into distortion wonderland, but in this case, that’s not a bad thing at all. ‘Twenty one, Thirty one’ is track of the record, order in chaos defined. (JC)

EP: LOST TWIN •
Saskatchewan Suite (myspace.com/losttwinmusic)
Seville-born, Brighton-based Lost Twin has been popping up all over the city in the past few months, and his new four-track EP ‘Saskatchewan Suite’ has just been released for free download (tinyurl.com/losttwindownload), and well worth a download it is. A glorious amalgamation of fractured drums, haunting vocals, hip-hop beats and high orchestral sounds, this EP demonstrates huge potential, and his live sets are equally as captivating. Quirky enough to be original and rhythmic enough to dance to, you’ll want to play it loud. And repeatedly. (JMM)

WORDS BY NICK COQUET, JAKE CUNNINGHAM, JESSICA MARSHALL McHATTIE
2011