Album: Nick Baxter
Tints (music.nickbaxter.net)
The kind of multi-instrumentalist who presumably spent his formative years locked in a music cupboard, Nick Baxter’s clearly a very talented musician. Some tracks, such as ‘You I & She,’ are reminiscent of Jack Johnson’s gentle guitars and hum-a-long vocals, albeit with more swearing, making the album feel accessible enough to be mainstream radio-friendly. Others, like ‘Halfway Home,’ are the sort of genuine folk best heard around a campfire. This 11-track album has very tight production, and we hear he’s scouting for musicians to help make the magic live. (JMM)

Single: Curxes
Haunted Gold (curxes.com)
Curxes follow up last year’s singles double header (‘The Constructor’ and ‘Creatures’) with this gothic piece of electronic pop melodrama. The synthetic percussive stabs owe much to the clanging metallic samples of Depeche Mode’s ‘Construction Time Again’, while Roberta Fidora’s vocals veer towards Siouxsie Sioux’s stricter moments. There’s pounding contemporary beats underlying the industrial 80s influence, but following Trevor Jackson’s recent ‘Metal Dance’ compilation for Strut, Curxes would be well positioned for an EBM revival. (SH)

Single: Friction
Led Astray (Shogun Audio)
Congratulations to Shogun Audio boss Friction for getting his Radio 1 residency, and with this new job what better time to release a banger. ‘Led Astray’ has a razorblade whirr that gulps and then folds in on itself. Contrast that with some lovely orchestral chords and an inoffensive vocal hook and voila – you’ve got yourself a chart-friendly dance tune. Fans of Friction’s blistering sets may be expecting more bollocks but radio listeners are lapping this up. (ZC)

EP: Mirrors
This Year, Next Year, Sometime…?
(mirrorsofficial.bandcamp)
Now slimmed to a trio, Mirrors have broken cover with seven new songs of soft-edged synthpop. With its uplifting chorus, opening track ‘Dust’ packs the most immediate punch. The remaining songs are more subdued, but indicate that Mirrors’ listening tastes have broadened beyond their initial Kraftwerk homage to include the less fashionable likes of Blancmange (‘Blood Diamond’) and Erasure (‘Leave Me Here’). The vague EP title may refer to the release date of Mirrors’ second album, which this download funds. (SH)

Album: Pepe Deluxé
Queen Of The Wave (Catskills)
Finnish freakbeat manglers Pepe Deluxé’s fourth full-length has been five years in the making, and, against pretty much all sane expectations, they’ve delivered a tour de force psychedelic concept album. The basis for this ‘esoteric pop opera’ is a preposterous-sounding, but genuine, 19th century Atlantean dream-text, Frederick S. Oliver’s ‘A Dweller On Two Planets’. Pepe Deluxé take Oliver’s imaginative mythology and, with a huge cast of vocalists and musicians, run wild across the terrains of international exotica. Mind-blowingly addictive. (SH)

Album: Soccer96
Soccer96 (Demons Are Real)
Just when you think you know all there is to know about Brighton’s electronic music scene, along come two men calling themselves Danalogue and Beatamax to change everything. Clearly inspired by 8-bit computer games, Soccer96 have a rock-y passion and pure caffeinated energy, which is rarely found in their contemporaries – a driven tension that isn’t afraid of being obvious at the expense of being great. Carefully layered soundscapes belay a freneticism that’s nothing short of inspiring, especially on ‘SuperWarrior.’ The album launch is at the Green Door on the 24th. (JMM)

Album: Sweet Sweet Lies 
The Hare, The Hound & The Tortoise (Something Nothing)
The long-awaited debut from Brighton’s favourite besuited alt-country sextet assembles their three animal-branded EPs. Cleverly scathing lyrics of doomed love sit atop music that veers from the rollicking guitar races of the opening Hare quartet, through the melancholy waltz of a clearly wounded Hound, to the whiskey-sodden country confessionals of Tortoise. While the track order causes a lull in energy levels in the middle section, quality shines throughout on what is surely a springboard to wider national recognition. (AP)