A Sleep & A Forgetting is the anticipated follow up to Islands critically heralded record Vapours. The new album was produced by Thorburn and fellow Islands member Evan Gordon in less than two weeks, the 11 songs recorded live with hardly a single overdub. It’s a stripped down process and beautifully understated sound which only reinforces the confessional content of the lyrics
The new album offers all the shimmering sonic textures and irresistible melodies that have come to define Islands enduring appeal, but there is a deeply personal cathartic undercurrent to the songs. “The sound is really my interpretation of soul music,” Thorburn offers. “I mean, I’m a white kid from Canada so it’s gonna be very warped. But that’s where my head was at, that particular way of dealing with themes of pain and heartbreak.”
“This album is far more personal than any I’ve made before,” Thorburn explains. “I left New York after the end of a relationship and came to Los Angeles. There was a piano where I was staying and that’s where I wrote these songs. This record deals with loss, with memory and forgetting and with dreaming. I started writing it on Valentine’s Day and its coming out on Valentine’s Day.”

For this album guitarist Patrick Riley, vocalist Aliana Moore and drummer James Barone headed to Nashville to work with The Black Keys' Patrick Carney.

2012 sophomore album from the DC native. Lissy Trullie's self-titled album, is coolly confident in feel, its mostly brisk punk foundation yielding to memorable pop choruses along the way. On the album, dirty guitar sounds and driving, new wave-tempo-ed drums are countered by swirling synths, brass, and layers of heavenly vocals, a beguiling mix: the earthy and the ethereal The album was produced by TVOTR's Dave Sitek. @yoco

Timid Tiger is a German band proud of its DIY approach, from song-writing up to mixing in their own studio and putting their music out via their own music label. <The Streets Are Black> is their third album. They describe their music as: "From dusty 60's beats and shady 70's grooves to catchy 80's keyboards and contemporary Hip-Hop electronicas. From old to new school". Let's get some of the criticism out before we settle to go beyond it, the rapping just feels out of place and not that well incorporated, it'd have been better either by getting someone more adept to guest on the album or by those parts being simply a spoken word. It'd have also matched the lyrics and music better; it would have made it more evocative, more genuine, and more alive.
The music though is a nice chilled out affair with a slightly nostalgic and melancholy vibe going on yet when the bits of reggae come in it cheers up somewhat. Without the Hip-Hop the vocal matched that chilled out mood quite well, though up to the third half of the album, maybe due to the production issues, it felt at times weaker than the music and not lending itself to being felt very easily. 'Back From Hell' was the best song where the vocal is more out there as it should have been throughout, the music has a cool lose vibe with an element of theatricality and is capable of getting the listener to be more engaged with it, have some fun with it. 'Every Time We Talk' just demonstrates that the spoken word parts are more suited than rapping. I'd give them a chance even if I have some qualms about it for the promise they have, their lyrics are really good, and the music has coolness about it and the possibility to enjoy it during a summer evening on your day off.

A new force in song craft, Cate Le Bon resides in Cardiffm Wales's French quarter and befitting a songwriter who only writes in the dark, her music is a heady and personal Gallic stew of equal parts Nico, Malkmus and the chronicler's own observations on the impossibility of existence. Drawing on her experiences of 2011, Cate created collection of pop nuggets imbued with the playfulness of Faust and Syd Barrett and the tropical melodies of Os Mutantes. Existential word play and fuzz fused guitar lines tear through like an angry bee in a CAN on Cyrk.

The four-piece have followed their own path since emerging from Fremantle, Western Australia, a few years ago. From humble beginnings of weekend jams to being nominated for a 2011 Unearthed J Award, the band have a natural chemistry, growing organically into their own mold to create their sophomore EP, "Awkward". Following on from their success of their debut EP, "Golden Revolver", San Cisco returned to the recording studio with Steven Schram (Little Red, Little Birdy and Cat Empire) in Melbourne to delve further into the songs they had perfected on stage and in the backyard shed. The finished product is their sophomore EP, "Awkward" featuring five tracks of indie pop goodness, showcasing Jordi's turn of phrase and Josh Biondillo's varied influences in his music writing. In its entirety it is an eclectic mix of indie pop with dashes of rock and slashes of synth. Each member of the band brings a different influence to the table from their diverse and eclectic palate of indie, rap, hip