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THE MIRRORKICKS: "Anything" (Fruit Pie Records)
RELEASED? 1st February.
SOUNDS LIKE? Swirly old American indie. It's like some sunshine state kids have grown up with a pile of old Charlatans and Joe Jackson singles.

The music is cooly complicated pop, but they're still bursting with sunshine, enthusiasm and all the other wonderful things that make lots of people hate Americans.
IS IT ANY GOOD? There's a glut of joy and a lack of the spirit crushing Camden cynicism, of course it's good.
WHERE IS IT? www.myspace.com/mirrorkicks

THE MOJO FINS: "Meet Me At The Pictures" (Amazon Records)
RELEASED? 28th March.
SOUNDS LIKE? Our album wrangler damned their album with praise so faint that even Hubble strength specs couldn't pick it up. That's not why I like them, though. If we're going to have swoonsome, piano based balladry, and, face facts, popular music can't be all feedback and chicken molesting, then we can rejoice in The Mojo Fins doing piano rock with some style.
IS IT ANY GOOD? I think so, but I only do the singles and there might be a reason for that.
WHERE IS IT? www.themojofins.co.uk

AARON CAREY: "6 Strings" (i-Tunes)
RELEASED? 15th February.
SOUNDS LIKE? An old Squeeze single arranged to squeeze Jools Holland towards the exit by becoming a cheerily throwaway and supremely demented version of Prefab Sprout.
IS IT ANY GOOD? Yes, it's not every day you get an irony laden, self-mocking, genre skipping, crisp, but frothy shot of introspection. This means that "6 Strings" is officially 'good'.
WHERE IS IT? www.aaroncarey.co.uk

MODEL SOCIETY: "City Of Romance" (Demo)
RELEASED? Out now.
SOUNDS LIKE? They say that time travel is impossible, that if it was possible, we'd be awash in tourists from the future. Nonsense, they should just slap this cd on the decks at the Quantum Physics Disco. You see, Model Society are supposed to be the future, but they've managed to nip back in time and nick all the Steve Strange tracks that didn't make it onto record.
IS IT ANY GOOD? No, it's depressing, old new romance without the new or the romance is just another limp dicking around the car park.
WHERE IS IT? www.myspace.com/modelsocietyband

HEXICON: "Something Strange Beneath The Stars" (Haircut Records)
RELEASED? Out now.
SOUNDS LIKE? Deceptively sweet indie jangle-shamble, if you're old enough to remember the kind of things that Sarah Records used to release then you'll know what I mean and you should probably be putting the kids to bed instead of trying to keep up with their listening habits, but I

digress. "Something Strange..." really is sweet and the dual, er, duel between sharply fuzz guitar and cool horn at the end is little short of magnificent. The other side, "Still Here" is a drifting brood of slow sparkling that'd pedal steel it's way towards any old Orprey.
IS IT ANY GOOD? It's great, both of them, all records shouldn't be like this, obviously, but it's pretty much what I want to write at the moment.
WHERE IS IT? www.haircutrecords.co.uk

ABSENT ELK: "EMILY" (Amazon Records)
RELEASED? 7th March.
SOUNDS LIKE? Mika gone very, very wrong.
IS IT ANY GOOD? I don't think so, mainly
                            because placing a side bet on
                            Hoxton Whoredom while ripping
                            strips from poor old Mika's
                            popera schtick is as cowardly as
                            it is confusing.
                            WHERE IS IT?
                            www.absentelk.com

LUCIUS: "Enemy" (i-Tunes)
RELEASED? 1st March.
SOUNDS LIKE? Actually he sounds like a wasted, whisky-throated female rawker fronting some leather painted tattoo parlour victims as they punt a rock electroclash collision to world weary Berlin nightclubbers.
IS IT ANY GOOD? It is rather, yeah.
WHERE IS IT? www.luciusmusic.com

NOT SQUARES: "Asylum" (Richter Collective Records)
RELEASED? 1st March.
SOUNDS LIKE? A punchy bit of clatter funk, hard to find a sounda-likey because "Asylum" is more like something you'd find on "Stomp - The Soundtrack", a bit clever and a bit theatrical and you know what, I'm not sure that I like it after all.

On the bright side... the ever reliable b-side... "Bi Kan Na" is a great lil' throb, yelp and stamp, complete with the kind of synth burbles that were written off as 'quirky' until Eno came along and had it all reclassified as 'art', so there.
IS IT ANY GOOD? I like the flip, "Bi Kan Na", whatever that means, is great.
WHERE IS IT? www.myspace.com/NotSquares

12 STONE TODDLER: "This Suit" (Amazon Records)
RELEASED? 21st March.
SOUNDS LIKE? Frank Black, Black Francis, Frank Black & The Catholics and some of lighter stuff from The Pixies. Other than that, it's pretty much Frank Black, I might have mentioned that?
IS IT ANY GOOD? Of course, it is, after all, Frank Black.
WHERE IS IT? www.12stonetoddler.com

                                               EXTREME O.D "This Is The End"
                                               (i-Tunes)
                                               RELEASED? 15th February.
                                               SOUNDS LIKE? It's heavy n hairy,
                                               it's ticking all the boxes on the Satan
                                               Welcomes Careless Drivers
                                               checklist; chugging riffs, growling vox,
                                               death and screaming, but, and take a
                                               seat at this point, "This Is The End" is
                                               a well crafted, brutal bit of melodic
                                               metal.
                                               IS IT ANY GOOD? Hell yeah, there's
                                               even a karaoke version for people who want to strip their own lungs at home, get on it, kids.
WHERE IS IT? www.myspace.com/extremeod