This is probably going to be the last post of this nature I make on the blog (more about that soon) but I just wanted to let any Dublin-based people know that the collective I'm involved in, Come As Soon As You Hear, are throwing one of our parties in the Twisted Pepper tonight (Saturday).
There'll be DJ sets from the eminetly talented Frankie Grimes, Andrew Bannister and yours truly. As well as some old-school Buffy classics, expect to hear some of the following:
Fresh from their premieres of the new albums by Lykke Li and Oh Land, Hype Machine are debuting new material by another European pop femme, Yelle. The French electropop madame's new album Safari Disco Club is streaming exclusively on the site here ahead of its official release next week.
My limited knowledge of the French language means I have only the flimsiest of grasps on what she's singing about most of the time but that doesn't stop me enjoying her spiky concoctions. Pick of the bunch for me is the album's title track and the wonderful La Musique, which comes flanked by this excellent video.
Although the two were frequently mentioned in the same breath as artists destined for success in 2011, I'm still not convinced that Jamie Woon can impress quite as spectacularly as James Blake has done with his eponymous debut.
All the same, it's probably for the best that Hudson Mohawke opted to remix Woon's new single, considering how Blake has compared the art of remixing to 'musical prostitution'.
If this is the case, then Mohawke is certainly a high class hooker as his reworking of Woon's Lady Luck is an aural delight and, in my opinion, marginally more listenable than the original.
It's hardly a secret that I'm a big supporter of L.A. singer Sky Ferreira. Thanks to her poster-girl looks, wry sense of humour and distinctive voice, she earned the backing of some of the world's best producers and seemed destined for success.
However, after a disorientatingstring of releases that bore little or no resemblance to one another, her debut album was 'postponed' indefinitely from its January release date and the outlook began to look a bit grim.
Thankfully, it seems Team Ferreira went back to the drawing board for a change of tack. The result is the succinct but spellbinding As If EP.
Opening track Sex Rules, written by Billy 'Like A Virgin' Steinberg, sounds like a 21st century update of Vanity 6's Nasty Girl, with Sky crooning about the merits of carnal knowledge over a backdrop of skittery electro flourishes.
Traces, a dub-influenced piano ballad (yes, really) co-written by Neon Hitch, has been doing the rounds for quite a while in demo form but sounds much better in high quality and is probably the track that best showcases Ferreira's voice.
Haters Anonymous, immaculately produced by the inimitable Bloodshy & Avant, is a tongue-in-cheek attack on anonymous bloggers and internet 'haters'. An anthem for the Rebecca Blacks of the world, if you will.
99 Tears is a glitchy electropop number, written by Lily Allen collaborator Greg Kurstin, that echoes the vengeful ex-girlfriend sentiments of Allen's Smile.
108, another Bloodshy & Avant production, is an elegant robopop ballad in the vein of Sky's signature hit, One. Underpinned by cascading synths, colourful lyrics like "My secret lover is 108 / I know it sounds insane, it’s really ok / He's got a face that'll haunt you for a billion decades” are imbued with a quiet sadness thanks to Sky's deliciously deadpan delivery.
Lord knows I'm prone to over-excitement, but I genuinely think As If is on par with the best pop releases in recent years (Robyn's 2005 self-titled album springs to mind).
Domino Records' latest protege, Austra, produce broody electronica that reminds of Fever Ray and Zola Jesus.
The project is the brainchild of singer Katie Stelmanis, who was a fixture on the Canadian indie scene before forming Austra with long-term friends Dorian Wolf on bass, and Maya Postepski as beat programmer and producer.
Their brand of gothic pop is currently a source of mild blogospheric hysteria, with mesmerising debut single 'Beat and the Pulse' and its accompanying x-rated video garnering the majority of the attention.
Last week, Lou Bru came up trumps when she sourced me a last-minute ticket for Florrie's debut Dublin headliner at The Academy.
The as yet unsigned singer, songwriter and drummer is closely associated with Xenomania, the man behind most of Girls Aloud's back-catalogue, and has drummed live and on record for the (former?) girlband.
She released her debut EP, Introduction, last year (which is available as a free download from her website) and in a live setting, minus Xenomania's studio gloss, these songs hold their own remarkably well.
Florrie makes the same kind of lightweight but immaculately crafted pop that saw Pitchfork darling Annie, early incarnations of Sugababes and Girls Aloud salvage the genre's sullied reputation in the mid noughties.
Alternating between belting out high-energy numbers and thrashing on the drum kit, even the most po-faced gig-goers were shimmying and shaking by the time she wrapped up her short but supremely sweet set. Second helping: sought.
My latest musical discovery comes courtesy of my younger sister. Demonstrating a rather impressive example of sibling synchronicity, she had precisely the same reaction upon hearing The Dø's track, Slippery Slope, as I did - M.I.A. meets Lykke Li.
A pretty hefty billing, right? But the tribal beats, colourful lyrics and arty flourishes in the accompanying video all convene at a point somewhere on the musical spectrum between these two great ladies.
