Download rumours continue

SHINEDOWN and New Found Glory are two more acts being tipped for a Download performance this year - although no groups have yet been confirmed by organisers.
However Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice has a finger in the Castle Donington festival's pie, so keep checking this site for the first official announcement on artists very, very soon.

Fanfarlo fans

ONE to watch in the coming months is alt-folk group Fanfarlo.
With an Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros sound, the currently unsigned group have been chosen by Snow Patrol to support their forthcoming tour - which is guaranteed to whip up a bit of interest in the group.
You can have a gander at tracks from their debut, Reservoir, at their myspace site.

Looking up for The View

○○○○●

THE same genius that saw singles such as Wasted Little DJs and Superstar Tradesman eyeing up the charts a couple of years ago is back with a new album.
However it seems that Dundee rockers The View have matured a little with their latest album, Which Bitch? - unsurprising, considering that there are things under my sofa older than they are.

They still have singles a go-go such as the supurb Shock Horror and although some of their new-found creativity misses the mark - such as the rapping on One Off Pretender - most of the album has an insidious quality to it that means Which Bitch? stands up strong to repeat listens.
As a result, Which Bitch? is both bewitching and bitchin'.

Better living through Qemistry

○○○○○

BRIGHTON-based band The Qemists, who have been going for over a decade, have hit upon a winning formula with their debut album Join The Q.
The three-piece have blended thumping drum and bass beats with rock riffs and hip hop, dancehall and grime vocals from select guest speakers to create a simply stunning album - not surprising as they started out as a rock band moonlighting at night as DJs.
Demonstrating their crossover appeal, which echoes last year's Pendulum hit In Silico, rocker Mike Patton shares space with the band as well as drum and bass vocalist Jenna G, grime star Wiley and brilliant beatboxer Beardyman.
Join The Q at shops from Monday - this album is well worth the wait.

Perverts in town

TURNTABLE legends The Scratch Perverts are playing at Revolution in Baxter Gate, Loughborough, on Sunday, February 8.
Tickets to see the stellar line-up of Prime Cuts, Plus One and Tony Vegas cost £5 and are available from 07729 932993 and 07861 681961, or from the venue itself.

Fetch the new Rex The Dog single

THE next single to be taken from Rex The Dog's pounding The Rex The Dog Show LP is Bubblicious, out on February 23.
The Yazoo-sampling track will be backed by remixes from Felix Da Housecat, Familjen, Jesper Dahlback, Congo Rock, Zoo Brazil and Hoo Dat.
And you lucky Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice readers can download an eight-minute mash-up of all these remixes, simply by clicking here.

The NME are the future

CASTLE Donington band Late Of The Pier have been nominated for the NME awards for Best New Band, Best Dancefloor Filler and Best Video.
The local lads will battle it out with Glasvegas, White Lies, MGMT and Vampire Weekend for the new band gong.
Their track Bathroom Gurgle will compete with dancefloor fillers by Bloc Party, Crystal Castles, Friendly Fires and Calvin Harris versus Dizzee Rascal, while their Heartbreak video is up against promos by The Last Shadow Puppets, Oasis, Vampire Weekend and Radiohead.
The awards will be handed out at a ceremony at the Brixton Academy in London on February 25.

Emmy the so-so

○○○●●

HONG Kong-born Emmy The Great, real name Emma-Lee Moss, is riding on the tsunami of support for indie folk following last year's folk explosion with her debut LP.
First Love is a delicate collection of strummers, mixing rich, traditional sounds with Emmy The Great's delicate vocals and lyrics filled with personal touches and pop culture references - there's an entire song about Sri Lankan rapper MIA.
However it's the lyrics that let it down for me - when it works it works well, such as opener Absentee and Dylan, but at times it's just a bit toe-curlingly specific, such as the uneasy-listening of We Almost Had A Baby.
It's this trait that makes what is at times Great, grate.

Young Knives pointing at Loughborough

BELTON boys The Young Knives are heading to Loughborough this spring as part of a tour to support their third album.
The trio will be playing at Loughborough University on March 24, and then coming nearby again on March 31 with a date at Nottingham's Rescue Rooms.
Support for the Loughborough date, which is open to the general public, will be given by Leicester band The Heroes.
Tickets cost £10 plus booking fee. For more information click here.

Killer Kweller

○○○○●

IT WAS a turnip for the books when former Radish Ben Kweller said that's shallot and took a new root with his solo career.
For the grunge posterboy turned country singer, and now, four albums after veggin' out on the grunge scene, Kweller is still hot to trot and as Changing Horses proves, he's just got better and better.
Tracks like the touching Old Hat sit nicely alongside the upbeat tracks like Sawdust Man and the brilliant Wantin' Her Again that pepper the tracklisting, lending it impetus.
Simple in its one-man-and-his-guitar approach, the unashamed Americana of Changing Horses is well worth a listen.

Tame Impala set to send them wild

○○○○○

AUSTRALIAN group Tame Impala's self-titled EP is a blast from the past from a new band.
Over its five tracks the Perth-based group play psychedelic rock that sounds like a supergroup made up of Eric Clapton circa Cream, Carlos Santana and The Doors' Ray Manzarek.
Although quite a rarity at the moment, Tame Impala is one worth hunting down.

Caught in its web

○○○○○

SUPERGROUP side project Spinnerette's first outing, the Ghetto Love EP, had a pretty subdued release last year.
The group, led by Distiller Brody Dalle alongside bandmate Tony Bevilacqua, former Red Hot Chilli Pepper and Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons and Queens Of The Stone Age and Eagles Of Death Metal collaborator Alain Johannes, put the four-track release out over the web at the end of last year after negotiating themselves out of a contract with Sire Records.
But despite the low-key release, this brilliant EP - with its mixture of Dalle's powerful vocals and bludgeoning grungey stoner rock riffing - is sure to slowly gather a cult following, ahead of the expected LP later this year.

LOTP on Filthy Dukes album

DIRTY dance DJs The Filthy Dukes have announced that their debut album Nonsense In The Dark, which features guest appearances from Castle Donington's Late Of The Pier as well as The Maccabees, will be released on March 16.
The first single from the album is This Rhythm, featuring Sam Eastgate of Late Of The Pier, which hits stores on March 9.

Classical jazz not a classic

○○●●●

BEST known as a virtuoso jazz saxophonist who moonlights as a classical composer, Tim Garland has gathered a stellar line-up for Libra, a double album attempting to bring together these two spheres.
With his pedigree and obvious talent in combination with the ultra tight Lighthouse Trio and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, this LP - split into Sun and Moon - should've been out of this world.
But truthfully I found a lot of the original compositions a difficult listen.
Tim Garland has balanced the jazz and classical well on Libra, but in the process forgotten to make them enjoyable to listen to.
It's not until the collective is awarded some freedom on the live cuts of jazz standards on the Moon section that you realise this album could have been off the scale.

The Rifles hit the target

○○○●●

WITH their new album Great Escape, The Rifles are sure to be shooting up the charts.
A retro rocker which doffs its cap towards the likes of Carl Barat and Paul Weller, there's nothing here particularly new or innovative - it's just straightforward British indie rock.
Luckily it's done pretty well by the London four-piece, who deliver energetic tracks like The Great Escape and Fall To Sorrow with both barrels.
There's some dips in quality over the course of the LP, but for fans of the simple pleasures of indie rock this is well worth a shot.

Spun out

○○●●●

THE Detroit Spinners, also known as The Motown Spinners or just plain old The Spinners, give their greatest hits a whirl next week.
And of course their heavily-rotated turns are undoubtedly worth coming round again - the catchy It's A Shame, the funky Are You Ready For Love?, the Motown classic Working My Way Back To You/Forgive Me Girl medley.
It's just that after a few tracks, the playlist starts to wobble - and still it's spun out for a whopping 21 tracks.
At the end of the day this is definitely The Very Best Of The Detroit Spinners - however it's a lot more besides.

Ready to rock?

HERE comes the rumour mill - some of the biggest names in metal are being bandied around as possible acts to play at Castle Donington's Download Festival this year.
Among the latest names to be mentioned - although nobody has yet been confirmed - are ZZ Top, Limp Bizkit, The Prodigy, Def Leppard, Dream Theater, Motley Crue, Rammstein and Faith No More.

Diplo focus

○○○○●

DJ AND remixer Diplo has had higher peaks than most in his career.
Since 2003 the Philadelphia producer, real name Wesley Pentz, has worked with leftfield artists such as Bonde Do Role and MIA as well as heavyweights such as Radiohead, Kanye West, Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake, and his work is credited with raising the profile of Brazilian funk music in the US and Europe.
This Collected Works compilation, titled Decent Work For Decent Pay, reflects this blend of good time South American vibes with drum and bass and breaks beats and a pop inkling - and it will come as no surprise to fans that it's ruddy fantastic.
There are a few disappointing tracks here - Kano missing the beat and that infernal kangaroo song - but cuts such as the Daft Punk, Spank Rock, Sandra Melody and MIA collaborations show Diplo's is a back catalogue worth dipping into.

Xfm factor

FANTASY Black Channel, the debut album by Castle Donington's Late Of The Pier, has been nominated in a poll by radio station XFM to find last year's best first-timers.
To vote for the album, which was released in the US this week after reaching number 28 in the UK in 2008, log on to www.xfm.co.uk before January 23.
A shortlist of 10 albums will be revealed on January 26, with the overall winner picked by a panel of judges and announced on February 3.
Last year's winners were The Enemy, for their LP We Live And Die In These Towns, and this year nominees include Foals, Adele, The Ting Tings, Glasvegas and The Last Shadow Puppets.

Stonking Bronx

○○○○○

THE Bronx, a Los Angeles-based punk band named after a New York county, are set to release The Bronx, the follow-up to their previous two albums The Bronx and The Bronx, in the UK on Monday, January 26.
But forget all that confusion and just listen to the group's straightforward hardcore punk brilliance as soon as you can.
Because this album, which is unofficially known as Bronx III, is a rare, raw, swaggering, impassioned brand of rock and roll we could really do with a bit more of in the world - whether that's in LA, NYC, or Loughborough.