The music release schedules at this time of year is more likely to compound S.A.D.(Seasonal Affective Disorder) amongst music fans, than alleviate them. Traditionally this is not a good month for music junkies in need of a fix. All the ‘BIG’ albums came out pre-Xmas, so all we are left with were a few straggly turkeys that labels didn’t dare chuck out into the market last November, worried that they would sink without trace. But come January nothing much happens, so those very same turkeys get a chance to be released into the shops, in the hope that a starved music public may be suckered into buying them. And what could have turned into very poor sales and a pretty embarrassing chart placing, ends up looking half decent! And don’t tell me this cynical ploy doesn’t happen. Does anyone remember the less than inspiring First Impressions Of Earth by The Strokes? Thought not! It was released on the 2nd January 2006, and pretty quickly sank without trace. Even the music press, who hate January just as much as the rest of us because they have nothing new to write about, couldn’t find it in their hearts to say anything particularly nice about it. But good citizens, something has changed!

January 2008 has already seen an inordinate number of great records appearing on the shelves of your favourite music emporium. The pick of the crop include These New Puritans, Vampire Weekend, One More Grain, Michael Dracula, Cat Power, Thao, The Chromatics, Glass Candy, British Sea Power, The Dynamics, and Black Mountain. Agreed none of them are exactly household names, but all of them have made cracking albums.Four albums that have really caught my ear over the last few weeks are the début albums from Southend’s These New Purtians, Columbia University grads Vampire Weekend, Glasgow-based Michael Dracula, and the sophmore release from One More Grain. And two of these four records, without being slavish imitators, have definitely got the influence of Mark E Smith’s Fall in their genes…

These New Purtians, alongside the Horrors and Theoretical Girl are a new breed of great young bands coming out of Essex’s favourite seaside town. Musically their début album, Beat Pyramid, reminds me of a cross between an incredibly tight version of the Fall, with the likes of the Fire Engines, and art-punks Wire (whose producer Gareth Jones twiddles the knobs here). However these plucky 19 year olds are anything but copyists, and a lot more contemporary than those references suggest. I’ve heard a few comparisons to the likes of Franz Ferdinand and the The Futureheads, but this is a far tougher propulsive sound, although equally as arch. The sound is bolstered by some fantastic rhythms and punchy synthetic textures (check out the ‘Get Ur Freak On’ staccato beats and synthetic brass on Swords of Truth). Are they hip, I hear you ask? They’ve already hooked up with über fashion designer Heidi Slimane to produce the music for a recent Dior Homme catwalk show, while lead vocalist Jack Barrett was listed in GQ’s 50 Best Dressed men for 2007; and before we forget that this is a band not a fashion brand, the ever on-the-mark Plan B Magazine named them as one of their hot new bands for 2008. So expect great things.

One More Grain are fronted by Daniel Patrick Quinn, who uncannily sounds like young Mark E Smith. And the similarities don’t end there. Like the Fall there is a definite love of Krautrock, but also puts their adds left-field Jazz (Miles Davis Bitches Brew period wah-wah trumpet), and a touch of Steve Reich into the mix. They are “the toast of critics from the Wire to the Sunday Times to the Guardian and the NME. They’ve also won fans including (DJ’s) John Kennedy, Zane Lowe, Rod Da Bank, and Scottish crime novelist extraordinaire Ian Rankin,” said the Rough Trade East sticker on my copy of Isle Of Grain. They also accurately pointed out that “One More Grain are set to be one of the surprise packages of the year and this album lives up to the hype”. You betcha!

Vampire Weekend are a slightly different proposition, although there’s definitely a post-punk influence going on in their music. They are the latest signing to the ever-excellent XL Recordings, home to the White Stripes, Devendra Banhart and M.I.A. The starting point for these Brooklynites is African highlife guitars meets indie-pop. It almost reminds me of Edwyn Collin’s Orange Juice, with a bit of fellow Scots Josef K served up as a side order. The Rough Trade Shop compare it to ‘Franz Ferdinand playing with (John Peel faves) the Bhundu Boys’, which is not too far off the mark. As you might expect from a bunch who went to one of the US’s finest universities, they aren’t afraid to wear their intelligence on their sleeves. I mean what is an Oxford Comma or a Mansard Roof got to do with Rock n Roll? This has the potential truly a great summer record, so what it’s doing being released in January I don’t know!

Michael Dracula was totally new to me until I read a review of her début album In The Red in the very wonderful Plan B magazine. As you may have guessed Michael Dracula is a she not a he, and goes by the name of Emily MacLaren. Her new album is the first release on the recently reactivated Ze Records, which put out a great compilation of the early ’80s New York ‘No Wave’ scene, which was characterised by the likes of James Chance, Lydia Lunch’s Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, and ZE’s very own Lizzy Mercier Descloux, whose early records such as Torso Corso most reminds me of Michael Dracula. The ZE website states that the album consists of “driving rhythms on an out of tune piano, repetitive drums with minimal fills, black (Motown, dub) basslines played by a white girl from Ohio, five guitar parts all playing the same wrong note while the ghost of an organ hums a tune on the periphery of your hearing, and a chorus of backing vocals chanting from the bathroom, all providing the backing track for songs about the complexities of human relationships, and getting fucked up…” I couldn’t have said it better if I’d tried.

Of the other great albums released this month; Cat Power’s (Chan Marshall to her mum) latest album of (un)covers - Jukebox - with everything from “New York, New York” to Lou Reed’s “I Found A Reason”, is not quite as great as her last album The Greatest, but is not far off it. And if you like Cat, try out Thao’s second album, which Uncut magazine describe as Sufjan Steven’s cute little sister. Beguiling stuff.

Chromatics (Night Drive) and Glass Candy (Beatbox) both have new albums out, although they have yet to hit the racks in some record shops, but have been available for download from the ever-trusty eMusic for a while now. Both acts feature one Johnny Jewel (a Television fan?), and sound like a great amalgam of ZE Records, New Order style Italo-Disco and Electroclash. And both bands are on the excellent Italians Do it Better label, which is rather confusingly based in New Jersey! The Chromatics album feature a wonderful, yet almost deadpan cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, while Glass Candy’s album features another cracking cover in the shape of Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love”. These two records deserve a bigger audience than the obligatory Hoxton trendies.

You’ve no-doubt read lots about British Sea Power’s rather fine but hideously titled, Do You Like Rock Music? They must have a great press officer, as they seem to have been interviewed by every magazine or newspaper I’ve read this month, even the rubbish free ones you get to read on the underground. Not sure if this is quite as special as either Joy Division or Echo And The Bunnymen, both of whom seem to be a big influence on the band, but it is nevertheless a very good record. They’ve yet to climb the musical heights of contemporaries such as Arcade Fire, but at least they are one of the few British bands that aren’t afraid to make a big sounding alternative rock record. If you find the likes of Coldplay or U2 not quite stretching enough, but find some of the current citizensound faves a bit too ‘out there’, this album should hit your sweet spot!

The Dynamics’ Verisons Excursions, does what it says on the tin. They are a French group on a German label, who do Reggae cover versions of everything from the White Stripes and Elvis Presley, to Prince and Led Zeppelin. They are wonderful. They make you smile. The CD case says that they are also supported by Carhartt, so good work fashion fella’s for helping get this great record out! They have loads of gigs coming up across Europe in March, so go check ‘em out.

Finally Black Mountain’s new album, In The Future, should keep all you fans who like a bit more ‘rock with your roll’ happy. There’s still a hint of early classic British rock such as Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin here, but they also add a bit more Psychedelia (Syd Barrett era Floyd, anyone?) and Krautrock than on their début; with plenty of swooshing synths, which seem to take over from the motorik rhythms we got on the likes of Druganaut, from their self-titled début album. This is classic rock of the ’70s, done noughties style. It might not be Physical Graffiti, Piper At The Gates of Dawn or Master of Reality, but it’s still bloody good.

So if you’ve got some stray record tokens lying around or an iTunes gift certificate that dear Aunt Maude got you for Xmas, go out and get yourself some mighty fine new music. See January doesn’t have to be S.A.D. after all. And let’s all hope that this year’s schedule or quality new releases doesn’t keep coming up with the goods like it has this month, or we’ll all bankrupt by May!