The weather’s been foul, the music’s been great. So dive on in!

ALBUMS OF THE MONTH:
Portishead - Third
White Williams - Smoke

Where do you go next when you seemingly can’t escape front the fact you’re your début album produced one of defining moment of a genre of music you hate - Trip Hop. You wait three years, then release one of the darkest and most suffocating records records ever made. Then you do virtually nothing for the best part of 11 years. Anyone expecting to find Portishead in the same place we left them in is for a big surprise. The filmic quality of their music may still remains, while the folkie tones of Beth Gibbons solo album with Rustin’ Man are added into the mix. But they haven’t stopped their, taking ideas from dark stoner metal, krautrock, weird 60s Psychedelia and Folk and Joe Meek records. The opener, Silence, sets the scene, starting with a metronomic Krautrock rhythm (no breakbeats on this album), with a guitar line straight from Metal Box era PIL, then Beth’s vocals come in…

Tempted in our minds
Tormented inside lie
Wounded and afraid
Inside my head
Falling through changes

So no change when it comes to the foreboding tone of the lyrics, but musically this album twists and turns. The single Machine Gun pitches the vocals against a barrage of drums machines and electronic distortion, while We Carry On pays homage to late 60s electronic duo Silver Apples. It’s hard to believe that they could make a record that is darker and bleaker than it’s predecessors, yet make it even more engrossing. This is definitely album of the year territory.

I’ve only had this album for a few days now, but this is one hell of a great record. White Williams music makes out like a 21st century Brian Eno, or at least the Eno of Here Comes The Warm Jets. You can hear everything from Marc Bolan and Roxy Music, to the likes of Hot Chip and Beck, all mixed up with afro-pop and glitter beats. This is the sort of music that the electroclash scene promised, but rarely ever delivered. His cover of the classic I Want Candy (133 cover versions and counting) is great, sounding like a noughties cross between Suicide, The Flying Lizards Money and Eno’s King’s Lead Hat. This is a little 21st century artrock classic.

BEST OF THE REST:
Wintersleep – Welcome To The Night Sky
Wintersleep seem to have managed to release three albums with next to no coverage from the music media outside of their native Canada. If like many folk you found the latest R.E.M. album another huge disappointment, this could be the record to restore your faith. Listen to Astronaut or Oblivion and you are back to a time when Messer’s. Stipe, Buck, Mills and Berry were making fantastic records like Murmur, Fables of the Reconstruction and Life’s Rich Pageant. The stand out track is Weighty Ghost, the sort of addictive, uplifting and anthemic tune that just won’t let go. You can download the album, or buy the CD, from the band’s own website.

LET’S GO RETRO:
Motorpsycho - Little Lucid Moments
The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
Neon Neon - Stainless Style

Norway’s Motorpsycho are an odd but engrossing bunch. They mix late 60s psychedelia, early 70s prog and Kraut-rock, Byrds-esque country rock, and add a touch of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth for good measure! Little Lucid Moments is their twelfth full-length studio album, and is quickly becoming one of my favourites. Their first album for the excellent Smalltown Supersilent label is made up of just four tracks, with titles such as Lawned (Consciousness Causes Collapse) and Hallucifuge (Hyperrealistically Speaking…), it makes you feel like you have walked straight into the Court Of The Crimson King. And you wouldn’t be too far from the truth, it’s not just the titles that reek of a sixth-form common room circa 1973, but don’t let that put you off. Fans of Meddle-era Pink Floyd, Amon Duul II, King Crimson, or contemporary acts such as Queens Of The Stone Age, Mars Volta or Yo Lo Tengo should give this fantastic album a listen.

The new Raconteurs album managed to sneak out without much of a fanfare, giving us all a chance to hear the record before we read the reviews. This is very much Jack White’s record, as he continues to live out his Led Zeppelin fixation, check out Five On The Five and Rich Kid Blues for evidence. Some of the power-pop sensibilities of Black’s song-writing partner Brendan Benson have been more readily integrated into this record, although notable exceptions being You Don’t Understand Me and Many Shades Of Black). It’s less immediate than their début, and a lot more of a rock record. Not quite as inventive or as essential as the White Stripes, this is still a fine reminder of White’s talents.

So we’ve had prog rock, Led Zep sound-a-likes, and here comes a concept album!

Neon Neon is the Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys and leftfield hip-hop producer Boom Bip. Unlike Motorpsycho or the Raconteurs this album is firmly rooted in the ’80s not the ’70s, both musically and in its subject matter. The albums concept revolves around the life of the carmaker John DeLorean, who built the ‘Back To The Future’ DeLorean supercar in Belfast at the turn of the 80s. Musically the album ranges from synthpop to Prince, electro to Italo house and even early hip hop makes an appearance, making you think that the 80s weren’t maybe as bad as you remembered them.

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

I’m sure I’m not alone I having a few blind spots when it comes to legendary acts or records that you are meant to revere, but somehow leave you cold. The Beatles do very little for me, while many of Bob Dylan’s classics leave me bemused. The latest big thing in town, the Arctic Monkeys, have made two albums that are lyrically inventive, but musically left me totally nonplussed. So how come I’m recommending Alex Turner’s, the Arctic’s frontman’s debut album, especially as it’s possibly the most unoriginal record you’ll hear this year. But when that unoriginality means ripping off the Walker Brothers, early Bowie, Love’s Forever Changes, and even a tinge of Gene Pitney or Roy Orbison’s finest moments, you know that you are onto a potential winner. And with scouser Miles Kane from the Rascals (no relation to the sixties American blue-eyed soul merchants) on board as Turner’s partner-in-crime, its no surprise that this album sounds like something from the 1960s. It’s hard to remember a Liverpool group that hasn’t stolen generously from the era, be they Echo and the Bunnymen or The Coral. So not exactly in Scott Walkers league, but if you like retro-musings of Richard Hawley and fancy something a bit more energetic, try this out for size.

Samamidon – All is Well
Samamidon are Sam Amidon and his childhood friend Thomas Bartlett. This album has been around since last October, but is only now getting it’s full UK release. Their music takes the sort of old Appalachian folk songs you’d find on the field recordings of Alan Lomax and Harry Smith, and is given a fresh cinematic twist with the aid of Bjork collaborator and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. If you like the Bon Iver album (both Mojo and Uncut’s album of month this month), Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine or Jose Gonzalez, you should explore immediately.

A QUADRUPLE OF DUO’S:
The Golden Bears – Wall To Wall
Dodos – Visiter
John & Jehn - John & Jehn
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

I came across the Golden Bears album by total chance on emusic. I was looking through the new releases and the sleeve intrigued me, so I had a listen. Julianna is an artist and illustrator and Seth is a writer and cook, and they live together in Portland Oregon, and as their website claims that the album ‘was recorded entirely in and around their home while Julianna was knocked up’. Bits of Fairport Convention, Jefferson Airplane, the US Kaleidoscope and Quicksilver Messenger Service are filtered through a more contemporary take on psychedelia and folk rock. An album definitely well worth seeking out.

The buzz around Dodos should be just about starting to hit as Witchita records get ready to release of San Francisco-based bands first official UK release. Their music is pretty unique , but certainly has something in common with the likes of American contemporaries such as Animal Collective and Yeasayer. It’s rare that that the drumming is a highlight of any rock record, but Logan Kroeber’s clattering percussion is truly amazing, atlhough never gets in the way of the bands strong hooks and melodies. This is very much a pop record, in that it’s both immediate and memorable. But unlike much contemporary pop doesn’t fit to type. This is as a refreshingly different record as you’ll hear this year.

John and Jehn are a French duo who moved from their hometowns to London at the back-end of 2006. They care happy to wear their influences on their sleeve - be it Serge Gainsbourg, The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, or Johnny Cash. John’s sometimes flat vocal style remind me of Manchester post-punkers The Blue Orchids, while 20 L 07 sounds like a great-lost Suicide track.

Fellow Bristolians the Fuck Buttons played the Portishead curated ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ festival last Xmas, and you can tell why Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley like them. The Buttons, aka Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, make one heck of a loud racket, but unlike many of their contemporaries on the noise scene such as Sunn O))), Boris and OM, their music doesn’t seem rooted in Black Metal. You can hear everything from My Bloody Valentine to laptop guru Fennez in their music, and like both you can hear pretty melodies spiralling out of the hypnotic drones, dissonance and distortion. A fascinating record that even though it is ear frazzlingly loud and mesmerisingly reptitious, it is also a strangely relaxing listen!