So much good music, so little time. Here’s the pick of the best new music from the first three months of this year…

ALBUMS OF THE MONTH:

AtomTM – Liedgut Uwe Schmidt otherwise known as Atom Heart, Señor Coconut, and some sixty other pseudonyms, has gone and made some of the most interesting electronica that I’ve heard in a very long time. This is the sort of music I’d hoped Kraftwerk might be making these days, if only they still wanted to innovate. And the subtle nod to Kraftwerk’s past is made even more poignant with the appearance of Florian Schneider on guest vocals. This album may not be quite as radical as Autobahn sounded back in 1974, but it could turn out to just as vital and enduring. Oh, and the CD packaging, like much of the music is absolutely beguiling and just as classy.

Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information If you haven’t warmed to the sounds of Ethiopiques, here’s a fantastic way into this amazing music. The father of Ethio-jazz comes together with Stone Throw’s Heliocentics, former DJ Shadow backing band, whose mix of Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz and Psychedelia takes the music into some sonic stratosphere that sounds at times like Mulatu jamming with Sun Ra, the J.B.’s, David Axelrod and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters.

BEST OF THE REST:

Air France - No Way Down Late 80’s Balearic Beats (who remembers Sueño Latino?) meets contemporary electro pop.

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast A must for fans of literate singer-songwriters such as Sufjan Stevens or Rufus Wainwright.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion Yes it really is as good as all the reviews make out. Just buy it.

The Antlers – Hospice A one-man ambient take on My Bloody Valentine, that is gathering comparisons to Radiohead, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire and the golden tones of Jeff Buckley. Good company…

Belbury Poly – From An Ancient Star This is music for an urban remake of the Wicker Man set in Milton Keynes, and soundtracked by an avant-garde version of Chicory Tip.

Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve – Re Animations Vol. 1 A compilation of Richard Norris and Erol Alkan’s reanimations for he likes of Franz Ferdinand, The Chemical Brothers, Goldfrapp and Midlake and explains why they are in so much in demand.

Bon Iver – Bloodbank Last year’s For Emma, Forever Ago was one of the debuts of the year. And this 4 track EP proves that it was no fluke. The standout track is ‘Woods’, which uses the same voice altering technology used by Kanye West on his most recent album, but with far more impressive results. Lovely.

Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth A 10-piece band/choir that have been picking-up plenty of buzz for this album on emusic and the Metacritic message boards. Think Tom Waits and fellow Canadian’s Arcade Fire, mixed with Alan Lomax and Harry Smiths’ collections of Gospel, Field Songs and Appalachian folk music, but with the occasional prog-rock twist. Intriguing.

Cats In Paris - Courtcase 2000 Manchester’s Cats In Paris are in line with the experimental ‘progressive’ pop of Animal Collective or Deerhoof, with a love of odd time signatures and off-kilter soundscapes, which at times reminds me of the sadly forgotten English prog-punk eccentrics, Cardiacs. The least Manchester sounding Manchester band I’ve heard in many a year, and the better for it.

DM Stith – Heavy Ghost This is one odd dark but totally intriguing record. The song structures aren’t like normal songs (no obvious verse, chorus stuff here) while the lyrics are full of biblical imagary. If you like his mentor Sufjan Stevens and Tom Waits junkyard symphonies you should check this out/

Dorian Concept - When Planets Explode Ladies and Gentleman welcome to the music they call Wonky - a hybrid of dubstep, instrumental hip hop, techno, broken beats and future jazz. Austrian Dorain Concept is quickly becoming one of the scene’s leading lights, and this is his debut album.

Emeralds – What Happened These guys are as DIY as you like, with most of their 20 odd releases appearing on limited edition CDr’s and cassettes. Their music has plenty in common with the dronescapes of early Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Temple mixed with the more out there sounds of minimalist Terry Riley. Uneasy listening at its best.

Faunts - Feel.Love.Thinking.Of Think New Order or the Cure’s ‘Inbetween Days’ meets Underworld, with added shoe-gazing dream-pop.

Fever Ray – Fever Ray Karin Dreijer Andersson goes it alone from her brother and partner in the Knife for her debut solo album, delivering a more downbeat counterpart to the duo’s classic, Silent Shout. The electronic backing provides stark and brooding soundscapes for her to wind her dark songs around. Not likely to cheer you up, but a definite soundtrack of the times.

Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic “With just enough melody to make it pretty, just enough pop to make it accessible, and just enough repetition to make it entrancing” chimed one blog post. A good description of what could be best described as a more DIY take on the Animal Collective, while “Only Pieces” sounds like a long-lost track from Paul Simon’s Graceland, and that’s meant as a compliment.

The Invisible – The Invisible London three-piece, they’ve played with the likes of Roisin Murphy, Amy Winehouse, Polar Bear and Hot Chip and their producer Matthew Herbert, and are musically in the mid-ground between the dream pop of AR Kane and the indie funk of TV On The Radio.

Lars Horntveth – Kaleidoscopic Leader of Norway’s avant-jazz big band Jaga Jazzist gets together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra to make aone track 37 minute long minute piece of musical loveliness, which sounds like a classic movie soundtrack, but isn’t.

Micachu – Jewellery Probably the most individual record you’ll here in 2009. Mica Levi seems as happy composing classical music as she is making Grime mix tapes, which rightly suggests that you’re in for a bit of a musical rollercoaster ride with her debut album. I just wish there were a few more moments of wonky-pop perfection, such as the sublime “Golden Phones” or “Calculator”, to counter-act some of the more off the wall experiments.

The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage Glaswegians debutants the Phantom Band have come up with a an album that is guaranteed to push my buttons – this is the sound of a young Scottish Super Furry Animals if they’d digested a few too many Can and Neu! albums, and got Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore in on guitar duties.

Telepathe - Dance Mother Another bunch of misfits from the Brooklyn scene that has given us TV On The Radio, Gang Gang Dance and Yeasayer, who together offer a good clue where this female two-piece are coming from musically. This is kinda what I though the reformed Slits might sound like if they got David Sitek in as producer.

Yellow Moon Band - Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World Jo and Danny for the Green Man Festival and Matt Priest formally of the good ship Dodgy mix Prog Rock and bits of West Cost Psychedelia, but instead of 17 minute blow-outs most tracks come in under four minutes.