At citizensound we enjoy listening to all sorts of music, so we decided to share some of our current favourites with you for our special Venice Festival of Media podcast. You can find out more about our panel at the event here. All these acts are either unsigned, or with small independent labels from across...

After a great January of great new albums, I was expecting a pretty quiet period up to Easter. How wrong could I be. As always, only a few of this month’s music recommendations come from anywhere near what you might call the mainstream. But hey that’s what this column is for, helping you discover some...

This month sees the arrival of the first citizensound podcast. We decided that we wanted to share with you some of the vast array of music, from every genre imaginable, that makes up citizensound’s combined record collection of some 25,000 albums and singles. Our aim is to expose you to some great new music, including...

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...

This is the album cover of the most recent release from Andrew Bird. To me this is such an arresting image. It stopped me in the shop. I had to pick up the CD and find out about the artist. This is an example where the power of the visual can make a difference. Special...

citizen bay shares his faves from 2007… 1. Jose James – a 29 year old from New York, who deserves as wide an audience as possible. He also has my vote for single of the year, the joyous Equinox/Resolution 10 inch that came out in the summer. Anyone brave enough to put words to John...

We've also been rubbing our crystal ball's around citizensound towers, as we guessed you might want a few recommendations for artists to look out for over the next 12 months. So here's Paul Martin's tips for 2008… Tawiah (opposite) is currently unsigned, but check her forthcoming track Every Step. Forget all the other ex Brit...

Settle down, settle down now. Our very own Paul Martin is a professional. And he's compiled us all an end of year chart. So pay attention, we'll be testing you later… Tawiah – Watch Out on Brownswood Bubblers Vol 2 on Brownswood.  A vocalist with talent to burn. Little Dragon’s eponymous album on Peacefrog.  Big...

If you want some access to some truly exciting new music you need this site in your life. Daytrotter is one of the most highly rated US music blogs out there, and currently rated in the Top 10 on music blog aggregator Hype Machine. What makes the site different is not the writing but the...