Album

Audacious mix LP from DJ and hip label manager Andy Votel

Erstwhile record store assistant's debut gives country blues a modern, British twist

New album from ex-Ultravox man and associate

Initially introduced to the world via Stereolab's Duophonic label, Broadcast have perhaps benefited from their relative cultural isolation (they're based in Birmingham) to cultivate a brand of avant-indietronica that is truly unique. Broadcast deploy an arsenal of electronic devices both antique and modern to complement and scar Trish Keenan's often unnervingly childlike vocals. In a world supersaturated with electronica, Broadcast are nonetheless bold, rare and crucial.

Dark, melancholic 1974 solo offering from the thinking person's Byrd

Specially priced compilation lacking in sleevenotes

From the same '96 sessions that produced Dowd's startling debut Wrong Side Of Memphis, these four-track recordings are the overspill. You'll find (slightly) more sanitised versions of some on Pictures From Life's Other Side (1999) and last year's The Pawnbroker's Wife, but these—in JD speak—are "the original bad seeds". It's mostly slow-stealth swamp blues, rendered fearsome and moving by his scowling delivery, sounding forever snagged on a barbed wire fence.

More eclectic Eastern punk from label that brought us Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her

Swiftly-recorded follow-up from scuzz-rock trio

Narrative 10-song cycle about a fictional clan is Young's best work in a while