Bodily Functions
Herbert

Concepts like "found sound" are usually thrown around by the sort of musicians who produce unlistenable avant garde bollocks that sounds like two saucepans being banged together. But House/Techno producer Matthew Herbert is pushing the envelope of his field by sampling ambient noises – a baby, a door slamming, a mouse – then electronically stretching and squishing them into beats which he combines with real acoustic instruments for a truly beautiful Jazz-House sound. This organic beat box has the intimate feel of listening to someone else's heart beat, a very (literally) human sound enhanced by the warm honey voice of vocalist Dani Siciliano and some sublime jazzy piano. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what Herbert used to produce this album, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and this is so tasty I couldn't care less if he built the songs around samples of himself farting in a bathtub. [Official Site]

Tears All Over Town
A Girl Called Eddy

With the charts so full of pouty teenage girls it's nice to hear a new female talent who sounds like she's old enough to have a beer. This 5-song EP is the first release for A Girl Called Eddy and she's got off to a cracking start. She has a voice other women would sell their mother's into slavery for, comparisons to Tracey Thorn have been thrown about but the singer Eddy reminds me of most is Chrissie Hynde, she has that same warm, breathy vibrato that sounds like she's stroking your hair with her voice and sends a little shiver up your spine (and your trousers). The girl can write a tune too, her songs have a melancholy tenderness that recalls early Everything But The Girl with maybe a hint of Dusty Springfield in her more quietly sexy moments. One listen to "Girls Can Tear You Up Inside" and you'll wonder where Eddy has been all your life. [Official Site]
Sincere
MJ Cole

Dance music fads in the UK usually have the lifespan of a fruit fly, one minute Jungle is all the rage, then it's Speed Garage, then it's Big Pants Ragga (I made that one up by the way.) The hot thing this Tuesday is 2-Step Garage, a mix of skippy drum 'n' bass syncopation with soulful vocals and catchy tunes that can be edgy enough for nerdy techno trainspotter types and poppy enough for your average disco-dancing secretary. But forget the faddy hipster labels, you don't need the right trousers to know that ‘Sincere’ is a great album, a funktastic blend of slick dancefloor anthems and rough-stylee MC workouts (why do British rappers always sound like they're trying to sell you a fake Rolex?) that shakes it's hips hard and has enough musical sophistication to suggest that Cole has the talent to still be around long after 2-Step is sitting in a comfy armchair in the Dance Music Fads Retirement Home having tea and biscuits with Acid House and New Jack Swing.
Points De Suspension
Souvenir

There's nothing that odd about a band singing in a foreign language – Abba did it all the time – but Souvenir are Spanish and they sing in French which, I think we can all agree, is a trifle odd. So put that one in your post-modern pipe and smoke it. Like April March, Souvenir have such a love for the Yeh-Yeh pop of the 1960s that they have chosen to sing in the romantic language of Voltaire, Flaubert, and Francois Hardy. Thankfully this isn't some cutesy exercise in day-glo retro kitsch, Souvenir are dedicated to making tunefully crafted music and play a breezy acoustic pop that has the natural charm of a Jacques Tati film and never sounds like a plastic pastiche – I don't think they mention go-go boots or lollipops once. Aided by the lovely voice of Patrice de la Fuente (who looks as good as she sounds, which never hurts), it's sweet but it won't rot your teeth. Available from [Darla]