All Systems Gone
Presence

During the 1990s it seemed as if club music was taken over by skinny white English kids who ripped out its warm heart and reduced it to a robotic beat with all the soul of a car battery. This record is the answer to the prayers of old farts like me who were left clutching our old Ten City records in despair as we were pushed off the dancefloor by hordes of drugged-up teenagers waving their arms in the air. You won't break a sweat dancing to this finely-crafted, slinky groove but its organic Deep House style, sensual soul and the sublime vocals of Shara Nelson will bring a smile to the face of anyone who has walked into a nightclub recently and wondered where the heart and soul had gone. It's here. [Ark21 Records]
Fragments of Freedom
Morcheeba

Those wacky Morcheeba kids must have a great sense of humor, they're obviously having a big laugh on all of us with this album. I mean, what band would deliberately take what made them so great and unique – the dreamy beats, the exotic instruments, the wonderful voice of Skye Edwards – and drown it in a sea of pale and weedy disco-funk so ordinary it makes N'Sync sound like the Famous Flames. This is all some wacky Dada-ist joke, right? They must have hired some cheapo session musicians to play these corny songs and then they got a blind dog to design the sleeve. When they've finished having a good ol' laugh at our expense they'll release the real third Morcheeba album. Ha Ha Ha. Those crazy guys.

Moshi Moshi
Various Artists

If Fodors were to produce a Travel Guide to the international world of modern indie pop it would be a lot like this double CD delight. Jet-setting around the globe through the worlds of Power Pop, Folky Pop, Techno Pop, Anorak Pop and The Just Plain Weird Pop it seems that no matter where you land – be it Sweden, Spain, England, Japan or the USA – the sun is shining and cute boys and girls are falling in and out of love to the sound of jangly guitars and Casio keyboards. If you've ever stayed up way past your bedtime trying to make the perfect compilation tape, this is for you. Stuffed full with more poptastic tunes than you can shake a tambourine at, this 40-song travelogue is the tape you could only dream of making. [March Records]

Satélite 99
Ana D.

It's the 23rd century and after a hard day whizzing around the solar system in your spaceship you stop off at your favourite bar on Venus for a drink. On the stage is a band playing hypnotic, minimalist samba music using creaky antique drum machines and keyboards, the sort of sound you imagine Antonio Carlos Jobim would produce if he was from Mars. Up to the microphone steps a chanteuse called Ana D who sings with a breathy, sensual whisper that is equal parts Marianne Faithful, Jane Birkin, Francis Lai and those bug-eyed alien girls on Nebula 6 with the sexy voices. Her slow-burning torch songs wrap you in a dreamy, exquisite fog and you decide to stay a while longer. Hell, it's only a million miles home. [Grimsey Records]