Record Label: The Animal Farm

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Choosing a life on a tour bus over university (well, there’s less debt involved in being a rock star, one would hope), Cambridge’s Violet Bones have honed their skills through packed gigs in their home town’s Corn Exchange and tours with the likes of the New York Dolls. With their indie spiky enough to verge on punk, Violet Bones offer up a sound that’s obviously influenced by the likes of The Libertines, but with enough attitude to get to those Green Day fans out there who still hanker after a time when ‘Basket Case’ was the order of the day. ‘I Feel The Need’, their debut single, sees Violet Bones churning out raw, yet catchy, sing-a-long fodder, complete with lyrics charting the trials and tribulations of everyday life and the situations we find ourselves in. The whole thing rattles along, bursting with energy and robustness but without offering anything particularly new or inspiring but Violet Bones seem to have found a winner amongst the masses with their simple indie-punk formula.

Record Label: Copro Records

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Fresh from tours with the likes of The Wildhearts, melodic rockers Circle of One hit the ground running with their first full-length. Tracks like ‘Everyday Miracles’ boast some great anthemic choruses, big bombastic affairs which will sound pretty spectacular being screamed exuberantly from a hundred sweaty fans in a mosh pit. Meanwhile, check those metal stylings and neat riffing on ‘Power Of One’. Album opener ‘Tied To The Machine’ is frantic, desperate even, and though its subject matter—governmental incompetence—may be a bit hack-eyed, it sets the scene nicely for an album full of passionate rock with vocals reminiscent of Chris Cornell. A bit of fine-tuning wouldn’t have gone amiss here, as some efforts feel overly ambitious or a little undisciplined. But what abounds on this release is sheer potential. This may sound like a cliché comment from some X Factor judge—for which this writer is truly sorry—but Circle of One really do have that ‘raw talent’ that should lead them to some success in the not too distant future. They certainly know when they’ve written a tasty hook, and it’s this craft that provides ‘Tied To The Machine’ with a host of stand-out moments.

Record Label: 4AD

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Setting up shop in that dark place where ethereal pop, cacophonic noise rock and dismal shoe-gaze meet and mingle, Norwegians Serena Maneesh return with their second LP, a twisted ride into the darkness on the other side of alt-rock. Distortion and confusion pervade the LP, welcome and exciting as it is upsetting and frustrating. In fact, this is an album of countless twists and turns, which always seeks to put its listener on the edge. Comfort zones are left rended into shreds by the jarring, flimsy pop of ‘D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D’, a perfect example of how on this LP, Serena Maneesh satisfy our need for the recognisable (there’s a recognisable song structure in there somewhere, honest) while doing their level best to alienate with a dazzling array of noise. Occasionally the band push this dichotomy a little too far; on ‘Honey Jinx’, a sludgy heaviness overpowers the track, with the vocals edged into the very peripheries of the soundscape, existing as footnotes blurring into the noise. The track, then, is less rewarding, but is a momentary blip on an otherwise thrilling landscape, the highlight of which is surely ‘Ayisha Abyss’, a frenetic rollercoaster of dance sensibilities and otherworldly ambience.

Record Label: All Sorted Records

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There’s an electro storm breaking at the moment, what with the success of Little Boots and La Roux and fantastic up-and-coming acts, like Chew Lips, hitting the scene. So where do Essex’s Angry Vs The Bear fit in to this mash of electric noise and female vocals? Well, on debut single ‘Show Emotion’, they mix a spiky punk attitude into the electro recipe. It’s certainly true that the band have a feisty singer in the brilliantly named Mitzi Fox, whose voice is oddly reminiscent at times of Skin from Skunk Anansie. And on both ‘Show Emotion’ and B-side ‘Mystery Girl’, the band come in with fists flying, no holds barred. But something here sounds a little dated, which hampers the track a little. Possibly it’s the fact that Fox has that Skin vocal-doppelganger thing going on. One worries, then, that in the electric sea of 2010, Angry Vs The Bear may struggle to swim rather than sink. The latter would be a shame, of course, since there’s nothing too wrong with the tough-as-old-boots electro the band produce; it’s just not overly imaginative.

Record Label: Virgin Records

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Fresh from their successful new album ‘Hold Me Down’, Brit punk-rockers You Me At Six give us pop-punk with a healthy exuberance in the form of first single ‘Underdog’. With its tight melodies, inoffensive guitars and frontman Josh Franceschi’s driven vocals, it would be a difficult claim to make to say that the track is hard to get into. Hell, it’s one of those songs that you feel you know well after one listen. But, if there’s something ‘Underdog’ is lacking, it’s a little more fire, a little more heart. As catchy as the chorus is, there’s nothing truly infectious about it and nothing to keep you coming back for seconds—a key ingredient of the best pop-punk. Playing pop-punk without much vitriol, You Me At Six are bound to draw comparisons to the likes of Paramore, perhaps even My Chemical Romance, at a stretch. Alas, as much as their target audiences are probably similar, on the basis of this single at least, You Me At Six are shown up by the comparison. ‘Underdog’ is the sound of a band polishing their punk and shining their pop, without perfecting either, leading to a track that’s adequate but little more.

Record Label: Slimeball Records

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Adopting the quiet/loud song structure popularised and simultaneously put to death by Nirvana and their 90s grunge compatriots, London’s noisy Japanese Voyeurs play with the concept of the ‘90s throwback’ with this double A-side effort. Like a rather coy Kim Deal merged with Bjork in a ‘The Fly’-esque experiment, vocalist Romily Alice breathes her way sweetly through the initial stages of ‘That Love Sound’. But this little grrrl-lost act jars uncomfortably with the massive guitar attack that kicks in a few seconds later, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you enjoy music that achieves little but to break windows. Second track ‘Blush’ is the same formula turned up a notch, with monstrous riffs and feedback threatening to usurp any semblance of a song. Again, Alice’s innocuous vocals initially intrigue, until being drowned in the flood of sound, with any promise ruined.  As alt-rock chaos, ‘That Love Sound’ just doesn’t have the gut-wrenching, blissfully bewildering impact of the Pixies’ finest moments of alienation. Instead, it comes across as the grown-up equivalent of a bunch of spotty teenagers banging drums in their parents’ garage: fun for a few cheap kicks but hardly musically potent.

Tags: AFI, Biffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand, Keep On Talking, M.C, Stay Inside, Tapetheradio

Record Label: Too Pure

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Another day, another indie band being heralded as bright young things by the NME brigade. Here, London’s Tapetheradio give us indie tinged with melancholy; from its opening, sobering notes to singer M.C’s whiny vocals. And with lyrics like “You paved the way for my heart/It gets lonely” getting thrown into the mix, you might just find those heartstrings getting tugged. That, or you might wind up a little nauseous. Either way, next up is a neat, effects-laden bridge before a chorus that, alas, tries a little too hard to be anthemic and ends up sounding a bit stale. ‘Keep On Talking’, on B-side duties here, has more ‘oooh oooh’s’ than the average AFI track. But while the band kick out a tight jam, it’s a case of one ‘hey’ too many. Move along now people, nothing to see here. Ultimately on this single, Tapetheradio straddle a line somewhere between radio-friendly indie ala Franz Ferdinand and more complex, emotional rock, ala the likes of early Biffy Clyro. Sadly, their efforts don’t entirely satisfy on either account, being not quite catchy enough to blast the band into the big boy league, while simultaneously not having quite enough depth.

Tags: July Flame, Laura Veirs, Little Duschutes, Summer Is The Champion, Sun Is King

Record Label: Bella Union

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This is Portland native Laura Veirs’ seventh LP, and it’s very almost a concept album, albeit a non-traditional one. No, don’t run for the hills—this isn’t some pretentious prog nonsense; rather, it’s a collection of hazy ballads which evoke the heart of summer. The title track rumbles along on a bed of restrained guitar and gentle synths, Veirs musing over the very experience of summer itself, “I’m seeing fireworks/They’re so beautiful/Tell me why it hurts”. The whole thing is superbly paced, slowly building momentum until it ripens into a succession of triumphant strings, a motif which reoccurs at several points on the LP. ‘Sun Is King’ offers a more laconic approach, perfect for the dreamers out there. Then there’s the absorbing, brilliant ‘Summer Is The Champion’; driven by plonking keys, it’s a sun-kissed ballad that will certainly put a spring in the step. Not everything is immediately perfect here; some tracks are ultimately underwhelming. But, in common with Veirs’ finer efforts, each song still offers up subtleties which may take a few listenings to dredge out; check out that red-raw guitar solo on ‘Little Deschutes’ for proof. ‘July Flame’, then, is a pleasure to explore.

Tags: Dandy Warhols, Heavenly Records, Matt Lamkin, The Muslims, The Soft Pack, The Strokes

Record Label: Heavenly Records

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San Diego’s The Soft Pack like their indie ramshackle, or their punk diluted with radio-friendly indie sensibilities, depending on which way you want to look at it. 2010 finds the band all excited about a new, self-titled album, of which ‘Answer To Yourself’ is a taster. The Soft Pack certainly go in all guns blazing, launching from the off here into a searing combination of simple chords, spiky guitars and rough-shod, attitude-drenched vocals, courtesy of frontman Matt Lamkin. Shades of those other US bands who straddle the punk/indie fault-line—The Strokes and the Dandy Warhols, to name a couple—spring immediately to mind here, and as Lamkin degenerates into a wail for the line, “But I think I’m gonna die/Before I see my time”, you’d be forgiven for seeing Julian Casablancas rise up like a phantom in your mind’s eye. The band were previously known by the controversy-courting moniker ‘The Muslims’, but are now playing the name game safely. A shame, because on the basis of this single, these chaps could really do with that little something extra to separate them from the, ahem, pack. It’s a decent effort, but nothing that hasn’t been done better elsewhere.

Tags: I Pray, Ladyhawke, Ladytron, Sarah McIntosh, The Goodnatured, Your Body Is A Machine EP

Record Label: Unsigned

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After humble beginnings with a Yamaha keyboard in her bedroom (the place to launch a pop career these days, by all accounts), the tail end of 2009 finds ‘the good natured’ (aka 18-year-old Sarah McIntosh) releasing her second EP. Still with only the aforementioned old keyboard to provide the electric pulse for her affecting, sometimes dreamy musings on life and loss, McIntosh has created a sound that’s stripped down and honest; less funky and polished than Ladyhawke, but warmer than Ladytron and more leftfield than Lily Allen. Opener ‘I Pray’ finds McIntosh pushing out a hook large enough to snare a shark; just try and resist that uplifting chorus. Go on, I dare you. Next, ‘Your Body Is A Machine’ ushers in moody, apprehensive organ-esque keys; elsewhere the beats polymorph in style from cheap electro to drum‘n’ bass. McIntosh’s strength is in writing songs that are simple and accessible enough to lure the listener in at first glance, but are also strong enough to hold up to repeat listenings. Throughout, McIntosh pulls off vocals that are emotional, even forlorn, without withering away into glumness or irritating the ear.  One to watch this year; here’s hoping she never bins the keyboard.