However generous/funny/strange your best mate is, and however fond of them you are, if you’re planning a surf trip to any European destination, this book will automatically replace them as your new best bud.

The second album by the band who invented a genre called, er, ‘Thamesbeat’ marks a complete change of direction for them. Is Twenty One The Mystery Jets coming of age?

Liverpool’s hottest prospects, Avenging Force offer something completely different to the umbrella of La’s-inspired bands who have shadowed the city for so long.

London boy in LA, Shawn Lee returns with his seventh album in the Ping Pong Orchestra series for the most excellent Ubiquity records.

Marking Unforscene’s debut on Tru Thoughts, Fingers and Thumbs creates a low fi cinematic soul soundscape infused with broken beats, jazz, electronica, funk, soul, folk, blues, and then some. 

The early 1990s classic gets a revamp including 10 bonus demo tracks and 45-minute DVD. A great introduction for new fans and enough rarities to please those who bought it the first time round.

Following their successful February tour, the Villains release Gospel Bombs, an effervescent, retro collection of ditties with big label, E.M.I. 

Jonquil belong to that slightly bespectacled clan of musos dubbed post-rockers. You can therefore expect foreign dialects, flugelhorns and such beautiful goose-bump inducing utterances to draw tears.