SINGLES ROUND-UP feat Tune-Yards, We Cut Corners, Wild Beasts, Pet Shop Boys, Ultramarine and more

We Cut Corners - Blue - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
As I've been away for a week or so, the new releases have been piling up. So without further ado, we kick off with Dublin's visceral alt-rock duo We Cut Corners who have extracted the lively stomper Blue from their recent album Think Nothing. This pair certainly have the guts and bluster to blow away most of the opposition peddling similar angsty guitar pop so good luck to them.

Tune-Yards - Water Fountain - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Back from a hiatus of some three years, Merrill Garbus returns with a joyous percussive bop through all points African for possibly her best single to date. It's the lead-off track for the new album Nikki Nack, a title that already suggests she's lost none of the eccentricities of previous recordings. If David Byrne fancies collaborating with anyone in the next few years, he could do worse than sidle up to Garbus' infectious playful shimmies.

Terry Emm - Forever and After - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Our Tel seems to have been building up to his upcoming Starlight for aeons with singles a-plenty. This one is positively jaunty and reminds me of Nick Heyward or Stephen Duffy at a jamboree in the '90s, that is to say it's not particularly ground-breaking but exudes finesse and a decent melody that seems fitting for the approaching summer season. The mix is a bit cloudy but there's a determination behind this one that might draw some attention to that long-awaited album.

Wild Beasts - A Simple Beautiful Truth (Lone Remix) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
From the forthcoming EP of the same name, minimal techno-master Lone gives the Beasts' Hayden Thorpe the spatial remix respect he deserves, turning Kendal's finest into something of a hip electro proposition worth listening to. Subtle, melodic and warm, Lone and Wild Beasts are a perfect fit, even if you hate indie-pop merged with 'dance'. A simple beautiful remix, in fact.

Martyna Wren - Al Capone's Girl - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
It's smokey-jazz bar-room lounge time and Wren trills a worthy tune fit for being on any daytime chat-show or even Later with Jools Holland. Inoffensive and teeming with quality vocals (she's got the Tracey Thorn about her), this pleasing assemblage of double-bass, brass and pin-sharp pop won't do Wren any harm whatsoever. Previously a harbinger of cover versions, this is a nifty little original that has enough twists and turns to satisfy most aficionados of the craft.

Neil Cowley Trio - Kneel Down - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
After notching up a BBC Jazz Award and providing piano passages on Adele's multi-million selling albums, you'd think the name Cowley would be on everyone's lips by now. Unless you've a penchant for Oxford's suburbs, the name Cowley remains a mystery. But with a new album due in June and this delicately understated lead-off promo single, fortunes may change for the better. Fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Keith Jarrett might appreciate the work gone into this - I certainly did.

Ultramarine & Heretic - Random Spectacular - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Normally you'd find Essex-based ambi-tech duo Ultramarine noodling about charmingly with analogue synths, jazzist beats and a good old dose of estuary Englishness about them, a sort of marshy soundtrack suited to twitching in the reeds or sunning yourself on a shabby seaside pier. Not so here - I like Ultramarine lots and this rather more experimental, but no less interesting, piece of fidgety electronica has been created to herald the publication of art journal Random Spectacular (which in turn will contribute funds to Maggie's Caring Cancer Centres). Worthy in more ways than one.

Liquorice River - Pulse EP - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Formerly of London upstarts The Firm, singer-songwriter Ross Liddle returns with another band with a different sound. By turns a little bit early Ultravox, then Suede then a wee bit TOY, the three main songs on this EP become all the more interesting after several plays. There's a lot going on in Mundane Tasks of the Day, in fact it's quite proggy dare I say it. Easier on the ear is the lively Gone to the Dogs, a sort of post-punkabilly anthem before it rocks out a bit. And I'd imagine Pornstar means more live than it does here, though whether the installation of additional stage-props is planned in the near future remains to be seen. Like the debut album Tears On The Telephone, Pulse bodes well.

Pet Shop Boys - Vocal (Outernationale remix) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
This has been knocking around on Soundcloud for a while now and is faithful enough to the original to be considered respectful yet pumped-up enough to warrant club exposure (and radio, to be fair). Lots of hands-to-the-lazers action crammed into five short minutes, it reminds me of Richard X's attempt at New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle - which is no bad thing. And all this from the man who guided Section 25 through their last exceptional album.

Pitbull - We Are One (Ole Ola) (The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Song) - ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
With every World Cup competition, there follows a resurgent river of aural detritus created by non-footballers for non-football fans who aren't into music or anything else for that matter, save for cracking one off to rap videos. This is as much about football, Brazil and sportsmanship as a car-park in Portsmouth and about as exciting. Don't worry - there will be dozens of other piss-poor (un)official contenders to deal with in the coming months, so much so that Pitbull (from the leading footballing state in the world - Florida - in the leading footballing nation in the world - that's the US of A) will be long forgotten. He wins a star for keeping it under one minute in length. Well, it's actually three minutes in length but I turned it off in order to watch some varnish dry. Bring back Fat Les.

First Aid Kit - Silver Lining - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
There's a distinctly Americana feel to this ditty, to the point where I'm reminded of Emmylou Harris, Paula Frazer or the girl Marling in full flow. Swede's are great at not sounding entirely Swedish sometimes - Abba (post-Eurovision), The Hives, The Radio Dept and now First Aid Kit have the nous and the talent to pull off artistic deception with aplomb. Silver Lining is really rather pleasing but I'm at a loss as to how the duo are quite so popular. Oh hang on - songs. Ah yes, that age-old craft of knocking melodies out isn't lost on Sweden and long may they export their wares in our direction. 

Katy Perry - Birthday - ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
I'm sure I heard this back in the mid-'80s, possibly by Sheila E or any one of Prince's extended entourage. Maybe it's the jingly guitar, maybe it's the melody or maybe it's the fact that I just wish shallow drivel like this would go away forever and stop trying to be something it isn't - i.e. good. But it won't - while there's a hole in the arse of the music industry, Perry's calculated stools will plop into the ears and consciousness of easily-pleased wannabes and keep the conveyor-belt of pre-meditated pop pap rattling on. 

Wu-Tang Clan - Keep Watch - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
It's the Wu! Actually, I lost hope with the biggest rap-group in history a few albums back, possibly around the time of The W or the Gravel Pit single. Where once there were razor-sharp raps and stone-melting beats, there are now polite little RnB flavas and tired chat about bitches, penitentiary and projects. The humour, the martial arts refs and the Shaolin obsession has confounded itself, left to create a one-off CD album up for auction to one lucky investor for a few million. If this is part of the package, one investor might want to read the refund policy's small print. Me, I'll relive the glory days of the 36 Chambers and give this a miss.

Laetitia Sadier - Then, I Will Love You Again - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Stereolab in all but name, Then... is actually rather moreish in a pop-folky kinda way. Sadier's voice isn't far removed from Beth Orton but there the similarity ends. This is a quirky single, complete with synth 'n' brass stabs, melody gear-changes and typically left-field arrangements, as well as the usual feeling of rapturous joy mixed with resounding gloom. So, par for the course then. I quite like this.

Red Snapper - Card Trick EP - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Filed under 'afro-funk', according to Soundcloud, this EP on Lo Recordings hails Red Snapper's first release in almost three years and sees the Brit-oddities mining the same disturbed jazz-crunk seam as always. Far better than the album version is the Tici Taci remix of Card Trick which rivals some of Cabaret Voltaire's '90s era electro-funk for its minimal insistence. Also included are two versions of the track Village Tap, again neither ground-breaking but definitely on the right side of the tracks, especially Rick Thair's mucky interpretation aimed at the feet, rather than the mind. There's a distinct Tom Moulton thing going on with those hi-hats, I tell ya!

Electro Deluxe - Devil - ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
It's strange how Red Snapper don't try too hard to be funky but are, whereas Electro Deluxe (ugh, sad name) obviously ARE funk but aren't funky, per se. I'd imagine the band's native France will 'get' Home but they're possibly a bit too obvious to win over UK audiences. Still, in a live environment, Electro Deluxe might cause a few shakes of the ass and a wiggle of the hips but I'm not convinced - there just isn't much of a tune here, just a few sideways glances at Troublefunk and the more recent Mama's Gun (and look what happened to the latter - yep, nothing). Passable.