UK

Rephlex mammoth Mr. Cylob has taken his gamelan based ambient music a step forward and created a new outfit called Ambient News. Out on his label Cylob Industries this 14 track album is pure oldschool ambient bliss with bits of electronic beats, bells, computer singing and digital manipulation.

From Cambridge comes the mysterious CDR from Phalangius with a bag of synth tunes made solely on the Roland Juno 6. I sense that this is a fake identity though, as did clone.nl, which think that he’s simply Legowelt.

Nottingham’s Friendly Fires is an indie/dance band that has officially managed to get my interest. I’ve always avoided these hipster party stuff since nu-rave = nu-metal for me. Alas Friendly Fires seems to have find the perfect formula for the genre with two golden tracks not unlike Bloc Party’s first album of formulaic indie.