Listen Up! No. 62: No Age - Valley Hump Crash

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Having finally got around to throwing this acclaimed LA duo's sophomore effort, Everything In Between, I was hit with two waves of aural stimulation. The ramschackle riffs 'n' drums of the pithier numbers, such as lead single 'Glitter', got me hooked. But it was the hazier efforts, mixing equal parts jangle-pop, shoegaze and dreamy sound collages which kept me hitting repeat play on the stero. This one crystallises a sound founded on stolen ideas but welded into something magnificently unique.

Listen Up! No. 60: Fujiya & Miyagi - Ventrilloquizzing

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Moodier than ever, Brighton electro-glumsters Fujiya & Miyagi's fourth full lengther, Ventrilloquizzing, looks poised to inject an air of vaudevillian menace into the South Coast's indie scene. Unfortunately you'll have to wait until 17 January  to hear it. Here's a taster.

Listen Up! No. 35: Klaxons - Echoes

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As someone who spent longer than most intensely disliking Klaxons the first time round (before eventually growing to accept their record), I feel as qualified as the next hater to tell you this: the clothes and video are now desert (as opposed to astro-) themed, but are still largely in keeping with the unrepentent faux-literate cosmic doggerel of the lyrics. A beefier tune eventually presents itself though, even if the falsetto remains.

Listen Up! No. 29: The Hold Steady - Hurricane J

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Small town problems; big time pathos - as always.

Listen Up! No. 25: The Antlers - Sylvia

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The dribs and drabs nature of promotion for the Antlers' ghostly Hospice did it as little justice as me plucking a 'single' from it share with the world. Still, here goes: enjoy this, then immerse yourself in the morbid glory of the record in it's entirety (a concept album revolving around a child's fight with leukimia, no less).