Combining deep 60s psychedelic grooves with the minimal looping work recently found within work by the likes of Walls and Caribou, Django Django come along and add a hint of spice to the sound. The glazed expression of the music perfectly fits the Beta Band electronic feel their going for; from the Beach Boys influenced ‘Life’s A Beach’ and ‘Silver Rays’, to the more out-there moments of ‘Wor’.

Scotland seems to be going through a bit of an indie band renaissance at the moment, from the children of Biffy such as We Were Promised Jetpacks, and now the next generation of stoned up alternative artists seem to have a band to turn to as well. This self titled debut deffinitely delivers an exciting promise. There’s numerous routes to take from this ecletic mix of genre hopping, what happens next will be very exciting indeed.

Plenty of new bands around in 2012. That NME cover prophecy from this time last year (just the wrong bands to attach it to, sadly) is becoming true… kind of. Anyway, there’s plenty of decent music from otuside the world of UK guitar bands to enjoy. And I haven’t featured any minimal house in a while. So here goes…

As the cover art, depicting a red lighted bar with lots of single people drinking bottled beer eludes to, this is one to either start the night, or to end it. Heavily panned light synth effects rainbow their way from one ear to another, while the deep, dark basslines boom throughout.

Released on the new Ware records, the fifteen year old Cologne based techno/house label, and their concentration on amazing production values hasn’t dimmed. Throughout this album drum skitter, crack and vocal samples are cut up and broken out in wild spasms.

One for the nodding heads then, but deffinitely a must have release for those of you who are scared by all these wooden things with trings attached, or for times when they’re justa bit too loud.

A side project, already? Well, Odd Future were always a bit of a chop and change clan. My main question is, just what are they trying to achieve?

This time round, they’re hitting the R’n'B market. Or, more precisely, Syd – the only female member of the group – is.

Opening track ‘Violet Nude Women’ is an instrumental track taking a cue from the Nu Jazz school of production. “While Syd is tellin’ me that she’s been gettin’ intimate with men/Syd, shut the fuck up/here’s the number to my therapist” (Yonkers, Tyler the Creator), this is not. In fact, even ‘C*nt’ is so unoffensive it the childish humor of the title seems as offensive as the word itself. Just because a women’s saying it, doesn’t make it a good reason to be so uncreative with lyrics or titles – it’s not forward thinking feminism, it’s dull.

There’s a lot of movements into pop, soulful female vocals over bouncy basslines and hip hop drum loops. It’s almost as if they wrote a song for the reunion of Destiny’s Child, only to be turned away and told by their label to get on with it and do a whole album.

It takes until track six, ‘Cocaine’, for the traditional deep sounding males MC vocals to make an appearance. And as the track suggests, it’s about cocaine.

As an album full of tracks useful for DJs needing some light dub, most of this album works quite nicely. As a creation by a member of what was sold to us as the future of hip hop, it’s a little disappointing.

With a big, heart warming sound reminiscent of Primal Sound at their most euphoric, and a madchester bass and drum combination looping away in the background, We Are Standard are deffinitely in a ‘Great State’ (excuse the pun).

A combination of pre-Brit Pop power rock and a choir opens this EP from the Spanish quartet, on ’07:45 (Bring Me Back Home)’. Soon triumphant horns announce the immenence of the upbeat ‘Summer’. ‘Let’s Say I’m In Love’ is rock in its more traditional 60s format, but the usual jaunty guitar set up they once again add some strings and reverb making it massive romance.

We Are Standard take label mates’ Delorean’s dance feel and plug it straight into the heart of their rock’n'roll record collection, a perfect combination within this EP. Oh, did we mention it sounds massive?

This compilation may not feature new music, but it sneaked into the December release date so quietly it deserves to be talked about. Putting together some of the rarest records around, if they’re on their original 7″ plastic format, combining tracks from the Acid Jazz label, a selection of Northern Soul, Freak Beat and other ‘mod’ genres. What can we say, other than it’s bloody brilliant.

Finishing off what should really be known as KOMPAKTs year, a constant stream of quality releases from their central label or their imprints has kept the electronic world really, really interesting this year. And what better way to round it up by another instalment of their legendary ‘pop ambient’ compilations?

Starting with Mohn’s epicly, er, ambient ‘Manifest’ all the way through to ‘Riding Your Bikes’ this is an LP which glides from one track to another. Another compilation set on quality and, amazingly, quantity.

Those of you who aren’t big fans of sound scapes, this is a sure fire no go area. But for those wanting to reach more avante garde sounds in January you could do worse than picking up a copy of this.

POP AMBIENT 12 will be available January 30^th : http://www.kompakt.fm/releases

The Tricks – the ‘band most likely to’ be talked about come Jan 2012 prediction pages… a kiss of death or genuine proof of talent? Either way, it doesn’t make much difference, with the likes of Azealia Banks doing that wierd hip-hop/glitchy synth stuff which ‘the kids are doing nowadays’, The Tricks’ lo-fi Undertones kind of sound, much like The Vaccines’ sounds not only off target, but also a bit dull and out of date.

There’s definitely precision in the song writing, you’re never really waiting around a chorus to kick in, which is a good thing, but the lyrical content never really stands out enough to line them up with the classicism of The La’s etc which they’re trying to take on.

You’ll be hearing a lot more of The Tricks soon, so no need for any more right now.  Maybe – just maybe – don’t believe the hype.

A bizzarre mix of classical orchestral instrumentation and someone off key harmonies open the record on ‘Taxi Zum No’, putting you into a weird trance like state before warping your mind with the bleepy ‘Von Anderen Ufer’. The fact that this record is largely improvisational isn’t really surprising.

It’s on ‘Tertiary’, with it’s tribal minimalism and looping synths, when Heatsick ties himself down to some sort of structure, that things get interesting. The repetition of previous tracks working their way into a 4am groove and an undeniable lo-fi charm.

A self confessed label for ‘bedroom dreamers’ , Sweet Sound of Nothing has built a small following with their limited edition releases of shoegaze beauties. The Tashaki Miyaki EP is no different, dreamy female vocals swirls around gritty guitars as Jesus and Mary Chain drums add the heart beat rhythm. It may not be wholly original, but as ever with these things, its the songs themselves which make the difference.

EP opener ‘Somethin’ Is Better Than Nothing’ is a spacey trip to optimism, even if the grainy riffing guitar leads you astray. The bonus CD for all who pre-order shows that Tashaki Miyaki don’t just stick with the 80s influences, with their Buddy Holly cover, and the alt versions giving a softy spoken acoustic take on the originals.

Hyped to bursting on the internet, but through all this this is one act that – while not pushing boundaries – writes tracks perfect for lovers to swoon to in the holliday season. We can’t believe it’s that time of year already, but with this release about we’re not complaining.

Gold Panda is the latest name to play DJ for !K7 Records’ 16-year-old DJ-Kicks compilation series. And its a very well curated mix indeed featuring both familiar household names such as, Zomby, Ramadanman and Autistici as well as some exclusive new tracks from the master himself. In true DJ kicks style this compilation explores minimalist fringes of electronica, drawing in deep house, future bass, glitch, breakbeat, afro-tek, ambient and much more. Given the wildly disparate materials used to construct it, the bubbling, slurping, rustling flow of this DJ-Kicks is wicked and will most certainly impress beyond the fans of Gold Panda.