Best albums of 2011 so far...

With a quarter of the year gone. Not including any of my own releases. I know the number one’s a bit predictable.

1. Let England Shake – PJ Harvey (Island) Get it: practically anywhere


2. Milk Drops – Zoomonk (Myhand.thanx) Get it


3. Snowy Psychoplasmics – Dissolved (Daddy Tank) Get it


4. Ode To A Carrot – Soom T & Disrupt (Jahtari) Get it


5. Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will – Mogwai (Rock Action) Get it


6. Guider – Disappears (Kranky) Get it


7. Sensitive – Trevor Sensitive & The Locals (Self-Released) Get it


8. Bells & Proclamations – Big Block 454 Get it


9. All Rights Reserved – The Evolution Control Committee Get it


10. Red Barked Tree – Wire (Pink Flag) Get it

Help the Japan earthquake victims and get a great compilation

One of our favourite labels, Audio Antihero, has put together a fantastic compilation featuring 34 (yes, 34) tracks from a whole bunch of great artists, many of whom I've played in my Dandelion Radio show. Called 'Bob Hope Would', the album includes tracks from this month's session guest Jack Hayter, Darren Hayman, Mersault and Extradition Order and loads more. The fantastic Social Studies, who'll be appearing in my April show, are on there too. Get the album for a minimum donation of £3.99 at http://audioantihero.bandcamp.com/album/audio-antihero-presents-bob-hope-would.

New Hehfu site

Hehfu has a new website at http://hehfu.blogspot.com which features loads of new songs from our genius of jagged indie pop that you really need to listen to. Remember you can still buy a copy of his Perfection Is Boring album here. I'm currently ending my March Dandelion Radio show with his masterpiece Na Tas Ja so check the schedule here to find out when you can hear it, and indeed the rest of the show (Jack Hayter in session - don't miss it).

UT-004: Religiously Inept - Slideshow Freak

In all the time I've spent chronicling the musical adventures of Slideshow Freak in my Dandelion Radio show, he's never lost the power to surprise me. So it's no surprise that I'm surprised by Religiously Inept, the great unreleased, 'lost' album that I'm very pleased to be bringing to the world's attention for the first time.

It's the first in a series of Slideshow Freak albums from Unwashed Territories and was made some years ago. Consequently you hear raw and unpolished elements that will be familiar to those who, like me, enjoy his officially released albums. This release also features the guitar stylings of Joe Wood, adding an undiscovered and often unfamiliar dimension to the Slideshow Freak sound.

Overall, though, you get Slideshow Freak doing what Slideshow Freak does best: viewing the world through a broken and distorted perspective, like the cracked bottom of a jam jar doubling as a wasp trap. There's a fractured, blemished element to what on the surface appears a fairly traditional and well-crafted veneer. He shakes up the world in a way that so many musicians have either forgotten about or just never knew how to. This release is a fascinating journey into where some of this came from, with many welcome surprises on the way.

Get your copy for the obscenely low price of £2.99 at http://unwashedterritories.bandcamp.com/releases.

Mark W