Jungle - Busy Earning

As the weather in Britain eases up this week a new song is released by Jungle, which sounds really triumphant and invokes hazy days of summer, which will be around the corner. They have a sound which is now very identifiable. It sounds like a 70's soundtrack in the beats and the fact a number of them seem to be singing the vocals. It's really funky, but in a really laid-back way.

Who exactly they are is another question, which isn't exactly answered by the 20 or so people in the publicity photo on this track. But who cares anyway!

Redlight feat. Lotti - 36

Redlight is a producer from Bristol, England who has made some of the most interesting tracks in the past few years. My favourite was "Lost in Your Love", closely followed by a banger he produced for Mz Bratt called "Selecta". His music is a mixture of UK Funky, House and Garage. His new track "36" is taken from a forthcoming EP of the same name, which will be released on 10th March.

It is a classic sounding dance track with 1980's type of sounds involved, from the bassline, to the drums and the robotic man in the chorus saying "36,000 Thousand Feet". For me the strength of Redlight has always been that he has melded sweet female voices with great bass-sounding instrumentals and Lotti's vocals on this one are no exception.

Klaxons - Children of the Sun

The Klaxons have released the second part of their double A side single and it is called "Children of the Sun". The thing I find really interesting about this track is that it was produced by Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers. There's a strong glam rock stomp type of feel that pulsates through the track. It's got a great melody on it and has that Klaxons vocal style to it, but here it sounds like a call to arms, rather than a melodious daydream. Klaxons probably lost a bit of heat after their second album, but this feels exciting again. Different, but exciting!

Songs of 2013 - Julio Bashmore - Peppermint

This track from Julio Bashmore surfaced in September 2013. It features the vocals of Jessie Ware, who has collaborated with him many times before, probably to the best effect on "Imagine It Was Us". This tune features her weaving her way in and out of the track, with delicate ease.

Julio Bashmore is from Bristol, which is an area that has produced a number of British dance music heroes, most notably Massive Attack, Portishead and Roni Size. The difference with Bashmore to a number of acts is that his style is closer routed to American style house music. It is still unmistakably British though. To me when I hear American influenced house it depends a lot less on the bass element than it's British equivalent. It's definitely a sexy sound and this is emphasised in this track by the fact Jessie Ware's vocals repeats "I'm hot for you, whatcha gonna do" a number of times. I love the bell sounding synth line that is featured prominently in the track too.

Julio Bashmore is scheduled to release his debut album this year after a number of underground hits. He hopefully will enjoy the success of his musical brethren Disclosure. I am looking forward to his new material this year!

Javeon - Give Up

Javeon is a singer who is on PMR Records. This is the label that bought us Jessie Ware and Disclosure and you can see exactly why someone with the style of Javeon is signed to the label. It's not like he is a direct copy, but he is definitely in that family. "Give Up" has that garagey feel, with R&B style vocals.

This song came out a month ago and for me there is something of a flavour of the stuff MJ Cole blessed us with on the album "Sincere". It's got a laid-back, summer type of vibe, with classy understated vocals. It's a great song, which will hopefully be the precursor to a great album.

Songs of 2013 - Wretch 32 ft Shakka - Blackout

My all-time favourite musical act are Outkast. Though I only became aware of them after 1998's "Aquemini". However when I delve back into their career I realise that the move from the southern gangsta-funk of 1994's "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik"to the more laid-back and experimental nature of 1996's "Atliens" must have been a weird jump at the time. In a funny way when I heard "Blackout" for the first time I was reminded of the jump that Outkast made between the two albums.

It's so easy for an artist to make the jump-off single a "look at me" club/festival banger. But I love the laid-back contemplation of the fame and success that has happened to Wretch 32 after he moved from underground to a mainstream UK artist with his major label debut, 2011's "Black and White". And how many rappers have come out with a track dissing the haters and the ho's that are now here as they have a bit of fame? Or get a big rapper/singer for a big name collaboration as they seek to confirm their greater status. There is something different about this track, from the way it starts with Shakka's emotional singing, to the build-up to Wretch 32's verses morphing into a marching tribal type beat, rather than a simple banging beat. And Wretch 32's verses have that tone in them where you can feel him searching for a moment of peace. Indeed there is a repeated refrain at the breakdown where he says "Take away my light, take away my shine, take away my eyesight, gimme a beat and let me rhyme", which feels like he just wants simpler times. This sentiment has been echoed in music many times before, but as someone who grew up in Britain it is great that we are now at the stage where a British rappers life can get crazy with all the success that he is having!

The lighting in the video is really interesting. Most of the video is in the shadows, which is generally the main element of the song. But those shadows are broken up by glimpses of light which is really cool. Wretch 32's new album "Growing Over Life" is due out sometime during 2014. Hopefully it will be dropping soon.

Songs of 2013 - M.I.A - Bring The Noize

This year M.I.A released her fourth album "Matangi". It was nearly 2 years ago that the first track from that album, "Bad Girls" was released. Apparently in the intervening period there were disagreement between her and her label. M.I.A said in an interview“[Interscope was] like ’We just built you up as the public enemy No. 1 and now you’re coming out with all this positive stuff.” This was at the beginning of 2013. She went back to "figure out what this meant" and then her album came out in November. So when "Bring The Noize" came out in the summer that felt like the real jump-off for the album.

It is a track which has many of the things M.I.A has done over the years; a bumping beat that sounds energetic & exotic, rapping with a confidence and swagger and a provoking and colourful video. The beat is brilliant because all the energy is concentrated in the drums with vocal samples jumping in every now and then. It was produced by Switch & Surkin.

M.I.A is such an important artist. She stands for something and is a powerful female voice in today's music industry. She may never be an artist who sells lots of records, but I imagine she has and will continue to inspire many up and coming artists around the world.