Barclaycard Mercury Prize Recommends brings you some of the week's most interesting online music from around the world...
There are freshly picked tracks from Katy B and Mount Kimbie this week, and videos from Temples, Mara Carlyle and Austra. You can listen to brand new album releases from Is Tropical, MS MR and Luke Solomon and also find out about upcoming concerts from Liz Green, Big Deal and an all-star performance of Beck's Song Reader project...
Tracks: Katy B, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Mount Kimbie, Banks
Videos: Temples, Mara Carlyle, The National, Austra
Albums: Is Tropical, MS MR, Jaga Jazzist, Luke Solomon
Live: Beck's Song Reader, Big Deal, BBC 6 Music Prom, Liz Green
Barclaycard Mercury Prize Sessions
Over the past few months Barclaycard Mercury Prize Sessions hosted a series of incredible shows at The Hospital Club in London's Covent Garden, with some of the biggest names in music performing alongside some exciting emergent acts. If you weren't lucky enough to win tickets fear not as the new series starts on Wednesday 22nd May at 12.15am on Channel 4. Tune in to watch a fantastic performance by Indie legends Suede.
Space Oddity
After the release of The Next Day and a retrospective exhibition at the V&A, it's no surprise that David Bowie has dominated the world's media of late. The ever-evolving icon's reach spread further this week, as Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield filmed what's thought to be the first music video shot in space; before leaving the International Space Station Hadfield recorded a particularly poignant version of Bowie's intergalactic hit Space Oddity.
Katy B
What Love Is Made Of
Columbia
Perhaps more than any of her musical peers, Katy B has come to represent the unlikely confluence of underground expression and mainstream appeal so prevalent in contemporary culture. Debut album On A Mission crossed over comfortably into the charts, whilst the more recent Danger EP showed her street level credentials were still strong; the combination of these two worlds continues on Katy's returning single, the floor-filling What Love Is Made Of.
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Retreat
Daptone
After two years spent touring 2010's I Learned The Hard Way, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings locked themselves away for a year in their Brooklyn base, penning songs for their hotly anticipated follow up. Retreat is the first taste from fifth set proper Give The People What They Want, and whilst it moves the group's signature sound sideways it's certain to please their countless acolytes. The huge studio sound comes straight from the pages of Northern Soul's first wave, the perfect backdrop for Sharon Jones' incredible old school delivery.
Mount Kimbie
You Took Your Time feat. King Krule
Warp
South London stands proud on You Took Your Time, the latest track to appear ahead of Mount Kimbie's sophomore album Cold Spring Fault Less Youth. Flame-haired bard King Krule switches his style a little in the opening bars, though his grizzly baritone is firing on all cylinders by the time the track reaches its free falling percussive crescendo. The album launches with a sold-out live show in Mount Kimbie's native Peckham next week.
Banks
Warm Water
Good Years
Orlando Higginbottom has kept a low profile since releasing Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' debut album, though he breaks cover to help out rising chanteuse Banks with a beat. Warm Water does away with Trouble's bold Rave dynamics, exploring instead the emotional electronics that brought out the album's sensitive side and showcased Orlando's brilliant songwriting. His sparing use of submerged synths and muted drums gives Banks space to shine, making this deliciously downtempo track all the more listenable.
Temples
Colour To Life
Directed by Ed Miles
The continuing Psyche renaissance finds an unlikely platform in Kettering, the sleepy Northamptonshire town that Temples call home. Although the band have only released a handful of tracks they've already found firm fans in Suede, The Vaccines and Mystery Jets, all of whom have called upon the quartet to support them. They sharpen their sights with their first video proper, and prove that their visual presence is just as striking as their music.
The National
Sea of Love
Directed by Sophia Peer
Since forming in 1999, The National have gradually become one of America's best loved bands, their mix of complex ideas and accessible songwriting becoming more sophisticated with each of their five albums. Set six, which boasts appearances from St Vincent and Arcade Fire's Richard Perry Reed, is scheduled for release next week. In the run up the band pay homage to the little known Russian punk group Zvuki Mu with their video for Sea of Love.
Mara Carlyle
Ex-Factor
Live at St. John's
Sound:Check's inaugural charity concert at St. John's Church was headlined by the incredible Eska, though hers wasn't the only voice to resonate throughout the beautiful Georgian building. Mara Carlyle enraptured the audience with a spellbinding set that included this spine-tingling performance of Lauren Hill's break-up anthem Ex-Factor. The multi-instrumentalist was accompanied by an organist and the fifteen-strong One Taste Choir.
Austra
Home
Directed by That Go
Filmed backstage before a show in New York, the new video for Home is an innovative portrait of Austra's leading lady Katy Stelmanis. Despite being surrounded by stylists, bandmates and crew, the solitude surrounding the singer is palpable. Directors Noel Paul and Stefan Moore used an ingenious method to achieve this intimacy, masking the camera crew with a massive two way mirror. The band hit the UK next month for a one-off London show.
Is Tropical
I'm Leaving
Kitsune
The outrageous videos for singles The Greeks and Dancing Anymore have certainly helped raise Is Tropical's profile outside of the UK (the latter lasting only an hour on Youtube before being pulled), but the London-based band's knack for penning choruses that stick in the ears is likely to introduce them to even greater audiences. Their new set I'm Leaving, recorded alongside former Clor man and Total Life Forever producer Luke Smith, is a refreshingly direct affair that fuses ebullient Electro with uncomplicated, upbeat Indie.
MS MR
Secondhand Rapture
RCA
Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow set out their stall with a flurry of EPs last year, each one affirming the duo's shared passion for pitch perfect Pop presented in its most modern of guises. The unavoidable hooks and spotless production that shone from early tracks Hurricane and Fantasy serve as good barometers for Secondhand Rapture, MS MR's debut long player. Though drawn from a restricted palate, the album oozes the kind of style and sophistication that always makes Pop music immediately more interesting.
Jaga Jazzist
Live With Britten Sinfonia
Ninja Tune
An exciting proposition awaits for fans of Jaga Jazzist, the Norwegian ensemble who blur the boundaries between Jazz, Post Rock, Modern Classical and the outright experimental: after being introduced to Britten Sinfonia by Radio 3's Fiona Talkington, leading players Lars and Martin Horntveth began scoring from scratch for a performance at London's Barbican. The subsequent show was a dazzling display of musical dynamics and creative ambition, captured in its entirety for this new live album.
Luke Solomon
Timelines
Classic
Luke Solomon's impact on the evolution of UK House is long and lasting, with legendary club night Space and his label Classic setting the tone throughout the mid-Nineties and his own production work proving similarly influential during the decades that have followed. A lot has happened since The Difference Engine, his solo artist debut of 2007, but Luke draws from all his many experiences - and his wide range of musical tastes - to create an album that's almost as broad in its boundaries as House music itself.
Beck: Song Reader Live
Barbican, London
Thursday 4th July
Beck's ambitious Song Reader project is brought to life by an all-star cast. Beck himself heads up a bill that features Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, Villagers, Guillemots, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Franz Ferdinand and Michael Kiwanuka. Were that stellar line-up not enough to seal the deal, the specially assembled house band features Seb Rochford on drums and The Invisible's Dave Okumu and Tom Herbert on bass and guitar. Tickets go on sale this Friday.
Big Deal
Think Tank, Newcastle
Wednesday 12th July
This week Big Deal premiered their new single Dream Machine, a warm and fuzzy slab of Shoegaze-indebted Indie that makes for perfect listening in the current sunshine. As well as uploading the new track, which precedes the album June Gloom, the pair also announced a short series of shows over the coming month. Starting at this weekend's The Great Escape the tour also includes a live instore at Rough Trade East on the day of the album's release.
Prom 40
Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 12th August
Not for the first time in their 118 year history, The BBC Proms are embracing new music with events featuring artists not usually associated with the season. Perhaps most interesting of this summer's concerts is a Prom curated by 6 Music. Laura Marling (pictured) and 6 Music mainstay Cerys Matthews sing alongside mezzo-soprano Anna Stephany, whilst Punk legends The Stranglers and the London Sinfonietta provide the accompaniment.
Liz Green
Old Cinema Launderette, Durham
Saturday 15th June
Liz Green brings her occasionally eccentric but always enchanting show to a venue that's just as quirky. The Rex, an Art Deco cinema in the heart of Durham, closed it's doors in 1958 and lay dormant until recently. Now revived, the cinema is home to a 1950s style launderette, replete with post-war decor and a cafe serving coffee and cakes. During June Liz will also be performing at The Vortex in London and a former bicycle repair shop in Norwich.