I Hear a New World (July, 2008)

The Kazoo Funk Orchestra – Robots in Your Eyes

All songs about robots are brilliant – FACT. This 1:12 minutes of mechanical mayhem is even better than that one from the Flight of the Conchords and will probably single-handedly hasten the onset of the singularity, when machine intelligence finally overtakes our own (if that hasn’t happened already). Plus, these prolific membranophonists are releasing an album with 50 of these gems on it for free via iTunes.

Dirty Summer – Knees

A blistering hurricane of noise almost drowns out a female voice imploring you to get on your knees, and at the very least you will find it hard to resist jumping about like a Tasmanian Devil to this. Dirty Summer might just be Scotland’s best new band, young pop noiseniks who sound like an entire army of off-their-tits teenagers trashing the local Sound Control and recording it on their mobile phones so they can terrify old biddies on the bus. Download their new EP for free via winningspermparty.com.

Ulrich Schnauss - Medusa

The German-born Schnauss recently made a rare trip to Scotland for a treat of a Tigerfest gig at the Voodoo Rooms. In case you missed it (why, oh why?) his music combines the songwriting of shoegazing greats My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins with the experimental electronica of a true pioneer. As monstrous as its namesake, Medusa destroys all in its wake, and with it any preconception that ambient music has no balls – aptly enough as Freud interpreted the snakes protruding from Medusa’s head as multiple phalluses.

Lach – Former President Bush

At last, those bloody primary elections are over, and even the mighty Dylan has given Obama his backing. However, no matter who is eventually elected as All Conquering Big Cheese of the "Free World", Lach (the New York king of anti-folk and composer of such classics as Drinking Beers with Mum) wants us to know there is already reason to celebrate – Bush will soon be gone, and for that at least, every right-minded person on the planet ought to rejoice. Unsurprisingly, he also has a few strong words for Mrs Bush and vice president Dick Cheney.

I Hear a New World podcast - July