This week, Matt goes for starters.

Erlend Øye – Sudden Rush (Source)
The geeky Norwegian folkster, 50 per cent of Kings Of Convenience and voice of Röyksopp, Erlend Øye releases the first single from his electronic solo album. Sudden Rush is one of 10 tracks recorded in 10 cities with 10 different producers. This one was put together in Uddevalla, Sweden, by Kompis and shows how Erlend’s strong storytelling vocals can be beautifully complemented by downtempo glitchy electronica. It comes backed by some interesting remixes by Ewan Pearson, as well as an a cappella version.

watch collective session of sudden rush

Stylophonic – If Everybody In The World… (EMI)
The clever house debut single from Italian DJ Stefano Fontana, If Everybody In The World… bounces along, wishing peace and joy, in a way reminiscent of Baz Luhrmann’s Sunscreen but with less direction. And although there’s the ripe tomato of its production, it comes with a large fattening portion of ripe mozzarella cheese. Quite nice as a starter, but it won’t fill you up.

Martin Grech – Push (Island)
This is the second single from the 20-year-old Aylesbury lad’s debut album, Open Heart Zoo. Push is a rough cut of Coldplay, polished up with sweeping pianos, grandiose production and layers of guitars. Apart from the B-side Head Sty which is, quite frankly, scary rock. That aside, Martin Grech is like a dashed white line. He’s middle of the road but you need him to exist. Even if you don’t take any notice of him.

Gus Gus – David (Underwater Records)
Gus Gus have stop dabbling in indie, and have decided to say sod it all and just dance. This is one of the best tracks off their recent album, Attention, armed to the hilt with trashy synths and bleepy goings on. Label boss Darren Emerson (ex-Underworld) contributes his pumped up, stripped down take on the flip. Matt Walton 23 January 03