Pick of the week: Booka Shade
Numbers (!K7)
In a world where the return of Led Zeppelin and the release of a 14-minute psychedelic jam by the Verve are causes for wild celebration and not mass suicide, thank God that there's someone out there who remembers that it's actually 2007 and not 1972. Best known for their Ibiza-approved anthem, Body Language, Berlin producers Booka Shade make thrilling, enigmatic minimal house music. Numbers, their first vocal track proper, is a masterclass in emotional restraint, twinkling electronics and elegant pop craftsmanship. It's ineffably sad, fantastically cool and very, very now.
Shitdisco
I Know Kung Fu (Fierce Panda)
Part of the new rave vanguard of a year or two back, while their mates the Klaxons went on to win the Mercury, Shitdisco's progress has been hampered by broken limbs, imploding gigs, cancelled tours and cyclic vomiting syndrome. It's a pity, as their yelping, elasticated disco-punk is still idiotically exciting. Now, we could all wait 10 years and then rediscover Shitdisco as the Great Lost Band Of New Rave, or we could just cut to the chase, and get buying I Know Kung Fu. Let's say five copies each, yeah?
Bloc Party
Flux (Wichita)
They might be four years late for the party, but Bloc Party don't care: they're going electroclash. Like Fischerspooner's mighty Emerge, Flux is a galloping synth-pop Exocet of a record. This being Bloc Party, their attack on the dancefloor is still shrouded in a quasi-Biblical anguish, but let's salute that rarest of things: an indie band taking audible risks.
Kaiser Chiefs
Love's Not A Competitition (But I'm Winning) (B-Unique)
For the record it's significantly less annoying than that witless, droning terrace chant, Ruby. But, really, who cares? Even if you think you do, you don't. It's impossible to engage with something this mundane. Caring about Kaiser Chiefs would be like having a favourite cling film, or really hating a particular shade of off-white paint that B&Q do.
Hadouken!
Leap Of Faith (Surface Noise)
Christ! What's happened here? Previously opinion-splitting noisemongers at the rave/grime faultline, Hadouken! have suddenly turned into Limp Bizkit. A download-only single to promote their new USB memory-stick "mixtape", Not Here To Please You, this is less a leap of faith and more a loss of plot. Or nerve. Or just a cynical attempt at brand diversification. Either way, it's toss.
Glasvegas
Daddy's Gone (Sane Man)
Ignore any references to the Proclaimers you might see in reviews of Scottish newcomers, Glasvegas. Only an idiot would find it remarkable that a Glaswegian band sing in their own accents. Instead, concentrate on Glasvegas's extraordinary music - 1950s doo-wop and Jesus & Mary Chain guitars woven into a Spector-like wall of sound, and the fact that, in Daddy's Gone, they've written the sharpest, most heartbreaking song about dysfunctional dads since Pulp's A Little Soul.