Redlight
Get Out My Head (MTA Recordings)
This song rests on the talents of vocalist Nicole Jackson, a woman who weeped into Dannii Minogue's unforgiving bosom on the 2009 X Factor as she was tossed aside to make room for Rachel Adedeji. Now, alongisde Bristol-based producer Redlight, she's blasting some Ayia Napa sunshine on to the pasty perineum of January with this bouncy mash of 90s piano house and old-school garage. The feelgood factor of this record can not be underestimated; not since T2's Heartbroken has a British dance hit burst with such barefaced glee. Meanwhile, a quick google reveals Adedeji was last spotted awarding the prize in the grand final of Talent Quest at the Southport Pontins.
Yasmin Feat Shy FX & Ms Dynamite
Light Up The World (Ministry Of Sound)
If culturally plundering the 90s looked like a hoot in 2011, just wait for 2012. This year is going to see a huge resurgence of jungle, the dub-heavy precursor to drum'n'bass you mostly hear on stalls at Womad selling "Why can't we all just get a bong?" novelty grinders. Light Up The World is a pleasant enough homage but coming so soon after George Lamb presented a daily 6 Music show for which the catchphrase was "shabba" it feels like a nostalgia loop that may be spiralling out of control.
War Of Words
Battleground (Popjustice Hi-Fi)
A safer bet for this inevitable 90s revival are War Of Words, a new girl duo who speak like Stacey Solomon after one too many test tubes at Vodka Revolution, but sing like Neneh Cherry rubbing herself in Carte Noire. Battleground oozes classy Massive Attack production and SWV heartbreak. If we are going to spend the next year reliving 1994, let's at least do it with two girls who say they only write songs with "Ben from La Roux and Geoff from Barnsley".
Florence + The Machine
No Light, No Light (Island)
Oh here she comes again, Margo from The Good Life in a Jacobean ruff. "You are the night-time fear … /No light, no light in your bright blue eyes", she screeches in a song presumably about Tess Daly. The video, which features a demon in blackface, was attacked by US blogs for "racist imagery". Little do they know, it's just Little Boots cranking up her campaign for album two.
Doctor P Feat Jenna G
Neon (Circus Records)
Meathead dance producers across the country have been developing a new style of dramatic, largely unlistenable, dubstep in a bid to soundtrack the Beeb's Olympics coverage and make a fortune. So far it's been a two-horse race between Nero and Chase And Status but Neon could be a late contender as it comes with the catch-all opening lyric "right here, right now, we've got everything but one light out". The winning track will be decided by a K-holing Kelly Holmes at a Peckham house party later this month, possibly.
