William Orbit Hello Waveforms (Sanctuary) £11.99
For a composer and producer so absorbed in noodly-doodly ambient sounds, William Orbit really knows how to do pop. But until his collaboration with Madonna on her career-transforming album Ray of Light, his experiments bringing the two together were only partially successful. His zenith came with his theme to The Beach, which even All Saints couldn't ruin, and which he tries to replicate on his first album in five years with the Sugababes. They emote like Oscar winners over Orbit's swooshy backing on the future hit 'Spiral'. The rest, although as mind-clearing as a self-help tape, just can't match it.
Lynsey Hanley
Giant Drag Hearts and Unicorns (Polydor) £10.99
Stabbing yourself in the thigh on the cover of your debut album is a novel way to attract the casual record-shop browser's attention, but Annie Hardy, the LA duo Giant Drag's 24-year-old singer and guitarist, needn't go to such lengths. Joined by drummer Micah Calabrese, she exudes nutty charisma over 12 tuneful and only occasionally annoying tracks, whose titles - which include 'Kevin is Gay', 'You're Full of Shit (Check out my Sweet Riffs)' and 'YFLMD', an acronym for something unrepeatable - only hint at the depraved contents of her mind. Calabrese's tidy, sleek drumming neatens up Hardy's fuzzy guitar and split-personality vocals.
Lynsey Hanley
The Research Breaking Up (EMI) £10.99
Judging by their debut album, the Research, a girl-boy-girl trio from Wakefield, are driven by a mission to be the gauchest band in pop. They are led by Russell, who calls himself 'The Disaster', and whose persistent theme is how crap he is. The band play their instruments clumsily - cheesy Casio keyboards, bass and drums, recorded with ear-pinging clarity - sounding as Belle and Sebastian might if someone stole their best kit and forced them to wear mufflers in the studio. Yet they write such memorable tunes, most notably the huggable 'C'Mon Chameleon', you forgive them this self-conscious palaver and start grinning like a loon, which was probably their intention.
Lynsey Hanley
Various London is the Place for Me 3 (Honest Jon's) £12.99
The third instalment in this excellent series charting Britain's homegrown black music focuses on Ambrose Adekoya Campbell's West African Rhythm Brothers and their offshoots. The first black band in Britain played at the VE celebrations in Trafalgar Square and settled in Soho, mixing with the nascent jazz scene but retaining their own distinct identity, informed by music from Africa, the US and the Caribbean and by their international wartime experiences. These songs leap out of the past like madeleines doused in palm wine, documenting events like the Geneva Conference or just bringing an easygoing sway to postwar life.
Kitty Empire
Wilton 'Bogey' Gaynair Africa Calling (Candid) £9.99
Recorded in 1960 but never issued until now, this is genuine buried treasure. Jamaican tenor saxophonist Gaynair made a huge impression on the London scene with his 1956 debut album. This was meant to be the follow-up, but the label went bust. Bogey moved to Germany, where he died in 1995. A feisty player with a commanding tone and superb rhythmic poise, he has been compared to many famous Americans but actually sounds like nobody but himself. He is joined on three of these six numbers by trumpeter Shake Keene, who makes a perfect partner, and backed by Terry Shannon, Jeff Clyne and Bill Eyden, Britain's top rhythm section of the day.
Dave Gelly
Various Strange Folk (Albion) £13.99
Anyone perplexed by folk's shifting reputation - from musical briar patch to blooming cottage garden - might start with this compilation of acoustic weirdness, ancient and modern. Pentangle, mixing banjo and sitar, rub shoulders with kooky Californian harpist Joanna Newsom and mournful Scots balladeer Alasdair Roberts. Donovan croons Yeats while Portishead's Beth Gibbons waxes ethereal about 'The Mysteries of Love'. If the modern names are more intriguing - the intense Devendra Banhart and droll King Creosote are highlights - oddities from the past prove that pastoral 'strangeness' is indeed a tradition.
Neil Spencer
