A few new albums to watch out for:

• My ongoing obsession with The Fall shows no signs of letting up, and neither does their resurgence of quality (despite the usual turmoil). Their new album is called Reformation Post TLC and is due out pretty soon. It includes a reworking of Coming Down by classic 60’s band The United States of America which I’m pretty keen to hear.
• Speaking of bands that have been around forever, The Red Krayola must be getting close to their 40th birthday. As Mark E Smith is to The Fall, so is Mayo Thompson to the Red Krayola. A couple of years ago there was a compilation of singles from the 60’s up to the 00’s which reminded me of just how great and unique they are. Their last album Introduction got great reviews but I haven’t heard it yet. Now they have a new EP out called Red Gold. The casual listener should be warned that they are something of an acquired taste though. By the way, if anyone has any footage, recordings, posters, photos etc of The Red Krayola their record label Drag City is after material for a documentary. But don’t give it to them until they agree to reissue the out of print Silver Jews records. Don’t give in if they offer to reissue The Red Krayola’s Soldier Talk, they’re doing that in March anyway.
• New York hip-hop group Dälek, whose last album featured the best shoegazer noise production since Kevin Shields went into hibernation to try and work out how to top Loveless, have a new one called Abandoned Language due out some time soon on Mike Patton’s Ipecac label.
• Speaking of hip-hop, a group that I think doesn’t get enough recognition is TTC. Maybe that’s because not enough people speak French. Well, I’m working on it and I’ll see what I can understand of their new album 36 15 TTC as soon as I get my hands on a copy. Their anything goes attitude results in music that sounds like no-one else – French or otherwise. I would love to see them live but an Australian tour does not seem likely!
• It’s quite some time since I’ve caught up with the music of Stefan Betke aka Pole. In the late 90’s his minimal glitch dub seemed to be all the rage, but he fell out of favour a bit and has been quiet for a while … actually he was always pretty quiet but you know what I mean. Not to say he hasn’t been active, his record label ~scape has put out some great stuff, particularly by Jan Jelinek. Now Pole is back in action with Steingarten and if David Stubbs’ review in The Wire is anything to go by (and on past experience it is) it is something of a return to form.