With a more complex sonic palette than his debut, Mark The Hard Earth contains a number of absolute gems.

Showing clear progression and monumental ambition, TNP have crafted a stark and dense knockout performance.

The endless experimentation can grate but ‘Fight Softly’ is a bold attempt to further stretch pop music.

From the monasteric vocal and Union of Knives-esque menace of ‘The Infinites’ to the shades of Hot Chip (‘Price On Your Head’) and Ladytron (‘Boy Girl’), ‘Back To Light’ is another early marker in what’s shaping up to be a stellar year for dance music.

Taught and lean, bold and mean, Blood Red Shoes are fighting fit and Fire Like This might just be their knock-out punch.

The band’s expertly realized fusion of organic and electronic instruments remains, bolstered by their extensive tour diary that’s also seen them open for Underworld.

Big layers of instruments dual with and complement each other via weird time signatures, and inspired, complex riffs that sound like they’re scoring a car chase from a cult Seventies film, mixed with bursts of electronic futurism--perhaps best displayed on the album’s title track--a manic, brilliant piece of instrumental songwriting that shows Jaga Jazzist to be at the top of their game.

Meiburg’s voice is a wonder throughout, wonderfully fragile on ‘Hidden Lakes’, tearing it up on ‘Corridors’. A wonderful album.

Paired down to their essence, this distilled Efterklang is premium strength stuff.

As always the songs veer wildly from ambient interludes, funky Beta Band-esque workouts to fierce garage rockers. Looking at the material here though, they remain a band to be reckoned with. Their lo-fi, experimental psych rock is as potent as ever with Newcombe a character to be cherished.

Falling Down A Mountain marks the return of a bolder spirit and, as a result, there is another truly great Tindersticks album to add to your collection.

A solid second record with tinges of brilliance, it’s another fine piece of work from the busiest man around.

With echoes of Lou Reed in many of the tracks, including ‘What Makes Him Act So Bad’ and ‘Cigarette Burns Forever’, and faint hints of Green’s previous work with the Peaches in others - ‘Oh Shucks’ - ‘Minor Love’ sees Green marry his roots with the new directions he’s taking, and comparison to the tape recorder fodder of old isn’t so hard make anymore.

Freed from self-imposed musical constraints, ‘Field Music (Measure)’ is big, bold and beautiful.

The witty words about awkward relationships come straight from Art Brut but 'Fixin' The Charts' is also a response to classic American pop songs, with modern sequels to Motown, Dylan and, er, Kanye. The downside is that the songs are so melodic they make it sound like Argos is doing karaoke.

It’s an unabashed pop record that anyone should be proud to play at full volume.

So yes, different to "Made In The Dark" but a more cohesive and more heartfelt effort too. One Life Stand sees Hot Chip let us into their hearts as well as their thoughts.

Returning from a six-year long wilderness of soundtrack work and greatest hits, ‘Heligoland’ sees the duo back at the top of their game.

2009 has seen the emergence and critical success of other techno-pop bands, including The xx and Fever Ray, and Pantha du Prince plays into exactly this sort of intelligent, thoughtful, and in many ways uplifting music.

On their way to maturity, YSP!WSD! lost some of the punkiness that made them exciting, but they still have hooks and groovy synths, so the growth is graceful.

It’s a fully realised, sprightly rocking album that proves that sometimes musicians are best left alone to do what they do best.

'The Courage Of Others' is a suitable album for today’s perma-frost Britain, what we’ll make of it when the Sun comes out I’m not sure.

The Sun seems to have come out over The Album Leaf’s glacial landscape with some songs here edging towards a kind of elegant, and very pretty, pop.

Romance Is Boring is another step up for the Cardiff seven-piece; avoiding the shoutier, brattier elements of debut ‘Hold On Now, Youngster...’, the band bring to their latest effort a much darker atmosphere, with similarly desperate lyrics.

Many have already been drawn into the melancholy whirlpools of their past two albums; yet more will surely be drawn by the warmer embrace of Legrand and Scally’s latest statement, a stronger, rhythmic definition offering a hand through the ether, beckoning the listener into their fluid tapestry.

If you love the ambiguous crossover between half-step London sounds and crushed and warped 4/4 peddled by the likes of Martyn, Burial or Joy Orbison, then the love in you will find this album.

It’s a refreshing diversion from yer average psych-noise fare that’ll hopefully be explored further on future offerings.

You can see how some might dismiss ‘Dream Get Together’ as irrelevant noodling (oh yes, there are solos herein), but if you are unphased by such concepts then you will enjoy this album a lot.