As California dreamin' goes, this is almost as good as heading for the hills, reaching for a hand-tooled native American bong and calling yourself Moon Unit.

Nielson probably didn't know what he was getting into when he started UMO and is probably still figuring it out now. If that means more sleepless nights for him, all the better for us.

Canta Lechuza deflates its ambition by bleeping and whirring in every direction at once, landing in a confused heap of awkward samba jangle and rippling steel drums, a curious and compelling mess.

With bursts of martial snare and brass held together by a minimalist, bass-powered spine, it's reminiscent of The Neptunes' spare genius and feels like off-the-peg future pop.

We would have liked to have heard more lead vocal from the uniquely talented Cedric, but this is a small quibble when we're talking about the soundtrack to dancing like your life depends on it in 2011.

Famous First Words sounds less like a manifesto, more like a misguided step-by-step guide.

Full of distortion-drenched vocals and slacker guitar lines, Yucca is a brilliantly messy thing.

They're most fun when they're really letting loose, though, which is pretty much always.

It's the unflashy moments that really linger, though, with "Taco Delay's" measured minimalism providing some grounding to an otherwise heady trip.

Just as you're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, you realise that there's another five-track EP by these self-absorbed, boring, aesthetically bankrupt bellends still to go. Double bummer.

On this lovely little patchwork pop record, there's enough going on to make you actually quite scared of what they'd come up with if they had a budget.

The music of Amplifying Host blends baked American blues with the ghosts of this island's folk tradition to wonderful effect, especially on 'Tessellations', which is like coming across a bedraggled family cooking beans around a campfire in the tinder-dry ruins of what was once a chocolate-box timber-framed cottage.

Big Talk is a record to be roared while stood atop the bar, and then deny all knowledge of the next day.

Young Rebel Set are as comfortable and enjoyable as a Mumford-wool blanket, but when was the last time you got really excited by a woolly blanket?

It's an itchy, difficult listen, but then it's hardly easy being original.

Needless to say, it's totally fucking rubbish.

As ever, the all-female pop-punk trio finds its inspiration in the seemingly mundane.

They don't quite conjure the heart-slowing plod of Pecknold's mob on their second album.

Although they might be lacking teats, their creative juices are nevertheless overflowing.

It's still wordier than a second-hand bookshop and the screwy mental tics remain. But it's also one of the most heart-lassoing '70s radio-pop records since the death of flares, its psychedelic oddness leavened with big gnarly hooks, the emotional thwack of a shattered heart and intimate and bloodied narratives.

Within And Without hangs oppressively, saved only by fleeting moments of clarity like the title track's stabbing outro, or the jump-rope glitter that opens 'Before'.

All in all, a weird brew, set to confound anyone who likes their music to fit neatly in a box.

Damned if they do and damned if they don't, it seems, but never sounding damned enough.

The first long-play offering by these Pennsylvania teen punks might just be one of the best punk rock debuts of the year.

If all you can see is a tangle of influences then you're standing too close to the picture, and when Skying's visions come into focus, it not only reaffirms that Primary Colours was far from a fluke, but that they could go so much further.

London duo Mount Kimbie are stronger than the latter temptation; this six-track mini-selection bows to no imagined commercial pressure.

If only the other half of this album didn't spiral off into wretched reggae stylings, this would be alright.

At times, it's too lovely and woozy for its own good--but when the mood sours, as on standouts 'Devil In My Mind' and 'Erie Lackawanna', it's really rather intoxicating stuff.