There’s plenty of new music to talk about today, so let’s make a start.

Sbtrkt’s debut is out next Monday, and starting this week is available to stream at his website here. It’s a pretty solid effort from the so-called ‘future garage’ producer. He (Aaron Jerome) has been working his way to the top via remixes for the likes of Tinie Tempah and Basement Jaxx, collaborations with Sinden and Sampha, and his own stuff. Check out ‘Right Thing To Do’ and the track below which has since been verbally shat on by Drake.

SBTRKT – Wildfire (Ft. Little Dragon)

The Wombats returned a couple of months ago with their very enjoyable second album This Modern Glitch, and have since been releasing singles from it. The fourth, Techno Fan, came out a week or two ago, but I’ve only just got round to it now. The stand-out track is one of the B-sides, which deserved to make it onto the album:

The Wombats – Shock Goodbyes & P45s

Finally, here’s two songs that have been around for a couple of weeks now, and if you haven’t heard them by now, here’s your chance.

The Horrors – Still Life
Kasabian – Switchblade Smiles

What’s the theme, I hear nobody but myself ask? That answer would be bands that broke up too soon – we’re talking those that disbanded due to reasons other than a member’s passing. Even though I’m only 20, I’ve already seen plenty bands come and go, and some of them leave without giving all that a listener like myself thinks they could have done.

First up then, by way of random selection, is Headland. Not to be confused with an awful American rock group or an Australian TV show both of the same name, Headland were an indie band from London with a slight leaning towards electronic experimentation and a bit of sampling.

I first heard them on EA’s Cricket 07, with straight rock song Monster In A Shirt. As a little side note- EA had some people with amazing taste in music selecting the soundtrack to their games from about 04 to 09, FIFA 08 in particular was brilliant.

Naturally, I went straight for their back-catalogue, of which there was only one album, 2004′s Touchy Feely, which was fairly limited in it’s release. Despite this, the album was, and remains, superb. It’s not conventional, but it draws you in on several tracks and doesn’t let you go until the very end. At times I took a step back and thought, what is this I am listening to? It manages to keep you hooked enough to give the next track a go, and the next one, and by the end you want more.

It appeared, however, that that view was not held by enough people for the band to break through. However, EA came along and gave them exposure with a place on a soundtrack, and three new songs were released, one of which I vaguely remember to be on iTunes’ electronic front page for a couple of weeks. Alas, it was not noticed, and nothing else was released.

I followed the band’s myspace (remember that?) for a while and was excited by a new song, Candlemaker Row, and the promise of one new song a month. Those songs did not come, and the band has slid beyond obscurity into nothingness. Shame. Here’s a couple of songs from the above album that weren’t on youtube before (to the best of my limited knowledge).

It’s amazing to think I was only 7 when Bring It On came out, and in all the time that has followed their standards have not slipped, despite a change in sound. I haven’t been aware of them for all of that time, but ever since I heard In Our Gun, I knew this was a band I wanted to hear more of. (edit r.e. standards – this paragraph was written prior to complete listening)

Whatever’s On Your Mind is Gomez’s 8th album, and continues with the more Americana feel that A New Tide had. Whilst the two albums preceding ANT had that rockier edge, it’s been lacking for the most part since. It’s hinted at here a couple of times on Options and subtly on X-Rays, but perhaps it has to be accepted that it isn’t possible to make another Bring It On.

The sound has changed, and as such, the album should be judged for what it is, rather than what it isn’t. It is an album of American TV drama background music. They’ve had a few songs off the last 3 albums in shows like The Riches, Grey’s Anatomy and House (admittedly, that was Get Miles), and Just As Lost As You Are (Youtube clip above) is destined to follow.

The band have clearly raked in some money and publicity from it (the band have been twice as big stateside as here in blighty since about 2003), and as such have attempted to produce more. It’s a crying shame that the band have done so.

There’s glimpses of the Gomez of old with a couple of songs at the back end of the album with more to give after a couple of listens, namely X-Rays, below, and That Wolf, with a hint of a synth harking back to more experimental times.

Having been left ultimately disappointed, I’m off to listen to Ben Ottewell’s Shapes And Shadows – it has become much clearer he did this more for the music than the fame.

Let’s be honest, there’s been nothing decent out recently worth wasting the time and effort to post about. Well, with albums out by Kaiser Chiefs and Digitalism, that will change soon. For the time being, here’s something new. From Liverpool via North Yorkshire comes Razi Bear, a producer with an ear for a good beat – expect big things. With Chicago MC Sey, here is I’m Gone.

These two songs (that should arguably be one – hence why I’ve combined them on the same video) are worth the price of the album alone.