The ever expanding universe of Coppe' grows again this month, engulfing further unexpected beauties and lunacies, derived from spacial/chaotic sonics. This time, Coppe' celebrates her 14^th release with a deluxe box set Lego-shaped USB and CD called Coppe' In A Bloc/Rays, following on from her previous USB release Coppe' In A Pill in 2010.

Split into two parts, the latter half of Rays delves into minimal delicacy, revealing an extensive alien landscape assembled against collaborator Nikakoi's electronic wonders.

Alp immediately exports listeners to this exotic world, encouraging them to explore its depth through an array of somnolent sounds, gently wisping through to the climax of the album.

The following title track [Rays] breathes deeper from the very same estranged territory, as Coppe's usually jazz influenced vocals become classical, elevated higher to match the softened Eno-esque elegance, which connect in one fowl swoop of hair-raising bliss.

But by far the greatest track is the sweet and soulful We Collide......We Unite......This highly relatable and loveable piece is Coppe's most pop-inspired song yet, widening her listeningship with catchy lyrics and synth lines that immediately steal the hearts of Coppe' lovers.

“How would it be, to feel you next to me” she sings, daintily expressing her affections and emotions, as Nikakoi's backing vocals provide a romantic warmth, supporting their atmospheric key melodies. This track is screaming out to be a single, and could surely be a hit in the underground world.

From the mania of Nikakoi's Yogurt remix, which re-imagines the electronica IDM period, to the experimental ambient techno of Cell which constantly stretches supernatural sound, Coppe' In A Bloc/Rays is her most diverse and sublime yet.

I, as one, feel honoured that such a unique Japanese Martian has given us humans a musical privilege, and I crave more of the weird oddities in which she presents in her releases, in hope that one day, more people are abled to 'collide' within her world.

Eighties synthpop Godfather, turned industrial gothic, Gary Numan is touring the UK in May and June, after the hugely successful Dead Son Rising album tour last summer.

“We're going to be doing much more older stuff than we usually do, but there's still plenty of new stuff in there too”, says Gary.

“If you take somebody who's only got into me in the last five or ten years, there's a massive amount of what I've done that they would never have heard, because I just don't perform much of the older stuff. So we'll have new fans coming along and hearing older songs, and I find that exciting because they weren't around when they were played the first time.”

And if the previous Dead Son Rising tour is anything to go by, the audience will definitely be a younger, newer crowd than initially expected.

“I thought the last tour was brilliant”, says Gary.

“I was actually blown away by the level of reaction, and we were trying to work out why it was so much better. Was it the fact that the people liked the songs more, or was it the fact there were a lot more new people in; people that we didn't recognise.

“For many years when I went out touring, I knew the front row in every place that we went to. And then it started to change, and the last tour we did, I hardly recognised anybody in the first ten rows! So we do seem to be bringing in a lot of new people, and that could be why it seems a lot more energetic.

“That sounds like I'm insulting the older people and I really don't mean it like that, it's just that there was definitely a higher level of involvement and excitement in the crowd this time." he says.

If you begin to consider where Gary's music career has taken him over the last 33 years, from the success of Cars to the shift into darker themed music, it's surprising that the electropop pioneer hasn't released a best of DVD before now. Yet here we are, and it seems that Machine Music: The Best of Gary Numan will be much more than just a collection of single promos.

“Half of the promos I do are embarrassing, and then I think, why bother.” says Gary.

“But then I started talking to TV companies from way back, and we tried to find out if we could get hold of really rare TV appearances, not just here, in Europe and America too. And over a couple of years, we've been able to put together a massive amount of really rare and unusual TV appearances and other things that we've done.

“I think it's got one of the first Are Friends Electric? appearances on it on Top Of The Pops, because I didn't do a promo for that. There's another song called Metal, which Nine Inch Nails did a cover of recently, and I didn't do a promo for that either because that wasn't actually released as a single. Instead, we did a film for that up in Newcastle in this electric generator place. It's an amazing film, with huge vandergraph generators 30 - 40 feet high, and hardly anyone has ever seen it.

“We also did Saturday Night Live in America, which people in Europe will have never have seen. And that appearance is on it. We really have tried to fill it with as much stuff as possible, as well as all the conventional promos.”

But unfortunately the DVD is limited edition. Meaning that it'll only be core fans and collectors who'll be getting a copy.

“To get the licensing from the people that own it, we had to limit it to a certain number of DVDs.”, explains Gary.

And to add a double whammy of upset to Numan fans, it's looking like we really will be losing the synthpop legend to across the sea.

“I'm going to move to America in the summer, and I think for some reason, that gives you hard deadlines to meet things”, says Gary.

“We've tried to get a number of things done that we've been sitting on for a while. I think it just gives you a kick up the arse to actually get things done!”

Although, that certainly doesn't mean Gary is giving up on the music industry anytime soon, as he continues to work on his new album.

“I've got plenty of stuff done for it, and I'm doing new stuff every week”, he explains.

“I'm probably half way through it, and the last two things I wrote for it were a bit weird, quirky and gentle. So when this Machine Music tour is finished, we're going out again in the summer for various festivals, and hopefully if I can get the album ready in time, we'll be going out again at the end of the year!”

Catch Gary Numan at HMV institute on 31^st May, where successful applicants of Gary's Tour Films Competition will be projecting their visual work during a selection of tracks at the show.

“Some of the things that come in are genuinely fantastic and I'm really pleased with the quality of it. Hopefully it'll be a little boost for those selected people, giving them a chance to actually have some of their work shown”, concludes Gary.

Machine Music: The Best of Gary Numan will be released on 11^th June.

Bloc festival returns this July for another two day stint, and never fails to bring some of the most eclectic techno, hip hop, IDM, reggae and house music to the stages of their internationally acclaimed shindig.

This year sees Bloc's biggest evolution yet, with the likes of Squarepusher, Orbital, Flying Lotus and Four Tet joining the line up, as well as some unexpected surprises from Snoop Dogg, Steve Reich, Battles and Gary Numan.

For 2012, the festival has shifted venues to London Pleasure Gardens in the Royal Victoria Docks, a far removal from it's previous 2011 home at Butlin's Holiday Resort, Minehead, and the birth of the festival at Pontin's Holiday Camp, Hemsby, in 2007.

Previous line ups have seen performances from Aphex Twin, LFO, Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Autechre, never moving too far away from the electro dance remit. But this 6^th instalment has really pushed the boundaries and widened it's genres further than expected.

“I've always assumed it was a dance music festival. So I've not really thought I was appropriate for it.”, explains Gary Numan.

“They offered this year, and I talked to lots of people about it, who said it's not just dance music, it's dance and electronic. But I don't think that I'm purely electronic either. I guess a lot of dance people talk about me as having an influence on them, but there's absolutely noway I would fit into a dance festival at all!

“I guess this is an attempt for them to widen it slightly, but it's really quite heavy and dark stuff that I do now. So hopefully I don't go down as a led balloon!”, says Gary.

“I've seen some diagrams of what they're going to be doing there. It looks stunning actually!”

Gary Numan will be performing at  Bloc festival, which takes place on 6^th and 7^th July, London Pleasure Gardens in the Royal Victoria Docks.

Gary also has a DVD out on 11th June, Machine Music: The Best of Gary Numan.

Curious Sounds in Curious Spaces is a Fierce festival event that will take place on the 7^th April between 12pm and 5pm. The event is free, and will also act as part of the Symphony Hall's 21^st anniversary celebrations.

The artists featuring at the iconic venue will create a laboratory of ear-opening sound experiments across all areas of the Symphony Hall, ranging from performances to installations to workshops.

One of the creative minds who will be performing at the event is Birmingham's more-talented answer to [D:Ream's] Brian Cox, musician and physicist pioneer Brian Duffy, who has crafted a long-term career in the Brummie music industry.

From programming sounds out of his ZX Spectrum Orchestra, to circuit bending toys in his Modified Toy Orchestra to listening to stars through his Optophonic Lunaphone and playing back the results, Brian Duffy has become a key figure within Birmingham, and is constantly pushing the boundaries of sound development.

For Curious Sounds in Curious Spaces, Brian will dip back into his Modified Toy Orchestra project, stripping it back and performing with only a selection of Speak & Spells.

“I did this Speak & Spell piece at the opening of the Hong Kong show that we did for Plastic Planet [the latest Modified Toy Orchestra album which came out in 2010]”, says Brian.

“Afterwards, I thought it's not a very good way of opening the show because it's quite long and abstract. So we didn't do it after that; it didn't really fit in with the song structure based things that we were doing in those shows.

 "And then Sandra [Hall] and Lee [Griffiths] at The Edge [Friction Arts, Cheapside, Digbeth] asked if I'd give a talk about the toys. I showed them the Speak & Spell piece, demonstrating the random possibilities in them.

“There's a lot of random aleatoric stuff in the toys that we don't use in the Plastic Planet set, and I found it very interesting that the toys could demonstrate these hidden worlds of sound. These musical phrases that weren't in the toys to start with.”

However, it seems that Brian's performance won't be as random as he has first suggested.

“That's how this Speak & Spell piece started out”, he continues.

“It was unexpectedly producing random gibberish, but it turns out that the sounds are actually completely predictable! It's the same repeatable sequence every time, it just sounds random.

“So it'll be several Speak & Spells with a modification in them to make them spill the gibberish. You can get them to do that at the same time, and it's like a little game that I play to get them to go in sync.

“I hooked up a little switch box, allowing you to apply the function to all of them, and I try get them to perform like a choir. Ideally they would all start together, and by the end of it, they would be one step out, singing in a round, where one says a word, the next one passes the word along the line. But it's kind of hard to get that to happen because they never completely obey you!

“Fierce saw me do that and asked me to do it for them.”

And what does Fierce festival mean to Brian?

“I much prefer this new version of Fierce”, he says.

“It's more open and inclusive, with a completely different energy and atmosphere.

“I like the fact that they are willing to bring experimental and international people in dance, music and sound art to Birmingham. Sound art is often misunderstood, and you have to fight your corner for it's validity. It's great to be a part of something where there's a lot of different sound artists, and it'll be nice to watch other people's performances.”

Mr Duffy also agrees that the Symphony Hall has become a very important venue in bringing musicians to Birmingham over the years. Therefore, celebrating the building's 21s anniversary is definitely a must for Brian.

“It's a great venue for gigs”, he says.

“Whoever designed it really thought hard about putting acoustic traps in the ceiling area. You can open the traps and let more sound into the spaces behind it, changing the reverb in the room. I think it's one of the best halls and I've seen some absolutely amazing gigs there, from Bulgarian Female State Choir to The Kodo Drummers to Devo, to Grace Jones.

“I've never performed there before, and it'll be great with the whole building open!”

Catch Brian Duffy's Speak & Spell performance at the Symphony Hall between 12pm and 5pm on 7^th April, as part of Fierce festival. Curious Sounds in Curious Spaces.

Award winning filmmaker Robert Morgan gave an exclusive showing of his latest bizarre creation Bobby Yeah on Sunday at the mac, distressing many between-finger-viewers along the way, who couldn't resist a peek at the mind-enhancing (disturbing) visions, gruesomely and provokingly developed by a truly unique imagination.

Richard's stop frame animations were certainly something you needed to do your homework on before viewing. They're no Wallace & Gromit, and anyone who thought differently would soon turn pasty-faced at the sight of Morgan's madness, clutching onto seats, while Robert clutched to the ends of Flatpack's astonishingly and highly memorable sixth year. Giving the festival a well deserved, grand gasping finale.

Doubled up with the Outer Sight festival - a festival within a festival- Morgan brought along his entire workings of shorts, which all oozed in disgusting, gooey, vile, surrealism, slowly building up to the ultimate head fuck feature horror/humoured Bobby Yeah.

The first mind-melting-malaise came in the form of 7 minute long creepy/quirky Over Taken. A very alternative, exotic view of love and vulgarity, set on a beautifully glistening beach, hindered by a sludgy mucilage creature from the sea. The squidgy oddball soon became infatuated with an alluring woman, later leading to unpredictable horrifying consequences, continuously keeping those squeamish viewers on a delicate balance of anxiousness and wit.

More teeth grinding peculiarity persisted, as the shorts were ordered in such a way that slowly worsened the distress, subliminally readying the audience for the tender hooks of the proceeding creation. And The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph was the next stage into the endurance roller coaster. Started off as a story about an old man and his pet maggot, the narrative soon turns shudder-some, as the consistent insect squelches and cricket sounds, combined with lack of dialogue, enhanced focus upon the revolting imagery. 

 The old man would soon peek through the wall at something truly distressing, which inadvertently leaves the man, the maggot and the person on the other side of the wall with a truly obscure happy ending.

Playing with the outcomes of death is certainly a running theme within Robert's films, and and this is heightened even more so on The Separation, The Cat With Hands and especially Monsters, which focuses upon the nightmarish visions of childhood imaginations.

Monsters is vividly more unnerving, with the realistic nature of prosthetics, actors and lack of stock animation, all assembling the basis of a perfect fright. Forget your horror blockbusters if you really want to explore your tolerance levels, just stick on one of Robert's films, and the shocking imagery will remain lodged in your brain for days and weeks to come!

And as for the exclusive feature Bobby Yeah, the madness continued in true Morgan style. 

 A very cute/disgusting bunny-like creature would soon face the consequences of theft and it's curiosity for pressing buttons. As the narrativeless, purest kind of Morgan mayhem ejaculated (yes, I'm being serious) an unpredictable mish-mash of freakish creatures, straight from the previous deranged creature.

From a crow-headed monster turning into a golly doll-headed beast, to a giant-tongued monstrosity shooting out a constant flow of sperm, it wasn't long before the little vile bunny became engulfed into the mix of mutated misshapes.

Bobby Yeah is Robert Morgan at his best yet. A 23 minute excursion into the abstract mentality of an undoubtedly unique film-making pioneer.

And to those who think that stop motion is dead, think again, as Robert will force you to experience the depth of its artistry, in turn revealing the coldness and laziness of CGI.

Since forming in 1978, UB40 have become a household name across the world. Spread over three decades, they have sold more than 70 million records to date, making the seven-piece pop kings one of the best selling artists to come out of Birmingham and the UK.

This year, the reggae Brummies are back with their twenty fifth studio album. A release that will take a very different direction from previous works such as Labour of Love Part IV (2010), which saw Duncan Campbell join the line-up as the new, full-time, lead vocalist.

Saxophonist, songwriter and horn/string arranger Brian Travers reveals the story behind the new album, and the influence that guided them to explore an unlikely music genre.

“EMI said we've got to keep the lid on this, we can't talk about it”, says Brian.

“I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but we're doing a country album. We've done some serious old classics and I've written seven songs on the album. It's reggae and country music, which probably sounds very criminal, but it's absolutely beautiful. We've got a guy called Melvin Duffy playing lap steel guitar on it, he's a fucking genius and the nicest guy in the world.

“He's Robbie William's guitarist, that's how good he is!”

It's been two years since their last release, and four years since original vocalist Ali Campbell and keyboard player Michael Virtue departed from the band, following the album TwentyFourSeven (2008).

“We haven't been in a rush to release a record”, continues Brian.

“Without any build up, without using the PR, you're not gonna sell any. 

 "We let one go [referring to TwentyFourSeven]. I fucking hated that title. It was Ali who left, he was a fucking prick at times. We wanted to call it UB40 23 because it was our 23^rd album, Ali said nah it's never fucking happening. Then he squealed and squealed until we called it TwentyFourSeven, which is such a nasty, lame fucking title.

“We gave it away with a paper because we weren't going to fucking sell any anyway. Unfortunately, people had to buy the fucking Mail On Sunday. But firstly, it's not the Daily Mail, it's not that fascist rag, and anyway, who wants to preach to the converted? Stick it on the Mail, let them get it and say argh! I don't want that! Let them have freedom of choice and chuck it away! Stick it in their face a little bit!”

With the new album nearing release, it was time to discover exactly how country music became rooted within UB40's new style. And it seems that the seed had begun with a previously unreleased song from their back catalogue, featuring an old friend.

“About fifteen years ago, we were with Robert Palmer, getting drunk, having a laugh”, says Brian, who used to share manager David Harper with Palmer before he died.

"He was playing a Randy Travis album, and this song called On The Other Hand came on. We thought fucking hell, great song! So we went in the studio and recorded it with Palmer singing and us playing. But then [Palmer] died nine years ago, and we'd never done anything with the song.

“We got it out recently, and there's this lovely country tune played by us, and it's kind of a nod to him really. We thought, we're gonna release this, we loved him a great deal, let's finish this off, let's do it and put something with it.”

Along with this Palmer track, UB40's influence from country music had been picked up from relentless tours across the USA.

“We've spent an awful lot of time in America”, says Brian.

“If you put the radio on while the bus is travelling, you don't have to look out of the window, you can tell when you're getting to different places because the music changes. There's soul, R&B and Hip-Hop in New York. As you start going south, it starts getting a little bit more country rock, and then deeper country, and then it starts getting a little bit Cajun in Texas. And Chicago is deep bluesy, so you learn to really appreciate it. It becomes more than silly cowboy hats”, he says.

“People make fun of country music, but it's a fine genre. Really serious music, really serious playing. It's not three chord rock music, the songs have twenty seven chords in. The music starts glowing and we like it.”

After completing the long-awaited On The Other Hand with Robert Palmer, UB40 set off to create other country tracks for the album.

“Then we did a Willie Nelson song called Blue Eyes Crying in The Rain, which was the first hit he ever had”, continues Brian.

“We love Willie, he smoked a joint with us once at a truck stop in America.”

Reaching for his phone, Brian begins to play their version of the track Blue Eyes.

“Eey arr, have a listen”, he says.

“It's not a mix, just a desk mix.”

The track basked in a hybrid of new warmth, both from the soothing reggae beats, and the heated country sunshine of southern America. Which in turn, eliminated any racism that could still be linked to country music.

“So that's a country tune turned to reggae”, he says.

Next, Brian put on On The Other Hand, featuring Robert Palmer.

A celebration of two genres fused together could be heard even clearer, with playful and energetic, yet laid back depth. The distinctive vocals of Palmer immediately hit a nerve, providing the perfect tribute to such unique, sadly missed talent, nine years down the line.

“We recorded most of this at my house, some of it in Los Angeles when Robert was alive and some of it in our studio that isn't there anymore”, says Brian.

“I wrote seven country tunes in different time signatures, then we wrote them back to fours, into reggae. Some of them are going to stay as country tunes I think. I'm finding it.

“We're still trying to grow, that's what we're always trying to do.”

With no official release date set, keep an eye out for UB40's new project, which will be coming very soon.

Fourteen albums down the line, (TJ) Thomas Janak's sound has always escaped the clutches of generic pop electronica, which all too often imprisons lyrical synthetic works by other artists.

This piece brings forth the spiritual hazes of life and deepens the mystery, reaching out to listeners with self-reflective stylistics. A state of serenity is built over time, especially through tracks such as The Longing, which leads forward the 80s synthpop age into a new phase.

Thomas breathes the same air as Phil Oakey, examining the Reproduction and Travelogue years and minimally nodding in their direction, while attaching surreal sonic soundscapes to their breadth.

The track Butterflies treads further into the chill-out journeys of Thomas's imagination. “And the air is full of butterflies; there's some magic in the air tonight”, sings TJ, who's carefree-nature provides a warming glow for a crooked winter's day.

The moody ambience travels through TJ's vocals, expressing the electro artist's heart ache and views on the world, demanding attention through ethereal visions of the past, the present and the afterlife.

The title track The Rainbow Bridge delicately merges all visions, floating heavenly synthetics amongst the clouds with removal of gravity, calling out for the busy civilians below to stop and listen to a beauty that surrounds them.

With dedications to Vince Clarke, TJ's new album offers an alternate sound to the popular synthetic works of modern musicians.

Self-identifiable lyrics and Earthly-reflective resonance make TJ shine out from 21^st century musicians, while his artistic depths offer an otherworldly vision, enlightening the everyday hubbub that usually fills the towns with negativity and frustration.

Freelance graphic designer and illustrator Stina Jones is the face behind some very familiar work across Birmingham. From a piece depicting Gilbert & Sullivan in The Victoria pub (John Bright St) to work further afield with HTC mobiles, Stina is a non-stop creative who is always seeking out new projects.

This Saturday, 17^th March, Stina’s latest illustrations will be exhibited in the newly established cafe & arts hub Kismet (based in club PST, Lombard Street), for their Celestial Cinematic Kotch event, in conjunction with Flatpack Film Festival.

“The project started after Bobbie Gardner approached me with an audio sketch in February”, says Stina.

“She asked if I’d be interested in teaming up with her and Leon Trimble to put together a visual backdrop for the event. Since then, I’ve been working closely with the two of them to illustrate a surreal and celestial landscape inspired by the tune, which Leon is animating to accompany Bobbie’s audio track.

“I’m really excited to see how Leon has translated the illustrations and can’t wait to see the finished piece at the event this weekend.”

Stina often describes her work as “cute, fun and a little bit strange”, something that definitely sums up her work from my perspective as well.

“I always knew I wanted a career in doing something creative”, she continues.

“There’s a lot of influences in my work. I’d say the surrealist movement and pop culture has had the biggest influence.”

Stina has now illustrated for three of the Bitters & Twisted venues across Birmingham, with her illustration in The Victoria kick starting her relationship with these familiar Birmingham hangouts.

“The interior design firm who were refurbishing The Victoria got in touch via Twitter after seeing my Daily Doodle project [a project that saw Stina create 365 doodles, raising nearly £800 and counting for the charity Shelter in 2010]”, she says.

“They asked if I was available to create a black and white illustration of the composers Gilbert & Sullivan for a last minute fitting next to the bar. The illustration was well received and led to me being hired again by the firm to create one off pieces for both The Island Bar and The Rose Villa Tavern.”

Stina also set up her own design agency Creative Elements in 2007, which provides digital design, web development, print design and illustration services to creative industries across the world.

“I set the agency up after finding myself out of work and struggling to find any relevant positions locally”, she says.

“I’d started freelancing to fill the employment gap and found the response to be very positive. So the natural progression was to set up the agency, with an aim in bringing more freelancers on board, complimenting skill sets and offering a more comprehensive range of services to our clients.  

“We’ve been involved with some fantastic projects throughout the years and look forward to seeing what the next few years hold”, she concludes.

Make sure you come down to Kismet, located at the forefront of club PST, Lombard Street, on 17^th March between 12pm and 6pm. Here, you will experience some surreal, celestial illustrations by Stina, accompanied by Bobbie Gardner’s audio and Leon Trimble’s animation.

Kismet’s Celestial Cinematic Kotch. In conjunction with Flatpack Festival.

17^th March 12pm – 6pm

More info on the event here.

The intimately inspiring cafe Ort (which has been situated on Moseley Road, Balsall Heath for just over 3 months) aided in a rusticity of warmth to the usual SOUNDkitchen vibe.

Subsequently preparing the chill out hangout for a string of ravishingly sonic escapades, all in celebration of SOUNDkitchen's year milestone of events, which have been/continue to be dedicated in bringing experimental pioneering sound artists, both internationally and locally to the venues of Birmingham.

With tea and alcohol aplenty, embarking on electro-wonders with Tom Mudd felt both intense and engulfing, as the usual cafe experience became transformed into an explosion of firework sound, crackling in tension and building in minimal flutters. With adaptions from calming rhythms and rumbles, the sonic distress became literally ear ringing, as pitches were raised to the extreme.

The feud soon settled down into distant growls, which gave back an eerie stability to the initial expressions, and returned the hearing of many listeners who had fell victim to the exploding tones.

The organic/manmade contrasting tones of Mecha/Orga bestowed a familiar creative imagination upon the eagerly attentive listeners, who submerged themselves amongst the speeding sounds of transport and emerging thunderstorms, calmly, yet nervously, exploring the beauty of natural and human wonders/fears/threats that surround us in the everyday, outdoor life.

Next to transform Ort's cafe presence were Anvil & Stirrup, who maintained the rustic elements with uplifting electroacoustic soundscapes. Their use of chimes and glass clutter brought a playful exuberance, which in turn, radiated an energy throughout the cafe, making sure that the audience were fully immersed in their resonating blanket of sonic layers.

Estranged bass rhythms were then thrown into the mix, oddly breaking up in new depths to the sounds, which somehow cohabited throughout the improvisational structures.

Final creativities came from Portuguese duo @c, who were sporadic, intermitting their mysterious clatters with incoherently warped spoken word and expressing a sense of lucidity through echoing blurs. Creepy insect-like noises infected the room, dragged alongside trip-hop-eqsue fundamentals, soundtracking the audience's imagination with underwater scrapes and crashes, distorted by the reduction of aquatic hearing abilities.

Their extrinsic patterns brought incomparable fears to tensioning illusions, favouring chaotic fabrics to disorientate listeners into their own otherworldly paths.

A feast of sounds proved more rewarding than a 'SOUNDkitchen 1 Today!' birthday cake, allowing hungry ears to be full of avant-sonic waves in replacement to large quantities of sponge and icing.

Now consisting of duo Alejandra Deheza and Secret Machine's Ben Curtis, the refined line-up saw the departure of sister Claudia Deheza, who left due to personal reasons previous to the creation of Ghostory.

Staying true to the hypnotic sounds of 2010s Disconnect From Desire, Ghostory progresses forward in maturity, with nods to a shoegaze past and leading 2012 into a whole new electronic era of pop culture.

Along with Sylver Tongue and Fever Ray, the dreamy sonics of School of Seven Bells pave a new outlook from the forgotten future sounds of Gary Numan and Joy Division, re-establishing synthpop as a serious contender for music's ultimate breakthrough.

Fueled with emotions, the School's new material basks in echoes of beauty, with tracks such as Show Me Love raising euphoric drifts and exceeding relaxation, standing ground to the truly exceptional, underrated preceding albums.

Scavenger adapts this feeling of intoxication, with all the right elements for a chart topper, warming the cockles of everybody's hearts with Alejandra's glissando-heavenly vocals, and an addictive synth chorus borrowed from the 80s era of electro-pop.

Other tracks such as Love Play bring forward trip-hop mesmerising beats out of the 90s and into a new vision of uplifting sensory.

And Lafaye, which consumes an influence from The Orb's ambient house invention, delicately piecing together their own view of cosmic wonders in mind expanding glory.

Filling the gap that Cocteau Twins had left behind, Alejandra and Ben fuse the rustic hippy past of music's history with a modern technological world, developing a careful care-free rejuvenation to current musical trends, while still staying true to the elements of a pure pop extraveganza.

School of Seven Bells belong on 4AD.