New things.

As S&N contributors go, I'm not the best. I haven't listened to the Little Boots album, I am ambivalent towards Madonna, generally inept at keeping track of any pop music developments/releases/ leaks and generally have pretty questionable taste in everything. So, to make up for these small failings, I have brought you a bursting goodie bag of new, shiny things (ie. bits and bobs knocking about in the hinterlands of Myspace or that I've lifted from a feature in The Guardian dating back to 2006) for your delectation.

So, first off, we have Fritz Helder and The Phantoms, with "Making a Scene". Just when Vogueing looked like it had finally fallen into decrepitude, gone senile and died gibbering quietly in the corner, this Toronto foursome have rescued it, rejuvenated it with some discoballs and poppers and unleashed it on the "noughties". The resulting music sounds like its being spoken by a gaggle of scathing, flamboyantly dressed rap-robots, all of whom do not approve of your outfit: "That Prada clutch, girl, is so last season" and who can read you as easily as a copy of Bella. Their sharp lyrics, preening bitchery and Eighties-Spaceship synth backings make them a pretty addictive, and infinitely quotable, listen.

At the other end of the pop music spectrum, and a far cry from the glittery, camp decadence of Fritz and gang, we have Anni Rossi; a Minnesotan singer/songwriter producing delicately handcrafted music. In a field inundated with hopefuls strumming guitars, tampering with pianos and writing tender love songs, the term "delicately handcrafted" perhaps loses its potency, but Rossi's songs are more than deserving. Although many of them consist of the modest combination of voice and instrument, she still manages to create complex, intricate and powerful songs fuelled and supported by her incredible technical ability. The insistent roughness of the strings also provide a contrast to Rossi's pure singing;her voice is a clear and unornamented one, restless and searching. Gorgeous.

Finally, there is Fan Death- a Disco-Noir duo who have rendered the sounds and light up dancefloors of the Seventies fashionable once more. The flurries of strings, throbbing bass lines, blippy synths and sultry vocals, when combined, sound akin to Bat For Lashes reworking the Greatest Hits of Boney M-but the white flares have been replaced with an American Apparell sleekness and lashings of slinky glamour ( which is even evident in their photos: they're wearing thick, inky-black false eyelashes last seen on Liza Minelli.).