Things are starting to pick up now for 2010 it seems. Will it be a vintage year for music? Who can tell...It's hard to pinpoint where the great albums will come from - new releases from MGMT, Hot Chip, Arcade Fire, The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem are all anticipated and will undoubtedly sell shitloads, but what will breakout this year in an industry that seems more and more unsure of itself and how to sell its product to its audience? I guess only time will tell...

One label that can generally be relied on to provide some quality releases is Mute Records, and they've got some strong releases coming up. One particular album that I'm looking forward to is Sisterworld by Liars. The first track to be released from the new set is 'Scissor', a seriously atmospheric song with guitars that actually make you jump. Judging by the four tracks that I've heard so far from the album, it's going to be special. Scissor' is available to download for free from The Sisterworld and you can hear it below...

Also picked up by Mute is the new album from Yeasayer, Odd Blood which comes out on 8th February. Their first album was one of the best of 2008 and they capped it with a live show that was hard to beat. It seems now that they've decided to go more pop, and the result is no less impressive. If this is a good example of what's to come from the album, then they could be the MGMT for 2010. Although we'll have to wait and see what MGMT have to say about that...Like Liars, Yeasayer are very giving souls and you can download the single for free from the 'Ambling Alp' Website

To round out the Mute coverage, here's a taste from one of their upcomers (new to Mute), New York's White Rabbits, who release their album, It's Frightening on 25th January. Hopefully we'll have a review up soon, but in the meantime here's their last single 'Percussion Gun', a volley of heavy drumming and lovely melodies...

From Portland, Oregon we have the new single 'Like Home' from Musee Mecanique, which comes out next Monday followed by their debut album on 15th February. It's wall of sound stuff, with layers of lush strings and weird and wonderful instruments. They apparently have an affinity with antique instruments as well as coin operated games and novelties, and this comes across in the sound which has something of a sepia-toned feel to it (if that's possible for a song.) Anyway, it's rather lovely...

March will see the return of Australia's sibling duo Angus & Julia Stone, who made a lot of friends on their last visit to London with amazing shows at the Scala and The Roundhouse. With both brother and sister sharing songwriting as well as frontperson duties on the album, you could expect a bit more friction and bickering, but like their previous album A Book Like This, this is blissful in how chilled it is...Here's the Julia-penned first single from new album Down The Way...

A slight change of pace sees Neon Circus bring some dirty beats and squelchy synths on their new single 'Digit-izm' and try and capture the much coveted title of 'Leicester's LCD Soundsystem'... Check them out on their Myspace page and look out for shows in the first half of 2010.

Fantastic Voyage is a label that launched last year 'releasing repertoire emanating from the pre-punk era: recordings from the twenties through to the seventies, encompassing jazz, blues, R&B, soul, rockabilly, rock 'n' roll, nostalgia, pop, beat, progressive, rock, lounge and soundtracks.' Now, so far we've heard very little, but that sounds fucking cool to us...Check out their Myspace here

Finally, on to Erland & The Carnival, the new band featuring Simon Tong of Verve / Good The Bad & The Queen fame. Having teamed up with the titular Erland, they've been immersing themselves in the works of Bert Jansch and Davey Graham. The result is something of a folk odyssey that will be available from next week. The stuff that's out there so far is ace, so this is definitely something to get excited about. The band will also be supporting Wild Beasts on their upcoming tour...

See you on the flipside....