Afternoon. First up this week are North Atlantic Oscillation, a band that we have a suspicion may end up being included in more than a few end of year lists. Though, if we're wrong, you didn't read it here. Far more riff heavy than last year's excellent Callsigns EP, the only familiar element is the already characteristically dreamy harmonies. The Americana by way of early 90s shoegazing riffs and piano take a while to get under your skin, but get under your skin they will, revealing another string to what looks like it may be a quite substantial bow. Their debut album Grappling Hooks is out on March 22nd, and I for one am excited. Nice, if ever so slightly twisted video too.

From intricate eclecticism to playful 70s rock riffs now, by way of Ice Black Birds and their 'Ears to the Ground' single. Tomorrow night (February 23rd) they play at 93 Feet East in East London. Judging by this it should be plenty of fun. B-side 'Heavy Independent Blues' is much more sedate, a pretty piece of down at heel blues which collapses into a groove not unlike Kings of Leon before they became U2.

Ok, hands up who ever thought they'd hear from the ex-frontman of Britpop also rans Silver ever again? Not me for sure. But after a spell apparently spent living in South America and gaining an art history degree (whether these two bits of information coincided timewise is unclear - nor do I particularly care), Ian De Sylva is back with 'Josephine', a slice of none more Mary Chain shuffly drums and distorted guitars. The other track, 'Gas Electric Phone', is an addictive piece of Stooges by way of The Ramones bluster. All in all, the effect is more than a little Adorable. So, even more surprising than the lead singer of Silver returning to the fray is the fact that I'm actually glad he did. Unfortunately there's no clip on youtube yet, so you'll have to take my word for it..

Next month, rapper Brother Ali will be over for a UK tour. To give you a taste of what you could expect, here's the seriously pretty title track from Us, his latest LP. Lyrically it's elevated above the saccharine by the blind albino MC's distinctive, earnest flow, and musically the simple combination of gospel choir and organ are beautifully restrained. Well worth checking out, basically..

Finally, we bring exciting news. Two veterans of the rap game, Brand Nubioan's Sadat X and the legend that is Pete Rock have combined to create a track which harks back in sound to hip hop's golden age (it's very much an old school head nodder), yet still contains more energy than most rappers twenty years their junior can muster. In honour of this, not only is the song itself below, we'll also leave you with a classic moment from each of Sadat X and Pete Rock's careers. Till next week..