In the three years since Klaxons released their debut album Myths of the New Future, the Nu-Rave has wound down, giving way to the Chillwave (the current trendy band scene which includes Washed Out, Neon Indian and Memory Tapes) nachspeil.

Unlike most bloggers/writers, when M.I.A’s Born Free and its Romain Gavras directed video went viral in April, I was left less than enthralled.

As far as band names goes, Tame Impala ranks alongside Donkeyboy and Arctic Monkeys – not very good.

Matt Groening had already earned his place amongst my favourite living Americans for being the creator of both The Simpsons and Futurama.

Sadly, there have been so many great musicians and artist s that passed away in the last year, that at the risk of Sound Barrier reading like an obituary I decided against mentioning them.

One of the oldest and most used phrases in music industry jargon is the term ”difficult second album”. Commonly, the verb difficult not only describes the process of putting together the record but also the music contained within.

Rarely can music writers/bloggers decide together on what to name a new genre but now it seems everyone’s undecided on whether to go with Cold-Wave, Dark-Wave or Minimal-Wave to describe an underground movement from quarter of century back.

A careful glance over the last few issues of Sound Barrier will find more than a few mentions of the late 80s/early 80s Shoegaze movement that has become very fashionable again in recent times.

The problem with fashionable scenes and the centres like New York and London that inspire them is more often than not, quantity ranks over quality.

February 11th 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the release of anti-apartheid campaigner and former ANC leader Nelson Mandela.

London, England has produced more dance-music abstractions in the last two decades than America has, maybe ever.

On first hearing Idioteque, the first taster of what was to become Radiohead’s KID A, the reaction from Sean Booth and Rob Brown the duo that make up Autechre, by all accounts, was one of utter disgust.

Seeing as a new decade has just begun the customary thing to do is round up some of the most memorable records of the last one.

The festive season is once again upon us, which for music blogs/websites means its time for end of year charts and round-ups.

As reported back in Sound Barrier 26, Norway for some unknown reason, has an abundance of bands influenced by the 90s British “Shoegaze”movement.

Back in the eighties when people first began talking about an Indie or Alternative scene, the primary influence for the majority of bands was the music of the sixties.

With the constant stratification of club music, throwing up new micro-genres everything, the term House music seems to have got lost somewhere in the proverbial mix.

Giorgio Moroder, despite the nice ring it has, is a name not everyone will be familiar with.

Loveable English gentleman Nigel Lythgoe (executive producer and judge on essential entertainment show So You Think You Can Dance) is always quick to point out that the public’s favourite choice does not necessarily mean the actual best.

Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon’s 1995 album Only Built for Cuban Linx did for Hip Hop what the series The Wire did for TV cop shows.

The term Britpop, as anyone alive in the 90s will be aware, is an adjective first used to describe the UK bands like Oasis, Pulp and Blur who heralded in Tony Blair’s New Labour government and the era of the Charles Saatchi endorsed Young British (visual)

BrokeNYCYDE are possibly the most controversial band in America right now.

Thanks to the wonders of Autotune, singing is no longer a requirement for aspiring African-American entertainers.

Despite being from Norwegian Black Metal’s cradle Bergen, the music of Datarock couldn’t be further removed from that of their corpse painted homeboys.

Maribel is yet another band from Oslo who can count Sereena Manesh among their friends and are influenced heavily by early 90s British “Shoegazer” music.

Generally speaking, modern folk artists are best avoided unless you live in a commune in the woods and wish you were born 40 years ago.

The respected music journalist and author Simon Reynolds has recently claimed that London’s Dubstep scene has been beset by zombies, who crave earth shattering bass, and the horse tranquilizer drug Ketamine.

There never seems to be any shortage of new bands coming out of the United Kingdom.

With her good looks and acute sense of style, it’s easy to see why Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes was recently picked to grace the cover of style periodical Dazed & Confused.

From the start of 2009, the news has been awash with images and talk of “Israeli aggression” towards its neighbour Palestine.