Stream and (most importantly) buy the compilation via the Bandcamp widget below:

I did a short interview with UK-based writer and broadcaster Laurent Fintoni, who arrived in Japan for a six week holiday the day before the earthquake and tsunami hit. On Monday, he teamed together with three producer friends in Tokyo and pulled this entire project together in just five days.

“I love this country, I love its people and I’ve always felt spiritually connected to it,” Fintoni explained. “Within 48 hours [of the disaster] it became clear that while we were all here, there was a growing feeling of helplessness among us – we can donate money, and some of us blood, but that’s about it at this point.”

“On Monday, we started to talk about various music-related ways to generate money and interest, and that’s when this idea came up,” he continued. “Five days later we have the most heartening tracklist we could have ever hoped for to try to raise awareness and money for those who need it most – the nearly half a million displaced Japanese who live in the northern prefectures hit by the tsunami/earthquake combo.”

Read the CMU piece in full here. More information on Nihona Kizuna is available from www.nihonkizuna.com.

The ‘Marsha Meets…’ podcast sees Xfm DJ (that’s the music bit, I wouldn’t want you to miss it) Marsha Shandur interviews one of the world’s very finest stand-up comedians each week, with each giving interesting and amazing insights into their craft. So far Marsha’s met Richard Herring, Brendon Burns, Kevin Eldon, Isy Sutty, Rich Fulcher, Marcus Brigstocke, Chris Addison, and Milton Jones to name but a few.

This week is the perfect week to start listening, as she speaks to the excellent Jim Jeffries, who’s always a great interviewee (further proof of that here). He talks violent reactions to his jokes, getting away with saying “cunt” in America, and his love of musical theatre.

www.xfm.co.uk/onair/podcasts/marsha-meets-the-podcast

Taken from his new Richard X-produced album, ‘Boys Outside’, which is due for release in March next year, ‘All Come Down’ sounds like one of the finest songs The Beta Band never wrote, a simple piece which echoes Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ in places and is driven by Steve’s amazing talent for writing vocal harmonies.

You don’t have to take my word for it, though. You can download the track for free from this little link, with more info at the official website link below.

www.stevemasontheartist.com

Only the second track to emerge from the project, they don’t make it easy to find, and when you do it’s possible you’ll be put off by the fact that it’s a nine minute track split into three parts. Okay, it’s not going to be up everyone’s street, but trust me, it is worth a listen. Starting off very Mew-like, it takes a weirder turn about a third of the way in, and again two minutes from the end.

It’s an intriguing taste of a project that could turn out to be the best thing ever or head down a route of impenetrable self-indulgence. It’ll be fun finding out.

www.apparatjik.com

Building slowly over five minutes to the closest Husky Rescue get to rocking out, it’s packed full of ideas and smart little twists and turns you won’t see coming.

www.husky-rescue.com

It’s catchy and definitely has pop in its heart, but it also sounds damaged and subdued. Glitchy piano flicks in and out of frame, drums skitter along underneath and Emika’s soft, effortless-sounding vocals drift quietly over the top of it all.

It’s not out til January, but Ninja Tune are already giving away a Scuba remix of ‘Drop The Other’, which holds the essence of the original but gives it a bit more kick, right now. To download it, click the link below.

www.ninjatune.net/emika

However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acquaint yourself with his particular brand of songwriting brilliance. Something you can do right now, because Frankie has put the long sold out EP up on the internet for free, complete with four songs (including one of my favourite songs of all time, ‘Nineteen Seventy Three’), six weird interludes and two bits of rambling from John Peel. All of which are things you need.

Click the Mediafire link below to download it, then go to the Frankie Machine website for more info.

www.mediafire.com/?iy2uhjoy2nm
www.frankiemachine.com

Main man Lars Hortveth has described it as “Wagner meets Fela Kuti”. You can catch the band supporting Efterklang at the Barbican in London on Wednesday night, where they’ll presumably play some new stuff. Or you can just cut straight to the chase and download the album’s title track right now at this here link.

ninjatune.net/jagajazzist/eflyer.php

If you want an idea of what it might sound like, then this remix of one of the stand-out tracks, ‘Close Enough To Kiss’, will not help you at all. It is a beautiful slice of mildly dubby electronica, though, so you should listen to it anyway.

Check out the Merok Records blog to download it (and also link through to the band’s MySpace page, where you can hear the original):

dontdiewonderingmusic.tumblr.com/post/215039877/comanechi-x-ghost-hunter-speaking-of-that-radio

But this isn’t some mindless recreation of music gone by (I’m looking at you, La Roux), it’s lush bedroom production, that has clearly had time and love poured into it, make ‘Seek Magic’ an album that, while a little bit retro, is entirely new and refreshing. Already on sale in limited numbers through Rough Trade, the album goes on general release via the Something In Construction label on 16 Nov.

Check out Hawke’s blog for remixes and album tracks galore:

weirdtapes.blogspot.com