Gemma Ray, the singer-songwriter from Essex with splendid chic noir, has joined Sparks for a double-a-side single released February 20th. Brothers Ron and Russell Mael who look at 40 years of Sparks have brought their idiosyncratic pop to «Eaten By The Monster Of Love» and «How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall». Look at the video for «Carnegie Hall» and for sure, Gemma Ray will get there. Live dates in the States, UK and Europe will follow.

Three brothers and another relative from Frankfurt moved to London three years ago. Calling themselves Wide Sea they soon caught the attention of Edwyn Collins who signed them for his new label. Perfect pop music settled around a campfire and obviously the sea. We highly recommend to buy this album. Taster here.

Finally Spanish producer John Talabot delivers his debut album for Munich based label Permanent Vacation. We almost digged every of his 12"s so far, but it's always hard to judge a dance music/house album (is there any reason for it?). This one works in its entirity. Not exploring new grounds, but a safe bet for everyone who appriciates the deep, subtle and funky side of house music. 

Once dubbed as deep house's wunderkind, Essen based Manuel Tur comes of age. 2012 should definitely be the end of boring deep house (we hope), but when it's as sexy as this track: let's keep it coming. Emphasis on the bass and a cute melody swining on top. That's another benchmark, dudes. Enigmatic named album «Elephants Reflecting Swan» will be out on Freerange at the end of April.

It already came out last November. But nonetheless still worth buying. The box sex of This Mortal Coil covers the whole work of 4AD's boss Ivo Watts-Russell futuristic project. TMC was already big in gothic circles, but today with dream pop becoming a genre, it is like the blueprint of the sound of now. Someone should do a documentary about Ivo and TMC!