lost and found: lostmusic gems

If I lived in London, I'd no doubt attend every show those excellent fellows at Lostmusic host for we pop kids of the world. Alas, I'll wave my dampened hankie at all those brilliant shows at the Gramaphone and The Enterprise, and will instead tune my ears to some new releases straight from their London headquarters.

Straight outta Brooklyn, I'm giddily addicted to the lo-fi scratchings of Knight School and their debut LP The Poor and Needy Need To Party. Like the finest pop traditions schooled in punk - the Shop Assistants covering 'Ace of Spades', just about every Raincoats song you'll ever hear, Orange Juice's 'Moscow Olympics' - these songs dose rough recording, wiry guitars, echoed vocals and racing melodies in just the right quantities to produce instant classics that could easily slide into 1988, 1993 or 2009. 'Pregnant Again' is one of my favourite tracks of the year so far, while 'No One Likes Me No More' sounds just like a stray 14 Iced Bears track with American vocals. Stream the whole album over at last.fm and understand for yourself how something so simple can say more than over production ever could.

Meanwhile, The Wendy Darlings play riotous noisy scruff pop straight out of France. To these ears, they don't sound particularly "French", but who said everyone from France has to sound like Serge, Stereolab or Air? Not these three, that's for sure. I'm hooked on 'Bowling Shoes', with its shouty girl hooks and la la la's about a stupid boy, and I bet every other track on their seven-track EP We Come With Friendly Purposes will hook, line and sinker me too.

Buy both - and plenty, plenty more - over at the Lostmusic shop!