Not giving too much away here except there are some KILLER electro and dance albums heading our way in 2010!

inthemix.com has detailed their 30 most anticipated albums, and here’s a sneak peak at what’s in the running…

Safe to say we agree with their verdict.

Welcome to The Land Down Wonder… a parallel universe full of chooooons! Stop short of the Land Down Under, press play, and jump down the rabbit hole – and you’ll find yourself in a world of indescribable emotions brought on by lovely phonics and super sonics. Yes, the passage to this place is triggered by glorious sounds and pure euphonious beauty – i.e. by listening to sweet, sweet tunes! OWEN PALLETT – HEARTLAND

Image courtesy of Emily Jackson click for full image

Oddities can come from space, a la Bowie. And they can come from parallel universes, a la Dr Who, Red Dwarf, etc (also from our everyday universe, a la suburban shopping malls and Donatella Versace’s skin tone). Owen Pallett’s music comes from another place altogether, one that is so brilliant it’s hard to comprehend, but…! Who cares – where it takes us is all that matters, right?! And that is somewhere beyond wonderful. Head to his myspace page, where his whole album is up for you to enjoy.

Press play and you’ll be flying with me, wonderlings…

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Make sure you follow the often dark but very funny Gorillaz frontman Murdoc on http://twitter.com/MurdocGorillaz Loving tweets like: Late congratulations to my nephew Russell Brand and my former squeeze Ms. Perry! Keep it in the family eh, Russ?! Mmmmmm… 6:56 AM Jan 16th Had a dream in which I was bumming off ‘Su Bo’ at the Q awards. Been on this island too long!!! Going mad. LOL x 2:15 PM Jan 14th Brilliant!

The Gorillaz are set to release their 3rd album Plastic Beach in March, and according to the group’s ’spiritual leader’ via Twitter, the record is nearing completion: “Urrp!! Just finished mixing new Gorillaz track with er….‘My ARSE’!”

Sounds pretty good…  Also check out the first single single Stylo artwork. Listen to Stylo featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def as of NOWNOW NOW on Gorillaz.com!

Welcome back guys!

Who’s up for a big old awards party? The esteemed Brit Awards are celebrating their 30th on Tues Feb 16 and we’ve just received the nominations which were picked out by the 1,000 strong BRITs Academy. The lovely and tenacious Ms Lily Allen (currently in Oz!) is top of the pile, with three noms for British Female Solo Artist, British Album (It’s Not Me It’s You) and British Single of the Year (The Fear). But we always knew she was a clever kid… The seriously exciting news is that our homegrown legends Empire of the Sun are taking on well… the world. The Empire has been nominated for both International Album (Walking On A Dream) and International Breakthrough Act. Emperor Luke Steele will fly to London to attend the Brits on behalf of the band, and by the looks of the Empire of the Sun site forums, the British Empyreans are super-excited to have him in their home town, sharing their oxygen supply (Empire fans are hardcore… but they’d better still themselves, because The Empire is heading to the UK and Europe for an assault on the summer festival circuit!) If Empire wins either of the Awards, they’ll be the first Australian band to win a BRIT Award since Crowded House in 1994! The only other Australian band to have previously won a BRIT Award was INXS, and outside of Kylie Minogue, no other Australian artist has won a BRIT Award in the past decade! Empire’s competition this year is Jay-Z (on whose album Emperor Steele is a guest artist), Lady Gaga, Animal Collective and Black Eyed Peas.

Amongst the excitement about the nomination Emperor Steele said, “The dream was the king for this record and it is becoming wilder and wilder as the sandman keeps cooking. This is a great honour, we are walking on a dream.”

In a déjà vu moment, Robbie Williams and Empire of the Sun will be sharing the Awards Ceremony limelight (think ARIAs ‘09), as Robbie Williams presented with the highly coveted Outstanding Contribution to Music Award. Robbie will close the 2010 show with a stunning live performance – here’s to more self-confessed Dad dancing!

Here’s a great vid of Hitler finding out about the demise of The Tote.

Pre-emptive language warning – he is really pissed off about losing his favourite jukebox.

Post-apocalyptic movies seem to be an annual Hollywood event… from Independence Day to 2012 or even 28 Days Later… growing up with media-hyped special-effects movies, emotive presidential speeches followed by mega explosions and that classic ‘still standing’ American flag always leads me to snicker to my friends “Dry land is not a myth… I’ve seen it!!!” (Waterworld, 1995)

All that said, when director John Hilcoat (director, The Proposition) decides to make a movie about a Mad Max world, every man for himself…. I literally stop, swallow, and make a happy face. Time to start search for the latest preview on YouTube! Now this could be interesting!!!

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Richard Ashcroft, The Verve’s main man, has unveiled the first material from his new solo project ‘The United Nations of Sound’ on NME.

The track Are You Ready? is a pumping tune and is as uplifting and motivational as the name suggests. It was produced by NoID and sees Ashcroft working with a host of new musical collaborators (ie, we don’t know who just yet, details soon). The United Nations of Sound album (working title Redemption) is due out sometime in March, with the first single Are You Ready? supposedly being a blueprint for the sound.

So, here’s your new morning-jog-motivation track… turn up your speakers and listen in.

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Last year, we broke the news about Erika Heynatz’s upcoming single and album… and now you can finally hear the track!

The stunning track Kingdom is up on her myspace  (www.myspace.com/erikaheynatz) as of a matter of hours ago (don’t say we’re not on the ball). But don’t take our word for it… Erika has a few things to say for herself on her career, music, the new single, and the mania of becoming a legit-recording-artiste. Read on…

The Cat Empire have been braving wintry snows on tour in North America since mid November. Whilst on tour they debuted a new track and declared they are working on a new album.

Check out their goofy tour-life footage and live performance of ?Karma? – the sound is live and direct from the mixing desk and the crowd gets seriously involved!

The Cat Empire – North America December 2009 from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo.