Hot Chip have always been the sort of band happy to flaunt their intelligence, but the smartest trick they pull on Made in the Dark is to show a little wisdom, too. 2006's The Warning was a fine record, albeit one sometimes difficult to take seriously thanks to its taste for pop pastiche--here's the Prince track, there's a 2-step garage track--or the occasional ironic wisecrack. On ...

Manufacturer: EMI Records

Manufacturer: Bmg

Manufacturer: Universal / Island

The desire to seek culture and tradition from outside one's own backyard to influence your art and music is nothing new--from The Beatles through Marc Bolan, Paul Simon and up to Damon Albarn with his Mali Music, evidence is rife even in the mainstream. The only problem for M.I.A (aka London born Maya Arulpragasam) is that her backyard was flung far and wide in the first instance, growing up as ...

Manufacturer: Xl

Manufacturer: UMTV

Listening to Colour the Small One seems almost rude, as though you've just crept into someone's bedroom unannounced and read their diary, or even eavesdropped into a private conversation. A lot of this is down to Sia's voice; a soft, intimate, languorous affair that has the unsettling effect of being simultaneously sad and seductive. A couple of years on from her R&B-tinged debut and those ...

Manufacturer: Go Beat

Manufacturer: Punks

The group who single-handedly created the woozy, sexual, cinematic, and meditative dance genre known as trip-hop with their 1991 masterpiece Blue Lines later went on to craft gorgeous soundtrack music and generally emerge as one of the most forward-thinking, fastidious, and s-l-o-w production teams in pop music. Collected, a best-of compilation straddling the group's career, is the kind of ...

Manufacturer: Virgin

Manufacturer: Polydor Group

Manufacturer: Pschent