The latest CD releases reviewed

PETER VON POEHL
Going to Where the Tea Trees Are Bella Union ***

The title of Peter von Poehl's debut album hints at many things. Is it the manifesto of a musical nomad? The aural scribblings of someone influenced by landscape? Actually, it's both, thanks to recording stints in rural Sweden and urban Berlin, as it creates quiet corners and busy thoroughfares of sound. Like his Bella Union stablemate Fionn Regan, von Poehl challenges the conventions of his craft, sifting through an array of influences. Unashamedly 1970s and 1980s in its tilt (Bowie and The Beatles are obvious influences), it manages to maintain a freshness thanks to the sheer musicality of the tracks. The drumming hauls things to the present with its post-rockisms, and the horns are pure Beirut. Von Poehl's scale-skimming vocals are mostly welcome, but some songs would work just as well without him. Nonetheless, a breezy antidote to the January blues. www.bellaunion.com  SINÉAD GLEESON

Download tracks: Tooth Fairy, A Broken Skeleton Key

WHITE WILLIAMS
Smoke Tigerbeat6 ****

Cleveland lad Joe "White" Williams is often mentioned in the same breath as such exuberant genre- bashers as Girl Talk and Dan Deacon, but he's more tuned to classic and conventional sources than his peers. Listen to Route to Palm, for instance, one of many standout grooves on this debut album, and it's the vintage rocky funk of a Beck or Marc Bolan rather than any electrofunkateer which first springs to mind. Smoke is slinky synth-pop that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Brian Eno and Roxy Music. There's a lot of strokes to admire on the album, from the louche drama dominating the groove on Going Down to Williams's smart, lyrical observations in Headlines. What's interesting throughout is how Williams translates the hedonistic high life of clubs and parties into a belief that the most fabulous discos often contain the saddest of souls. www.myspace.com/whitewilliams JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Route to Palm, Violator

AIN
Close to Cotton Tanuki Tanuki ***

Down in the cotton fields of old Co Kildare, a young man named Aindriú Conroy has been searching for the crossroads where Will Oldham, Sonic Youth and Mississippi John Hurt meet. Dunno if he's found it yet, but, on the strength of this six-song EP, he's is on the right track. Having taken a wrong turning down a shoegazing path with a band called The Opiates, Conroy has stripped it all back to a gently picked delta blues sound reminiscent of Beck in Sea Change mode, or Simple Kid when he keeps it simple. Tunes such as Sold Heaven, Sunday, Inside Arc and Spill Our Hands sound like they're in the same key, which makes for a Raveonettes-style repetitiveness, but the subject matter goes well beyond the usual "woke up this morning" worldview. Wanna take a walk down some interesting folk pathways? Here's a good place to start. www.tanukitanuki.com   KEVIN COURTNEY

Download Tracks: Sold Heaven, Sunday

RASPUTINA
Oh Perilous World Filthy Bonnett ***

After finding that world current events were more bizarre than anything she could scrounge up from the distant past, Kansas-born cellest Melora Creager (formerly of New York City's Ultra Vivid Scene and lead cellist with Nirvana throughout their In Utero tour) logged onto the web and obsessively scoured it for stories, phrases, words and anything else that took her intellectual fancy. The result is the lyrics on Rasputina's sixth album - songs that reference imagery of the destruction of Fallujah, translate an Osama Bin Laden speech and tell the story of Fletcher Christian's son as he negotiates an adventurous life on Pitcairn Island. The idiosyncrasies of the words are complemented by the curious elements of the music, which runs the gamut from punk and prog to freak-folk and pop. Not for everyone, then, but utterly of itself. www.rasputina.com TONY CLAYTON-LEA

THE INNOCENCE MISSION
We Walked in Song Fargo ****

Shivers will run up and down your spine when you experience The Innocence Mission's 10th album. Written after the death of singer Karen Peris's father (just as their Befriended album was written in the wake of her mother's bereavement), We Walked in Song is an album of tender, brittle honesty and warm beauty. Instead of letting the grief dictate the songs and the direction of the album, Peris focuses on those themes which allow her to remember her loss with fondness and love. The sounds are as subtle as they come, all hushed organs and lightly plucked guitar and bass, giving Peris's voice space and time to caress her lines and emphasise their depth. The album will have you running to find out more about this enchanting voice, and to find out if there are other songs like Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning and Still Tell You My Every Day in the back-pages. www.theinnocence mission.com   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning, Still Tell You My Every Day

HEAVY TRASH
Going Way Out with Heavy Trash Yep Roc ***

Two dangerous rock'n'roll outlaws get together and go on a rampage around the world, and the result is the dirty, swampy, grungy, way-out sound of Heavy Trash. Vocalist Jon Spencer and guitarist Matt Verta- Ray, a man who specialises in boneshaking blues and trashed-out twangs, have delivered their own take on a classic Sun session. The album was recorded in London, Boston and New York's lower east side using a different backing band for each. The trilocation is evident in the wild swing of styles, from balls-out punkabilly (Pure Gold) to Johnny Cash-style Folsom Blues (That Ain't Right) to psychedelic monster mash-up (Way Out). Spencer trys on a range of retro vocal styles, and both men gleefully turn the reverb up way beyond 11. But though their skittish, devil-may-care attitude is admirable, Going Way Out is little more than a juked-up trawl through rock's cluttered garage. www.yeproc.com  KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Outside Chance, Way Out, They Were Kings

LES BREASTFEEDERS
Les Matins de Grands Soirs Blow the Fuse ***

One of last year's unexpected surprises was the European success enjoyed by Francophone Canadians Malajube. Les Breastfeeers are another act keen to prove that language doesn't necessarily have to be a barrier when it comes to dishing out rattling good rock and pop. Les Matins de Grands Soirs is the second album from the Montreal garage-rockers and, like Malajube's Trompe l'Oeil, has enjoyed a similar slow-burn, word-of-mouth success. It's a rough and tumble affair with plenty of soulful twang, and an indepth knowledge of French isn't necessary to enjoy what's on offer. You'll come away from this encounter wowing about the Breastfeeders's punchy frolics, throaty yells, nouveau noise and the occasional welcome turn from singer Suzie McLeLove, who shows up every so often to bliss things out and inject girl-group oomph and chic into the proceedings. www.les breastfeeders.ca   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Funny Funiculaire, Viens avec Moi