Offset 2010: INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

More festival news. The people behind Offset Festival, certainly our favourite weekend-in-a-field last year, have just lifted the lid on their first wave of confirmed artists. On the influential/classic/seminal/'they're still playing?' artist side: Cluster, Liquid Liquid, Charles de Goal. So far, so good. But the festival's strength clearly lies in the new bands lineup: These New Puritans head a legion of up-and-comers which includes Factory Floor, O Children, Bo Ningen, Electricity In Our Homes, Blue On Blue, and - these two currently unannounced - Relics and The Murder Act. Tickets are available at the festival website now, at very reasonable prices - if it's anywhere near as good as next year, Offset should provide the most bang for your buck anywhere this summer. And it's on the Tube.

Factory Floor / FF - full-length debut

Factory Floor - now known officially as simply FF - are about to launch a renewed assault on the world's ears with a full-length release: 45 minutes, 4 tracks, 17th May. Untitled, out on CD and limited 10" vinyl on Blast First Petite, also includes a short DVD, Solid Sound. The experimental trio are currently on tour with Fuck Buttons, and play the Shepherd's Bush Empire with Liars in May. Don't miss out.

Video: O CHILDREN - RUINS

Impressive stuff. It's out on April 19th on Deadly People.

1234... '10 - FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

The first wave of the lineup for this year's 1234 Shoreditch Festival have been revealed. Be prepared: it's good. Highlights include These New Puritans promoting new album Hidden; perennial 1234 associates S.C.U.M; Wild Palms; the return of ddd; Japanese psych-freaks Bo Ningen; the jangling sounds of Veronica Falls; Maria & the Mirrors; The Ruling Class; and punk orchestra Action Beat. The full list is at The1234Shoreditch.com, along with £15 advance tickets which we recommend you snap up.

Band spotlight: THE MURDER ACT

Light from dark, melody from distortion, a chiming guitar and a clanking drive: The Murder Act step gracefully across dichotomies, rolling out waves of noise and beautiful harmonies in equal measure, the whole underpinned by insistent krautrock beats. If that sounds good to you - it should - then visit their MySpace page to hear their eight-minute greeting to the world, 'Sex Song'. Do it now, before it's too late.

The Murder Act MySpace

News: Wild Palms single

Wild Palms are no longer, as they had been dubbed formerly, 'the best unsigned band in London' - they've got a record deal with One Little Indian, and their second single 'Deep Dive' is out on April 19th. (The self-released debut single 'Over Time' is still available from their MySpace, too.) Even better: Artrocker magazine are offering a free download of the b-side, a splintered and soulful take on Bjork's 'Human Behaviour' - get it here. The quartet are on the move around the country in the next few months, so keep an eye out:

13th March: Double Magazine Warehouse Party, Manchester
15th March: Captains Rest, Glasgow
16th March: Bongo Club, Edinburgh
17th March: Roxy, Newcastle
19th March: Amplified, Darlington
24th March: The Garage, London (with The Twilight Sad)
16th April: The Coronet, London
22nd April: Bodega, Nottingham
24th April: The Recommender at Jam, Brighton
1st & 2nd May: Camden Crawl London
15th May: The Great Escape at Hector's, Brighton

maria & the mirrors : OMAR

MARIA & THE MIRRORS
OMAR
(PARLOUR RECORDS)

A weird tension runs through this record, a dichotomy between the harshly digital synth/bass noise that floods the speaker, and the organic tribal pulse pumped out by Maria & the Mirrors' twin drummers, chanting incomprehensibilities and slamming intricate rhythms on both sides of the disc. They've clearly studied their Pulsallama and their Liquid Liquid, and there's a certain Mary Chain ethos haunting the whole thing (if the Mary Chain had been raised by a lost African tribe), but really this sounds like nothing else coming out of London at the moment. Or anywhere else, for that matter - perhaps everyone's too scared to even try and make this kind of sound. Very, very interesting.