Empty Phrases, an unsigned phychadelic, dreamy, rock band, consist of music students at Umass Lowell which is the University of Massachusetts, near Boston, USA.

The debut 11 song release is currently being mixed and mastered and will be available this summer.  It is a spacey album recorded over a 9 month period loosely based on a male and female serial killer team and it contains a reprise which features a part of every other song on the disc. 

R.E.M.has just completed recording their next record in Berlin.

The band spent most of June at Hansa Studio in Berlin with Jacknife Lee putting the finishing touches on songs that evolved over the course of two previous recording sessions, the first in Portland in 2009 and the second in New Orleans earlier this year. The next step will be to mix the record this Autumn.

There's no release date yet but it's expected around Spring 2011

Allan's Grand Day Out is a new two-piece indie/alternative band from South London. Members Zoë Klinck and Bryn White first met at Wimbledon Arts College, and have been creating their unique brand of melodic, electronic, alternative pop ever since.

Their debut E.P., entitled "Maastricht", has now been released and is completely free to download from here for a limited time. There's a nice balance between the acoustic guitars, electronic sounds and Zoe's haunting voice. Panada Tears in particular is a beautiful track which appears to be have been inspired by Four Tet, one of their acknowledged influences.

Velvet Razor, an unsigned act from Weybridge, have released their debut EP, Rainbow Warriors, with 4 quality guitar based rock tracks in the classic mould.

Dave Kent is the visionary leader of the band, taking on roles as chief song-writer and lead guitarist, and he brings to life the Velvet Razor sound with influences ranging from the psychedelic 60’s and the melodic rock sound of the 70’s. This is all wrapped up amid some great modern compositions, beautiful melodies, thoughtful lyrics and high-class guitar work.

Tomorrow sees the digital release of 'Mystery Pop' the new EP from the Alternative/Pop/Folk band The Beautiful Word.

Formed in January 2007 by front girls Emily and Megan, who began singing harmonies for each other's tunes – their twinkly pretty little songs hushed even the rowdiest of open mic nights. They have since grown into a big whack of beautiful sound with added punch from the noise boys – Nelson on guitar joined first, followed by Gruff on the drums and then Scotty on bass in early 2008.

The Tiny Giants are a Leeds based three piece band formed at the end of 2009. Their sound of up beat rock mixed with blues and funky undertones, as well as their knack for penning songs with a catchy hook are reminiscent of Wishbone Ash (that's not meant to be an insult as I think that they were, and still are, a damn fine band). They claim, and I've no reason to disbelieve them, that they have built up a loyal fan base in an incredibly short period of time.

Bottle of Evil is, despite sounding like a Death Metal act, a music project based on experimental electro acoustic ambient sounds overlaid with gentle harmonies.

They are two Lanarkshire (Scotland for the geographically challenged readers) musicians, Derek Bates (Evil Hand) and Steven McGilvary (Bottle of Steven). They have both been writing and performing with their own solo projects for many years, and Derek with his previous group, shoegaze noisters Genaro.

Mark Kulmala is a Canadian and in the same program as Tokyo and Lauren - see review here. Like Dr Who he keeps regenerating - firstly from Heavy Metal to Chili Peppers and then to his current incarnation as an Indie acoustic folk singer. His stuff is pretty good (particularly the harmonies with Lauren) so catch them on his MySpace page before he's reborn regurgitating Nursery Rhymes.