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Torturing their loyal fan base with nothing but a series of mysterious pictures on the build up to their latest release, shoegaze band The Horrors really are living up to their name. By uploading images of a 3, 2, and 1, without any further clues as to what could be on the way, a buzz has certainly been built around what we're next going to be seeing from the English five piece.. to the agony of waiting fans! However, as of yesterday, the wait is finally over. For those of you who weren't lucky enough to catch the first live stream of their new single, 'I see you', on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show last night, the song's official video has now been uploaded to YouTube for all to enjoy. And enjoy it I did! Gone are the melancholy hues that lingered over their past albums, mashed with bursts of distorted rock riffs - this latest release signals that The Horrors' new material is taking an upbeat and summery turn, just in time to end our winter blues. Anybody seeing them perform at up-and-coming Dutch festival 'Best Kept Secret' this year will be in for a treat, with what could be a catchy and optimistic new album, (Luminous, release date 5th May) perfect for lazy listening on its secluded beach. The music video, which features lyrics flashing up in capital letters, could be a sign that The Horrors want their new material to be the sing-along alternative anthem of the Summer. Single summed up in a sentence: Its like someone mashed The Cure and The Drums together, put them in a mellow mood, then added synth and a winning outro. 7/10.

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Cage the Elephant support Foals in Birmingham 02 Academy

There are two exciteable girls sat behind me on the punishing replacement bus service from Exeter to Birmingham, who soon realise I'm heading to the same gig as them. As they tweet @foalsfoalsfoals and swoon over Yannis, I try to appear equally enthusiastic, agreeing that the three changes on this gruelling service will all be worth it to see our favourite indie band. I'll let you in on a secret: I didn't buy tickets for them at all. 'My number' may not have been able to get out of my head for days after I first heard it, and yes, Yannis might make me a little weak at the knees.. but I've seen them twice before, making the 350 mile round trip a little excessive. The moment I found out, however, that the support act Cage the Elephant would be coming to the UK, let alone my hometown, I think I had to sit down for a minute: A fangirl the first time I heard them on the radio, I hadn't experienced a gig of theirs since their debut uk tour, 5 years ago. That makes me feel so old! I still have the t-shirt I bought that night, although in an attempt to make it slightly more wearable I tried cutting the sleeves off, accidentally destroying it in the process. Remind not to start a fashion blog. The new t-shirt designs, to my delight, feature the surreal artwork from Illustrator, artist and graphic designer R Clint Colburn - the man behind the artwork to Cage's first single from their new album 'Come a little closer', as well as the to the album itself 'Melophobia'. The abstract faces look molten and distorted, which goes hand in hand with distorted identity, a theme which I feel runs throughout CTE's second album, 'Thank you happy birthday' - most obviously perhaps in 'Indy Kidz'. Matt Shultz, lead vocalist, has said that concerns were creeping in that the band's own identity could be distorted. As a result, their latest album required taking away any outside influence; stripping themselves bare and creating something that was true to themselves. Whilst Melophobia seemed to lack some of the madness I first fell in love with, it's nice to know that what I'm listening to is from the heart of the band. I'm a bunch of nerves. Seeing your favourite band after so long is like meeting up with an old flame for the first time in 5 years... Will they be just as I remember them? At 14 they were awakening, dynamic: Matt Shultz looking like a man possessed throwing himself into the crowd, screaming and ripping his shirt off while the sweat from his hair dripped onto the sea of bodies beneath him. They gave a hat made of balloons shaped like an elephant to my friend and she wore it for the entirety of the gig. The deflated balloon is still sitting somewhere in my room. Will they live up to my expectations? As my friend needs to drive through rush hour traffic from Nottingham to Birmingham after his workday finishes at 5, and snow starts falling thick and fast, I come to the heart breaking realisation that we may not make the gig in time to see the entirety of Cage's set.. Walking through the doors of the 02 academy to the sound of live music I realise we may have missed their first half, and there are people everywhere.. The place is absolutely packed. I need to get closer, I've been waiting all my teenage years for this! "Do you promise you'll go crazy with me, even though they're the support?" I ask my friend, to which he laughs: "they're hardly the Dillinger Escape Plan!" Just listening to their latest album, anybody could say the same... They could so easily be just another American alternative band with catchy choruses. But you can't hear the screams on the album like you do when Matt is being dangled in front of your face, staring into your eyes while he surfs the crowd. You can't just listen to cage at a gig, you live them! So, feeling like a bit of bitch, I dart, shimmy and push my way through to a place where people are jumping. There are scowls and mutters but I don't care one bit. I can't remember a night where I've felt as happy as I did being hit in the face, thinking my nose could be broken, sweat now dripping off what was my carefully straightened hair, screaming along to Sabre tooth tiger in the face of a stranger, crowd surfing to the front before running through the increasingly pissed off people standing further out to jump straight back into the pit. Matt is standing on the hands of the crowd with his shirt ripped off and I feel like I can't breathe. I mean literally, my lungs seem to have given out, and I kind of need water urgently. But who needs air anyway - I told Matt Shultz I loved him and I think he heard me. That's enough to get me through another 5 years.

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CTE have been my favourite band since the first day I heard 'Ain't no Rest' on the radio, and one day I'm going to marry this man. Emily Shultz, just sayin'

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Nils Frahm

From Bach to Beethoven, Germany's a country that's never been short of classical masterminds, and that's a legacy that doesn't appear to be discontinued any time soon - not with the emergence of progressive, touching and critically acclaimed pianist Nils Frahm. Based in the country's cultural capital, the 33 year old Berliner, like the great composers before him, had began his musical education before he had even hit puberty. While the rest of us mortals were picking up our first recorder, he was being taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski – a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. As a result of this, Frahm became immersed in the styles of the great classical pianists of the past, but it is this his combination of this with his study of contemporary composers which shines through in his forward-thinking music. It was not until the release of his most recent solo album, 'Screws', that I began listening to Frahm's music. Single 'Says' is a composition that moves me; if you could hear emotion, here is what it would sound like. I like to think that the short bursts of melody at the beginning are representative of tentative hope, which moves, through an 8 minute journey, into an crescendo, as if you have stopped holding back and have succumbed to an overwhelming emotion built up inside of you. I recommend listening to it when you have a moment of solitude - this music brings you into the presence of the composer and he is the perfect company. Isolation turns into a feeling of a shared entity; the music lift your spirits up. With its melancholy risings and falls I’m part of this journey with Frahm and he takes me away. http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/Nils%20frahm

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Last Wednesday's interview with emerging Birmingham band JAWS

As I watch a caterpillar cake being smuggled across the Cavern, I help JAWS perform their first song of the evening: ‘Happy Birthday dear Jaaake’ resounds around the empty venue while bassist Jake Cooper claps along. But this isn’t the only birthday tonight; it’s JAWS’ 100th show, and between the celebrations, drummer Eddy Geach shares with me some of his highlights from the past 99.

It was March of 2012 when JAWS supported Swim Deep on their UK tour and they began to receive nationwide attention. “We have basically the same fans as them” Geach tells me… not surprising then that the show Swim Deep scheduled for Birmingham when touring with JAWS sold out within days. “There must be nothing like playing to a home crowd” I probe, to which Geach details that the atmosphere is electric, although modestly establishing: “I’m really excited to be playing here tonight.. This is the sort of venue I love. It’s got a bit of character to it, you know? Some places you go to, the backstage feels like a hospital waiting room.. that’s when you begin to feel nervous. But places like these, this is the sort of place where you feel like you’re really part of something.”

Looking around the dingy backstage room, the first thing that catches my eye about the dressing room are the crates of juice and vodka lining the table. Been partying hard on tour? Eddy laughs: “We usually try to go out after gigs if we can.. It just depends how far away the hotel is!” Looking past the touring essentials, it’s hard to deny the character of the humble Cavern dressing room - there are names scrawled across the deep red walls of artists who have played here before. “Will you be leaving your mark in here too?” I joke, sparking a hunt for something to write with. Our rummage yielding a mere blue biro, JAWS never did get to sign the makeshift hall of fame, but something tells me they’ll be remembered here nonetheless. JAWS have been receiving attention from further afield than just Exeter: “Italy was a definite highlight. We played in a town square in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, we thought nobody would know us.. and there people were, singing along with all the words.” For any of you looking to holiday in Italy, Benevento is place that has now been drummed in as ‘ Absolutely lovely, I’d recommend it to anyone. Go there!” Noting down the details to send to my friend arranging her year abroad in Italy, we move onto the pressing matter of ‘Friend like you’. The lyrics: ‘Show me what you wanna do / and I’ll just go and follow you … I could use a friend like you / save the world I’ve come into’ make me wonder if there’s a muse behind the lyrics to their songs? “We actually don’t really like Friend like You” Eddy confesses: “There’s no particular person it’s written about.. I’ve definitely found that song writing is never about trying to impress a girl – my girlfriend hates JAWS!” A relatively new band, having only formed in 2012, JAWS have earned success in only a small period of time. The fact that the other four of the band members have now dropped out of university to pursue the band signals that they’re beginning to gain confidence about the band’s future. “How do you feel about the transition towards the band being full-time rather than something you all did alongside your education?” I ask, to which the surprising response is given, of: “The band’s certainly stopping me from getting a job at the moment.. I’d love to be making some proper money” – the road to fame perhaps isn’t as glamorous for emerging talent as we would think. But the future’s bright if fellow Birmingham success stories are anything to go by. “The spotlight’s definitely on Birmingham at the moment” Eddy agrees – what with Peace, Swim Deep and now JAWS originating from the depths of Digbeth’s underground music scene, the indie music movement in Birmingham titled ‘B-town’ has even been assigned its own Wikipedia page, quoting JAWS as one of its leading bands. And there’s exciting advancements: “We just finished recording our first album yesterday” Eddy grins; “In fact, this is our first gig since being cooped up in the studio all week”. A gig to remember for JAWS, then - and as Eddy offers me a jam on his drumkit and I leave amid jokey roars of ‘let’s all get smashed!’, a night to remember for me too.

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Can't stop playing this on repeat.. messiest of mixes from Bristol-based DJ collective Eton Messy. Incredibly gutted I couldn't get tickets to experience this live at the Exeter Phoenix last Saturday! 

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Excellent remix of one of my fave oldschool artists. Being backstage with Norman Cook last December was one of the highlights of 2013. This remix takes his music in a direction I'd like to see more of this year.