Karkwa

The Polaris Music Prize is the Canadian version of our Mercury Award, celebrating an album for its merit rather than sales (or, you know, that's how the blurb will always have it).

This year, the Quebecois Karkwa beat, amongst others, Caribou and Broken Social Scene for the top prize. Coming across as a folksy French-tongued Radiohead, Karkwa have a solid back-catalogue in subtlety in the manner of both British Sea Power and newcomers Hares.

They can be found at their MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/karkwa.

Bikini Black Special : The Bikini Method

Taken from their forthcoming album, "Physioterrorists", this slice of electro goodness from Bikini Black Special is them at their most hypnotic and caustic, how self-help audiobooks might sound in a world in which false advertising is outlawed...

Seek out more of the sharp BBS sound at http://bikiniblackspecial.bandcamp.com