Etc

Battle stations:Five unsigned acts will fight it out at Whelan's, Dublin, on December 1st to be crowned winners of Phantom FM's Next Becks Thing.

Listen up:

Next year is looking a bumper one for albums. In January alone there will be releases by Adele, The Go! Team, Death Cab for Cutie and Peter, Bjorn and John.

Twin tunes

: Richard D James says he has six albums’ worth of material ready to be released. His last studio album as Aphex Twin was 2001’s

Drukqs

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Soothing news:

Synth-poppers Hurts will play Dublin’s Academy on February 7th. Tickets are on sale now.