JIM CARROLL'sfuture sounds

Tanya Morgan: straight outta Brooklyn

The hip-hop album of the season? Well, it sure ain't the new Jay-Z joint. That dude has, unfortunately, blunted his edge of late. And nope, it's not any of the usual major label suspects who are slinging rhymes simply to add to their bank balance. The brightest hip-hop album to come New Music's way in an age is Brooklynatifrom Brooklyn and Cincinnati trio Tanya Morgan.

Based around the fictional metropolis of Brooklynati ("with clean air, clean water and clean streets, the people of Brooklynati lead clean lives"), the album boasts the sort of fresh, soulful, funky cuts you thought no one was making any more.

The skits also raise a smile as various radio ads build pen-pictures of the city's fictional characters. We especially like the sound of Brooklynati one-hit wonders, the Hardcore Gentlemen, and their ad for their one-off reunion gig.

Formed back in 2003 via the Roots-associated Okayplayer.com messageboard, Tanya Morgan's Von Pea, Donwill and Illyas started appearing on radars with their Sunlightingmix-tape and Moonlightingdebut album. While both of these releases received plenty of underground kudos, the new album is a whole different ball game for the trio.

This time out, their beats and loops contain even more of the feelgood shine which used to feature on classic productions from the Native Tongues and Slum Village crews. Meanwhile, they've perfected their lyrical reach too, which is now reminiscent in places of De La Soul at their most confident and out-there.

All of this ensures Brooklynatihas the kind of infectious, cocky old-school swing that never really goes out of fashion. Give it a spin and you never know, you might even consider moving there.

www.myspace.com/ tanyamorgan www.myspace.com /warofzaza

Tune-Yards: ups and downs

To be perfectly pedantic about it, the name of this one-woman band is actually tUnE-YaRdS. New England native Merrill Garbus is an advocate of the idea that there is no point in going with either all lower case or all upper case type when you can mix and match both.

Her music also demonstrates a fondness for idiosyncratic juxtapositions.

Debut album BiRd-BrAiNs (there she goes again) is a mad-as-a-hatter spread of mountainy folk, raw blues, sprawling global jive and singular pop.

The album was recorded by her in as lo-fi a manner as possible using a digital voice recorder and the free online Audacity editing software. It’s rough, sparse and clattering, but Garbus and her ukulele chart a charming route through the hiss.

Live, however, as anyone who caught her supporting Dirty Projectors in Dublin last week witnessed, she’s even better with those loops of disparate sounds and tribal echoes turning into fine grooves.

Garbus’s voice also has a pace and a punch in a live setting which the album, released in the United States on Marriage and due for release over here by 4AD, didn’t quite catch.

Expect to see her back at a venue near you very shortly.

www.myspace.com/ tuneyards

mojoFURY

Feisty, fierce and furious melodic rock from a Lisburn four-piece who've certainly heard a few strains of the big music.

www.myspace.com/mojofuryband

Kyon

Shane Talty is Kyon, a one-band electronic warrior making fierce, furious electronic sounds with a beautiful melodic edge (go check the title track to his Read Between the Lies album). Playing next month's Hard Working Class Heroes fest in Dublin.

www.myspace.com/kyonmusic

Zaza

Dreamy, down-tempo atmosphere pop from New York shoegazers now signed to the Kanine label. Check out their Cameo EP for some skyscraping bliss.

www.myspace.com/warofzaza