Boss Hog: Whiteout (City Slang)

Now that the majors have milked the Christmas market and are too busy gobbling each other up to bother releasing new records, January is a good time for indie labels to slip through the corporate net. Boss Hog are led by Jon Spencer - he of Blues Explosion notoriety - and Christina Martinez, who graces the CD's cover. Taking their cue from kitschy 1950s sexploitation flix, Boss Hog mix the punky trash of The Cramps with the looped, leftfield attitude of Madder Rose. Groaning, filthy basslines and grunting Hammond organ keep things nice and dirty, but you could easily run a whiteout pen over some of Christina's sillier lyrics.

- Kevin Courtney

Various: Southern Fried (Tuna/Prime Time)

Not only do you get 14 chunky, funky, groovy monsters from the southern capital on this gorgeous compilation, you also get one hell of a surprise. While we wait (and wait) for Dublin to shake a leg and produce some killer tracks, Cork has simply got on with the job. Southern Fried has a widescreen focus, pulling from all genres to devastatingly positive effect. Pick of the bunch after a couple of listens are Citizen AKA (a healthy brew of jazz-flecked future funk), Deep South (Stevie G, Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson combine for a deep horizontal score) and Resonance (Nightmares On Wax camping out on Patrick Street). A corking collection.

- Jim Carroll