Ticketreviewers on this week's Rock and Pop releases

THE HOLY ROMAN ARMY

How The Light Gets In

Collapsed Adult***

By day, Carlow siblings Chris and Laura Coffey work as, respectively, a doctor and psychologist, but it is what the pair produce in their after-hours surgery that is of far more interest to the non-medical community. Their debut album twinkles with slow-burning intensity as a procession of supple, sinewy tracks trace out lines running from dub and post-rock to shoegaze (version 2.0) and trip-hop. The thrills are in the textures as the pair, with exquisite production from Halfset's Stephen Shannon, arrange and blend their building blocks into elegant, neatly arranged tunes such as Empty Skiesand Elegy.

Best of all, THRA manage to go about their business, tip-toeing from one musical nest to the next, without ever becoming in thrall or hung up on the stylistic moorings of any specific genre. The next appointment cannot come too soon. myspace.com/theholyromanarmy JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Empty Skies, How The Light Gets In

OSKAR

LP: 2

Incarnation Records****

Something of the film score lingers about Oskar, a group originally conceived to soundtrack performance art. It might have something to do with recently collecting childhood songs from committed schizophrenics in Madrid (as heard on Sanitario) while researching a play score, or it might be stitched into the band's art/ post-rock identity. Either way, LP: 2 demands attention, jarring and lulling in an attempt to hit that illusive sonic G-spot located between intriguing and frustrating. LP: 2 delivers something as pensive as Tosca's Dehli9sessions while being multi-tonal to the point of edgy. The cocktail of Some Song's unflinching spoken word, the heart-wrenching Dadaist tone poem woven through Richenbach Fallsand undulating gem Hi-Beam Bluelend LP: 2an air of haunted madness, making it bewitching enough to like despite it flaws. It's artsy rock, indeed. www.oskaronline.com DEANNA ORTIZ

Download Tracks: Hi-Beam Blue, Papercuts, Sanitorio

THE MARS VOLTA

Octahedron

Universal ***

Fans of The Mars Volta can surely recall the days when sifting through their music was an exercise in prog-rock futility; as with their forebears such as Yes, Greenslade and King Crimson, you had to search low (and sometimes high) for a tune amid much of the free-form music. The Mars Volta's new album bounces out of the traps, however, and is no longer music you have to wade through. Not that you'd notice the change of pace from the song titles: the likes of Halo of Nemnutals, With Twilight As My Guide, Luciforms, Copernicusand Cotopaxigive the impression that you're about to take a magic carpet ride to the Milky Way. Luckily for the listener, the Latino band temper their excesses with the tautness of a lean Led Zeppelin; the result is excellent space-rock brought right down to earth. www.thebedlam.net  TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: Halo of Nemnutals, Cotopaxi

SAM ISAAC

Bears

Hear You Me***

Having already impressed the likes of King Creosote and Edwyn Collins, young Londoner Sam Isaac joins (the massively underrated) Eugene McGuinness as a purveyor of upbeat "love pop" (as one journalist put it). He doesn't have McGuinness's lyrical clout, but he does have a clutch of similarly congenial songs that sound like they were written with pillow fights and heartache in mind. The streamlined pep and big, bushy-tailed choruses of Come Back Home Tonightand Sticker, Star & Tapesound like a cross between Deacon Blue and Ed Harcourt, while his accented vocals will either endear or exasperate, particularly on the twinkling, trumpeting Berlin. There's a sneaking suspicion that a little more diversity would have made for a more formidable calling card, but Bearscertainly has its big, bouncing heart in the right place. www.samisaac.co.uk

Download tracks: Come Back Home Tonight, Berlin

WHITE DENIM

Fits

Full Time Hobby ****

Last year, White Denim ventured beyond their Austin, Texas hometown and found many takers for their splendid racket. The power-trio made those moves with the Workout Holidayalbum, a collection that threw all the right sleazy garage-rock shapes but, because it was really just a collection of previously recorded tracks, could never quite match the explosive, incendiary beast which their live show has become. Fits rectifies this oversight in some fashion. The band again ramraid the past (garage rock, stoner-blues, psychedelia, beat-group boogaloo, soulful screamers), but the fusions are completely off the map. Here's a band whose confidence is sky high. As a result, every note, every zig-zag and every grandstanding display of the band's playing ability is just downright exhilarating. An album to keep them in clover for some time to come. whitedenimmusic.com JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: I Start To Run, Mirrored And Reverse, Say What You Want

GOSSIP

Music for Men

Sony ***

When the frontwoman of your band is as flamboyant as Beth Ditto is, there's always a danger that their stage persona will engulf the music behind it. Considering that Arkansas dance-punks Gossip base their sound around Ditto's amazing soul voice, though, it's a forgivable foible. By the same token, the trio's fourth album relies heavily on her character to elevate it above normality, and it doesn't always succeed. Perhaps it's producer Rick Rubin's prudence that prevents these songs taking any crazy zig-zags or risks, but there's a definite tedium to parts of Music for Men. It's when they bring real sass and oomph to the samba- referencing Pop Goes the World, the ominous Vertical Rhythmor the vigorous garage of 8th Wonder, that Gossip provide deserved talking points. www.thegossipmusic.com LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: Pop Goes the World, 8th Wonder