The easily digestible yet cutting-edge post-punk pop-tronica from the five in New-Zealand band The Naked And Famous (they picked up their name from ‘Tricky Kid’ by Tricky) goes down very easily here. In 2011 they were pushed to the forefront of the BBC Sound Of poll (together with Jamie Woon, James Blake, The Vaccines and Warpaint) and their singles ‘Young Blood’ and ‘Punching In A Dream’ finished off the job of turning a buzz into a hype.

On debut ‘Passive Me, Aggresive You’ (from ’10) they winked in the directions of both Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and MGMT as well as the 80's sound of Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine. “A classic case of ugly and beautiful: TN&F's passive melodicism and aggressive innovation clash in a dazzling blaze of psych/sonic fireworks” wrote NME. As a result, central duo Thom Powers (he shares his forename with one T. Yorke and that creates expectations) and Alisa Xayalith (a points bomb for the scrabblers amongst us) toured through Europe in '11, also visiting the Botanique's Rotonde and the ill-fated Thursday of Pukkelpop that year.

Following a peaceful period, The Naked And Famous came to Record Store Day with something special: ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You (Remixes & B-Sides)’ and the pretty plum ‘One Temporary Escape’, a recording of their concert in San Fransico in ’12 that is entirely free to download via their website (see below). Something to keep you going until the new album they're planning to release after the summer. You read right: The Naked And Famous is back in town!

Soldier’s Heart

Dream-pop from Antwerp that squeezes in between Beach House, The Knife and SX - with the ravishing Sylvie Kreusch as perfect poster-bird. This group is able to call itself StuBru's first 'Nieuwe Lichting' (together with Tout Va Bien and Rhinos Are People Too) and has already notched up at least one hit since the summer, the fresh ‘African Fire’. Electronic beats with airy vocals and psychedelic guitar tunes, as foreplay for The Naked & Famous… Not bad for a Tuesday evening in the week.