You thought you'd see all sorts of spelling; with dEUS, The xx (indeed 2 x small x) or M.I.A. album ‘[/\/\/\Y/\]'? Enter: tUnE-yArDs, or rather songstress Merrill Garbus who hails from Oakland. Her debut – note the spelling - 'BiRd BrAiNs' was overwhelmed with superlatives. The New York Times described her voice as "somewhere between Aretha Franklin and Yoko Ono", The Guardian gave her a score of 5 out of 5 and wrote: “… it's heartstopping … it's also quite brilliant.” Her second album ‘w h o k i l l’ is to be released this spring. Yep, with spaces. Why Merrill? “Visually, that's just how I like it.” Pitchfork was already able to hear the album in advance and wrote: “it manages to mix the upbeat exuberance of Vampire Weekend with some of Jamie Lidell's oddball funk”. To think, then, that her debut is only a phantom of her really impressive live performances. This is superb lo-fi world-music with the heartbeat of the 21st century.

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