My enjoyment of Florence + The Machine really seems to come in utter waves. I go nuts and then burn out very quickly only to want more again later on. One of the most interesting things I thought would be getting her new CD/DVD of her Unplugged session which I did for a present for a certain someone – did we enjoy?

In a word yes but I was a touch underwhelmed too.

The CD itself has 11 songs along Cosmic Love is strangely omitted from the DVD – it’s also in a different order strangely too. Florence’s vocals are spot on and the Unplugged versions in general shine but one thing specifically was lacking for some of the songs and that’s percussion. It seemed as if the more percussive the song, the less the drummer would take part which I found equal parts intriguing, alluring and disappointing at the same time. It absolutely doesn’t take any anything from the performance itself, it’s just that I found the choices to use percussion were unusual.

“Only If For A Night” is stunningly beautiful with a choir backing Florence, “Drumming Song” sounding more freeform folk without any percussion while a duet with Josh Homme on a cover called Jackson veers off into country. My personal favourite No Light, No Light is excellently done yet very rarely is there a moment of euphoria throughout the whole performance. It’s restrained. It’s pretty. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I wanted a mass of drums marching me round in circles. Instead I got semi-skimmed Machines.

Initially I wasn’t going to review this because readers will know that I fell in love with Night of Hunters from day one but “Sin Palabras” is an interesting take because it’s essentially the karaoke version of the album itself.

All vocals are stripped away and the arrangements are pulled to the fore. Here suddenly you can hear the stunning detail of all the strings, woodwind and piano working in perfect harmony together. Standouts are the frantic “Shattering Sea” that literally sounds like an entire orchestra is going nuts, “Fearlessness” literally playing like endless waves that wash you away and the jaw dropping “Star Whisperer” which still spell binds me now. Even the slower tracks still are beautiful and the piano carries the main vocal lines so you can still feel the entire melody anyway.

It has in fact given me and utterly new appreciation for the original album – plus some excellent string arrangements to sing over the top of. What is there not to love?

Carina Round has certainly been around for a few years but I’ve only discovered her in the last 18 months at best. Her latest album is nearing completion so I think it’s high time we gave her some love here at Higher Plain Games and told you all to buy her most recent EP “Things You Should Know”.

Opener “Backseat” is stunningly beautiful working from a simple ditty on a keyboard to slowly swell up with strings, brass and a chorus of vocals singing over and over the same two lines as is bursts into a fanfare. It feels like you’ve burst into a new life. In contrast the sultry “Please Don’t Stop” feeds off sparse guitar arrangements and strong vocal performances as the song ebbs and flows in places that song’s aren’t traditionally supposed to. The result is something fresh and effecting as it evolves and builds into a rocking finale.

“Thief in the Sky” is another excellent track which is acoustic guitar led but gets leg slapping angsty for the choruses. It leads perfectly into the epic “Do You” which is predominantly a guitar/vocal track that is hypnotic and enticing because the vocals are so hushed and the guitar melodic you don’t expect it when Carina suddenly bursts into frenzies at certain points in the track. The closer is the title track and it is wonderfully understated with its marching percussive edges muted behind the collage of guitars and vocals.

Carina Round shows that while she can easily rock it out with massive riffs, she can equally match them with some of the most smoulderingly beautiful melancholic quiet rock too. One of the best EP’s in recent years.

Lauren Edman released her debut album “It’s Always the Quiet Ones” earlier this year and after dipping into a couple of genres alongside other artists and bands, it’s nice to see what standalone Lauren can do.

Opener “Wasting” is a nice juxtaposition of serenading wispy vocals alongside a gritty bassline. The track doesn’t go for the jugular, instead it chips away at making an atmospheric haze, much like a reminiscence of drama gone past. I love the vocal montages that appear here and also in “Slate” which brings Lauren’s soft vocals to the fore while swirling piano echoes and percussion is faded to the very background to create a dreamlike soundscape. The result is hypnotic and heady. “Change” then rolls back to electronic pads and a more dramatic tom heavy drum loop. Even in these more dramatic tracks Lauren’s vocals remain like a siren – warm, soaring, delicate and enticing. “Be The Light” is the first track that breaks that mould as Lauren lets her reins go in the choruses in a beautiful song full of lots of interesting quirky electronic keyboard effects.

“Sweet Girl” reminds me strangely of Soft Cell due to the metallic pulsating rhythms that the song exudes. It’s the closest the album gets to a straight forward single with simple chord structures and an immediacy to the track as a whole. “Red Wings” is a softer ballad full of lush vocals.

“Desperate Times” sounds almost like a  musical with its chord structure on the piano and along with “Silent” form a more olden edge to the album. The latter specifically has the piano and banjo have a certain filter on them to sound almost honkytonk ! “This Is It” gives us the first acoustic guitar lead track on the album with an excellent use of the banjo to act out the lead melody. I really connected with this track and Lauren’s vocals hit the spot perfectly. The closing track “She’s Not Here” is a beautifully broken down track with sparse piano for verses slowly thawing into fluid melodies and vocal collectives for the choruses.

Lauren Edman’s début is beautiful from start to finish. It’s one of those albums that you’ll listen to the first time and it may not grab you immediately but then that is where the album title comes in. The album is quiet and sparse. It will chip away at you and suddenly you’ll have favourites on repeat without really noticing or picking up some of the expertly penned lyrics. Then you’ll realise that is was the quiet ones that got you all along.

Winning our album of the year in 2011 with the devastatingly awesome “Dancing on Needles”, Charlotte Martin returns with “Hidden Places”, an EP/Live Concert hybrid that’s sure to excite fans.

The live concert is superb and although it only clocks in at just over an hour, showcases a lot of songs from last years album and a few others in piano/vocal fashion. Each song translates effortlessly across and sounds fresh and new. In particular Animal, Dancing on Needles, Truth Cerium and The Dance show such raw emotion, power and range you are frequently blown away. What is apparent however is that the concert is filmed from two static cameras and while there’s good production values to try to keep things from looking very static, the camera work doesn’t quite do the concert justice. Interspersing the songs are little clips of Martin chatting away about her music, her ordeals and her inspirations which is great to see.

The CD accompanying the concert has eight tracks. Three of which are acoustic versions of previously released tracks. “The Dance” and “Stromata” are massively powerful and sound brand new. “Animal” actually feels more fragile when stripped back and feels newer and sadder than before – something I didn’t feel would be possible! Of the new tracks “Mission Control” feels like a natural progression from her more recent work, once again veering towards the more electronic edges of her world with catchy choruses and sweeping electronic workings. “Tough” is delicately beautiful and feels like a lost song from aeons back as does “The Last Song” are they both feature some beautiful piano work and have that whimsical reflective sway to them. “In a World” features some big tom drums to up the ante which pound out hard towards the end of the song which feels like Charlotte Martin’s ode to Lion King in some ways. “Warrior” closes the EP in typically disarming fashion with some light pads and strings supporting a fragile song in which the vocals absolutely win you over from start to finish.

As always with Charlotte Martin, you know you are getting something special. While the bonus tracks are great to have and should find their home in any fans collection, the concert shows a truly magical live performer in her element, that even a budget recording cannot blemish it.

One of my most pleasant surprises of 2011 was reviewing Marcus Singletary’s album Smokin’ which came at me entirely unannounced and with aplomb. Back this year with new album “Holy Guitar” can he repeat the feat?

Not one to do things by halves, the opening track “Occupy” is just a mere seventeen minutes long and opens with a strange background car journey which bases the entire track’s background. It cleverly runs adverts done by an offbeat robot host and has ambience as you pop out of the car. It seems to bounce around between genres when the music is playing, although regardless of it being lounge jazz or grungy trance, Marcus is usually at the helm displaying his excellent guitar talent which is obviously the main draw for the track. It doesn’t seem to follow a specific route or pattern and waiting for eight minutes of ambience and fake commercials is bold, but certainly not for everyone.

“The Pennsylvania Pull” is a kooky waltz that sounds like it’s been lifted from an old 1920′s film soundtrack. It’s delightfully playful and well structured – a complete swing from what we had previously. There’s some excellent brass work here too. It fades into “Highway Patrol” which veers off into some minimal electronica that just forms a background for a five-minute guitar solo. We then veer suddenly back to the cute and quaint jazz in “Chicago Stomp” which works well as it just feels like a great jamming session. “Friends” continues the theme and also some of the albums interesting reverb settings, almost like it’s been recorded live in a large hall – like a bootleg. “Echo Park” sits somewhere between the lot of it with some well picked guitar strings over some nice beats.

“Boys of Summer” is essentially the three minutes that a rock gig ends and the guitarist goes nuts as they smash-up their gear. It’s utterly freeform and completely Marmite. “Ensign Parker” seems to follow the same pattern but is a bit more structured before “Move” seems to want to be some kind of sexy chill out bar background music. It’s definitely the most sensual the album has to offer before “Man of Steal” closes the album with a drum/electric guitar solo freak out.

After the album had finished, I really didn’t quite know what to think. It’s an album that veers off so deep into the experimental genre, to try to tell people you’ll like it or hate is almost impossible. For me personally, a lot of it left me cold as it just sounds structureless and while that may be the point – one man just doing his thang – I couldn’t connect with it at all aside from two of the tracks. Guitar purists may find a lot to unravel here but as an outsider looking in – I was flummoxed.

Having already raved about the game, the soundtrack is equally fantastic. Austin Wintory’s exquisite soundtrack is a wonderful collection of strings, Eastern wind instruments and some wonderfully emotive motifs. The 18 tracks give you an hour of audio heaven and a sense of a Journey in itself.

The soundtrack, as most game soundtracks do, runs the game from start to finish. “Nascence” is the main theme from the XMB menu with its beautifully haunting string arrangement before “The Call” enacts the ensemble starting to rumble forward for the Journey itself. Various motif’s that occur throughout appear here and are then stamped upon with “First Confluence” and “Second Confluence” as the music meanders and envelopes you before “Threshold” jigs things up with a more pacey number. “Third Confluence” builds on previous tracks before the dramatic “The Road of Trials” sets you off with a bump and progressively builds and adds lots of percussive orchestration. It’s difficult to describe but it’s very symphonic and yet it still always feels intimate and personal. The line between the two is walked perfectly.

“Fourth Confluence” then takes things into a darker and subdued level as we go underground which is built on with excellent use of harp in “Temptations” and lots of atmospheric electronic flourishes and glass warping on “Descent”. There’s a seldom used tom drum that rumbles throughout and the mood by now has shifted to dangerous and unnerving.

After a dramatic flourish the music shifts to a more Eastern vibe which carries on into “Atonement” where things start to get epic where some wonderfully tuned bells, thick string arrangements and sturdy drums wash over some delicate strumming of an ancient guitar which I can’t quite place. It sounds like a Raun but I’m not sure. The end result is one absolutely beautiful piece and worth the admission price alone. It rolls easily into the ambience of “Final Confluence” which blossoms into an adorable and emotive climactic version of the main motif – like a culmination of all we’ve listened to so far.

“The Crossing” is almost like a breaking down of what we’ve built up to as different instruments seem to spiral off and fall out of earshot before the slow and cautious “Reclamation” with its extra high-pitched string arrangement that is slightly discordant floats by. “Nadir” certainly doesn’t float by, it is a dramatic burst of tense strings unlike anything else on the soundtrack – like a last-minute gasp for fresh air or a ledge to cling to.

“Apotheosis” comes across as the ultimate culmination of everything we’ve listened to. From its huge tom drums, soaring string sections, dramatic scope and the way the returning motif’s just drip atmosphere, emotion and a certain rebirth depth. The whole soundtrack has a sympathetic higher string note going on that utterly defeats me and nowhere is it more prominent than here. Memorizing. The album closes with a beautiful vocal track “I Was Born for This” with vocals from Lisbeth Scott which reminds me of a more Westernised Lisa Gerrard with her non-English words. It’s perfectly pitched to bring you to tears.

Austin Wintory has made one of the most definitive game soundtracks of all time. As with the game, I simply cannot put it into words how beautifully sculptured this soundtrack is. I’m positive that having played the game several times over, I have a large bias steer because I’m already emotionally attached to the music but simply but, without the music Journey as a game would not have nearly impacted as much on me as it did. The fact it’s just as staggering beautiful as a standalone product is testament to its nigh on perfection.

Soap&Skin’s debut album was an absolute corker and one of my favourite album obscura’s as I like to call them. Returning with an eight track album entitled “Narrow”, Anja’s music still holds the same scary drama as before but is fuller than before.

“Vater” the opener starts of as a simple, by Soap&Skin’s standards piano and vocal track that then flips into some angry and harsh electronic percussive explosion towards the end. The track, as the rest of the album feels like, is almost so lethargic and deconstucted, everything feels like it’s beautifully falling apart. “Voyage Voyage” has some beautiful string arrangements while Anja’s vocal’s lament over lots of minor chords. Again, darkly intimate.

“Deathmental” is like a sibling to DDMMYYY and the wholly electronic side of Anja’s music with beeps, beats and lots of chewed up vocals being spat out like an angry elf on a rampage. “Cradlesong” is the quiet track that along with “Wonder” feel like they belong side by side. The latter is especially emotive with its softly hushed vocal layering over rolling arpeggios and underplayed bass piano notes. It’s perfectly pitched to make you feel melancholic and introspective.

“Lost” is a very short track which to me feels strangely like a hymn or a Anja’s Christmas Carol! “Boat Turns Towards the Port” takes some of the electronica side and merges it fully for the first time really into a usual song structure instead of making it a stand alone set piece. The result is a powerful song that showcases everything Soap&Skin stands for with aplomb. The closer “Big Hand Nails Down” is a darker tone than the previous entry but seems to be setting us up for where Anja is heading with the merging of the two sounds – reminding me of a more dramatic and aggressive Zola Jesus.

Narrow is a fantastic album. If I had to complain, it’s too short – but that’s a testament to how fantastic the material is and how much I’m left yearning for more.

Sometimes it’s hard to escape something when it grips hold of you and that’s something I got this year when I bought a PSP and imported Project Diva. Suddenly I was in Vocaloid world and quickly imported the live DVD stunned that such a thing even existed for a holographic pop star!

39 gives you two concerts around 100 minutes in length each and both have some cross overs in the set lists but both concerts have their own twists. Tokyo crams 39 tracks into its set with some serious medley mixes going on where the songs are not played in full and they bounce at speed from one to another. Sapporo goes for 27 full tracks instead and to me feels a bit more cohesive as I’m not a mega mix fan. The holograms which include Miku, Lin, Len and Luka all play their parts, performing routines that are well designed while a full live rock band play live instruments to accompany them. The result is a strange merger of real and trickery that is so infectious.

The most infectious though are the tracks. Ievan Polkka is insane, Melt is rock pop tastic, PoPiPo is a Eurovision winner in waiting, Yellow is simply divine dance pop, while Two Breaths Walking is head banging frantic. She caters for all and the songs just stay in your head for days on end!

The concert is fantastic, the audience are all cheering, singing in the gaps, waving their glow in the dark celery sticks to the beat – it really is an overwhelmingly positive experience. If you enjoy unabashedly excitable music. This is the place to begin.

Ayumi Hamasaki last year had a quiet year – just the one mini album! However, has the Queen of J-Pop spread herself too thin again?

“Progress” opens with a sweet piano intro which slowly builds upon the vocals with strings before the track explodes into a dramatic stadium rock track. The transitions are great as it really takes the title of the track and squeezes lots of progressive transitions into five minutes. It’s a catchy melody too!

“ANother Song feat Urata Naoya” see’s Ayu turn to R’n'B beats and smooth vocals and Urata’s vocal’s suit Ayu’s and they mingle around each other’s range very well. It’s a light and breezy track and is very pretty to the ear. “Why… feat Juno” again see’s Ayu collaborating with another grande pop rock track. It sounds like a lost track from My Story with its huge drums and power chords.

“Beloved” to me sounds suspiciously Christmas tinged and has all the hallmarks of an Ayu power ballad but as it fails to stand out from many of her others, I was left a bit indifferent to it. I will say the bonus track which showcases the Orchestral version is ten times better. The closing track of the mini album is “Brillante” which is massively epic with some excellent string work, epic male choirs and catchy melodies. It’s unique to her current collection and shows there’s still plenty of exploration for her to yield yet.

Five is a mini album of varying fortunes. It’s great to see Ayumi duetting with other artists as they add flair and new paths to her work. When she returns to what she does best though, things sound tired and resown. If anything, it shows how on autopilot, Hamasaki can still make mean pop songs but what this needs to now do is give us something new for the new album that came out this month.