Muscles is an electronica musician from Melbourne, Australia. I was first introduced to Muscles a little while ago by a friend of mine. I realised afterwards that I did indeed have a couple of his songs already due to various remixes and compilations, and this led to me buying the album, Guns Babes Lemonade. It was released in Australia on 29 September 2007, reaching #3 on the Australian Artist Chart and #1 on the Dance Album Chart in its first week. His music is a mix of electronica, synth and lyric. I am not even sure what exactly I can compare it to, all I can say is: imagine Metronomy & Bloc Party with a big dance influence! That’s about the best I can do.

Unfortunately for anyone who enjoys this album, apparently Muscles announced in December 2008 that he’d retired from the music business and is producing a new solo record for You Am I frontman, Tim Rogers. Im not sure if this is 100% reliable but I can see him producing some very good things in the future; I can only hope that maybe he releases something else one day! For now, though, take a listen to some of his stuff and buy the album!

- Stuart

Mondkopf is a 23-year old French producer and DJ recently starting to make a name for himself. His debut release, (Declaration of) Principles EP is the first of the newly formed Foolhouse label and I purchased my copy a few months ago when I first heard a preview of the first song, Sainte.

His music is heavily synthesizer inspired, and the Parisian’s trademark of crunchy beats and deep orchestrations are getting him a lot of attention. I would highly recommend taking a look!

- Stuart