Alt-J - "Tessellate". A man who is known as a triangle, ∆, must change his name to a description of that triangle. For a week he tries Threeside, introducing himself at parties. He applies for a credit card as Sum-180. But finally the man who is known as a triangle decides to call himself Alt-J, which is computer-talk for ∆, and tries to be happy with this name. He knows it makes him sound like an Australian radio station, or like a fancy way of rolling a marijuana cigarette. But he thinks the music will speak for itself: surely no one will meditate on Alt-J's name while they listen to his coo, his blunt electronic pop. And yet I do. I do. This song is a little like Eagle-Eye Cherry and a little like DJ Shadow circa Endtroducing (mostly the former). Somehow, it is very good. But I do not find myself meditating on its witchy beats & chimes, its hieroglyphic lyrics. Mostly, despite everything else, I think of the man who is a triangle and who thinks that Alt-J is an acceptable cipher. [buy]

D I A N A - "Born Again". A song that is less like the stuff of dance music and more like the stuff that rises up from dance music, like steam or smoke or glinted light. Forget the music that makes you move your feet, the bass-line and synth; think of the colours in your eyes as you exit into the night, the air you exhale into the open. Remember the dreams you have, after hours at the discotheque, where your closed black lids become a spinning silver ball, aurora, celestial spheres. [Soundcloud]