Caught in the Net: Fans pitch in for Summer Camp

Following the likes of Emmy the Great and Gang of Four, Summer Camp – the London indie duo Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey – have utilised the fan donation site Pledge Music to finance the recording and release of their debut album.

As is always the case with Pledge Music drives, different levels of donation earn fans various things in return. The base £8 offering gets you a download of the completed album and it works its way on up from there: For £500 Summer Camp will remix your own song. The project is running at ind.pn/ iFlbU0. In less than a week they reached their target for donations, so from here on in 10 per cent of what they receive is going to a homeless charity.

Sub Pop's hip-hop excursion

Play word association with the Seattle record label Sub Pop and you'd probably land on grunge or alt-rock. However, their range extends far beyond that, as evinced by the release this week of the debut album by hotly tipped rap collective Shabazz Palaces. Further evidence of their wide sonic palette comes in the shape of South African rapper/DJ Spoek Mathambo and London five-piece Still Corners. Mathambo has a new digital-only EP called Put Some Red on It coming in July, and the title track – a doom-laden blast of grimey electro-rap – is a free download from the label's site at ind.pn/imPgHG. The Londoners release their debut LP with Sub Pop in October. In the meantime, there's a two-track 7" release with the lead-off single, "Cuckoo", also free at ind.pn/miFpjK.

Sister is doing it for herself

I can't say I've ever warmed to the brother/sister duo The Fiery Furnaces. However, one half of the group, Eleanor Friedberger, is striking out on her own to release her first solo LP, Last Summer, in July and I'm rather taken with the first track to emerge from it, "My Mistakes": it's a lovely nostalgic-sounding pop song – with great mournful sax thrown in right at the end for good measure. It also comes with a cool video pitting years-old footage of Eleanor against current footage of her. Lookout for a cameo from Spoon frontman Britt Daniel – vimeo.com/24124179.

Three shining new slices of life

Mike Silver, the Montreal-based producer/DJ/musician who goes by the name CFCF, recently uploaded a new EP called Signs of Life on to his Bandcamp page at ind.pn/mj26ZB. The three-track release is streaming on the site where you can also download it for the princely sum of $3. The standout track is the expansive opening instrumental "Circled in the Skies", which, propelled by guitar and drums, slowly brews into a lovely instrumental full of chugging riffs and nice repeating melodies.

l.ryan@independent.co.uk