Larry Ryan: Caught in the net

Late December and early January are fallow periods for music, but unsurprisingly there was time for yet another remix of Kanye West's song "Love Lockdown", this time by the highly regarded producer/DJ Flying Lotus. For his take, the producer stripped the song to just the vocal and built it back up in an atmospheric dubstep-like setting. It sounds rather like Kanye West as produced by Burial, and on such evidence West could do worse in 2009 than collaborating with either Flying Lotus or Burial. A free download is at http://tinyurl.com/4pf955.

The remix follows on the heels of Flying Lotus's acclaimed album Los Angeles and three subsequent EPs, as he displays Kanye-like productivity. The RCRD LBL site has several tracks available at http://rcrdlbl. com/artists/Flying_Lotus/music.

Another recent one-off was a nice lo-fi cover of The Beach Boys' "Girl Don't Tell Me" by the Vivian Girls. It's part of their three-track "Surf's Up" seven-inch, which also includes a T-shirt and various other accoutrements. The cover can be heard alongside The Beach Boys' original at http://tinyurl.com/7cthxf.

Though there are slim pickings thus far, the biggest album release of the first weeks of January is the new one by Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion (see Andy Gill's review, left). It finds the band in typically experimental form encompassing all manner of sounds. Not since the fuss over TV on the Radio's record in early autumn have various music websites worked up such a lather. Stereogum.com went all out with a bold claim: "Is Merriweather Post Pavilion the best album of 2009? Looks like it. Sounds like it, too" (http://tinyurl.com/8r4daz). TheFader.com kept some perspective and laid down the gauntlet: "The FADER is proud to announce Merriweather Post Pavilion as the Greatest Album of 20 December 2008 to 5 January 2009 and we give it a perfect score of 10.0 but only for that period... May 2009 bring many competitors to its crown" (http://tinyurl. com/8gu42k).

TheQuietus.com, meanwhile, ended their track-by-track review on an altogether giddier note: "Fuck me, this is brilliant." The site trawled YouTube to find videos of most of the songs on the album being performed by the band in various live settings – http://tinyurl.com/6obqkw.

Another new album arriving later this month in the alternative sphere is Noble Beast by Andrew Bird. NPR is offering an exclusive advanced listen to the record at http:// tinyurl. com/9lardx. The deluxe version also comes with a second disc of instrumental tracks, Useless Creatures, which Bird is currently previewing on his own website, http://www. andrewbird.net/ useless.php.

The blockbuster album of the month is Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream, which is due on 26 January. He's trailing it with a new single and video called "Life Itself", which can be seen at http://tinyurl. com/8fhfn2. It's a low-key slab of mid-tempo Boss, which seems to be lacking something in the way of a particularly memorable tune. Perhaps it's a grower.

Finally, it's almost half a decade since the producer Danger Mouse earned himself international acclaim and notoriety for his "mash-up" record, The Grey Album, which piled Jay-Z's raps from The Black Album on top of samples from The Beatles' White Album. Now, proving that the mash-up hasn't yet gone out of fashion, and that perhaps it should, is a tired pairing of Jay-Z's raps with Radiohead's sounds. Produced by Minty Fresh Beats, it's available at http://jaydiohead.com. It follows on from two similar efforts by others last year: "Viva La Hova", which paired Jay-Z with Coldplay's Viva La Vida (http://www.vivalahova. com/), and "OJAYZIS", a mix tape which put the rapper with Oasis (http://tinyurl.com/6buwkj). Yes, I think we've all got the message by now.

PICK OF THE WEEK

Caff/Flick
Caff/Flick is a website that includes a record label and a gallery. The label specialises in one-off limited-edition releases from a roster of leftfield and experimental artists. The site offers a number of guest-curated podcast mixes as free downloads; the latest landed during Christmas. Compiled by Former Ghosts, it's a rather odd mix including Dean Martin, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Arthur Russell. Look out also for Former Ghosts' cover of Talking Heads' sublime "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)". caff-flick.com