Most blogged artists: Crystal Castles, M.I.A., White Hinterland

(j. appleseed)

Toronto electronic act Crystal Castles continues to be the most blogged act on The Hype Machine for the second week running, as bloggers comment on the band's new album, out digitally more than a month before its physical release. Swedish pop group jj and Canadian electronic artist Caribou are in second and third on April 26, while M.I.A. and White Hinterland have climbed into the top ten.

British-born rapper M.I.A., whose family is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, has come to international prominence through the release of two albums, Arular and Kala, in 2005 and 2007. Also an activist, fashion designer, producer, and visual artist, she was named by Time Magazine as one of the "World's Most Influential People." M.I.A.'s third album is due out in Japan on June 23 and the following week internationally. She has just released a track from that album, called "Born Free," which samples the 1977 song "Ghost Rider" by post-punk band Suicide.

White Hinterland, the project of American female singer/songwriter Casey Dienel and musician Shawn Creeden, released the album Kairos on March 8. The duo is back in the blogs thanks to a remix of its track "No Logic" by Brooklyn DJ Alan Wilkis. JP's Blog (jpsblog.net) comments, "‘No Logic" was originally an atmospheric, murky song with sparse vocals and instrumentation. Wilkis adds synths giving the song a more electronic pop vibe."

The 10 most blogged artists on The Hype Machine on April 26 at 10:00am GMT:

• Crystal Castles (unchanged)
• jj (+6)
• Caribou (+2)
• Gang Starr (+5)
• LCD Soundsystem (-2)
• Au Revoir Simone (+4)
• M.I.A. (new)
• White Hinterland (re-entry)
• The National (-2)
• The xx (re-entry)

Launched in 2005, The Hype Machine aggregates information from more than 1,000 music blogs worldwide. Known for identifying up-and-coming artists, the site enables music fans to easily find out what music is hot in the blogosphere and to instantly hear and buy mp3s.

http://hypem.com