Caught in the net: The man of the forest engraves his sound

Colette wants to release her crowd-funded third album through her own label Candy Talk

It's rather hard to describe the sound of Forest Swords, as evinced by the new track from the Liverpool producer (aka Matthew Barnes). The piece, “The Weight of Gold”, comes from his August released album Engravings and is streaming through his Soundcloud and at forestswords.tumblr.com. It's a murky, dark and experimental affair, with snippets of guitar tones, beats rolling through, fragments of vocals and various sonic and electronic effects. Whatever which way one describes the thing, it's probably best to say it sounds great and is worth attention.

The Art (and Bea) of polished indie-pop

Since about 2011, the much fancied UK four-piece Arthur Beatrice have been slowly building attention and intrigue around themselves. The next step along the way for the group is a short EP released earlier this week, available digitally and in a very limited vinyl pressing: the record's four tracks of downbeat and restrained indie-pop. Carter EP, with lead vocals oscillating between male and female members of the band, can be found streaming at snd.sc/16VKrJZ. At times, to my ears, it's seems a little too polished and tasteful but there are some good sounds in there, too.

Buy the Sweatshirt, get the Veggies

The oft-mythologised sometime member of the Odd Future hip hop collective, Earl Sweatshirt displays his vast talents again on the latest track to from his August-release album Doris. The song, “Hive” finds the young Californian spitting in his low, slow drawl and trading rhymes with fellow LA rappers Vince Staples and Casey Veggies over doom-laden, haze-filled beats and soundscapes. It's on Soundcloud at snd.sc/ 12RUrCB.

No, no, Colette? Well, 'yes' if the crowd says

Colette (pictured) is a dance-pop musician from Chicago aiming to release her crowd-funded third album through her own label Candy Talk (pledgemusic.com/projects/djcolette). She's reportedly planning to release the LP in August – though at the time of writing she still had a way to go in her fundrasing. To induce donations she's offered up the title track and it's an infectious slice of sleek, fun electro-pop. Hear it at snd.sc/12KO5Zp.