Singles & Downloads 10

This month's Singles & Downloads leads off with a new one from an absolute kingpin of US pop and hip hop. However, the focus is equally on the backwaters and curious places where other lively varieties of music dwell. From dancehall raucousness to erudite indie, from ranty punk to funk reinterpretations of American minimalist composition, all pop life is here and keenly assessed by Thomas H Green and Joe Muggs.

Kanye West, All of the Lights (Def Jam)

It is a preposterous notion, trying to cram vocals from Elton John, Alicia Keys, Fergie, John Legend, and Elly Jackson of La Roux all onto one track, and that's before Kanye West's own verses and those of Kid Cudi. Oh, and let's not forget Rihanna giving it her everything on the chorus (and revealing almost as much, as ever, in the video). West dives heedless into outrageous grandiosity, unafraid of explosive pomp and super-glossy production comparative to anything on his famously opulent albums Late Registration and Graduation. This should, then, be the folly of a rich, rich man but, of course, it's not. Somehow, alongside filmic strings and a triumphant brass section that recalls nothing less than Europe's "The Final Countdown", West musters a song with real drive, a lyrical stew of love, sex, desperation, escape and redemption. It's totally over-the-top and not a little silly but who cares? It's also joyfully exuberant pop music that offers up value for Kanye's money. (THG)

• Find All of the Lights on Amazon

Trophy Wife, The Quiet Earth/White Horses (Moshi Moshi)

Once upon a time, before Britpop, The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys, "indie" meant something wan and contemplative, music that had to hide away from the glare of the mainstream lest it wilted and died. Oxford trio Trophy Wife hark back to that sort of indie, and they're very good. Delicately chiming guitar patterns and strings that seem to hang in the air around beats that are almost - but, crucially, not quite - funky create a barely-there framework for slightly strained singing of nervously meandering melodies. If you like Arthur Russell, you will probably like this, but even if you don't you might well anyway. (JM)

• Find The Quiet Earth/ White Horses on iTunes

Tiësto vs Diplo ft Busta Rhymes, C'mon (Catch 'em by Surprise) (Wall Of Sound)

This is essentially awful - but kind of irresistible at the same time. US hipsters' favourite Wes Pentz, aka Diplo, and Dutch lowest-common-denominator trance mega-DJ Tijs Verwest, aka Tiësto (which incidentally means "plantpot" in Spanish, fact fans), put together the sort of robotically rampaging dance groove so unsubtle and in-your-face it makes the Black Eyed Peas sound like Joni Mitchell - while rap's biggest, blaringest voice, Busta Rhymes, sprawls all over it, yammering and bellowing about how great the track is. There's something about its utter shamelessness in wanting to be bigger and stupider than everything else in the world that makes it batter down your defences; enjoy it now before you hate it. (JM)

• Find C'mon on Amazon
• Find C'mon on iTunes

Scumbag Philosopher, Scumbag Philosopher (Words On Music)

Three years ago a group called Fuck Dress came ranting out of Norwich shouting "God is dead so I listen to Radiohead" on their debut single "Suburban Nietzsche Freak". Then they disappeared. Now they have a new name and an eponymous single which contains a reference to the song's protagonist as an "arcade Heidegger" and lasts two minutes and 42 seconds. They still sound like Fall acolytes I Ludicrous but their sense of humour is darker and less mischievous. "Scumbag Philosopher" is a deadpan sneer at anyone old who's ever offered unwanted life advice, choked out over rumbling primitive tribal drone-rock. It's oddly catchy in a playground chant manner, as well as being abrasively belligerent in a way that's invigorating. (THG)

Footprintz, Utopia (Visionquest)

From a label run by deep techno sorts Seth Troxler and Lee Curtiss, "Utopia" is pop music with a luscious, stoned, dreamy quality. To a lolloping, faintly reggae-tinted rhythm, Footprintz, a duo from Montreal, whisper sweet somethings about their idyllic imaginings and the listener is gently swept away by silken synths and the contagious, tuneful positivism of it all. For want of a less convoluted comparison, it's the sound of Scritti Politti colliding with the first Beloved album, all filtered through the prism of a contemporary Berlin after-party as it finally drifts down to earth. There's a remix by top-notch electronic whizz Ewan Pearson but, really, it's the lovely original that's the most persuasive. (THG)

Lady Chann, Treble to Your Bass (Dun Dem Records)

This is the sound of young Britain rediscovering the rough'n'ready rave anthem. Like a ruder, brasher younger sister to Katy B & Ms Dynamite's recent top 5, "Lights On", its Jamaican-accented dancehall chat, bolshy soul choruses and hefty techno kick-drum make for a tune that isn't clear whether it wants to start a party or a riot. Lady Chann is one of a dozen great UK vocalists waiting in the wings for the breakthrough to follow Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder and co into the charts - this track is probably a bit too raw and raucous to be that breakthrough, but it's a dayglo blast of fun and inappropriate dancing nonetheless. A house mix by Marcus Nasty adds a little subtlety, removes the dancehall chat, but also adds enough bass to make your neighbours require care in the community. (JM)

• Find Treble to Your Bass on Amazon

Watch the video for 'Treble Your Bass'

About Group, You're No Good (Domino)

In the late Sixties, at the behest of a Philadelphian disco manager, the Californian hippy minimalist composer Terry Riley took a soul-funk tune by Latin band leader Harvey Averne and, using tape manipulation, turned it into a 20-minute odyssey that sped up and slowed down and generally deconstructed the music into something psyched and spacey. Now, a group of British musicians led by Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip take Riley's interpretation and, over a slimline 10 minutes, pull it some way back to the groove of the original while still retaining a flavour of Riley's Krautrock-ish drone feel. It's essentially a rolling funky jam but one with high-art intention twisted endearingly into it. (THG)

Claire Nicolson & Yellowhammer, You & I (Canned)

Hugo Nicolson is, quietly, a bit of a cult figure. He was the man who put Screamadelica together under Andrew Weatherall's watchful eye. The experience, living amidst a whirl of drug-fuelled maniacs at the eye of the rave hurricane, affected Nicolson and he left the world of music for a few years, quietly sneaking back and popping up as an engineer here and there (he worked on Radiohead's In Rainbows, for instance). In 2004 he promoed an album under the name Yellowhammer, a wonderful piece of work, pop-electronica that sounded as if it had been stewed up in a fairground in a David Lynch flick. The album was never released, sadly, but now suddenly, up pops his sister Claire with a track from it, singing sweetly, longingly, over swirling Wurlitzer-esque strings, perky whistling and a trip hop beat. It's the sound of easy listening grown overripe, queasy, yet strangely more-ish. (THG)

Lanu, Beautiful Trash (Tru Thoughts)

Masterclass in the remix part 1. The original track by Australian Lanu aka Lance Ferguson here is jaunty, insouciant, sounding a bit as if the singer - Ferguson's countrywoman Megan Washington - is cycling down a sun-dappled avenue in 1960s Paris. The remix by Hidden Orchestra, all sweeping strings and electronic bass, transforms day to night, retro to future, and kitsch to film-noir dramatic; suddenly Washington is in a penthouse apartment in some future city, mirror on the table and lights gleaming outside, about to embark on an adventure that can come to no good. Both are lovely, together the contrast is quite mind-boggling. (JM)

• Find Beautiful Trash on iTunes

Stateless, Assassinations (Ninja Tune)

Masterclass in the remix part 2. The original version here is like Muse if they were more au fait with electronic music, building from clattering 21st-century hip hop drums to a fearsomely melodramatic stadium-rock peak without ever showing the joins. Remixes by Om Unit and FaltyDL strip away the live drums, but keep the impassioned vocal melodies, creating a new and stirring kind of electro-rock - anchored by a slow techno pulse in Om Unit's case, more abstracted and throbbing in FaltyDL's. It's incredibly rare that the harmonics and dynamics of rock music are made to work successfully with electronica's sonic techniques, but here it's done not just once but three times over with the same song, to great effect each time. (JM)

• Find Assassinations on Amazon
• Find Assassinations on iTunes