Indie Today

The lines of definition for “indie” are often blurred, but if we fall back on its broadest meaning — unforgettable, multi-genre, cutting-edge music — today’s fermenting scene is starting to look like something of a golden age. Opening up our hot-button selection is London’s Jai Paul, who picked up massive word of mouth in 2010 with the demo version of “BTSTU”, here revealed in all its stuttering, head-fuzzing glory. Philadelphia’s Cold Cave set themselves at the head of the current synthpop pack with tracks like “Confetti”, and if you fancy investigating deeper into New Zealand indie than Flight of the Conchords, try some Connan Mockasin (“It’s Choade My Dear”).

Our current indie searchlight shines everywhere from Athens to the Deep South, in Next Steps.

It’s always satisfying when the promise of a band’s name is realised in sound, and that turns out to be the case with grunge-inspired Mississippi outfit Bass Drum of Death, who channel big pulses of power through the spartan spaces of “Get Found”, while the more conventionally christened Ben Sommers displays a superior poetic touch with the sideways ballad of “Hillary, Oh Hillary”. Keep Shelly in Athens, who really do come from Athens, get creative with vocal echoes on “Running Out of You”, the Donkeys uphold a tradition of jangled West Coast weirdness stretching back to the Doors on “New Blue Stockings”, and Growing explores the experimental edge of ambience with “Hormone”.

Mozzy Green and the Dum Dum Girls make a big indie impression, in Deep Cuts.

Here in Deep Cuts, the current indie movement opens up and reveals its spectacular range . . . Mozzy Green, a trio featuring cellist/vocalist Anna Scott (who has played live with Imogen Heap), cite Igor Stravinsky among their influences, which can only be a good thing on the basis of brilliant calling card “Robots”, L.A.’s Dum Dum Girls forge a winning blend of fuzz and harmony with the psychedelic escapism of “He Gets Me High” and San Francisco’s Ty Segall takes us back to their basement with “Girlfriend”. Jaill adds a punkish edge to the crisply pleasurable “Everyone’s Hip”, and Total Slacker meanders along a dirty alleyway of ecstasy on “Crystal Necklace”.

Everything we look for in indie music — whether it’s unfettered experimentalism, the shock of the new, the raging fire of strong convictions, or just a bunch of artfully assembled sounds the like of which we’ve never before encountered — can be found right here, in our Essentials salute to currently captivating pop and rock of the leftfield persuasion. Great bands from all corners of the globe showcase their wares, from the largely acoustic to the wholly cranked-up, and from the electro-charged to the gloriously profane. Sure, there may be a little fog in the areas where the worlds of indie ambition and major label patronage collide, but all these bands share one common desire . . . to shatter preconceptions, make a lasting mark, and offer us blindingly brilliant tunes.