Brian Molko and company return with “For What It’s Worth”, a fuzzy and brow-furrowed teaser single for the forthcoming and long awaited Placebo album.

The legendary Devin Townsend has quit drugs, and Ki – the first of a four-part album – is a chronicle and confession. Just don’t expect SYL savagery.

Nu-rave originators Enter Shikari return to the fray with “Juggernauts”, a short sharp single that shows they’ve not changed too much in the last year or so.

The Solemn Truth EP is five tracks of gothic drone hymns; John 3:16 has an ear for atmosphere, but these sound like little more than sketches of a dark place.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to metal’s angry young men, wonder no longer: they’re in a band called Ana Kefr, and their debut album Volume I has ambition to burn.

Wigan pop-punk youths Smudge present Where I Go At Night, their second EP of astonishingly forgettable high-gloss pop-punk with a British patina.

“Male Bonding” is another deliberately artless offering from the name-droppable KASMS, and the novelty is starting to wear very thin indeed.

Youthful oddball composer Jonathan Pfeffer, slightly better known as Capillary Action, returns with So Embarrassing – a gloriously Zappa-esque shambles.

The terrible trio have a new album in the offing, and so Future of the Left cope manfully with small crowds and broken amps as their tour kicks off in Southsea.

Scots rockers Serpico would like a slice of the pop-metal pie, but their self-released debut Neon Wasteland shows they’re not ready to take on the big boys yet.