The latest releases reviewed

EL GUINCHO

Alegranza

Young Turks

****

It is time to pay musical homage to Catalonia. Pablo Diaz-Reixa is El Guincho, the Barcelona-based one-kid band who creates sounds that will make your head spin. While he's certainly in thrall to Panda Bear's way of thinking (let's be honest, there are distinct flashes of Person Pitchthroughout Alegranza), El Guincho has a significantly less combative relationship with pop hooks and melodies.

He appears to relish how a hazy hotch-potch of snatched tribal drumming, oddball chants, alien harmonies, bits of bird-song and sample-crazy grooves can create mesmerising tunes.

Adopting a child-like sense of play has always worked wonders for electronic music producers, but this is more than just juvenile hijinks. Diaz-Reixa already has a strong, masterful sense of just how seductive and alluring mighty clatters of sound can be - in the right hands. www.myspace.com/elguincho JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Costa Paraiso, Antillas