So it is with enthusiasm that Champion Kickboxer launch their new record tomorrow with an outing to The Shakespeare – fresh from their Abbeydale Picture House backing of sonic renegade and former Can member Damo Suzuki.

The triumphant Candlepower EP sees the band follow their 2006 album Perforations with a progressive five-track collection destined to get under your skin on the first listen and wrap itself around your bones on the second.

The fourth release from the band, it is led by the defining Clouds, a soft, gradual build song redolent of the Beta Band but is ultimately very much the Champs in full alt-harmonic flow.

The EP delivers more evocative one-offs in Photo, Hole and closing genre-buster Ice Cubes.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

You can order a 10inch version from their label Thee SPC and sample the music at myspace.com/championkickboxercandlepowerep where there's also the video for EP highlight Master Of Dancing.

Omnipresent Sheffield producer Alan Smyth does an unobtrusive production job while former Butthole Surfer Kramer mixes – he's handled Low, Galaxie 500 and Urge Overkill's Girl and You'll Be A Woman Soon (as heard in Pulp Fiction).

On December 20 the Champs play the Christmas Fuzz Club, while support for tomorrow's Gibraltar Street session comes from the Wave Pictures.

The same venue tonight sees the reconvening of Two Left Feet, formerly at The Earl, with live music from The Lovers and The Sorry Loves, a Hull sextet brandishing an ex member of Fila Brasilia.

"Formed in 1863 from heavy clay deposits, The Sorry Loves like to breathe and play music at the same time," says their brief. "Their shared interest in crop rotation is evident in their songs, as is the fact they've each seen a vole (or similar) during their time together. "

Super confident Sheffielders Dead World Leaders cement their reputation with another solid single on Monday and a support slot for the sold out return to the Octagon of fellow citizens Milburn, plus The Dead 60s, next Thursday.

Download-only Vitamins is a smart rocker with a crowd-pleasing melody, a slightly unconventional vocal and a barn-storming chorus.

Flipside Answers On A Postcard is arguably the stronger track though.

And listen out for Early Winter Recordings latest release, the curious, indulgent but often lovely Winkle Time album by Acolytes Action Squad.

With connections to Sheffield alt-folk ensemble Big Eyes and free noise pop lot Hot Snack, this fourth release in 10 years from Ditchus and The Essence is an off piste 11-track collection that fights hard to avoid genre-tagging but incorporates melodic sensibilities amid its random musical sketches. Limited to 350 copies, in handmade sleeve.

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