LISTENING POST... LISTENING POST... LISTENING POST...

DON'T be fooled by recent catchy single Plaster Casts Of Everything. That jagged but breezy album opener is about the most commercial thing on the inventive fourth long-player from these maverick music men.

It also misleadingly begins what can be a difficult journey of dark and malevolent sounds mixed with arrangements that sometimes add up to little more than a sonic wrestling match.

Follow-up to Drum's Not Dead, this 40-minute cache of uneasy listening has left even chief whip Angus Andrew baffled. "If you had told me last year Liars would release a record like this I would have laughed," he confirms. "We never know what we're making 'til it's made...this time I'm a bit shocked."

Beach House,

Beach House (Bella Union)

SHORT and bittersweet, this debut from the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally is a chalk and cheese mix of lullabies, dreamy melodies and waltzes which could have been recorded now or 40 years ago.

The Motown-loving pair inject a nostalgic feel into their music, the combination of hushed vocals and slide guitar prompting Mazzy Star references alongside Yo La Tengo or My Bloody Valentine, and even OMD on the sparse opener.

The daughter of legendary French film composer Michel Legrand and US native Scally have the countenance of a couple drawn together by a love of vintage dream-pop, seasonal changes and a sense of abandonment. The result is a mixed bag of intense, watery, brooding and sultry.

Norman Jay

Good Times 7 (Resist Music)

WITH his Good Times Sound System bound for Notting Hill Carnival this weekend this is a timely outing from the agenda-free DJ who will showcase many of the tracks here in London and the likes of Big Chill.

With his brief to make the forgotten and the popular sound cool or cooler, Norman rifles through some rare nuggets to produce a collection which sometimes feels like a case study rather than a free-flowing entity.

That's not to say Nina Simone's take on Here Comes The Sun, Salena Jones's soul-jazz '60s classic Morning Dew and Fela Kuti's '70s afro-funker Water Got No Enemy don't deserve fresh air. Eddie Holman's Northern Soul gem Time Will Tell adds depth to this hip-hop, disco, reggae, you name it, gathering.

Aqualung

Memory Man (Epic)

MATT Hales is one of these artists who as soon as you wonder where he's got to bounces back with a new record. And, more often than not, it is worth the wait.

Now a major star in the US, these are comfortable times for a Brit muso with a knack for teasing goose pimple melodies and shivery, bittersweet moments that have a habit of blossoming into epics.

So has he lost his appetite? Has he heck. MM is his third three course meal of educated and finely honed songs bordering on blissful at times, heart-bending elsewhere.

Preceded by highlight Pressure Suit as the current single, the list includes an inspired guest vocal on Garden Of Love from Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile. Rich production by Matt, brother Ben and Dan Swift of Snow Patrol fame is given mixing oomph by Eric Valentine (QOTSA and Lostprophets). Quality stuff that should lift Aqualung into the major league.