Salli Lunn’s awesome Heresy and Rite has just received a glowing review on the Delusions of Adequacy music review site. Pop along to DoA to read the review, and you can stream the album in full at the HSR Store.

Lava, the stunning debut from Germany’s Markus Mehr, will be the RTRFM Feature album all next week (starting the 2nd August, 2010). The album will be featured across a whole range of shows on RTR and there’ll be a bunch of chances for RTRFM subscribers (or those willing to become one) to win the album. There will also be an interview featured with Markus on Adam Trainers Out To Lunch show on Monday (12pm to 3pm Perth, Western Australia time). If you’re not in Perth or can’t get near a radio you can stream the station live or listen to re-streams of all RTRFM shows after they’ve aired. Head to their website for all the details.

Markus Mehr – Cousteau Markus Mehr – Cousteau

New York’s maestro of shadowy lounge tinged pop Rich Bennett is back with a follow up to his stunning 2008 album Music for Underwater Supermarkets. Influenced by the classic exotica of Martin Denny, the aching folk-pop of Fleet Foxes, and the conceptual sweep of The Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle, Bennett’s latest work On Holiday is brimming with subtly dark, breezy melodies and the buoyant vocals of both Bennett and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Rebecca Pronsky. From the gorgeous “ride on top a pop cloud” single ‘Misty Valley’ to the delicious minor key melancholy of  ‘Night Part 2’, On Holiday is as intoxicating as it is playful.

“…what we have here is much darker in tone bearing more resemblance to an amalgam of left of centre troubadours like Baltimore’s The Agrarians and the Mamas and the Papas.  The screwed up uncomfortableness of ‘Wild Ride’ is a good example of this… A dramatic, in the theatrical sense, right turn takes place with ‘The Peak’ taking us off in to a lo-fi journey into ambient electronica before ‘Night Pt1′ and ‘Night Pt2′ heads off into the arena of a soundtrack to a really cool sixties European movie… Much of the pleasure derived from it comes from the vocal interplay between the downbeat Mr Bennett and the civilised Rebecca Pronsky, but the lasting value comes from the almost wilful obscurity of it all. I can’t supply scientific proof but, trust me, it just works.” – Bluesbunny

On Holiday is available digitally from all good online stores and on CD, distributed through n5Mailorder. Check the Hidden Shoal Store for all availability info and to stream the album in full. You can also grab the free download of the single ‘Misty Valley’ from the Hidden Shoal Store.

Read a full press release here.

Rich Bennett – Night Part 2 Rich Bennett – Night Part 2