Move over, Little Boots–there’s a new space-age disco diva in town.

Gabriella Cilmi, the 18-year old Aussie songstress responsible for last year’s “Sweet About Me” has returned to Earth. Well, sort of.

“On A Mission” is a hectic, intergalactic neo-disco rave, where Cilmi’s raspy vocals (a kind of crossbreed between Anastacia, the Noisettes‘ Shingai Shoniwa and Amy Winehouse) are tacked onto a glitzy, ’80′s synthesized beat. Add a spritz of Little Boots’ geometric fixation and a dash of low budget ’50′s sci-fi camp, and there you have it: Cilmi 2.0.

The young singer’s sophomore album Ten is due out on March 22, with production credits from the likes of Xenomania, Greg Kurstin, and Dallas Austin. Odds of brilliance? You do the math.

Whenever a band changes up its style, the decision is usually met with jeers, hisses, lit torches, and angry pitchforks (in both the physical and digital sense).

The Noisettes are an entirely different entity. With the release of Wild Young Hearts on September 21, their second major LP, the band demonstates that experimenting with a new flavor doesn’t have to be the gateway to ruin–in fact, it can lead to the most pleasant of surprises.

Gone without a trace are the crashing drums and carnal, skittish yelps of What’s The Time, Mr. Wolf?. In their stead, catchy melodies, soulful crooning, and a solid retro-tuned-modern sound that walks the line somewhere between Doo-wop, ’60′s soul, and classic ’50′s rock ‘n’ roll. The result? A solid and cohesive collection of tunes as instant and familiar as an American Bandstand “Best Of” collection.

While the whole album is worthy of mention, favorites include “Don’t Upset the Rhythm,” “Never Forget You,” “Beat of My Heart,” and the album closer, “Cheap Kicks,” all of which prove just about impossible not to start singing along with immediately.

Offering one of the freshest and most accessible releases of 2009, the Noisettes have proven themselves now twice in a row as one of the finest breakthrough acts of the decade. Though I’d never gotten around to properly reviewing the album when it initially came out, Wild Young Hearts is one of the summer’s best, and a strong contender for one of the year’s top releases.

To celebrate the release of Wild Young Hearts, MuuMuse is giving away ONE VINYL COPY of the new album! Simply send a blank e-mail to noisettes@muumuse.com to enter. Contest ends on October 15 at noon, when a winner will be chosen and contacted at random.

Purchase Wild Young Hearts for $5 from Amazon | MySpace | Official Website

Thanks to PopJustice for keeping an eye out on things, here we have The Noisettes ‘selling out.’

Hang on to your hats and glasses everyone, ’cause this here’s gonna be a uprising of Ting Tings proportions. Yeehaw!

Band member Jamie laid down the skinny on “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” on the band’s MySpace blog:

Its the first single off the new album,the video has been made and all the new press shots are done,it all looks amazing so its going to be very very soon,i could proberly say end of january but things do have a habit of changing so when we know more so will you

and yes it is featured in the new Mazda car commercial

Capitalist sluts.

Excitement! While quietly perusing the websites of artists past that I dearly missed, I came across a new MySpace blog post from The Noisettes. Turns out they’ve just posted a snippet of their new single on their page, called “Wild Young Hearts.” It’s pretty classic Noisettes work: Hand-claps, crashing drum beats, and killer guitar riffs and vocals by Ms. Shoniwa. Click here to go to band’s MySpace and stream “Wild Young Hearts,” as well as an absolutely killer sample of a song called “Don’t Upset The Rhythm.” I defy my readers not to tap even one toe to that one. It’s level-up type of stuff.

As for the next album, it seems the band’s second full-length effort may be hitting the streets sooner than I anticipated!

The album is mixed.
It sounds brilliant.
I think we have stepped it all up from our last record in every possible way.
The wheels are now in motion with all the people involved with putting our record out,we have a title and a loose release date which we will let you all know about very, very soon.

Yay!

Now for some music you may not have expected. Their music is a cacophony of guitars and drums, frantic and unpredictable. By definition, I shouldn’t like The Noisettes. But I do. And very much so. Almost entirely due to the lead singer, Shingai Shoniwa. Shingai’s voice is reminiscent of Billie Holiday, Etta James, and Karen O at her finest and most vulnerable. Her personal background is perhaps more captivating. She has mentioned that her childhood growing up in a public-works housing development in London has a lot to do with the music she produces. I particularly like this quote: “I think escapism is something that connects all of us. Everybody has their own little soundtrack, and I guess I’m trying to make my own soundtrack to my escape plan. I want people to realize that there’s so much more” (Venus Zine). The songs are unquestionably melodic despite the hellish crashing sounds behind Shingai’s pleading vocals. Have your way with some samples below to see what I mean:

DL: The Noisettes – Scratch Your Name
DL: The Noisettes – Rifle Song
DL: The Noisettes – IWE

Just today, the band posted a new message on their Myspace. The little “to-do” list includes creating their new album and touring the new material. So far, they have about forty songs demoed and ready to go, so an album cannot be too far away. I love their description of the new album’s sound:

note: follow up must be a: Absolutely fucking kick ass, b; but also soulful c; familiar in some respects to what we have done before, d: but in other ways completely UNRECOGNISEABLE but as appealing as the smell of broiling Big Mac’s on the station concourse at Victoria Station at 11am after pub closing e: not rely on the shameful mass slaughter of beautiful farmyard animals that has characterised the former, f: or any dubious non-farmyard animal parts g: NOT contain any songs in the key of ‘G’, h: Absolutely NOT be called “Noisettes II” or … wait… that’s not bad actually… )

Here’s hoping that they’ll follow through. Though I’m personally hoping the aforementioned animal appendage are included in the next release.

Finally listening to the debut album of Madita, I completely take back any and all comparisons to the work of Feist. This is nothing like Feist. Her new single may have shards of folkishness, but if it is anything like her debut, it’s merely a speck of musical diversity found in the greater scheme of things. Madita’s self titled debut is an incredibly rich and varied jazz-tronica album, with tinges of Latin-based beats, lounge music, and bouncy trip-hop. Each track is pulls toward a new direction; there are no common threads amongst the album’s tracks. Some feature Madita as a breathy lounge singer such as “Letter to You,” floating amongst liquid sound effect and ethereal landscapes. Then there’s “Monotony,” a track centered around hectic Latin-tinged trumpets and piano, never fully departing from jazz. Even more unexpected are Madita’s vocals in “Wannabe,” which very well could have been performed in the Noisettes’ set list, with its yelping, bitterly beautiful vocal stylings nearly identical Shingai Shoniwa. And then we have “Got,” which may have been recorded by Róisín Murphy during the Ruby Blue sessions. Her singing additionally bears resemblance to a less ambient Natalie Walker, and on the more trip-hop focused tracks, Angela McCluskey. Madita’s vocal ability is like a wonderful and unexpected mix of singers, meshed into one compilation. Her lyrical skills strangely work. I’m not sure if she fully grasps the English language (see phrases such as “steamy toilet”) but it nonetheless flows along with the song. The music itself is in the vein of Bitter:Sweet, but much less bouncy. This is the jazz record that Kylie always dreamed of recording. For those who don’t know, Kylie’s always dreamed about recording an album of jazz standards. This beat-heavy album is a perfect combination of pop with nu-jazz that would be utterly perfect for her to explore. It’s a musical style that I absolutely adore. Please give the selections a try!

DL: Madita – Got
DL: Madita – Wannabe
DL: Madita – Letter To You
DL: Madita – Ceylon

If you like what you hear, be sure to buy Madita online at Amazon.