This has been a bizarre week for new music. It’s a strange time of year – the last big releases of 2015 coming from Justin Bieber and One Direction and the first Christmas compilations beginning to appear, but otherwise I was left to ruminate over experimental rap, Celtic punk and a surge of “space noise” recordings. There was a lot of great new sound to be found after a trawl through the internet, though, my favourites of which I’ve included below.

First up is the debut album from Redlight, X Colour. This is the first LP from him under his new alias, having previously released underground dance hits and had some chart successes as Clipz, as well as releasing artists like NY Transit Authority on his own label. None of his tracks are the same, with a wide range of collaborators such as the Prodigy and Melissa Whiskey to create a plethora of club sounds that stretch from techno to garage house. “Imagine music as colours,” Redlight asks, and with this in mind his music makes fantastic sense, layering clean vocal tracks on hundreds of differing beats and skipping analogue synths. This is the kind of music Fez dreams it might one day play.

Next is an EP from The Japanese House, Clean, that includes four alt-pop tracks that showcase a rare talent for experimentation. Behind the project is Londoner Amber Bain who has been producing singles with The 1975 for the last few months (oh and she’s 19). Having been Zane Lowe’s hottest record with her work ‘Still’, she offers similarly dreamy and experimental vocals and beats ranging from the gently popping to the explosive on this new work. ‘Letter by the Water’ is epic in its scope: layering bittersweet melodies together to make goosebump-inducing harmonies, underscored by gradually building riffs that dissolve into a bigger electric drop. This music is a joy to review, but even better to just sit and absorb – I can’t recommend it enough.

If the theme of this week is the elation the right sound can bring, Prophecy by a group called The Comet is Coming is right on the mark. The aim seems to be to mix space-age themes with their jazz roots, creating frantic tracks like ‘Neon Baby’ and eclectic slow jams like ‘Star Exploding in Slow Motion’. The group are hard at this stage to pigeonhole: some of the best moments come from the echoing funk saxophone, at others they toy with a psychedelic, almost cabaret sound. ‘Do The Milky Way’ provides some light-hearted, galactic-electric relief, while ‘Final Days of the Apocalypse’ is a frankly crazy track, layering spoken-word nonsense over the simulated sound of outer space. Fizzing synths and artificial effects are used in conjunction with sax, to create an experience that leaves you asking why no one ever though of mixing the cosmos with jazz before now.

Finally, and in a complete change of direction, a Christmas album!!! From Kylie Minogue!!! By the time next week’s column is out Bridgemas will have been and gone so I thought I should alert the readership to the release of this album now. It could be argued that Kylie is about 10 years past her peak pop popularity, but this hasn’t put her off. All the classics are here, as well as collaborations with James Corden and Frank Sinatra (I thought he was dead too). Sickly sweet but heart warming, this compilation is a must for Bridgemas dinners Cambridge-wide.