FEMALE-LED glasgow band Laki Mera emerge with a really interesting album. The Beginning of the End is reminiscent of Portishead and vocalist Laura Donnelly shares the same ethereal, child like and haunting style of Beth Gibbons.

Then again Onion Machine is more Kraftwerk meets the Cocteau Twins. And if that isn’t enough to get your titivate your tastebuds, More Than You could easily trouble the top ten if they released it. The overall effect is trip-hop with ambient electronica and those synth riffs will stay with you all day long.

Agnes Obel on the other hand is Scandinavian; Danish to be precise and Philharmonics is her first release. Not that you’d think it because there is a remarkable maturity about her song writing. Much of the time she is in melancholy mood, but her achingly exquisite piano accompaniment lifts things nicely.

And there is a rare purity to her voice, which is not dissimilar to Laki Mera’s Donnelly. But there the comparison ends, the Scots belt out their stuff, Oble on the other hand rides along wistfully, not unlike Rufus Wainwright. She says her songs speak ‘undoubtedly of the feeling of loneliness, but without the anger’.