Not much to say on the pop/rock front right now as I’m still working my way through an enormous pile of recommendations from the very wonderful Marc Gascoigne. I do, however, have a couple of jazz discoveries that I’m intending to follow up.

The first I found via 3hive. How can you not want to listen to someone called Lullaby Baxter? And when you do, listen closely to the lyrics and you’ll find that she’s delightfully silly. Besides, he new album is called Garden Cities of Tomorrow. I don’t suppose she has actually read Kathleen Ann Goonan, but I like to think she has.

The other discovery came via the Telegraph, which was entirely unexpected – I came across the article by accident while looking for Geoff Boycott’s article. We should remember, however, that second to its right wing politics the Telegraph is best known for its fondness for odd sex stories. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that it decided to run a feature on a hot new jazz album by two Swedish transvestites. Like Baxter, Koop are a thoroughly accessible jazz outfit. Their previous album, Waltz for Koop, is as danceable as the title suggests, and is tinged with electronica. The new release, Koop Islands, appears much more laid back and elegant, as befits the black evening dresses and pearls that the boys have donned for the publicity shots. The sample track, “Koop Island Blues”, sounds like it would be best enjoyed on a warm Caribbean evening, sipping cocktails and admiring the view. That, and three tracks from Waltz for Koop, are playable but not downloadable from Koop’s MySpace site.