STOP THE MOONLIGHT FADING.

Guillemots' most recent full length, Walk The River, was one of our most cherished releases of 2011, so we're especially wary of just anyone laying their hands on Fyfe Dangerfield's brilliant songwriting and production. But once we heard this deft re-imagining of "I Don't Feel Amazing Now" from UK electronic duo Mooli, our overprotective instincts quickly melted away. It gently unfolds with Fyfe's harmonies drifting in and out like a lazy pendulum - in a carefree Grouplove kind of way - over Mooli's summery bonfire synths and coconut beats. As soon as Fyfe's lovelorn croon enters the ring and the chorus starts to tug at your tender heartstrings, it doesn't take long before you realize that this is exactly the catharsis-spiked cocktail that you needed all along.

MP3: "I Don't Feel Amazing Now" (Mooli Remix) - Guillemots

I JUST HOPED YOU THOUGHT IT ANYWAY.

Guillemots' new album Walk The River (coming April 18th) is one of the absolute best records to grace our ears in 2011, and the band have been kind enough to share the title track ahead of its release for free on their website. It's the album's lead track and sets the tone for the record perfectly - all dark, brooding Chris Isaak vibes from frontman Fyfe Dangerfield and some of the band's best songwriting yet, including a middle eight in the song's second half that's one of the most beautiful and magical moments in the band's illustrious history. Seriously special stuff and just another reminded of why Guillemots are one of the best bands to emerge from the UK in the last decade.

MP3: "Walk The River" - Guillemots

HEAVENS OPEN.

You may or may not have heard of Stornoway from their relentless UK festival touring, but if you're in the latter camp, boy oh boy are you in for a treat. First off, these guys aren’t from Stornoway, despite the celtic-folk influences they’re all just pure brainiacs from Oxford, with a bunch of PhDs between them and some insane instrumental skills. With literate lyrics and haunting stentorian harmonies they make music that has you weeping into your microwave meal-for-one before anyone can say "man the fuck up."

Their debut single "Zorbing" is a folk pop anthem all about "tripping" over girls in autumn time: perfect listening to warm your cockles on these cold mornings. It’s not just Brian Briggs’ stirring tenor that gets you, but the whole ramshackle folk-pop vibe reminiscent of back-in-the-day James circa-"If Things Were Perfect" with the powerful yearnings of Belle & Seb. Following hot on the trail of Guillemots and Mumford & Sons they’re jaunty, wistful and SO ELECTRIFYING.

MP3: "Zorbing" - Stornoway

I WANT YOU ENDLESSLY.

This is big news. Fyfe Dangerfield, ringleader of one of our favorite bands of all time, Guillemots, is back and better than ever with his first ever solo album, Fly Yellow Moon, due in early 2010. We were lucky enough to receive an advance copy a few months back and it's really all we've been spinning since - it's quite literally nothing short of amazing. "When You Walk In The Room" is the first track on the record and it's an absolute belter, exactly the kind of thing you'd hope for from a Fyfe Dangerfield solo record. Fyfe's in rare form here, his off-the-wall vocals riding a spastic beat and cacophonous guitars for 3 minutes and 28 seconds of leftfield pop perfection.

Fly Yellow Moon is a streamlined pop masterpiece with a number of tracks on par with anything off of Through The Windowpane (truly one of our most cherished records of all time), and anyone seeking more evidence needn't look further than Fyfe's beautiful new website, where you can stream some of the other album highlights. Tracks on the streaming player include "She Needs Me" - which comes off like a number one hit from a bygone era, complete with disco strings and immense brass sections - and "Livewire", a sparse acoustic number that's genuinely one of the most beautiful songs we've ever heard. To say we're excited about this record would be a vast, vast understatement. Here's your exclusive first taste.

MP3: "When You Walk In The Room" - Fyfe Dangerfield [exclusive]

HERE COMES WHAT YOU NEVER REMEMBER.

Holiday hiatus over. 2008 was a good year for us. We got up our grassroots operation up and running, put out one of the best bands we've ever heard and laid the foundation for a big year in 2009. The first half of '09 will see us releasing records from Marina & The Diamonds, Gotye and Theophilus London, and we'll continue to work with Giantess in a managerial capacity until they've signed a billion dollar record deal and we all become rich and famous. Enough about us though, other people are going to be fucking some serious shit up in 2009 as well. Our next few features will be highlighting some of the fresh new talent that'll be coming up through the ranks next year to make some serious noise on the charts.

While Passion Pit and Marina are pretty much no brainers for big league triumphs next year, there's no safer bet for supernova success than Clare Maguire. Recent years have seen like-minded, big-voiced starlets like Winehouse, Adele, Duffy et. al ascending the charts with fluid ease, establishing their kind as the prototype for guaranteed chart success. Thus, Maguire, who's bros with Marina Diamond and produced by Primary 1, seems like the safest bet for surefire mainstream dominance in '09. A lengthy A&R struggle saw Maguire on the receiving end of one of the biggest deals we've heard about in an age, and "Strangest Thing", her brilliant white label debut, is already getting play on Radio 1 and has the future looking blindingly bright for this one.

MP3: "Strangest Thing" (Demo) - Clare Maguire

And since you were wondering, below are our favorite songs of '08.

1. "Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit
There's been no shortage of praise thrown at our debut release and we don't think it's a dick move giving the top two slots of this list to Neon Gold artists, rather it just shows how blessed we feel we are to be working with such incredible talents. "Sleepyhead" sounds like nothing else before it, a completely original musical thought that's straight up one of the best songs we've ever heard. Hands down our song of the year and we hope it's yours too.

2. "Obsessions" - Marina & The Diamonds
The demo of this was our most listened to song of the year until Passion Pit strolled onto our radar, and Liam Howe's production on the recently unveiled single version just makes it even more special. Available worldwide on Valentine's Day '09, this was one of the defining tracks of the year for us and we're honored to be able to release it to the masses in February.

3. "Daylight" - Matt & Kim
Matt & Kim followed up their impressive '07 debut with two shit-hot singles in 2008. The more recent of the two, "Daylight", goes down as one of the year's most infectious tracks and hints at huge things to come on the duo's upcoming sophomore album. Twinkling keys hook you from the start, before a monumental drumbeat drops in and the song takes flight on a catchy-as-fuck vocal structure and oscillating synths. Special.

4. "Hearts A Mess" - Gotye
One of our favorite records of all time since it's initial release in 2006, Gotye's cinematic masterwork finally saw release beyond Australian borders courtesy of Lucky Number Music last spring. We're thrilled to announce our upcoming collaboration with the Australian maestro, which will come to fruition when we issue Gotye's first-ever US release this spring. Yeah, we're pretty excited.

5. "Get Over It" - Guillemots
Guillemots' "Trains To Brazil" was the best thing to happen to music in 2006 and they came damn close to topping it with "Get Over It". In the weeks leading up to its unveiling buzz around the industry was that Guillemots' had written the perfect pop song, and fuck if this isn't one of the most inspiring, euphoric tracks we've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

Concise, yet effective - these were the songs that really mattered in 2008. Let's see if '09 can do any better, shall we?

// I Need Chemical //

HAVANA.

The serendipitous alignment of my class schedule, the perks of my mother’s former occupation and the convenience of British citizenship have afforded me the opportunity to go to Cuba for ten days, and as such a fleeting blanket of silence will fall over these pages until my return Monday the 20th. All other aspects of Neon Gold will continue go about business as usual, and any label-related queries should still be sent to neongoldmusic@gmail.com, where the prettier, more responsible half of Neon Gold will be on hand to receive any and all inquiries.

Upon my return, we’ll have all kinds of exciting newsbombs to drop on you, including coverage of whatever we can remember from CMJ 2008 and the announcement of Neon Gold’s imminent sophomore release (guesses welcome in the comments, but don’t spoil the surprise if you’ve already been privy to some inside information).

Until then, here’s a song that – if not for its title – you’d have difficulty convincing me was written with any setting in the world in mind other than Havana by night.

MP3: “Sao Paolo” - Guillemots

Beyond that, it's worth drawing attention to the killer set Passion Pit unleashed for their performance on AOL's The Interface last week. I'm not normally one to get psyched for in-studio live videos, but anyone who hasn't seen these guys live yet needs the new version of "Smile Upon Me" in their life and this is the next best thing to the real deal. Video and MP3 here.

// Matt Robinson //