The Virgins pop their album cherry

• FRESH new talent The Virgins pop their album cherry with a self-titled release on April 20.
The album by the New York rockers, tipped for success by both NME and MTV, features their current single, Rich Girls, which hit stores this week.
• Wymeswold indie band The Wave Pictures have released their second album in as many years.
The follow-up to last year’s Instant Coffee baby is the Leicestershire band’s most polished and pleasing work to date.
• Inspiration Information, out this week, is a collaboration between African bandleader Mulatu Astatke and London-based jazz dance collective The Heliocentrics.
The experimental album was described by Astatke as “a nice experiment”.
• One to grab a copy of is Hijak Oscar’s excellent new LP, BlackSheepMoneyBox.
The blues band, which features Ashby-de-la-Zouch’s Carl Hetherington on keys, rose to fame on Channel 4’s Mobile Act Unsigned TV talent show.
• The stunning Royal Family-Divorce is the new album from 11-piece Icelandic post rock band Storsveit Nix Noltes.
The album sees the group, who include msuicians from Mum and Sigur Ros, take on a handful of traditional Bulgarian and Balkan folk tunes in a raucous fashion.
• Hipsters, flipsters, and fingerpopping daddies, we give you Run Devils And Demons, the best of world music and dance fusers Transglobal Underground.
The two-CD compilation is an excellent retrospective of two decades of the ethno-techno group’s groundbreaking work.
• Up-and-coming US pop soul diva Jessica Clemmons releases her debut album, Permanent, on May 4.
The title track from the album is also set to be released as a single on April 20.
• A cracking collaboration between hip hop producer Mr Scruff and top British rapper Roots Manuva has been released.
The download-only Nice Up The Function is now available online.
• If all of this is music to your ears, you can read more from the pop world online at www.echoisaacashe.blogspot.com