DJ Shadow has told 6 Music that he believes he is as close to perfection as he could ever get with his latest album, The Less You Know The Better.

Out in September this will be the follow up to 2006's The Outsider .

Swedish Experimental outfit Little Dragon, who I caught up with at the Great Escape down in Brighton, have collaborated with the electronic music producer on this forthcoming effort.
 
Jo Youle spoke to DJ Shadow before his show in Brighton and I put together this following report:

Friendly Fires released their second album Pala on Monday following a headline show at the Brighton Great Escape festival last weekend.

The record was produced by Paul Epworth (Florence and the Machine, Adele) and features the first two singles Live Those Days Tonight and Hawaiian Air, and Blue Cassette, which the band are offering as a free download from their official site.

Hawaiian air is already being touted as the anthem of the summer.

The band have been confirmed for Glastonbury Festival, T In The Park, Oxegen, Reading and Leeds and will be playing a headline show at Brixton Academy, which the boys said feels like a landmark in their career.

Listen below to what happened when I spoke to Ed Macfarlane, Edd Gibson and Jack Savidge about their summer diary, how the songs translate live and if they have any album chart hopes for the record:

Part One and Two of the Ben Howard session I hosted on Brighton Festival Radio 87.7fm. He chats about the new record and then played Diamonds, a song off the album and Old Pine, the lead track off the new EP out May 23rd on Communion. Watch him in action.

At the weekend I presented some special Great Escape shows on the Brighton Festival Radio station, 87.7fm.

The wonderful Devon singer-songwriter Ben Howard dropped by to play two tracks and have a chat about his plans for 2011.  

He is putting out his debut on Island in September and has an EP coming out this month. 

Listen back to it here.  I'll post the videos online over the next couple of days.

The brilliant Saint Saviour dropped into the Brighton Festival Radio studio during my final show on Sunday.

She is collating tracks from hundreds that she has written and is thinking about how to go about doing an album.

You might recognise her from last year’s Groove Armada tour, for which she performed as their frontwoman, after featuring on some of the best tracks off the Grammy nominated album I Won’t Kneel and Paper Romance.

Forget Groove Armada though, because she is a very talented lady in her own right and her latest material is awesome. You should definitely check out This Ain’t No Hymn and Reasons For You.

Hear our chat below which includes the track Reasons For You and find out what she’s been up to:

Daughter came in on Saturday morning and played a session for us in the Brighton Festival 87.7fm studio.

The lady behind the music is Elena Tonra. Listen to her latest His Young Heart EP, the track Landfill is a good starting point.

However I asked her to play one of her early demos, Tomorrow, as it’s one of my favourites.

Watch out for her on BBC 6 Music soon as I helped get the EPs to Lauren Laverne and she loved them so much, she has invited Daughter in for a session. This is so exciting.

Hear our chat and watch her session track below:

Seattle duo Beat Connection were in town at the Great Escape in Brighton at the weekend.

In The Water by the pair is my track of the summer. I lurrrve it.  Check out our chat about all things Beat Connection and their plans for ditching school and doing the band full time.

Good news folks. This week, the new Joker track which features the very talented Jessie Ware is the HOTTEST RECORD IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW on Zane Lowe's Radio One show.

It's the first single from Joker's album and features Miss Ware, who has previously sang with SBTRKT, Jack Penate, Sampha and Man Like Me. 

Have a listen to the track below and watch out for the Ware! She's signed to PMR and is performing with SBTRKT at the Great Escape this Friday 13th May.

We had a chat a couple of months back all about the tracks she did with SBTRKT and Sampha. Hear the songs, Nervous and Valentine, and from Jessie herself in this extract from a radio show I made.

Hey y'all. Have returned from two weeks in India, hence no updates for a bit. 

Upon my return had my first look at this video from Dels. He is causing quite a stir at the moment, recently featured on Lauren Laverne's show on 6 Music and he's all over Radio One.

This is an inspirational video for a totally immense track - it's all done with paint: "Shut Uuup!".  And, what's more, it features two of my mates.  Just look for out for the twins, you can't miss.