Caught in the Net: This is hardcore from Discodeine

Near the end of last year, the French electro duo Discodeine (see what they did there?) knocked out a slinky track pairing Jarvis Cocker's vocals – in breathy/desperate/sleazy mode – with some minimal beats and addictive synth hooks.

The song, "Synchronize", was released on the DFA label in December. Last week, a video for the song arrived: it's a seedy affair that looks strikingly like a spin-off from the John Currin/Peter Saville artwork for Pulp's post-Britpop comedown album This Is Hardcore. See it at vimeo.com/18468631, though watching it in the workplace might depend on how liberal your office is.

They're not ideal wedding singers

Sex Beet sounds a bit like the name of a racy wedding band, but this London based trio is rather more trashy than cheesy, and might not be all that welcome at your average wedding. The garage-rock

group are currently working on their debut album. Last week, www.thefader.com posted a fine cover the band has recorded of Sonic Youth's "Dirty Boots", with drawled vocals and suitably trashy and lo-fi surf guitars – they're all the rage at the moment. Hear it at ind.pn/ giWSHH. There's more of their music to be found at myspace. com/sexbeet and facebook.com/ sexbeet. It's a little derivative, perhaps, but there are some good sounds in there.

Time to welcome Lower Dens

For a large part of last year, I ignored Baltimore art-rockers Lower Dens for the shallow reasons that I didn't like their name or the artwork for their July released LP, Twin-Hand Movement. I was wrong. The record is great; full of interesting textures, beautiful guitar noises and understated vocals from Jana Hunter. I atone now by flagging up a new 7" single release coming from the band next week. It features two tracks, "Batman" and "Dear Betty Baby", and can be downloaded at ind.pn/easGeC from 18 January. The songs, which emerged from the same sessions as last year's album, are also streaming on Soundcloud at ind.pn/enCUm6.

Hot off the wire

Those fine experimental folks at The Wire magazine have alerted me to some mysterious music from a UK group going by the catchy name Pye Corner Audio. On the magazine's website they posted two tracks by the group at ind.pn/f5GMjS; one of which, "Electronic Rhythm Number Three", is particularly majestic – a pulsing yet spare burst of ambient electro. The group have an album out – featuring the aforementioned tracks – called Black Mill Tapes Volume 1: Avant Shards, which can be found on their Bandcamp page, ind.pn/fBeb85, and downloaded for the princely sum of £4.99.

l.ryan@independent.co.uk