Artist of the Day: The Pogues

First of all, a very ***Merry Christmas*** from all of us here at Muzik Dizcovery, and what better way to mark it than to hail a group who, rightly or wrongly will always be synonymous with this time of year.

I say wrongly, because for me The Pogues' perennial association with "Fairytale of New York" is something of a minor travesty. Sure, it's understandable (that 1987 hit is, after all, the greatest Christmas song of all time by several million miles - no, that's not open for debate), but I for one find it tragic that it's caused many to dismiss one of the finest and most certainly most distinctive groups of their era as mere one-hit-wonders.

Artist of the Day: Los Campesinos!

Coming from a group so synonymous with excellence as Los Campesinos! 2011's Hello Sadness brought with it an unfamiliar tinge of disappointment. Never as chirpy as their indie pop exterior would suggest, the thought of the septet living up to their fourth LP's dour title was actually rather appealing, so it's unfortunate the results in practice rarely threatened to match that which they promised on paper. Luckily, that bold yet unfulfilled outing appears to have merely been a blip (and a minor one at that) now that the Welsh band have soared back into view with No Blues, a sprightly, jubilant comeback which arguably finds them sounding healthier than ever.

Artist of the Day: Poliça

Released last February, Poliça's Give You the Ghost was an album of contradictions. A unanimous hit among critics, the Minneapolis group's debut nevertheless felt strangely unfulfilled - apparently housing every element required for greatness, yet rarely threatening to culminate or piece them all together. An intriguing chin-stroker of a LP, it bore all the hallmarks of a grower, but refused to surrender its secrets upon further inspection, and what's more its supposed strengths could likewise be construed as crucial flaws. Indeed, for all its sleekness, dexterity and enveloping weight, their fragmented R&B sound fell some way short in its search for memorable hooks, while Channy Leaneagh's vocals often sounded smothered; burdened by a heap of effects which all but drowned out its evocative range. Above all, however, it struck of a group set in their ways, but unable to execute them; one offering a wealth of valuable innovations, yet lacking the songwriting nous with which they could flourish.

Artist of the Day: The Twilight Sad

The notion of arriving fully formed is so often applied to bands it's become something of a cliché, and in reality it rarely tells the entire tale of a group's inception. Some, for instance, may point to The Twilight Sad as an example, but theirs was a case of rapid development as opposed to embryonic perfection. Released in 2007, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was the sound of a group firing on all cylinders; a magnificent culmination of elements laid down whilst members still attended school, and enhanced in the four years since they started taking themselves seriously.

No matter its origins, many elements of the debut from Kilsyth's finest are beyond debate. Among the finest, and certainly most underrated, entrances of the past decade, it announced the coming of a truly special outfit who'd swiftly be recognised as an institution of Scotland's music scene. Sure, it was hardly a turning point in musical history, but its sound was unmistakably that of a band forging its own path, guitarist Andy McFalane's warped guitars and accompanying accordions creating a monument of volume and warmth against which James Graham instantly announced himself among the great Scottish singers.

Artist of the Day: L. Pierre

As if caring for and adding to his young family wasn't enough of a workload, 2013 has also been another productive musical year for Aidan Moffat. With his and Bill Wells' acclaimed collaboration currently on hold, the former Arab Strap man has instead devoted his time to his L. Pierre solo project, a sample-based guise vastly removed from his more familiar lyrical exploits. Kicking the year off with The Island Come True — arguably his finest work to date — the 40-year-old also found time to complete (probably) the world's first Vine album, The Eternalist, unveiling the fruits of his experiment back in July. Now, Moffat is ushering in the autmumn with yet more new material; this time an EP entitled Surface Noise, released as a 10" alongside a re-release of the first L. Pierre album, 2002's Hypnogogia. Described by the man himself as "an affectionate tribute to the wear and tear of overplayed vinyl, the hiss, scratch and pop of records long-loved but worn down," it's set to be "the last L. Pierre release for a while, and quite possibly forever," a prospect that'd be tragic were it not for all the other excellent projects he can turn to.

Artist of the Day: Franz Ferdinand

I only turned 20 a few weeks ago, but already I'm feeling horrifically old. Clearly entering a new decade of my life has had an effect, but by and large it's due to the events and cultural phenomena which defined my childhood experiencing their own big anniversaries. 9/11 is the obvious example, but milestones have come thick and fast in 2013, which among other things has marked 10 years since Newcastle's United's Champions League run, the release of Return of the King, and perhaps most importantly the rise of Franz Ferdinand, one of the first "real" bands I truly cottoned onto. Stomping into view with terrific single "Darts of Pleasure," the Glasgow quartet embarked on a road which would eventually lead to "Take Me Out," a Mercury-winning debut album and major festival headline slots - not to mention being arguably the finest act to emerge from the UK's mid-00's indie rock trends.

Artist of the Day: The Haxan Cloak

On the ball as ever, today's Artist of the Day is a producer who's been plugged for some time, yet one I've only recently discovered for myself. The alias of Yorkshire-born, London-bred Bobby Krilc, The Haxan Cloak has thus far released two engrossing and electrifying full-lengths, and it's the latter of that pair, this year's Excavation, which has piqued my interest. Thoroughly befitting the grim, noose-themed artwork (and indeed the sinister press shot to the left of your screen), its 51-minute runtime unfolds like the score of a particularly bleak avant garde film - the difference being that this piece hardly requires visual aids to leave its mark. Each and every cold, industrial sound is engineered to dense, creepy perfection, so much so that it often feels like the sonic accompaniment to a blind journey into a vast, foreboding cave, with low-lying bass and abrasive bursts just as likely to echo from the walls as they are pounce from nowhere and reduce you to a cowering wreck.

In this age of verbose, hyperbolic online journalism, adjectives like "scary" and "chilling" are thrown around with a regularity that's both tiresome and detrimental, yet this is one of the few occasions where I can genuinely say I've felt on edge whilst absorbing an item of music. I don't pretend to be a genre expert, but many I've confined with have blurted out exclamations such as "now this is dark ambient," as though implying all else which falls under that umbrella has suddenly been rendered lightweight and redundant. One small word of advice; if you're planning on listening to it during daytime or with the lights on, you might as well not bother. The music on Excavation inhabits a landscape of total darkness, and you'd be a fool not to conform to its conditions.

Headphones are advisable.

Artist(s) of the Day: Secede & Kettel

Despite tormenting me with his brief absence from the wide and wonderful musical world, Secede must know that I will always forgive him, if not just for the fact that he created Bye Bye Gridlock Traffic back in 2003: an album continuously stuck in place as one of my favourite records of all time. Somewhere amidst the charming subtlety, child-like mysticism, and astounding imagination I fell in love; and although later musical outings would see Secede travelling more standard paths I never gave up.