When I used to sing more, specifically with my college a cappella group, my friend Graham, now the guitarist for the virtuosic rock outfit Bryan Scary and The Shredding Tears, used to exhort precision by invoking “quiet intensity.” When you’ve got sixteen wily boys to wrangle, evocative language becomes essential, but quiet intensity can be a means of describing fleeting moments of brilliant vocal technique in recorded music too. Bon Iver, who by now has gotten so much attention that I need not delve into lead singer Justin Vernon’s bio, blessed the world with a couple new tracks in late January, one of which is beyond perfect. “Woods” has that polished digital quality that Imogen Heap achieved on “Hide and Seek” a couple of years ago. Sick sick sick. Makes me want to cry, and to sing, and to hug my loved ones so tight they gasp for breath.

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La Roux, whose album is set to be released on Polydore this March, is actually a duo. Surprising since the fiery-flocked lead singer, Elly Jackson, has done a pretty swell job mugging across the blogosphere these last couple of months. I first heard the track “Quicksand,” a sumptuous slice of punch-flavoured, at times deliberately detuned, electropop, on Radio One a couple of months ago. It has since been released on a Kitsuné Music compilation, igniting a nifty little brushfire beneath the Jackson and her partner Ben Langmaid. I’m really digging the new single, “In For The Kill,” which is set for a proper release mid-March. Dubstep poster-boy Skream lends his chops to the knobs on this bass-bin rattling “ravey” mix. I love how Jackson’s voice sounds kind of child-like and out of control, like she’s so excited to belt the creepy lyrics she might burst.

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Wtf is the deal is with our boy Tiga? His shit is so hit or miss I often forget to check it out, and then I’m off the tip when he drops something really heavy, deft, or, in most occasions, eminently forgettable. His most recent release, “Mind Dimension,” certainly rides the former descriptor. Dropped in late January, It’s already reached anthemic status and we’re barely cracking March. Perhaps it was his wise decision to limit the vocals to the mystical “every time I look into your eyes I see the future” callout, more likely it was the benefit of working with a genius collaborator (Jesper Dahlback). I’m loving the jam, and totally itching to hear the rest of his forthcoming album Ciao! The first track I’ve been able to snag off it, besides the aformentioned, is the Castro-ready disco number “Love Don’t Dance Here Anymore” It’s a proper amyl nitrate-fueled backroom shredder with dark burbling acid bass, wicked latin percussion and a two-minute intro that’s so gay it will frost your tips. I want to play this one on repeat forever.

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