Bulgaria is not famed with producing many music acts of international prominence, but it’s well worth checking the new album ‘World Melancholy’ from their finest export, Bluba Lu. A former collaborator of LTJ Bukem, Bluba Lu’s music is hard to categorise, think a mix of trip-hop, downtempo, cinematic soundscapes and vocal-symphonic -it’s falls in the same bag as acts like Zero 7, Massive Attack and Cinematic Orchestra, but stamped with an orginality that sets them aside from the rest.

As each week goes by, news filters through of the demise of yet another record shop, as the hunger for music in digital format gradually kills off independent music shops, who for years were the bastion for breaking new music.

London record shop If Music continues to survive against all odds. Run by the charasmatic Jean-Claude, it’s a great place to pop by if you’re ever in the west end. If Music championed little known music acts including Mark Ronson, Zero 7 and the Cinematic Orchestra before they all rose to fame…..who knows which future stars music you may end up buying if you pop by.