Been over a week; wondered where we were? No! Well you should you ingrates because we're busting with musical treats for you.

September is a great time of year for music. Loads of new releases hit the shelves as labels start unleashing their post-summer offerings, and this year's crop is particularly exciting.

Californian cosmic disco is not a term you hear too often, is it? San Francisco producer Sam Grawe - aka Hatchback - should change that, though, with his debut album, Colors of the Sun. Released on the ever brilliant Lo Recordings - home of quality electronic disco - it's a hugely accomplished debut and regardless of genre, one of the years highlights: stunning stuff.

The California distinction is important here. Comparisons to heavyweight Scandinavian contemporaries: Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and Studio, etc., should be saved, at least until giving the man his dues. Subverting preconceptions, Colors of the Sun isn't the usual exercise in minimalism and restraint - a requisite for a lot of Nordic "Nu-Disco". There's the obligatory meandering Vangelis-esque synthscape, Horizon, and some Scando-epics in there too, but the sluggish inertia that leaves you wondering what the hell you got yourself into sometimes, is wholly absent, replaced with a warmer, more melodious and optimistic disco sound.

Lindstrom et al's slow burn, chuggin' cosmic carpentry is wonderful, but, as autumn abruptly replaces summer, disco loving inhabitants of this fair isle look to music for sonic escapism, and Hatchback's sunny disposition delivers in spades. The contrast between record and the Tupperware-gray British weather couldn't be more marked.

To these ears, Grawe is of the original Baledelli school of cosmic - Drawing on early Kraut electronics, New Wave, Italo, slo-mo disco and afro-percussion. Listen under a sun lamp sans pants for best results.

This is too damn sexy for tan lines.

Hatchback - Jetlag

Hatchback - Comets

Hatchback - Nesso