All in threes

Fujiya & Miyagi are not Japanese, but British -- though like France's Colder, they sound German. Their new album, Transparent Things, is this year's model of motorik Krautrock precision.

Fujiya & Miyagi - Cassettesingle

---

Bossanova is not a bossa nova band; it's the alias of Vancouver's Chris Torrow, a well-connected indie-rocker with members of The New Pornographers and Black Mountain in his Rolodex. His debut album, Hey Sugar (released this past spring on the recently reactivated Teenbeat label) is an analog-synth-slathered update of Scott Walker-ian pop romantique, but the centrepiece track "Rare Brazil" finds him busting out the Teutonic funk moves of Low-era Bowie.

Bossanova - Rare Brazil

---

Velocette are not velocettes, nor are they even a band anymore. The long-lost Brit quartet's debut album Fourfold Remedy came out on Wiija Records in 1998 and the band promptly disappeared without incident. But in light of The Pipettes' recent grrl-group redux, it's an appropriate time for a reappraisal. Where the Pipettes proffer a more self-aware synthesis of The Supremes and Le Tigre, Velocette provided a more retro/reverential portrait of Spector producing Stereolab.

Velocette - Get Yourself Together