Off the record: David Smyth

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Returning from exile: Michael Jackson's new track is online at MySpace

Rock on: Aerosmith play their first major London show for eight years in Hyde Park this summer

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Jacko's back in the studio

Michael Jackson's troubles are ongoing. His rare onstage appearance at the World Music Awards in London in November was a washout, and he's currently being sued by the family of a woman who died after she was moved from her hospital bed to make way for the singer in 2005.

But his remaining fans will be cheered by the fact that, after spells in exile in Bahrain, France and Ireland, he is finally back in the US and recording new music.

A new track, No Friend of Mine (Gangsta), has appeared online at the MySpace home of a producer called Tempamental.

It's unclear whether the track is meant for Jackson's first album since 2001's limp Invincible, or the new album by former Fugee Pras Michel, who also raps on it, but either way it's not half bad.

It's concise at just over three minutes, and sounds current with staccato piano, hip hop beats and squalling horns.

Pras takes a verse (including the couplet "Unless you wanna call me conceited/Cos I'm a smooth criminal I told her to beat it"), then Tempamental raps a second verse, while Jackson sings the chorus with familiar multilayered smoothness and manages a third verse with genuine power.

Considering how frail he has appeared in recent years, he screams impressively here, although these days it's hard to listen to any of his lyrics without thinking of his turbulent history.

The song seems to be about a straightforward acrimonious break-up, but lines such as "Because of what you've done to me baby/I can no longer smile/And I've waited so long, just to carry on" could easily be taken to refer directly to his tribulations.

With will.i.am on principal production duties ("He still sings like a bird," says the Black Eyed Pea) a new Jackson album before the end of the year now looks like more than just a rumour.

Whatever you think of his other qualities, that voice is the greatest thing about the man and it's about time he got back to doing what he does best.

• www.myspace.com/tempamental.

Hello Hyde Park, it's Aerosmith calling

Aerosmith may be playing their first major London show for eight years this summer, but fans should not expect a shiny new album to take home as a souvenir.

After Honkin' on Bobo, an album of blues covers that thrilled the band's muso fans in 2004 but left the less committed desperate for a traditional power ballad, Steve Tyler and his hairy cohorts set about writing new songs to please the masses, but haven't quite finished yet.

"We hoped to put it out before we hit Europe, but it's going to be a bit much," he tells me. "We're still recording, I'm planning on doing my vocals sometime in May. We'll do what we can, but I don't know ..."

All now in their late fifties, most with grown-up children (including actress Liv Tyler), the quintet still possess the star quality that stems from decades at the top.

When they arrive at the Hard Rock Café, an hour late, to announce a summer romp around Europe that will take in everywhere from Dublin to Latvia via Hyde Park, Tyler yowls provocatively at a mini-skirted waitress, plucking at the historic guitars that line the walls. They scream for coffee, and "French fries, or whatever you call them over here".

Tiny guitarist Joe Perry tries to explain their long absence from the UK by rambling about a boat that was carrying all the band's European tour equipment sinking off the coast of Italy, which sounds a bit the-dog-ate-my-homework to me, but the surprising fact is that this is one of the most professional bands in the business.

Lurid tales of their Olympian Seventies drug consumption still stalk them, but they have now been addiction-free for more than 20 years, which makes for consistently entertaining gigs.

Says Tyler: "Music was our first and foremost drug, and the world bought it and is strung out on it to this day."

• Aerosmith play at Hyde Park Calling (0870 400 0688) on Sunday 24 June.

New on the net

MP3 bloggers are becoming victims of a range of clever software programs that allow people to download the free songs posted on blogs, without having to read the tortured musings on the music.

In most cases, this is a very good thing. The Hype Machine and www.Elbo.ws work best on PCs, and now Mac users can employ a system called Peel (www.getpeel.com) which keeps tabs on blogs of your choice and puts new songs in an iTunesstyle filing system for ease of access.

Elsewhere, various buzz bands are feeling generous. French folkpop act Herman D¸ne give you a hint of the sound of Monday's new album, Giant, by giving away seven cover versions by the likes of Carole King and the Ronettes at www.hermandune.com.

Marvellous Brazillian disco troupe CSS have the free single of the week at the iTunes store, the groovy This Month, Day 10.

Lively Britpop newcomers Air Traffic will give you their new song, I Like That, if you sign up to their mailing list at www.air-traffic. co.uk/download.

And Belfast eccentric Duke Special has a mini-album to give away at www.v2digital.net/uk/dukespecial, again provided you give him your email address first.

An early listen to ...

Enter Shikari: Take to the Skies (Vital)

Parents beware. If there is one album this year guaranteed to transform you into a turn-that-racket-down curmudgeon, it's this future schoolkid favourite from a young Hertfordshire quartet, out 19 March.

It really is an astonishing din, a violent collision of metal guitars, guttural roars and, most bizarrely, synthesised trance music.

As a collection of ear-damaging noises, all that's missing is the sound of a whisk being jammed into a waste disposal unit.

Tracks such as Mothership and Return to Energiser have more of an accessible emo feel, and there's even a surprise acoustic ballad in Adieu, but for the most part, this is terrifying, house-shaking stuff.

 

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