In their own words, the Lucky Me family started out with the common desire to create hip-hop in a city where back in 2002, there was no hip-hop culture. They have not only changed the landscape in the city, but have also grown as a label, collective and platform, and placed Glasgow on the map of the most exciting and innovative urban sounds at this change of the decade; also, they’ve taken the genre two steps further, to the point where they have created a sound which is immediately identified with the city.

http://www.thisisluckyme.com

Mary Anne Hobbs has been separating the wheat from the chaff in the increasingly leafy forest of new urban rhythms for some time on her programme on BBC Radio 1. The muse of British radio and the dubstep scene selects some of her favourite artists for the fourth year running - in this case one of the most substantial and highly respected producers working today (America's Flying Lotus) and marvellous new talents who are already trail-blazers (Britain's Roska and Joy Orbison).

www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/maryannehobbs

The Red Bull Music Academy was founded in Berlin in 1998 as a platform for discovering international talents, as well as providing a creative space for the musicians, vocalists, producers and instrumentalists chosen to participate each year. London is the city that has been chosen to host the Academy in 2010, home of several of the artists who will be performing at SonarDôme, the stage that the Academy will be curating.

www.redbullmusicacademy.com

The scene in Switzerland is one of Europe’s great unknowns. Mx3.ch is the country's leading music portal, and the place where Swiss artists, radio stations, record labels and producers converge. At Sonar 2010, they will be presenting Larytta, Tim & Puma Mimi and Round Table Knights, three acts which each in their own way feature an ambitious combination of pop, electronica and talent, with marvellous results.

http://www.mx3.ch

Barcelona's spa.RK label is the home of Spanish electronica’s more daring and experimental projects, and has been carefully nurturing its artists for many years, providing an example of how to create a faultless catalogue of music without rejecting the basic principles of independence, quality and an international spirit. Their showcase for Sonar 2010 presents two of their most recent signings, whose names have been on everyone's lips this year: bRUNA and Bradien.

http://www.sparkreleases.com

Vienna has always been a city with a special musical atmosphere and the home of many restless musicians with an urge to break down barriers. Among these are Patrick Pulsinger, the architect of a showcase featuring an admirable combination of different generations and various genres (improvised music, electronica, ambient and rock), with the seminal Cluster, the brand new talent of ElektroGuzzi and the experimental and exploratory dp-S, the new project by Pulsinger himself.