Continuing our series where we study the efficacy of recommendations, we present part two: ask your mates.

When friends recommend things, the danger is, if you don't like something someone loves, things could get a little awkward. As you get older, you lose the urge to have those "Dear NME, were you even at the same Fointy Pinger gig as me? They were more better than even Jesus!" arguments with them. You know what you like, whether that's exactly the same as the mixtape you made your Dad play as he dropped you off for your first day at university, or the latest earbleed oi-techno you heard on an internet radio station with three subscribers last week. But on the other hand, friend recommendations can be fantastic, reinforcing your bonds of shared taste, fresh thrills, new things to go to, more fun to be had.

So I asked some friends ON THE INTERNET, but they're still real friends - I go drinking with them too, NOT JUST IN MY PANTS IN THE FRONT ROOM. For the record. Anyway, here are the first five things that popped up.

Ikonika/Contact, Want, Love, Hate
Recommended by Penny Andrews
Madonna-loving dubstep from West London, is what a brief scour of the internet tells me about Ikonika. This is great. Immediate, involving pieces of hooky driving sound. Not as off-puttingly oppressive or dark'n'distant as a lot of dubstep. I don't have a strong enough frame of reference for this (is that an awful thing for someone writing about music to say?) but subjectively, this is working. This is where recommendations from friends work best - give me the best stuff, or at least one thing, so I don't feel like I have to spend my life iPlayering 1Xtra to have a vague idea what's happening. (Although Mistajam does do the best resumé of what's what and where in black music, for my money.)

Crookers /Tons Of Friends
Recommended by Steve Mannion
Crookers are two Italian lads who make the sort of no-boundaries party tunes that Diplo/M.I.A. made into the hip party soundtrack of the last few years. They provided the versioning of Kid Cudi's Day N Nite that made that an unshakeable summer smash. Just like last year's Major Lazer LP, this is a guest-appearance-riddled album-as-DJ set, irresistible from its bassline opener No Security through Spank Rock doing the dirty they're so good at, to Tim Burgess dropping in with a treated vocal almost as ridiculous as one of his haircuts.

This is proper great stuff, but... this sort of thing makes me feel pretty alienated. This is music for people who know how to get the proper wristband for the 2am after party - or at least want to know where it is. It's lyrically post-moral, a kind of irony-free stoopid 2 Live Crew, but with smarter music. So, enjoyable and brilliantly made, but like metal or hardcore hip hop, best listened to with a bit of distance.

Kelis/Flesh Tone
Recommended by Emma Gulseven
Oh fantastic. Kelis has come back from leaving pompous tool Nas to make a disco-heartbreak classic. This isn't rap-singing over crunchy/party beats as previous. It's an unbroken string of hi-NRG, huge as hell eurodance beats with simple repeated lyrics about how she got hurt, how she's getting over and how she's moved on. If Giorgio Moroder had made this with Candi Staton and Donna Summer on back-ups, it wouldn't have been any better. Expect tearful 40-year-old women to be dancing to Acapella (the belting single) at other people's weddings in 2030.

The cover is brilliantly ridiculous as well. For the record, yes, my girlfriend recommended this, but I like it. I'm not just pretending so she will continue to like me.

Steve Mason/Boys Outside
Recommended by Jo Coleman
I had avoided all the King Biscuit Time releases since the No Style EP, having loved and been obsessed with The Beta Band from the very first time I heard She's The One on the radio. The only thing I regret about my divorce is my ex getting the original 12"s of The Three EPs. Mason's terrible depressive sadness seemed to have been tempered by the rest of the BB's psychedelic silliness, and the iciness of his minor-key melodies were leavened by their three-day-stubble funkiness.

Mason has made this record after coming out the other side of a horrible fight with what seems like the blackest of black dogs. Richard X has helped him put this album together, and his robotic production goes with Mason's melancholy perfectly. But again, it feels so mournful and dragged by the undertow, I can't listen to this without feeling a little pulled down myself. It all comes good at the end though, like in The Movies.

The Indelicates/Songs For Swinging Lovers
Recommended by Lizzy Muggeridge
This one is a bit dangerous to review, as a number of my friends seem to love these two. If I don't like it, it might lead to some terrible face-off, like when you say you couldn't watch Doctor Who after they brought in that terrible ginger woman, or when people won't watch The Wire because people like it too much and recommend it so heartily (which is a bit like refusing to try ice cream or oral sex, but there you go).

Oh dear. Not a good start. Very annoying sixth form girl indie singing. Sounds like it's meant to be dramatic and daring. Sounds like Julia Sawalha shouting at her mum on Ab Fab. Oh no. No, this isn't working. Tart observations in middle class accents on top of Camden rehearsal room musicianship. This is Not My Sort Of Thing. Ah well, at least I know. No offence, Lizzy!