Back catalogue:

Review: Grand Central Records founder and Manchester mainstay Mark Rae is back with New Town Ghosts, a powerful novel four years in the making that is set during the sweltering summer of 1976. This emotionally rich coming-of-age story is told through the eyes of ten-year-old boys navigating friendship, responsibility, and growing up and is paired with a nostalgic soundtrack of ten original songs performed in four-part harmony with strings, horns, choir and live instrumentation. The music evokes the warmth of a radio playing in a sun-drenched garden with themes of nature, wheels (ie via skateboards, wheelchairs and prams) and youthful rebellion echo throughout.

Review: What you see before you ranks among the most mythologised live albums (n)ever released. Like the title suggests, it was originally recorded in 1972 at Parisian rock institution Le Bataclan, a legendary venue which would later gain notoriety after a group of armed gunmen opened fire on a crowd in 2015, killing 90 people. But that grisly recent history belies its status as one of the most respected concert halls in the French capital, and this not-quite-Velvet Underground show has contributed to that legacy. Showcasing the stop-you-dead qualities of Nico's staggering (and unique) vocal timbre, the surreal, immersive qualities of the Cale and Reed's legendary art-rock tones, this time capsule had been bootlegged and bootlegged until 2004, when it finally got an official release. Now it's back.

Review: It's hard to imagine anyone growing up in New Orleans and not falling into some sort of musical pursuit. If you've ever been to the Big Easy the fact that tunes and songs and rhythms and blues and Americana and bluegrass and jazz seem to float on every whisper of every breeze will not have passed you by. That goes whether you're draining the glass on Bourbon Street or in one of the Louisiana city's more authentic, less touristic corners. Hometown girl Esther Rose doesn't necessarily follow suit. Country, yes, but there's a tendency towards ignoring the genre tropes to step out and do her own thing. More power to her. Yes, 'Scars' and 'Want', for example, are blissful acoustic numbers as timeless as they are familiar - no criticism. But the likes of 'New Bad' feel genuinely inimitable.

Review: A posthumous release that furthers Arthur Russell's now legendary status. Recorded in Downtown New York City on December 20, 1985, it's an intimate, unedited solo live performance recorded at Phill Niblock's loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation. The takes are very raw and unpolished that it makes you feel like one of the very few in attendance. 'That's the Very Reason' is a beautiful, tender experimental folk piece showing he needed very few materials in order to send listeners on a journey of transcendence. 'Too Early To Tell' is highly idiosyncratic and produces a sound not normally associated with cello. And 'Sunlit Water' has an oriental feel and provides beautiful resolve to a resplendent set.

Review: These archival recordings of two extraordinary live performances takes you back to when New York City was a bohemian magnet, with low rent and spaces where artists could thrive. Recorded in Downtown in December 1985 and June 1984, the late, great Arthur Russell is captured performing at an intimate loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation, which was run by Phil Niblock. Since the recordings are unedited, it does a really great job of simulating the experience and so if you close your eyes, it's easy to imagine Russell in the room right there in front of you. Of the numbers played, Russell's gifted avant-garde approach to cello is brilliantly done on 'Too Early To Tell'. And the spine-tingling, raw and deeply emotional 'That's The Very Reason' is arthouse folk at its finest. It epitomises the raw, spell-binding talent that Russell had to captivate a room. Hats off to those who have immortalized these very special shows.