Review: In January 2025, Al Wootton visited Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, which is home to a rare archive of vintage drum machines. Once there, he recorded the unique rhythms and quirks of these machines and captured their raw character. Back in the UK, he transformed those recordings through processing and layering to create this new EP, Rhythm Archives. The result is a stripped-back but impactful exploration of rhythm that draws from industrial, dub, post-punk and proto-techno influences. The record stands as both a creative tribute to the iconic machines and their makers and a nod to MESS's mission of preserving electronic music heritage and making it accessible through public engagement and education.
Review: Adam Winchester and Laurie Osborne (probably still best known as Appleblim) are Wrecked Lightship and they have an inventive approach to dub, breaks and bass. Their work creates an immersive world full of rich, atmospheric textures and the latest example of that is Drained Strands, a new album for Peak Oil full of fragmented, genre-blurring sounds. The six-tracker is full of experimentation and new ideas from the off. 'Delinquent Spirits' for example is a jumble of jungle breaks and vast basslines with minimal percussion, 'Reeling Mist' is warm, blissed out dub and 'Somnium Sands' is an eerie and evocative world of synth designs and industrial decay.
Review: US coutntry rockers The Wreckers - or Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp - were only around for three years, but in that time they did manage to chalk up a couple of massive singles, 'Leave The Pieces' and 'My, Oh My', as well as this album, which went on to sell in excess of 850,000 copies after it emerged in May 2006. Harp has gone on to have success as a solo artist, but the updated country sound and close harmony simplicity of this album, now reissued, is yet to be eclipsed by either.
Review: French label PBT is absolutely on fire right now with a series of massive reissues of long-time boogie, funk and soul grails that will have collectors in a spin. Next up is this hidden gem from Florida's boogie funk archives, Pixie Dust by Wreckin' Crew, which was originally released in 1983 and was once a US-only rarity. It's a bass-heavy, synth-laced prized find for collectors and DJs featuring Robert Rans (who was the co-writer of Freeze's classic 'AEIOU') and veteran producer Kent Washburn. It's brimming with tight grooves and crisp drum programming while smooth vocal harmonies flow throughout. Every track radiates pure 80s boogie energy, all crafted with precision and ready to dominate dancefloors.
Review: The first Wu-Tang release to feature all nine living members in over a decade, this new full-length is a reminder that when aligned, the Staten Island collective still operate on a level of their own. The production is raw and cinematic i heavy with martial arts samples, bassline grime and dusty soul flips i while the verses come sharp, tight and unshowy. No gimmicks, just business. 'Sucker Free City' and 'Mandingo' come in swinging, full of tight drum programming and rugged, overlapping verses. 'Roar Of The Lion' and 'Shaoilin Vs Lama' lean into the classic kung-fu mythology, with a sense of pace that recalls their earliest work. 'Cleopatra Jones' and 'Dolemite' are funk-fuelled standouts, where the crew's storytelling and timing land in full form. 'Let's Do It Again' and 'Trouble-Man' close with a tone of reflection that cuts through the grime. It's a new release, but also a reunion that doesn't feel like a legacy act i more like a sharpened return. No attempt to modernise, no need to. Just nine distinct voices, still bouncing off each other with control and character. A serious addition to the catalogue i and one for the heads.
Review: Wunderhorse's Cub has evolved into a cult classic since its 2022 release and propelled the band from pub gigs to Glastonbury and sold-out Brixton Academy shows in quick time. Blending grunge bite with expansive psychedelia, the album became a generational touchstone, and frontman Jacob Slater's journey from burning out in Dead Pretties to rediscovering music while working as a surf instructor means he infuses Cub with hard-earned introspection and raw power. As the solo project transformed into a full band, Wunderhorse gained momentum, and their acclaimed 2024 follow-up Midas broke into the UK Top 10 and earned global praise while confirming their place as one of rock's most vital new voices.
Review: Xmal Deutschland commemorate their influential 4AD years (1983-1984) with a brand new release, literally presenting us with Gift. The collection celebrates the band's profound impact on British audiences in the early 80s, marked by a unique and half-devised lyrical language, as well as a magnetic feminine mystique commandeered by the women in the group. Their breakthrough support slot with Cocteau Twins accompanied the first two albums to come out via 4AD, which grabbed audiences by the collective ear with a painter's stroke of hard-graded darkwave and goth. Gift brims with a penumbral presence, while the titular "gift" is intended as pharmakon, both a present and a poison; Xmal's music is appropriately contradictory and complex, skating thin ices of beauty and elusivity. This limited-edition 3xLP boxset includes Abbey Road remasters of their albums Fetisch and Tocsin, along with tracks from related releases like Incubus Succubus II and Qual, packaged with striking artwork and a photo booklet. The magic of Xmal Deutschland lingers like radiation and has an indelible half-life.
Review: Originally released in 1982, Upstairs At Eric's marked the arrival of a duo as timeless as they were era defining, capable of capturing the very essence of an emerging, tech-driven music scene while also writing tracks that still sound incredible today. Many of which have been repurposed, sampled and remixed to the ends of the Earth and we're still not bored. Produced by the two band members, Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke, alongside Daniel Miller, boss of Mute Records, the legendary British label that first carried this, we shouldn't need to namedrop tracks here - Upstairs At Eric's is, frankly, the landmark synth-pop record. Just in case, though, think 'Don't Go', 'Goodbye 70s', and 'Only You'. And that's before we get into the lesser radio-played gems.
Review: The 2019, full-length, 11-track album by Years Of Denial is said to have been written and produced in a country house once surrounded only by vast, empty landscapes and an endless sky. Despite the isolation feeding its making, the debut album Suicide Disco is still an inescapable somatic provocation; it's not where you are, but who you are inside. The duo of Jerome Tcherneyan and Barkosina Hanusova now hear their debut album for Veyl reissued here, not long after a second noose in the form of Suicide Disco Vol. 2 was heard strung up a in 2023. Suicide Disco was a comparatively greyscale exercise in delay and decay, the likes of 'The Pain I Meditate' and 'Contradiction' making for manic dust-clouds of post-industrial fallout; sonic , Industrial Revolutory sequelae, topped off by an expressionist vocal narrative from Hanusova.
Review: Yesterday's Children, a short-lived yet impactful psychedelic rock band from Cheshire-Prospect, Connecticut, carved a niche in the late 60s with their unique blend of garage rock and proto-heavy metal. Formed in 1966, the band's aggressive sound, underpinned by Denis Croce's high-pitched wails and fuzz-toned guitars, made them early contenders in the heavier end of the psych spectrum. Their self-titled 1970 LP i featuring tracks like the bludgeoning opener 'Paranoia', the slow-burning 'What of I' and the swinging, Cream-adjacent 'Sailing' i is now considered a cult classic. Despite poor commercial traction at the time, it captures a pivotal moment between the collapse of flower power and the rise of hard rock. First reissued in 2004 by Akarma, it's since been reclaimed as a forgotten milestone in US acid rock, its eight-track run unusually focused but also quite, quite feral.
Review: Yeule (Nat Cmiel) is something of a sonic scrapyard varmint, scouring the lost wastes for augmentable audio parts perhaps useable in their madcap experiments. An avant-garde spin doctor of ash-faced, death-ray-desert-bomb glitch-pop, they've kept their place at the knife-edge of innovation, blending genres and non-genres at the violent vanguard where sounds remain in constant, slipped flux. In the lineage of Machine Girl, ecolagbohrsac2021 or Hakushi Hasegawa, 2022's Glitch Princess laid nutritious ground for Cmiel's now evermore fractious work, Evangelic Girl Is A Gun, which hears the somewhat alter-egoic Yeule now delve into the complexity of a fragmented identity, embracing the duality of light and shadow while echoing surreal animes, such as Serial Experiments Lain and Angel Egg. The LP reimagines Yeule as a haunting figure, exploring ego deaths and transformations in partnership with visual artist Vasso Vu.
Review: Non-binary performance artist Nat Cmiel from Singapore, often also known as yeule, continues to push the boundaries of glitch-pop and alt-electronica with their latest release. After solidifying their reputation as a trailblazer with their sophomore album Glitch Princess and its follow-up softscars, Cmiel takes a more daring, raw approach here. It's a cathartic exploration of self-destruction, trapped identities and the dark undercurrents of post-modernity, where Cmiel's ethereal vocals intertwine with dissonant beats, creating a paradox of beauty and tension.The sprawling atmospherics of 'Tequila Coma' and '1967' unfurl into a liquid haze, giving way to the razor-edged urgency of 'VV' and 'Dudu', which channel a palpable, jittery rhythm that commands attention. Collaborating with the likes of A.G. Cook and Mura Masa, the album navigates between haunting introspection and electrifying energy. It's a striking nod to Cmiel's ability to balance vulnerability and sonic experimentation, presenting a portrait of the artist struggling with the very image they've built.
Review: Yo Speed has been making moves on the likes of 83 and Distorsion Records, and after several standout EPs, now makes his full-length debut with Colores. Across four sides of vinyl he explores every facet of breakbeat, starting with the sort of emotionally, architecturally grand cut that has defined Sasha's approach to sound for many years. 'Fucsia' gets more down and dirty with howling basslines from drum & bass and soulful r&b vocal hooks. Elsewhere are gems like the sun-kissed and serene 'Esmeralda' and masterfully melodic, tightly sequenced arps of the potent 'Escarlata'. A real widescreen trip.
Review: Three years after Ticket to Shangri-La, Young Gun Silver Fox return with a polished showcase of contemporary AOR and blue-eyed soul that could be a long-lost gem, but it isn't, it's all new. The duo of Andy Platts of Mama's Gun and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee really deliver here with achingly lush melodies, breezy harmonies and effortlessly smooth vocals that embody their signature mellow sound and tap into all the classics of this genre. From start to finish, Pleasure is steeped in warmth and nostalgia yet feels refreshingly modern and it's a must-have if you like soulful, feel-good pop and yacht rock. With a major European tour ahead, this duo continue to prove they're at the heart of today's AOR revival.
Review: A rare live album from Neil Young, this companion to the Daryl Hannah-directed tour documentary captures the American singer-songwriter's 2023 Coastal solo tour. Through 11 handpicked songs from his 60-year career, including 'I Am a Child' and 'Vampire Blues', the album shows off Young's instrumental virtuosity on guitar, piano, and harmonica, and marked a transformative moment as the world emerged from the COVID pandemic. Coastal stands as one of the most intimate live albums Young has ever released, its recordings mutating between various cities, reconnecting chameleonically with his own timeless songs. The weight of history, the rebirth of an artist.
Review: Neil Percival Young. Canada's finest musical export? Buffalo Springfield founder, sometime member of Crosby, Stills and Nash and, as of 2025, the man behind The Chrome Hearts. He's always got something to say, and plenty to play, and whenever a new project is announce it's more than worth getting excited about. And that's before you hear this latest trip into folk-Americana territory. In many ways, this is typical Young. Stories of the journeyman, the everyday people and the struggle - all told by gently bleeding guitars and with an air of reflection. Tracks are personal and yet outward looking, including one which takes a swipe at Elon Musk - targeted within a wider conversation about crappy American cars. But then The Chrome Hearts definitely feel like a fresh chapter, and one that continues the decade-spanning saga with new ideas and energy.
Review: Adrian Younge's latest in the Something About April series is a stunning analogue opus that blends a 30-piece orchestra with breakbeats, synth work and Brazilian psychedelia. It has reportedly been years in the making and is the culmination of Younge's sonic vision as well as being his most expansive and experimental work to date. Brazilian vocalists, fuzzed-out drums and lush orchestration evoke MPB greats like Verocai and Os Mutantes and hip-hop kings Wu-Tang in equal measure. Tracks like 'Nunca Estranhos' and 'Nossas Sombras' are richly cinematic and deeply soulful standouts. More than a closing chapter, this record cements Younge's legacy as a visionary composer.
Review: Adrian Younge's Something About April II, originally from 2016, is a stunning evolution of his cinematic soul vision. Younge, who has long been devoted to blaxploitation-era sounds, expanded his palette here with richer songwriting and tighter arrangements. While rooted in the late 60s to early 70s soul aesthetic, the album always felt fresh and purposeful and still does almost a decade on for this reissue. Standouts like 'Sandrine' and duets with Laetitia Sadier and Bilal showcase his growth in composition and emotional depth and come with lush instrumentation from Fender Rhodes, vibraphone, and his custom Selene keyboard. Younge moved beyond homage with this work and into a world where he creates timeless originals and fully realised modern soul gems.
Review: Spring has sprung into something resembling summer, and perhaps the best record through which to celebrate this transition is Brandee Younger's latest, Gadabout Season. The title - sparked by a word-of-the-day email on tour with longtime collaborators Rashaan Carter and Allan Mednard (gadabout meaning "someone who roves about aimlessly seeking amusemnt") - came to represent the Younger trio's mission to seek spontaneous lightness through movement and music. Writing from a cabin in upstate New York, and later recorded in her Harlem apartment, Younger embraced a slow, intentional process, fine-planing a canny compositional set informed by ancestral, influential sottos of jazz, hip-hop, classical and soul; all are heard to whisper in Younger's ear as she rides each song. It's the first major body of work made almost entirely on her own, and crucially, contains pieces crafted using Alice Coltrane's restored harp, now appropriately left in her care.
Feels Like Thunder (feat Dame Evelyn Glennie) (2:36)
The New Sunhouse Protest Song (1:35)
When I Miss My Nai Nai (1:44)
Skip Skip Hooray (feat Chali 2na) (1:46)
The Sunflower & The Bee (1:44)
The Sunrise & The Sunset Song (1:26)
Little Crickets (1:40)
Step & Sway Dance (0:49)
The Geese Fly Past (0:55)
Review: And they say nobody makes amazing kids TV anymore. Or maybe that's just people who remember iconic series like The Trap Door, Button Moon, Pingu, Danger Mouse and Fraggle Rock? Either way, anyone who actually has children now will attest to the fact there are some great programmes doing the rounds. We fell pretty quickly for Octonauts, which focuses on a pack of underwater animal rescuers. Meanwhile Yukee, which presents the potentially terrifying prospect of a ukulele-wielding six year old, also won our hearts. Thankfully for us all, Yukee can play her instrument very well. So well in fact that this collection of songs from her first series is actually very enjoyable no matter your generation. OK, so maybe once you get onto the 25th play-through in a single afternoon there might be cause to switch things up, but overall these catchy folk-pop tunes are going to bring smiles to faces of all ages.
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