Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Nearly 50 years after blasting out of Athens, Georgia, we now hearken The B-52's technicolor due with The Warner And Reprise Years, a freshly remastered retrospective of their first eight LPs, spanning 1979 to 1992. Here aside from the rainbow-hued nine LP set comes an 8xCD set, just in time for Pride Month: it tracks the thrifty West Coasters' evolution from wiry new wave weirdos to global hitmakers. Fan favourites like 'Rock Lobster', 'Channel Z', and 'Roam' sit aside mega-hits like 'Love Shack', netting the campy brilliance and rogue joy that redeemed them as pop's most gleeful outliers.

Review: Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) marks his AD93 debut with The Way Of Time, wrapping elucted echo and looping synth drift around spoken fragments of Elizabeth Madox Roberts' great 1926 novel The Time Of Man. A Midwestern gothic literary staple, Roberts' novel is about the daughter of a Kentucky tenant farmer, and Jenssen's haunting use of Joan Lorring's voice from the 1951 radio play adaptation readapts his usual icy predilections for suitably huger desert horizons. Rather than treating the vocal as ornament, he folds it deep into the mix, letting it dissolve into the melodic architecture.

Review: A case of 'Paranoid' by name - and paranoid by nature. At least by the time the Brummie founding fathers of metal had reached 1975 and their sixth album Sabotage, the foursome felt attacked from all sides, blighted by wrangles with both management and record company alike. Those troubles have been 'blamed' for the particularly searing, angry musical form that the band hit at the time, something that's subsequently endeared the period to fans of all things heavy ever since. This radio broadcast would certainly seem to back that theory up, from a devastating opening salvo of 'Supertzar' from that sixth LP to trademark anthems like 'War Pigs', 'Paranoid' and a lurchingly fantastic 'Iron Man'. The stress and ahem, other lifesyle factors, would lead to this classic line up finally splitting in 1979 - leading to Ronnie James Dio's replacement of Ozzy - but this rich mid-70s purple patch captures them between mania and ultimate collapse.

Review: Boston-based drummer and producer Terri Lyne Carrington reconvenes Max Roach's 1961 landmark with a sharp eye on both lineage and forward motion. Originally conceived as a civil rights-era protest suite, the project blends jazz, voice, and African-diasporic rhythm to address racial justice with clarity and force. This reinterpretation is not a soft tribute - it's a generational handover. Christie Dashiell takes on Abbey Lincoln's vocal role with arresting precision, while the ensemble (including Morgan Guerin, Matthew Stevens and Milena Casado) brings freshness without losing tension. Julian Priester, the sole surviving member of the original lineup, offers a subtle but weighty cameo. Tracks like 'Driva' Man' and 'Triptych' are stretched into wider shapes, drawing on funk, gospel and Afro-Latin idioms without softening the message. As Carrington puts it, this isn't just homage - it's a new freedom suite for now. The message, more than 60 years later, still burns brightly.

Review: Different Rooms finds Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer file their patchwork method of tape-splicing, improvisation and studio play down to a fine, sharpened nib. Written and assembled between late 2024 and early 2025 in their adjoining Los Angeles studios, the album weaves live performance with granular synthesis, viola stacks, and manipulated field recordings gathered from train platforms, city streets and domestic spaces. Unlike the drifting landscapes of Recordings From The Aland Islands, their newest LP as a pair keeps rooted in a replication of deep urban listening, attuned to passer-by street textures. Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson appear on archival improvisations folded seamlessly in; though despite outside collaborations the sequence loosely mirrors itself, with motifs returning in altered form, echoing the project's core idea: though we move through different life "rooms", they are in uncanny enfilade, each ghostlily similar to the last.

Review: Brooklyn record distributor Atypical-dopeness offer the next edition in Joaquin Joe Claussell's Unofficial Edits & Overdubs series. Following a four-tracker of largely unnamed tracks released in 2020, Iboga continues the series, this time with an iterative avatar to top up Claussell's ever-moving house continuum. Claussell's output has lately taken on an ancestral turn, influenced by the hallucinations caused by chewing the roots of an iboga plant, a chemico-spiritual fixture of initiation ceremonies found across Central Africa (whether Claussell actually did take ibogaine isn't clear). What we do know is that, in dialogue with his heritage, Claussell found himself inspired by these initiatory rituals and so set about producing this eleven-track heart-rouser, fusing the overdubbed recorded sounds of Gabon, Cameroon and Congo with his own summative, spiritual, salubrious house sound.

Review: More than four decades after he first appeared in smudged eyeliner and a mop of jet-black hair, Robert Smith is still finding new ways to pull his music apart and stitch it back together. This new remix collection i assembled and curated by Smith himself i feels less like a victory lap and more like a restless dissection of a legacy he's still actively shaping. The collaborators here are hardly incidental: Four Tet, Orbital, Ame, Chino Moreno, Mura Masa, Trentemoller, Mogwai. It reads like a list built by someone still hungrily tuned into the present, not stuck in the past. And true to form, the results are all over the place i a feature, not a flaw. Some tracks lean into grandeur: Paul Oakenfold's take on 'I Can Never Say Goodbye' opens with all the sweeping melodrama you'd expect, while Daybreakers stretch 'WarSong' into widescreen synthwork. Elsewhere, Shanti Celeste and Ex-Easter Island Head bring a strange intimacy to 'Alone', teasing out its ache with a different kind of spaciousness. At times, you wonder if Smith enjoys seeing how far his work can be bent before it breaks. But it never does i even filtered through others' hands, his sense of tension, drama and deep emotional unease holds everything together.

Review: The CD edition of a wider multi-format reissue, Greatest documents, well, the greatest greatest hits compilation to span the steadfast, enduring work of Brum new romantic hopefuls turned interstellar pop stars Duran Duran. Originally released in 1989, The Greatest is a choice career retrospective and update to the earlier 1989 compilation album Decade, where the new wave band's evolution over the elapsing of yet another decade solicited further tribute. Tracks like 'Notorious' flaunt their seamless move into funk-infused pop, while 'The Reflex' catches the polished, experimental edge of their mid-80s era. And of course, the Bond theme "A View To A Kill" remains to this day the only 007 theme to reach number one in the US.

Review: Composed in New York by the Baltimore-born minimalist Philip Glass and released in 1971, Music With Changing Parts was the album that put his vivid, colour-rich sound on the map, marking a shift away from the ultra minimal 600 Lines (1967) and Two Pages (1968). Performed with free instrumentation, the piece allows musicians to switch between eight staves at specified cues, generating abrupt shifts in texture and timbre. Though its melodic material remains tightly looped and minimal, changes in orchestration continuously refresh the sonic landscape. Most striking is the psychoacoustic illusion Glass observed during rehearsals: when multiple players repeated the same short patterns, sustained tones seemed to emerge on their own. He eventually formalised this in the score, permitting long notes to enhance the effect. What results is a hallucinated resonance that pulses and flickersian early indication of the harmonic depth he would later bring to works like the miestone Einstein On The Beach.

Review: Following 2020's acclaimed Women In Music Pt. III, which earned GRAMMY and BRIT nods, the LA-based American rock trio and sisters HAIM return with their bold fourth studio album on Polydor. Produced by Danielle Haim and Rostam Batmanglij, 15-tracker I Quit leans confidently into their noted classic rock influences while introducing fresh textures, including warped samples and stripped-back ballads. It's a record made for the stage as it is raw, dynamic and deeply rooted in their chemistry as live performers. The record reaffirms HAIM's place as modern rock trailblazers and is familiar yet evolving, so it will appeal to old fans and new ears with its fine balance of swagger and soul.

Review: By the time Load landed in 1996, Metallica were unrecognisable from the denim-and-leather thrash band of the early 80s. Coming off the back of the colossal success of The Black Album (1991), they had gone supernova: stadium tours, chart dominance, and a sudden place in the mainstream they once seemed sworn to resist. Now their mid-90s pivot hears a squeakier-fresh round of polish through this UMR reissue, as Reuben Cohen handles remastering duties under the eye of longtime collaborator Greg Fidelman. Then and now: at the time, Bob Rock returned on production, as he had fo The Black Album, and again drew out a widescreen sound framing 'Until It Sleeps', 'Hero Of The Day' and 'King Nothing' for mainstream impact. This ed also finally restores the full-length version of 'The Outlaw Torn', which was shaved from the 1996 release due to CD length restrictions (the only time a Metallica album track was edited for format).

Review: The still agenda-setting fabric presents series is back with another essential new selection, this time from Pretty Girl, the Melbourne-born, London-based producer, DJ and vocalist who had made big moves with her take on house, UK garage and lo-fi club textures. Her mix is a deeply personal journey through melancholic grooves, euphoric rhythms and melodic depth that features exclusive unreleased tracks including her new single 'Innadream.' Along the way here she draws from both the UK and Australian scenes and crafts a set that balances introspection with dancefloor energy. With past appearances at Coachella, DC10 and Glastonbury, this mix cements Pretty Girl as one of the most exciting and emotionally resonant voices of now.

Review: "Make some noise for more love in the world" says drum & bass legend Ray Keith before tearing into a high-octane tribute to three decades of jungle culture on The Renegade Live at The Jazz Cafe. This double CD was captured during his sold-out March 2024 performance in London and word is there is no digital version planned. Along the way, Keith blends classics like 'Terrorist' and 'Dark Soldier' with live covers of scene-defining anthems from Top Buzz, MC Fats and Splash. This electrifying set honours the genre's past while pushing it forward with assistance from vocalists Juiceman, Elisa and Miss Klair. Keith blurs the lines between studio power and live performance with unique charm here.

Review: This 2xCD edition goes well beyond nostalgia, offering the definitive take on Soft Cell's most illicit and club-focused chapter. Originally released in 1982 their second album was a bold pivot: less of the noir cabaret that had its roots in their Leeds Poly days, more MDMA-drenched disco detachment. But what felt fleeting at the time now reads like a fully formed vision. The first disc captures the original six-track run, including a furious remake of 'Memorabilia', the twisted funk of 'Sex Dwarf' and their glam-stomp take on 'What' i a track that somehow hit Number Three in the UK while sounding like it belonged in a haunted backroom. The second disc expands the picture with extended cuts like 'Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go' and 'Torch', all of which showcase how Soft Cell flirted with pop but refused to smooth their edges. It's a new reissue, but more importantly, it's a reminder of just how ahead of their time they were i turning sleaze into sophistication and dancefloor detritus into poetry. Digitally remastered and packed with rarities, this is as complete a portrait of Soft Cell's ecstatic peak as you'll find.

Review: Armin van Buuren is one of the most enduring trance overlords in the scene. He was there at the birth for the genre, and stayed with it through tough times right up to now, when it is very much back en vogue. Here ushers in a new era with the latest in his indefatigable A State of Trance series. The 2025 edition is a triple mix journey showcasing a full emotional and sonic range with 43 tracks across three themed segments, which move from the warm, melodic vibes of On The Beach-with cuts from Claptone x Chicane, AVIRA and OTTAGON-to the high-octane energy of In The Club, including bangers by Ferry Corsten, Andrew Bayer and Gabry Ponte. The final mix, Who's Afraid of 138?!, explodes with peak-hour intensity and is headlined by Armin's collaboration with Rob Swire. This is trance at its most euphoric.

Review: Well, it is fair to say that Spectrum didn't hedge their bets when workshopping a title for this one. The Best Northern Soul Album ITW...ever! Continues its goo form with volume four and an invitation to hit the dancefloor again with no fewer than 66 tracks. Overflowing with rare grooves and timeless anthems, this sequel delivers pure and soulful power from legends like Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, The Supremes, Thelma Houston and Major Lance. From floor-fillers to heartfelt ballads, it's a widescreen celebration of the genre's golden era and highlights include Freda Payne, Robert Knight and the iconic Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell duet 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough.' Whether you're new to this scene or expanding your collection, this is a must for any Northern Soul heads.