Back catalogue: All genres

Review: During the 1970s, Dale O. Warren's ever-changing 24 Carat Black project delivered some of the finest hybrid soul-jazz music around, with the project's 1973 debut album considered something of an underground classic. "III" is the collective's third "official" album and was put together by Numero Group following the discovery of a number of 1980s recordings by the late, great Warren (with vocalists Princess Hearn, Vicki Gray, and LaRhonda LeGette) in a storage lock-up. Sparse but warm, languid and jazzy, it's a leisurely, soft-touch collection of cuts stripped of production trickery but high on dewy-eyed vocals, organic drums and tactile instrumentation.

Review: Helsinki quartet Alder Ego previously impressed with 2018's II, an album of original compositions (courtesy of drummer/bandleader Jonas Leppanen) that presented a deep, flowing fusion of spiritual jazz, post-bop and contemporary jazz. III, their belated follow-up, fine tunes the outfit's now trademark sound, with Leppanen's compositions getting the best out of his bandmates' ability to tease maximum sound and style out of their instruments (double bass, trumpet and tenor sax). Our highlights include languid and laidback opener 'Love & Maladies', soft focus treat 'La Nuit', expressive dancefloor number 'November Ghost' and the spiritual epic that is closing cut 'Ephemeral'.

Review: Following a series of self released albums over the past three years which saw them expand on hip hop classics with an auspicious level of jazz virtuosity, Canadian jazz trio Badbadnotgood grace the Innovative Leisure imprint with this enlightening collection III. Consisting of Matthew Tavares on keys, Chester Hansen on bass, and Alex Sowinski on drums, it's not hard to see why Badbadnotgood have been getting the usually hushed toned Gilles Peterson all exciting after a few listens of the nine tracks here. If you dug those cover versions you will love this album.

Review: Five years after the second life of Death was started with the release of their revelatory 1976 album, "For The Whole World To See", "III" slams the door on the vault with a powerful set of songs that bring equal amounts of rock and ethereal soul-searching, in high-fidelity, rich bottomed, studio-grade sound. Alongside songs from 1975, 1976 and 1980, "III" contains two songs from 1992, as the Hackney brothers reconvened nearly a decade after they'd stopped playing together. The album serves as a companion piece of sorts to the "A Band Called Death" documentary, tracking the band's movement from spiritual young rockers to older and wiser, bruised-but-undefeated brothers, in pure musical terms. David Hackney's visual representation of Death was a triangle, where "spiritual", "mental" and "physical" formed the three angles. With this in mind, "For The Whole World To See" is clearly the physical corner, with its undeniable proto-punk power; "Spiritual-Mental-Physical" explores the mental axis, with Death working through some of their influences including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and even ELO in their practice space. "III" is the spiritual end of the portrait, bookended by the dreamlike rock visions of David Hackney that created and propelled the band called Death.

Review: These Chilean psychonauts have already made a considerable name for themselves on the psych circuit, largely owing to their Dusseldorf-derived love for the three 'R's (repetition, repetition, repetition). On 'III', however, they take a sharp left turn into a style that's arguably even more bewitching, and serves to set them apart from their contemporaries. The shortest song here is nine minutes long, and the mesmerising pulses of these travelogues owe as much to the ruthless geometry of techno as they do krautrock motorik or desert ambience. One for fans of Nissenenmondai and Elektro Guzzi as well as Moon Duo or The Cosmic Dead, 'III' is a frontier-walking mantric masterstroke.

Review: These Chilean psychonauts have already made a considerable name for themselves on the psych circuit, largely owing to their Dusseldorf-derived love for the three 'R's (repetition, repetition, repetition). On "III", however, they take a sharp left turn into a style that's arguably even more bewitching, and serves to set them apart from their contemporaries. The shortest song here is nine minutes long, and the mesmerising pulses of these extrapolations owe as much to the ruthless geometry of techno as they do krautrock motorik or desert ambience. One for fans of Nissenenmondai and Elektro Guzzi as well as Moon Duo or The Cosmic Dead, "III" is a frontier-walking mantric masterstroke.

Review: Godtet is back with his third LP, and one which he calls possibly the finest distillation of his sound yet. Across eight tracks he fuses sounds from around the world that show another organic evolution and draw on three years of gigging, playing and recording music. The record was made with no samples and was wholly improvised and is said to be the final part of a trilogy. The beats are dark and intense at times, but can just as easily be feather light and superbly spacious, such as on the gorgeous 'Sun.' Though these tracks are short, they really are very sweet.

Review: Is there a more iconic modern disco duo that Lindstom and Prins Thomas? The superb Scandic-pair link up here to great effect on a six track record for Smalltown Supersound. As ever the references are far and wide, from world music to deep house, cosmic ambience to synth music. The tracks are stuffed with subtle details and a rich overarching musicality that makes them as good for focussed headphone listening as it does an early evening dance. 'Oranges' is achingly gorgeous, 'Harmonia' is awash in lush arps and 'Small Stream' is dreamy bliss. Once again these maestros have come through with the goods.

Review: 6LP Boxset Editrion: While their 50 Weapons imprint may be winding up, Modeselektor's Monkeytown imprint is still in full swing, releasing all sorts of interesting electronic music lately from producers as diverse as Robot Koch, Omar Souleyman and Howling. This time label head honchos Bronsert and Szary team up with good mate Sascha Ring aka Apparat for another session as well.. Moderat, of course! Highlights include the bittersweet and bass heavy pop inflections of "Bad Kingdom" featuring Ring's powerful vocals, the epically future beats of "Let In The Light" or "Ilona" and the upbeat dusty deep house of "Milk". Superb production on display throughout the album and don't forget to check out the killer remixes by Skee Mask and Benjamin Damage (amongst others) available here along with all the instrumental versions

Review: Gatefold 2LP ediiton: While their 50 Weapons imprint may be winding up, Modeselektor's Monkeytown imprint is still in full swing, releasing all sorts of interesting electronic music lately from producers as diverse as Robot Koch, Omar Souleyman and Howling. This time label head honchos Bronsert and Szary team up with good mate Sascha Ring aka Apparat for another session as well.. Moderat, of course! Highlights include the bittersweet and bass heavy pop inflections of "Bad Kingdom" featuring Ring's powerful vocals, the epically future beats of "Let In The Light" or "Ilona" and the upbeat dusty deep house of "Milk". Superb production on display throughout the album and don't forget to check out the killer remixes by Skee Mask and Benjamin Damage (amongst others) available soon as well.

Review: Single LP Editrion: While their 50 Weapons imprint may be winding up, Modeselektor's Monkeytown imprint is still in full swing, releasing all sorts of interesting electronic music lately from producers as diverse as Robot Koch, Omar Souleyman and Howling. This time label head honchos Bronsert and Szary team up with good mate Sascha Ring aka Apparat for another session as well.. Moderat, of course! Highlights include the bittersweet and bass heavy pop inflections of "Bad Kingdom" featuring Ring's powerful vocals, the epically future beats of "Let In The Light" or "Ilona" and the upbeat dusty deep house of "Milk". Superb production on display throughout the album and don't forget to check out the killer remixes by Skee Mask and Benjamin Damage (amongst others) available soon as well.

Review: Moon B's next mini-LP offering to PPU, entitled III, is a varied affair. The a side offers up the older taped track "Realms", a semi-muted yet chuggy number for the dance floor overwrought with moon-roasted synth progressions that coat the ears. "Neither Here Nor Where" is an ode to forgotten spaces and places, wrapped tightly in synth bazz and creamed pads that emanate from Moon's favorite synth, the Alpha Juno 1. Flip the record to find Moon's most "instro-spective" offerings to date. "Art Direction" bottomed out tempo conjures up images of 1984 Prince replacing Appalonia with Inga Copeland as his motorcycle passenger after a neon lit love-making session. "Moonda"'s slow fluctuation and linn drum echoes paired with sorrowful yet hopeful chords attempts to warm you in the coldest of polar vortices. "Polywarp" rounds out the affair with syruppy vacillating instrumentation paired with unforeseen wobbly bits and foreign percussive hits. -

Review: "III", by Skallander, is a collection of ten devastating pop-songs guaranteed to appeal to fans of Sufjan Stevens and Jose Gonzalez.