Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Being a 'supergroup' - as Boygenius trio Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus are commonly described - has its pitfalls, one of which is finding time to record and promote your music. It was for this reason that it took the threesome almost five years to record their debut album, The Record, which was released to critical acclaim (the NME called it an 'instant indie classic') earlier this year. The fact that 'The Rest', an EP of unheard songs (literally - no previews were available online prior to release), has followed so quickly suggests that it was recorded at the same time. Either way, it was produced by the band alongside a team of six producers) and delivers more memorable songs in their now familiar American indie-rock style. A treat for fans, all told.

Review: Emotional Rescue label boss Stuart Leath is particularly excited about this release, and it's not hard to see why. While Spanish singer/songwriter Javier Bergia is not widely known in the UK, his releases - either solo, or as part of the Finas Africae and Arium Musicae groups - are held in high regard by those of a Balearic persuasion. Eclipse is something of a treat, gathering together the best of Bergia's solo work from 1985 to the present day. Featuring Bergia's spoken and sung vocals atop a mix of gentle acoustics, atmospheric strings, delay-laden percussion and subtle global rhythms, Eclipse impresses from start to finish. It should be essential listening for anyone with even the tiniest interest in Balearica.

Review: Having built their reputation through 12" singles for the likes of Crosstown Rebels and Poker Flat, Dan Berkson and James What deliver their debut album, on their freshly minted imprint Modelmaker. Interestingly, Keep Up Appearances is an altogether warmer, melodious and more evocative set than you'd perhaps expect, with a smattering of rich downtempo cuts joining a solid selection of dancefloor-friendly deep house. You can hear a classic dub techno influence in cuts such as "Keep Up Appearances" and "Shadow Theory", while the acid-flecked, soul-soaked "Make It True" sounds like classic Osunlade. Best of all, though, are the more forthright efforts, with the ragged "Seraphim" standing out.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Having built their reputation through 12" singles for the likes of Crosstown Rebels and Poker Flat, Dan Berkson and James What deliver their debut album, on their freshly minted imprint Modelmaker. Interestingly, Keep Up Appearances is an altogether warmer, melodious and more evocative set than you'd perhaps expect, with a smattering of rich downtempo cuts joining a solid selection of dancefloor-friendly deep house. You can hear a classic dub techno influence in cuts such as "Keep Up Appearances" and "Shadow Theory", while the acid-flecked, soul-soaked "Make It True" sounds like classic Osunlade. Best of all, though, are the more forthright efforts, with the ragged "Seraphim" standing out.

Review: Justin Vernon's voice has always been the people's main attraction to Bon Iver, and the fact his pseudonym even exists is certainly no coincidence. As fragile and heartbroken as it is forthright and experienced, when you're wearing a shredded heart on sleeve and confessing to all your deepest insecurities using a pen name can help immensely. Album number four perhaps proves this more than any of its predecessors. While the three previous chapters have all made his thoughts, feelings, insecurities and fears clear, this one takes honesty to new heights. Combining the frail electronics that have gradually slipped their way into his back catalogue with the acoustics of his earliest, rocket-to-fame efforts, it's a culmination of all that's been in the truest sense. Perhaps even more intimate than the breathtakingly personal "For Emma, Forever Ago", "i,i" is a striking work to say the least.

Review: Album number six from the Ruffians certainly means business. Honest and painfully on-point in terms of overarching themes, its sonically highly polished and - while not a concept record - incredibly well conceived as a coherent whole. A rock 'n' roll offering that grabs your body to make it move while boring into your mind and soul to make you think and feel. Word on the street is this was some three years in the making, and it certainly feels like an un-rushed process will have led to this package. Tracks kick and punch in all the right places, but they never forget the need for balance, peaks and troughs. It's more than likely that you'll walk away from this with the scale of the anthems cemented to the mind, though, rather than the more tender moments. After all, it's a masterclass in major key melodies, and a striking example of the powerful effect those have on listeners.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged & surface marks but otherwise in excellent condition***


Tomasz Bednarczyk makes a long-awaited return to 12k after his 2009 debut Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow (12k1055, 2009) and a couple of follow-up releases on Australia's Room40. On Windy Weather Always Makes Me Think Of You Bednarczyk has collected sounds via a smartphone dictaphone and Sony field recorder over the past 10 years with a goal to transform all gathered recordings into new, multilayered harmonies. Field recordings come from voyages around the globe and originally consisted of melodies interwoven by multilayered sounds of the environment. After the gathering and layering of sounds the process was to deconstruct theminto single sounds and samples. This has served as a basis for creating the entire concept of the album; to establish completely new harmonies using solely those short fragments.

Review: Busy Signal has been blowing up the dancehall scene for a hot minute. He has the ability to cook up real crossover hits as heard on opener "Stay So" (which clocked up an incredible 32 million hits online) and "One Way" (with 17 million). With "Parts Of The Puzzle", the long time star wanted to show off his range, which he duly does across 10 crisp and contemporary cuts. The production is reflective and shiny, with a range of rhythms that take in classic reggae ""Girl Like You"", funk ("Balloon") and deep dancehall ("Bring Back The Vibes (feat. Josey Wales)". It all adds up to a comprehensive, forward looking record from one of the game's best.

Review: Black Sands, the eagerly anticipated fourth album from Simon Green AKA Bonobo, is no revolutionary change from his signature sound but does come with perhaps even more subtlety and complexity than his previous offerings. Having constantly instilled a degree of integrity and value back into chill out music following the influx of Cafe Del Mar and Coffeeshop compilations, Green once again displays a musicianship that sets him apart as a true artist and producer amongst a sea of downtempo and chillout DJs.
His undeniably clear understanding of composition and arrangement of live instruments has enabled Green to make an album that reaches out through diverse styles, taking influence and inspiration from wherever possible. On Black Sands, Green delves into electronic music and bass more than he did across Animal Magic, Dial "M" For Monkey or Days To Come but does so with enough subtlety and finesse to refrain from causing a radical shift in his product. Tracks like "Kiara," "We Could Forever" and "All In Forms" all utilise beats and bass in a more contemporary outlook than we are used to with Bonobo. Of course the instrumental feel is still there for all to see. Title track "Black Sands" takes this position for almost seven minutes of a horn infused waltz whereas "Kong" assumes the traditional soul-jazz Bonobo take and "Animals" lets delicate drum patterns guide us through pleasing tempo shifts.
The instrumental vibe is highlighted further in the album's approach to vocals. Unlike his last album, Days To Come which was littered with vocals, Black Sands houses only three tracks that contain vocals. The breathy vocals of Andreya Triana complete tracks like "Stay the Same" and "The Keeper" turning them in more traditional songs. Black Sands is another loving crafted offering that uses orchestral arrangements but this time merged with more of a dance aesthetic. As he continues to make chillout more credible in his experimental way, it's no wonder that Bonobo is one of the biggest artists to come from the excellent Ninja Tune.

Review: Jason Barton is one man, London based experimental project BArTc. Insubstantial As Ghosts is his 14 track debut album and it comes on the label run by Colin Potter, who is well known for weird electronics thanks to his time as a member of Nurse With Wound. Barton has said that influences include Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson and industrial legends such as Coil, Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten. The music is built in many layers of synths, found sounds and environmental recordings. It results in organic and experimental sounds that are heavily distorted with various effects.

Review: After what seems like an eternity, Warp has finally decided to give Broadcast's Microtonics series a full release. Initially made available only to fans at gigs, the two-volume series saw the band experimenting not with their krautrock-influenced brand of trippy electronic pop, but rather the kind of music concrete and synthesizer experiments that were once the preserve of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Peter Zinovieff and the various modular synthesis fetishists that came in their wake. For that reason, it's not Broadcast at their most accessible, but if you're into vintage synth sounds and admirable experimental electronica, Microtonics makes for hugely enjoyable listening.

Review: Can a duo be a supergroup? You could certainly argue that Belief ticks that box, given that it's a collaboration between two titans of the experimental electronic music scene: LEX Records stalwart Bryan Hollon (Boom Bip, Neon Neon) and Warpaint drummer (and frequent sticks-woman for hire) Stella Mozgawa. Interestingly, they've chosen not to explore the challenging end of their output, but rather deliver a set of "improvisational techno" that draws inspiration from the early '90s work of 808 State, LFO and the like. That means wiggly TB-303 acid lines aplenty, alternately dreamy, dubbed-out and futuristic melodic motifs, sci-fi sounds aplenty, and beats that veer from throbbing four-to-the-floor energy to sweaty breakbeats and off-kilter post-electro grooves. The results are uniformly imaginative, impressive and entertaining.

Review: After years spent delivering heady fusions of deep funk and Afro-funk on Daptone Records, The Budos Band resurface on Diamond West, an imprint founded by two of the band's key members earlier this year. Their first missive on the California-based imprint is as rousing and fiery as ever, with their usual riotous and heavyweight sound being subtly expanded via nods towards psych-funk, Mariachi Band music and the funk-rock sound made famous by Sly and the Family Stone. The six scorching instrumentals on show are all superb, with our current favourites including the punchy 'The Devil Doesn't Care', the trippy solo-laden explosion that is 'KRITIN' and the deliciously psychedelic and suspenseful 'Curled Steel'.

Review: After a recent string of EPs and mini LPs, it's a pleasure to hear Biosphere tantalizing drones and ambient loops across a full-length. The Hilvarenbeek Recordings are a perfect encapsulation of the man's sound and vision, forever iterating his subtle sounds to paint rich and vivid portrays of the world and of his surroundings. The new album, one of his best to date, comes to life thanks to the amalgamation of field recordings, raw talent, and a pensive outlook on the world. A constant thirst for applying sound to vision, and vision to sound. Wonderful, as always.

Review: Eternally Frozen Maple Death sounds like a dramatic way of describing some scientific process of natural mummification, but it's actually the name of this solo album by Italian drummer and composer Andrea Belfi. A tribute to Belfi's late father, who passed away in 2019, the album is composed of four long-form pieces that reflect on the themes of loss, memory, and time, all felt by Belfi in the moments afterwards. Minimal percussion, synthesizers, and tape loops combine across its breadth to form a meditative and melancholic sound, much like the moments of hollow 'frozen' stasis felt in the weeks and months after such an impactful life event.

Review: 'Fragments + Distancing' cultivates a profound sense of meditative stasis with the use of a Moog Mother 32, custom built filters, and various Eurorack modular sequencers, modules, and effects. James continues his proven and unique efforts in creating ethereal tones on this latest collection of songs. Fragments was created by using a method of composition James has been perfecting, where he takes small pieces of unreleased music that he has written stretching over the last 10 years, and runs them through different modes and methods of granular stretching and FFT processing. In some cases, the original audio source was no longer than 20-30 seconds long. PITP is honored to share this collection of music.

Review: Since they emerged in 2019, there's been a fair amount of hype around Black Country, New Road, with one noted media outlet calling them, "the best band in the world right now". While that might be a little over-the-top, there's no doubting that they're a unique proposition - as this much-anticipated debut album on Ninja Tune proves. Stylistically, they're hard to pin down, variously fusing post-punk guitars, fuzzy Stereolab synths and folksy strings with thoughtful, story-telling spoken word vocals (think Arab Strap), restless bass guitar and drums and sax sounds that have more in common with the more experimental end of jazz than alternative rock. It's an usual mixture, but a hugely alluring and surprisingly coherent one. For The First Time is, then, a genuinely impressive debut album.

Review: Social Registry brings you Blood On The Wall's new album 'Liferz'. Having gone from hometown heroes to national fan favourites and critical darlings, the band has earned its reputation as top of the rock heap.
Putting out raucously fun records, this is a portrait of a band at the top of their game - somehow they have managed to get even more awesome.

Review: It's been a solid five years since the epic sounds of America's best plugged-in rock duo last electrified our ears. And be it a reference to the Rolling Stones or even Scorsese, the album turns it up from the start with "Shine A Little Light". Big time rhodes and bluesy folk mentalities are then wrapped up in a low-slung ballad that is "Walk Across The Water". Some fans may still be yearning for the raw energy that catapulted the duo into the limelight with Magic Potion, however high voltage sounds can still be found on tracks like "Under The Gun" and "Lo/Hi" - with gospel elements in this case edging to the fore. Overall there's a slight dance element protruding from this LP in comparison to previous records, begging the question: Can you dig it!

Review: In interviews promoting Fossora, her tenth album, Bjork joked that it started life as "her Clarinet album" - a nod to the set's extensive (and sometimes experimental) use of regular and bass clarinet instrumentation. Really, though, it's her lockdown album, and one partly inspired by the grief she felt following the passing of her mother in 2018. In many ways it's an astonishing set, with the Icelandic artist adding her own distinctive lyrics and vocals - still effortlessly emotional and addictive after all these years - to tracks that brilliantly fuse, mix and mangle red-lined tribal drums, fuzzy IDM style electronics, brass band arrangements, jazz instrumentation and, on the inspired title track, increasingly intense, break-neck dancefloor rhythms that tend towards the gabber end of the spectrum. Unusual, entertaining and utterly beguiling; it's another brilliant album from a genuine one-off.

Review: There's a chance this Liverpudlian four piece will be familiar by now. This, their 11th studio outing, first unveiled as the 1960s slipped into the 70s, is a bonafide epic from an outfit that weren't lacking in epics; in many ways a culmination of their time together, marking the end of their active years and beginning of their legacy. By this stage, then, they've emerged from years spent on the inner journey and time on the outer, space cadeting to the hallucinogenic fuelled tones of "Sgt. Peppers" and "Revolver". Of course, there's still plenty of explorations happening, but the gritty blues rock of opening track "Come Together" really sets the tone. Five decades on, it still sounds great and maybe even better than you remember. Even if you own the original, this anniversary edition is worth having.

Review: When the world seems like it's coming apart at the seams, you can always rely on Belle & Sebastian to lift your spirits. It may have been a while since we last heard from the long-serving Glaswegian combo - A Bit of Previous, their tenth album, is also their first for seven years - but the old magic still remains. While the lyrics deal with all manner of subjects - not least the march of time and the weight of their own musical history - the accompanying music is largely triumphantly cheery, or at the very least the sonic equivalent of Prozac. As a result, standouts are plentiful, with our picks including the glassy-eyed, gospel-tinged Americana-soul fusion of 'If They're Shooting at You', the pedal steel-sporting indie-pop breeze of 'Young and Stupid' and the fuzzy, low-slung, post-punk/indie-pop fusion of 'Unnecessary Drama'.

Review: For all of the "it's like 1995 all over again" analysis that greeted the surprise return of Britpop stars Blur, it would count for nothing if the music they were making was a hollow pastiche of the past. Fortunately, The Ballad of Darren, the band's first new album since 2015, is a giddy blast from the past - and reportedly one recorded in a much more cooperative and good-humoured atmosphere than expected. Fans will immediately feel at home, with tracks such as 'St Charles Square' and 'The Narcissist' offering that now familiar mix of weary vocals, squally guitars, low-slung bass and shuffling drums. Whether or not it's a "return to form" is debatable, but it's certainly a refreshing blast from the past for those came of age in the 1990s (and those inspired by Britpop's messy, lager-fuelled energy).

Review: The jazz and broken beat revival continues apace as we race through 2019, so original pioneers of the sound are rightly coming back into focus. Enter the Brand New Heavies, one of the key acts of the mid-eighties who sound as good on this brand new album as ever. It's littered with funk-licked pop, crystalline acid jazz and singalong songs that range from tender ballads to soaring soul. Angie Stone, Beverley Knight and other vocalists lend their tones along the way, but importantly TBNH is not a revival or self-satisfied celebration. Instead, it feels like a forward-looking and accomplished album that takes the band in subtle new directions.

Review: NYC quartet Body Meta is an interesting proposition. The Work is Slow, their debut album, is tricky to pigeonhole, with the band drawing on their disparate pasts as musicians within the experimental, post-rock, jazz-rock and fusion scenes to deliver winding, unfurling instrumentals that flit between fuzzy, freewheeling intensity and glistening, slow-burn beauty. There's much to enjoy amongst the six tracks on show, from the discordant alt-rock experimentation of 'Horse Flower Storm/Fabuloso', and the squally riffs/mind-altering heaviness of 'Bullitt', to the jazz-flecked, groove-laden psychedelia of 'Rice Tea' and the sun-bright loveliness of 'Ribbon'.

Review: Simon Greene aka. Bonobo is set to put forth yet another album from his own personal ether; 'Fragments' was born from actual sonic 'fragments' that were later repurposed into twelve full 'sonic affirmations'. A later escape into the wilds of California's deserts formed the bulk of this album's downtempo magnum opi; watch out for collabs with a foray of world-downtempo electronica acts including Jamila Woods, O'Flynn and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. One of his most heartfelt albums, expect all from lilting future garage ('Rosewood') to rave-nostalgic slow builds.

Review: Two years on from the release of their fantastic debut album, Wolo So, Balimaya Project returns with more inspired fusions of polyrhythms, percussion, heady horns, "virtuosic kora styles", contemporary jazz and traditional Mande music. It's a uniquely sweet, deep and gently sun-soaked sound - all emotive vocals, tapped out tribal rhythms, frazzled solos, dreamy acoustic guitars, glistening highlife-influenced electric guitars and sultry, soulful intent. The London-based collective has long been hard-to-pigeonhole, and it's this impeccably realised but sonically adventurous approach - along with the quality of their musicianship - that's been the key to their success. When The Dust Settles will only enhance their rising reputation - it really is that good!

Review: Second time around for the Bees' terrific debut album, Sunshine Hit Me, which wowed critics and buyers alike on its initial release way back in 2001. The epitome of a surprise hit with admirably DIY roots - the duo behind it, Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher, famously recorded it in a limited home studio built in the back garden of a residential house on the Isle of Wight - the album has lost none of its allure all these years on. Woozy, summery and lo-fi, with hazy horns and glassy-eyed vocals rising above backing tracks that variously doff a cap to soul, rocksteady, ska, 1960s dream pop, psychedelia and a wealth of subtle global musical influences, Sunshine Hit Me is a warming, smile-inducing treat. This edition also boasts a sextet of bonus cuts, which seem to be a mixture of B-sides and tracks plucked from the pair's archives.

Review: Of all DJ duos currently operating in British dance music, Belfast boys Bicep might be the hardest to pin down (Optimo aside, of course). Certainly, this debut album is not easy to pigeonhole, though it is an enjoyably cohesive listen. This is largely down to two factors; the frequent use of deliciously colorful and loved-up synthesizer parts, and the duo's innate ability to utilize beats tailor-made for dancefloor devastation. So while keen dancefloor historians may notice sly (and not so subtle) nods to '89 rave, U.S house and garage, Italo-disco, late '90s progressive house, jungle and early British hardcore, the album never sounds anything less than a fine set of Bicep tracks. Expect it to be one of the biggest albums of the year.

Review: William Basinski and Janek Schaefer make for a long distance collaboration on this much anticipated new album. It has taken the best part of eight years from conception to final execution but that more than proves worth the wait. Time and duration are recurring themes in their work and during the pandemic yeas in particular those were very much skewed and warped for us all. ". . . on reflection" casts itself free from temporal restraints with delicate piano passages, flickering melodies and drawn out drones that really sink you in deep.

Review: He may be a shoegaze and dream-pop legend, but sometime Ride guitarist and songwriter Andy Bell has spent much of the last few years making ultra-immersive, out-there ambient soundscapes that are as mind-soothing as they are enveloping and, at times, overwhelming. Tidal Love Numbers, his latest album, once again puts his gorgeous, layered guitar playing front and centre, with collaborators Masal (a duo from Essex) providing complimentary harp, synth and drum sounds. They call the resultant four tracks "ambient, astral jazz". That's a fairly apt description, with the four stretched-out tracks sitting somewhere between Bell's own ambient work, the ambient-Americana of Jonny Nash, and the open-minded experiments of 21st century harpists such as Zeena Parkins.

Review: When tasked with compiling his first After Dark compilation for eight years, musical font-of-all-knowledge Bill Brewster decided to go "slow and low", picking an impressively eclectic collection of low-tempo outings old and new. The results are undeniably impressive, with Brewster serving up an entertaining and eye-opening mixture of twinkling, jazz-flecked electronica (T.O.E), synth-laden proto-Balearic dreaminess (Island Band), Weatherall-esque dark disco psychedelia (Brewster's Hotel Motel project remixing Jeb Loy Nichols), squelchy nu-disco deepness (Ray Mang dubbing out Khruangbin), acid-flecked revivalist proto-house (Rhythm Plate), little-known, 80s soul era synth-pop (Debbie & The Code), future Balearic anthems (Nail re-editing Gilbert O'Sullivan), saucer-eyed, piano-sporting space house (Gus Patterson) and ultra-deep electro (Carl Finlow). As usual, Brewster has largely avoided familiar favourites, instead showcasing obscurities that deserve wider attention.

Review: Surgeon and Regis have been collaborating as British Murder Boys for decades, though in recent times it's tended to take the form of occasional live performances. Like their previous album, 2014's "Live In Tokyo", "Fire In The Still Air" is a non-stop recording of a live performance - in this case one that formed part of Berlin's Atonal Festival last August. It's a thrilling and largely breathless excursion; a non-stop, 51-minute ride in which Surgeon handles beats and electronics, and Regis processed sounds and growling, gravel-voiced vocals. The duo's techno credentials shine through, of course, but it's their industrial and EBM inspirations that come to the fore throughout. For much of the set, they come across like an updated, techno-propelled re-incarnation of early '80s Cabaret Voltaire, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Review: Beyonce joins Drake in the house-via-Baltimore club 'renaissance', which has seen to a good deal of major hip-hop & R&B artists working in the styles over the course of entire albums and mixtapes. This being the queen of pop's first album in over six years, some naysayers say songs like 'Break My Soul' (filled with 90s organ and downtempo kicks and snares a-la Robin S) and 'Energy' (packed with batida stylings) are paint-by-numbers, but we beg to differ; for Beyonce, it's a polyglot of reinventory music.

Review: Following a string of singles on Timmion and its lesser-celebrated Stylart Records offshoot, Jonny Benavidez offers up his debut album, My Echo, Shadow & Me. In keeping with Timmion's successful formula, Benavidez is accompanied by the label's sensational (and undeniably authentic-sounding) house band, Cold Diamond & Mink, for a stroll through alternatively loved-up, heartbroken and irresistibly funky soul songs inspired by records from the 1960s. It's a winning formula all told, made even more special and rewarding not by Cold Diamond & Mink's backing and production - which is as good as ever - but the sensationally soulful and sensitive nature of Benavidez's voice.

Review: Bleachers return with their self-titled new album, released via Dirty Hit. Following up their debut album Strange Desire in 2014, the band are seen to continue building on a huge, passionate following across three studio albums, renowned for their impressive live show and infectious camaraderie. There's a rich depth to the sound on Bleachers, laid out in bright, soulful technicolour. The album is frontman Antonoff's distinctly New Jersey take on the bizarre sensory contradictions of modern life, on his position in culture, and the things he cares about. Sonically, it's sad, it's joyful, it's music for driving on the highway to, for crying to and for dancing to at weddings. There's something reassuringly touchable and concrete about its sentiment: exist in crazy times but remember what counts.

Review: When he first rose to prominence as a progressive house artist in the mid 1990s, Brian "BT" Transeau was something of a trailblazer: a classically trained artist who created a mixture of grandiose ambient compositions and dancefloor fare smothered in spiraling orchestration. "Between Here & You", his latest album, falls in the former category, offering an evocative journey through ambient sound worlds every bit as alluring as his earliest work. Tracks drift, pulse and slowly unfurl, with Transeau mixing subtle orchestration and disconnected female voices with impeccably atmospheric electronics and copious amounts of reverb and delay. In other words, its horizontal music that's best enjoyed with the lights off and your eyes closed.

Review: Having previously successfully turned her hand to house and disco - many of our top pop performers have always been shapeshifting musical magpies (hello Madonna) - Beyonce Knowles Carter has now delved into the world of country music. No doubt you'll be bored of the endless discourse around Cowboy Carter, but that doesn't stop it from being a genuinely good album - a brilliant fusion of neo-soul, r&b and, yes, country music instrumentation that wisely leaves Beyonce's incredible voice front and centre. There are some genuinely notable covers - see her takes on the Beatles 'Blackbird' and Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' (featuring an introduction from her Dollyness) stand out - but the most striking songs are by and large her own work. For proof, see 'American Requiem', 'Most Wanted' (with Miley Cyrus), 'Sweet Honey Buckin' (with Shaboozy) and 'Tyrant'.

Review: The traditonal way to start a review of any Micko Westmoreland release - and with as is to point out that he's best known for playing Jack Fairey in the mock glam documentary Velvet Goldmine, but with a second strong album in his new, flanked -by-legends incarnation and some highly memorable video promos featuring a succession of alternativ ecomedy greats, that could well be changing. Expect spiky English podst-punk songwriting a la XTC or even Pulp, with recent singles 'Autosexual' and 'What's In A Name' (which includes guest vocals from Kevin Eldon numbering among the highligths.

Review: British Sea Power's Do You Like Rock Music? is a triumphant exploration of anthemic rock soundscapes. Released in 2008, the album captures the band's distinctive blend of indie rock, post-punk, and art-rock influences. The tracks unfold with a dynamic energy, featuring soaring guitar riffs, atmospheric arrangements, and emotionally charged lyrics. Standout songs like 'Waving Flags' showcase their ability to create powerful, stadium-worthy moments, while the album as a whole exemplifies British Sea Power's penchant for crafting a cohesive sonic journey. As such this record solidified the band's reputation for delivering ambitious and compelling musical narratives, and this deluxe version contains an additional ten tracks culled from radio sessions and B-sides.

Review: Past Inside The Present welcomes the excellent pairing of Brock Van Wey aka Bvdub and vocalists and instrumentalist Lacey Harris aka Inquiri for a brilliantly escapist new ambient EP, Destroyesterday. They combine to majestic effect with 'All The Weight Of The World' a swirling soundtrack with vocals floating amidst the melancholic pads. 'Alone In Crimson' is more textural and suspenseful and 'Please Let Go & Let Me Hold You' then has the spoken word vocals front and centre as intense synth crescendos sweep you up. The title cut is a hypnagogic delight that leaves you adrift in your own dreams.

Review: Saxophonist Binker Golding and Moses Boyd made a huge impression with their earliest collaborative releases, winning the 'Best U.K Jazz Act' gong at the 2016 Jazz FM Awards. Their periodic albums since, which explore improvised and semi-improvised free-jazz territory, have been uniformly excellent and their latest, the duo's first for two years, is no exception. They recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, under the supervision of GRAMMY-winning producer Hugh Padgam, with guest Max Luthert joining in with tape loops and electronics. The result is a magical set full of alternately dreamy and alien-sounding electronic textures, loose-limbed, impeccably recorded jazz drums (you feel like you're sat behind the drum kit, such is the quality of the stereo panning) and winding, expressive, often lengthy sax improvisations. Magical music!

Review: Of all the artists past and present who claim to let their music do their talking for them, Burial is one of the elite band of whom this truly is the case. In fact, so reluctant is he to engage with the cult-of-personality hoopla that surrounds almost every modern producer and musician of merit, that he remains a genuine recluse; he has never appeared live, only one obliquely-angled publicity photograph is known to exist, and the number of interviews he has given can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet despite this, his music speaks loud and wide, and the world has been listening ever since his 'South London Boroughs' EP debut on Hyperdub in March 2005. His eponymous album, which began life as a low-key release in May 2006, is now widely regarded as the benchmark release of the ever-widening dubstep genre, picking up unanimous critical acclaim along the way, and ending the year heavily featured in many 'best of' polls. Now Burial returns with 'Untrue', a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut's crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of 'Archangel', 'Near Dark' and 'Ghost Hardware', before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where 'Burial' first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, 'Untrue' is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial's sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album's last track 'Raver'. Forget central heating the radioactivity of this album is all that you'll need to keep you warm this winter. 'Untrue' is available as full 13 track digipack CD, including recent underground hit 'Ghost Hardware', and 9 track DJ friendly double vinyl set, from which some of the beatless pieces have been edited.

Review: Over the last couple of years, author Justin Hopper has joined folk musician Sharron Kraus and vintage synthesizer fetishists Belbury Poly on stage to narrate sections of his 2017 novel "Old Weird Albion" - a "poetical, autobiographical and psycho-geographical account" of his experiences at Chanctonbury Ring in West Sussex. This album is, in effect, an extended re-recording of those performances, with Hopper reading choice excerpts from his book over an inspired fusion of traditional folk tropes - think recorder, flute, and drifting female vocals - atmospheric field recordings and 1970s style electronic instrumentation. Given that these synths have largely been used to re-record tudor style Baroque tunes (think "Greensleeves" and you're close), the results are not only delightfully eccentric but also admirably unique.

Review: As Biosphere, Norwegian producer Geir Jenssen pretty much defined a whole genre of ambient music across several seminal albums. In 2011, his N Plants outing was another critically acclaimed one that took inspiration from the Japanese post-war economic miracle. Every track on the album is named after a Japanese nuclear plant and features a warm, diffuse glow that never leaves you. Rhythms are suggested by the rippling of synths or tumbling of chords as distant hues, soft glow keys and fuzzy vinyl crackle all bring each track to life in a way that makes it as good in the foreground as the background.

Review: Geir Jennsen returns as Biosphere, one of the most enduring names in Norwegian electronic music and by now synonymous with elegant, plaintive ambient of the highest calibre. Inland Delta is made up of nine new musical pieces recorded between 2022 and 2023, primarily focused on improvised performance on a range of vintage keyboards recently restored to pristine condition. As lead track 'Franklin's Dream' demonstrates, there's space for traditional piano as well as the looming drones we know and love Biosphere for, all composed on the fly with a keen sense of harmony that comes from Jenssen's vast experience in this corner of experimental music.

Review: Although it was reportedly recorded in a "cabin in the woods" and fuelled by "nights listening to the Grateful Dead", Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart's latest album is a far more drowsy, dreamy and immersive affair than you might expect. Produced by label-mate Cate Le Bon (who also contributed instrumentation), Flying Wig somehow sounds contemporary despite being rooted in a mix of the woozy sound-worlds of Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel's more downbeat mid-80s moments, classic sixties folk-rock and the kind of heart-aching, country-tinged AOR ballads that were once a feature of late-night AM radio. It's beautiful and beguiling, basically, and never wavers from its distinct sonic blueprint.

Review: A live double album 2xCD + DVD combo from our sugar-coated punk heroes Buzzcocks, recorded at London's iconic Shepherds Bush Empire in 2003 whilst promoting their self-titled comeback album. Boasting new cuts from said LP such as 'Jerk', 'Wake Up Call', and, 'Driving You Insane', peppered amongst essential classics like 'I Don't Mind', 'Fast Cars', 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have)?' and 'I Don't Know What to Do with My Life', this iteration of the group featured Tony Barber on bass and Philip Barker on drums, accompanying the late great Pete Shelley and the now-bandleader Steve Diggle. 32 doses of saccharine hooks, fuzzy guitars and powerpop punk beauty transmitted from over two decades ago directly to your ear canals.