Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Nacho Marco and Garen Moreno have not released much music as Jet Hammer - just two singles in a decade, in fact - but what they have put out is genuinely superb. Their latest EP, an expansive collection of retro-futurist gems inspired by 12" mixes of the 1980s, is similarly impressive. For proof, check opener 'Last Night', which sounds like the missing link between Italo-disco and the Cure; the Bobby Orlando-era Pet Shop Boys meets New Order wonder of 'How It Started'; and 'On Your Side (Instrumental Version)', which adds an early UK acid house veneer to the shimmering, club-ready extended synth-pop jams of the late '80s. Throw in an alternative new wave/post-punk style '1981 Mix' of 'Last Night', and you have an indispensable package.

Review: It's hard to untangle this hopelessly sad anthem from the equally tragic death of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, but if we had to put a bet on it we'd say it would still be hailed as the masterpiece it is now without those unfortunate events. Coming, as it did, after the two albums from the band, it's the perfect half way house between their powerful, guitar-powered sound and the futuristic synthesiser waves that informed New Order not long after. Plus, it's a heartbreakingly brilliant song with lyrics that have spoken to subsequent generations without fail.

Review: Warner has worked on a run of Joy Division reissues this month and after their most famous "Love Will Tear Us Apart" comes "Transmission" which is not far behind. A 2020 Digital Remaster reboots the sounds but retains the grit and urgency of the original, which is a surging post-punk anthem filled with angst but also a sense of vulnerability and melancholy that makes it so much more enduring. "Novelty" on the flip has a broken beat line, gauzy guitar riffs and is underpinned by an excellent insistent baseline that never lets up.

Review: Melbourne-via-Blue Mountains singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin's new album Pre Pleasure was recorded in Montreal with co-producer Marcus Paquin, who has worked with the likes of The Weather Station and The National. Her reputation as a fine - and direct - lyricist is cemented now and together with bassist Ben Whiteley and guitarist Will Kidman, she's made an album that further enhances it. Having been penned after getting back from her latest giant tour, it perhaps understandably addresses relationships and work-life balance. both featureing. Plenty of new terrain is explored making this another fine record.

Review: Jay Wobble is the former bassist with Public Image Ltd of course, but is also a visionary in his own right. This new album finds him revisiting some old ground: it takes him back to influential PiL 1979 album Metal Box, which he wholly reinvents with a load of new and sophisticated dub takes with all new and mind expanding production. Alongside the original tunes are two bonus cuts which are new versions of originals from the first ever PiL album. It adds up to a timelsss fusion of new and old indie and dub from this masterful guitarist.

Review: You have to hand it to Japan - the English new wave band, not the country. Despite only having released two (admittedly very successful) albums before 1979's Quiet Life, the group really knew what they wanted by this point. So much so they enlisted the legendary disco creator Giorgio Moroder to produce standalone single 'Life In Toyko', setting out a new stylistic blueprint moving from glam rock to synth, only to drop the revered producer before hitting the studio to make this record.

In the end that duty fell on Paul Hunter (Roxy Music, Slade) and Simon Robert Napier-Bell (Ultravox, Marc Bolan), and the result was a Gold record selling well over 100,000 copies upon release. Now forming the centrepiece for this epic special edition box set, which boasts a host of remixes, live versions and Moroder's take on 'Life In Tokyo', you'd be crazy to miss out.

Review: Critically acclaimed artist The Japanese House has finally dropped a long-awaited second album, In the End It Always Does. Fans will already know it for lead single 'Boyhood', and might know that the record is all about contradictions - beginnings and endings, falling in and out of love, the mundane and the obsessive. It is four years since the hugely venerated debut and finds Bain not only one in more on her signature sound but also heading into more of a pop realm away from the indie and rock she emerged playing. This exclusive version comes on limited yellow vinyl.

Review: There's multi-talented, and then multi-talented. John Foxx is credited as singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer, first making a name for himself up front of the new wave pioneers Ultravox (eventually handing the reigns over to Midge Ure), he presided over a period in the band's history that was less commercially successful, but incredibly forward thinking musically. This desire to keep pushing boundaries has rung true across Foxx's entire - and extensive - oeuvre, as Annexe, one of his solo efforts, goes to show. A pervading sense of darkness carries many of the tracks 'Dance With Me' being just one example, which contrasts the polished, highly synthesised productions, veering from the complex percussive patterns of 'Wings & A Wind' to the sparse, ghostly, near-spoken word operatics of 'A Woman On A Stairway'. Coldwave, some might call it, others would just say John Foxx.

Review: What is left to be written about the debut Joy Division album that hasn't been written already? Well, not much except to say if you've never heard it, you must. This is the more raw of the two studio albums, powered mainly by the foundations laid down by bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. But although the rudimentary electronic experimentalism of its successor Closer are missing - with the possible exception of 'She's Lost Control' - Martin Hannett's production job creates an uneasy world of magical reverbs and echoes that lure in the listener. From its iconic, Peter Saville sleeve to classic songs like 'Shadowplay' and 'Interzone' - which started life as a cover of Nolan Porter's Northern Soul cult hit 'Keep On Keeping On' - this is the template that effectively launched a thousand bands, from indie and post punk to goth and beyond.

Review: Just Mustard's second album is her first for Partisan Records. It is a coherent but widescreen exploration across 10 tracks that all add up to a great whole. Her magic vocals, scything guitars and brooding rock drums all make for intense and scintillant listening. Tracks like 'Seed' roll up and down on lumpy drums with gauzy guitar textures, while there is a more ethereal sound to 'Early' which floats up amongst the stars. 'In Shade' has a catchy post punk rhythm and 'Sore' is dense and caustic shoegaze style rock that drags you with it into a world of questions.