Back catalogue: All genres

Review: American psychedelic soul band Monophonics, together with lead vocalist Kelly Finnigan, are back once more with the single version of their most recent album highlight, the vocal hooker-inner 'Love You Better'. The band's tight instrumentation are laid down rather effortlessly, and come as testament to their ability to shine through a strongly warm, lo-fi sound. Lyrically, the song is bittersweet, with both Finnigan's solos and choral backing vocals pining after what could've been, despite the song commanding a new-leafy, life-goes-on mood of confidence.

Review: For fans of 60s/70s soul, American Psych-Soul band Monophonics have released another 45 from their acclaimed 2022 album 'Sage Motel'. Frontman and LA native, Kelly Finnigan is the conductor of this train taking the listener through a journey of Bay-area psych guitars, 60s soul trumpets and Motown influences sprinkled here and there, printed on a limited swirled 7" disc. Side B's 'Crash & Burn' is the mellow ballad that succeeds Side A's 'Warpaint', originally the ninth track on the ten-track LP. A sombre, wistful track that sees Finnigan's keyboard skills on full display, the psychedelic elements taking over, having an element of St Vincent's groovy 2021 album 'Daddy's Home' in its warbling synths and hippie-esque percussion. You don't know whether you want to cry to it or get high to it, or both.

Review: Here comes Emotional Rescue and Konduko's last in their series of Noel Williams/King Sporty reissues, this time looking at later electro productions and the hip-hop/boogie influenced 'Sun Country'. Vocals and co-production come from Williams' long-time partner Betty Wright and as well as a vocal and instrumental mix there's a longform remix by Bay Area disco dub stalwarts, 40 Thieves.
By this point in his career, the godfather of Miami Bass had travelled a long way from his Jamaican roots in reggae and soul, paying homage to the warm climbs of the Sunshine State and laying down a much copied template using the TR-808 drum machine create the electronic emulations of the breakbeat, claps accenting the backbeat and trademark low frequencies shaking the floorboards. The instrumental stretches the arrangement, emphasising the interplay between electronics, bass, vocal samples, scratching and fx, the voice transformed into a percussive element in its own right. The flip sees 40 Thieves flexing their understated understanding of electro funk, making for a rounded, generation-jumping package.

Review: Kilometre Club lands on the Indianapolis label Healing Sound Propagandist with a collection of sounds made using only one piece of gear, the Squier Bass VI, with the assistance of guitar pedals. Each one is a pure and cathartic meditation on minimalist drones that are deft and wispy. The compositions are smartly layered up and slowly ascend to the heavens with subtle spaces between notes and long tails making their mark on your heat. Says the artist, "this is an album for floating away while calling out vowels in reverse alphabetical order" - and we love it.

Review: There's a definite sense of "time and place" throughout John Carrol Kirby's latest album, Blowout. He recorded it all during a recent trip to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, "between 5am wake-up calls from orpopendola birds and psychedelic sunsets", drawing inspiration from the people, music and nature that surrounded him. It's certainly a joyful and colourful affair - despite his insistence that it's about "enjoying yourself even though life is tough, before the candle blows out" - with Kirby mixing sparkling, often kaleidoscopic 1980s electrofunk synth sounds with warming grooves, pastoral woodwind instrumentation, and musical motifs that draw on his love of jazz-funk and fusion. It's basically a sensationally summery affair whose mostly subtly nods to Costa Rican musical culture only enhance the album.