Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The Modfather Paul Weller has gone back to his Northern Soul roots for "Are You Trying To Be Lonely?", recorded with artist Andy Lewis and released on the Acid Jazz label. Lewis, considered an arbiter of the nu-soul sound popularised by contemporaries such as Amy Winehouse and Candie Payne, made his name in the nineties as the original DJ at the legendary Blow Up club in Wardour Street.

Review: Muller/Patton appear on Vexin with the 'How's It Done EP'; a limited edition 7" featuring 3 tracks
that meld Beach Boys harmonies with Ben Folds keyboard tones, all with a Beatles sheen.

Review: Here are some of the facts. Palladium formed last September, acquaintances through gruelling tours on the session musician circuit. They make music that is epic, joyful and ludicrous, bringing to mind things that you love, and things that might make you feel rather uneasy: Pink Floyd, The Police, Fleetwood Mac's "Tango In The Night", Steely Dan, Toto, Stevie Wonder, Hall & Oates and The Who in the early 70's. Better still, they wear some of the oddest clothes on earth: tweed jackets, flowery shirts, dangly earrings, bleached hair and golf visors (yep, all at once). On paper they sound like the worst band on earth, right? But then who ever enjoyed a band on paper? They have just finished recording their debut album in LA with Tony Hoffer (Kooks, Fratellis, Beck). Palladium consists of Peter, Rufio, Fez and Rocky - four supernaturally talented musicians who look like they got lost in fancy dress cupboard, delivering a barrage of positive vibes. Wasn't rock 'n' roll always supposed to be about breaking the rules? Anyway, their new single, "Happy Hour", is a hot slice of rocktastic music.

Review: Las Vegas quartet Panic! At The Disco are set to release their second commercial single from their debut album. 'Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off' will be released on July 31st and available on 2 x CD & 7'' picture disc vinyl. Their debut album 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out' hit the stores in February and has already gone gold in the UK and is still flying off the shelves...the band have also sold out two headline dates at Brixton Academy this Autumn with a third date added. On their most recent headline tour the band received a phenomenal response from the UK crowds.

Review: Parka's "Disco Dancer" was first released in 2006. Fan's have been calling for the re-release of this sold out single ever since. Always eager to please their legion of fans, Parka re-recorded the track to produce a new, meatier version. Don't miss this Jeepster release.

Review: The return of Peaches. A prelude to her forthcoming album 'Impeach My Bush'. Peaches is a phenomena; the self-made, self-produced, do-it-yourself leader of the electro punk movement and mistress of the original dirty lyrical classic (check 'Fu*k The Pain Away' and 'Shake Yer Dix' for confirmation). Unique with her minimal pumping beats and loved by true innovators as diverse as Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Bjork, Josh Homme, Lil Kim, Marilyn Manson, Kelis, 2 Many DJs, M.I.A. and LCD Soundsystem not to mention the entire fashion and art world. Her live shows are legendary - a one-woman Kiss concert that has left the pop world in awe. Well, she hasn't cleaned up her act with her new release, 'Impeach My Bush', you'll be heartened to hear. A massive record, as ambitious as ever - it's pure Peaches. Recorded at Jeff Porcaro's (the drummer from Toto, no less) old self-built studio in Laurel Canyon, LA, the guests who dropped by to party and play on the record include Joan Jett (who features on vocals and guitar on the raw rock of 'You Love It'), Josh Homme and Feist (who both appear on 'Give 'Er'). Also using the facilities were Darlin' Dave Catching and Brian "Big Hands" O'Conner (Eagles Of Death Metal), who both appear on 'You Love It'. In addition, Samantha Maloney (Hole, Courtney Love band, Motley Crue, Eagles Of Death Metal) lent her live drumming for some album tracks ('Give 'Er', 'Do Ya', 'You Love It').

Review: Peeping Tom is Mike Patton's most accessible work since his days in Faith No More, and "Mojo" is the lead single off the acclaimed "Peeping Tom" album (five years in the making!). This is part one in a series of collaborative projects Patton is planning to release under the Peeping Tom umbrella. Patton teams up with his San Francisco Bay Area running buddy Dan "The Automator" Nakamura for the effortlessly contagious music behind the single, while Rahzel (beat boxer from the Roots) throws in some hard rhymes on the back of his throaty percussion, allowing Patton to play grand conductor and front man par excellence. "Mojo" will be available on a limited edition of 1000 seven inch on two different mind-bending coloured vinyls and CD single. Both formats feature an exclusive non-album track written by a solo Patton called "Preschool" which is as inventive as it is fun. Fans of Patton and Peeping Tom will be flipping out to get their hands on this new song.

Review: This 7" release provides a first taste of Pepe Deluxé's forthcoming album 'Spare Time Machine', scheduled for release in May. The sight of most bands limping into the ring for album three is painful to watch: bruised and bloodied, lacking imagination and that killer (right) hook, the crowd can hear the canvas beckoning. To see Pepe Deluxé, the Finnish duo who thrive on invention and reinvention, come out floating and stinging like the proverbial butterfly and bee is, conversely, a sight to behold. A blast of fierce and feline garage rock, Catskills 'Pussy Cat Rock', and it's hauntingly psychedelic flipside, hint at the musical delights awaiting on the forthcoming album. Combining Pepe's trademark offbeat sonic research with a lyricism of equal strangeness and wonder. Happily, both studio experimentation and lyrical flights of fancy are tethered to red-blooded funk-rock from a future-past dimension where King Crimson are led by Clyde Stubblefield and get down with primetime Lee Hazelwood.

Review: This official release on Parlophone features the album version of "Numb" along with its acappella. Featured on the flip is a Ewan Pearson vocal remix of "Psychological".

Review: Peter, Bjorn & John formed in Stockholm in the late 90s. They have released two albums prior to the forthcoming album "Writers Block" which is released on 24th July on Wichita Records. "Young Folks" is the first single to be taken from the new album and is released in the UK on Wichita Records on 17th July 2006. "Young Folks" is a duet featuring Swedish songstress, Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes on vocals. It's a taste of summer, the perfect uplifting pop song that also boasts some of the best whistling this side of the dock of the bay. Peter Bjorn and John chose Victoria from The Concretes for this duet because they all instantly and unanimously agreed they love her voice. It effortlessly compliments the track with her breezy nico-esque style.

Review: You better believe it: Hamburg's Mocambo imprint has been going string since 1996, and the label has always been a reliable source of steely, slap-bass funk, boogie-leaning disco, and soul-induced pop. It's a new artist this time, France's Pigalle Connection, who drops "Paris Breakdown", a solid, 70's-driven instrumental missile with awesome horns, followed swiftly by the naughtier and sexier guitar fuzz of "Milano Drive". Last and certainly not least is the sublime rhythmic incantation that is "Pigalle Theme", a groovy, messy little jam that woke us the hell up this morn'. Sick business.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record warped with very light surface marks/scratches, but otherwise in perfect working condition***


s. Here's the next release from the Berlin based collective of music aficionados known as Pina. Another limited and lovely 7" platform for club-ready flipped classics. There is a very familiar hook on the A-side cut 'Disco Bass' which, like its name suggests, is a rolling and low-end driven funk jam that's sure to get those heads down on the dancefloor. On the flip, the dub shows more restraint but allows all the life-affirming soul power to fully shine though - tip!

Review: "Meds" is the third single from Placebo's latest studio album of the same name. A live favourite, and arguably the strongest from the album "Meds" features Alison Mosshart (aka VV from The Kills). The single comes with two brand new B-sides.

Review: Featuring Ghostface Killah and Spank Rock, lazy beats underpin "Crambodia", a release from the Philadelphia four-piece: Plazdick Liddel, Plastik Lital, Crapstick Shittle, Plizzy, or quite plainly Plastic Little. They are a hip-hop group from Philly that formed in the summer of 2001. With this line up, Plastic Little took the DIY aesthetic and pretty much bumrushed the music scene along the east coast of the US. They quickly surpassed many local Philly rap acts in notoriety because Plastic Little is dope ass, funky ass shit. But it's not just the humour that sells Plastic Little, there is a biting critique of society at large and an acerbic wit and intelligence that comes with their brand of party music. It's like three parts "Shake Your Ass" and four parts "F**k You". So while it may be party, drugs, drinks and bitches on one level with their music, there is a larger stew brewing under the surface - or a greater picture just behind the curtain. Pick which ever metaphor you prefer.

Review: Emotional Rescue returns to early 1980s Manchester with the previously unreleased music of Michael James Pollard and his beautiful distillation of indie pop in Too Confusing and bedsit cover version of Ashford and Simpson's Surrender.

While studying photography at Manchester Polytechnic, (MJ) Pollard lived and played in a band in a ramshackle house in Walley Range. In the cellar studio he would write and record his own songs using their guitars, fretless bass and keys, as well as his own Casio VL-Tone VL-1 and Simmons Clap Trap to augment his drums onto a 4 track TEAC.

By 1983, and now solo, he was recording out of Dislocation Dance's studio (ERC111), had secured a Peel Session and via Factory Records' Lindsay Reade, was discussing with Fundacao Atlantica about releasing an album.

Working with singer Sioux Goddard as a duo, they put down 8 songs in 2 weeks in summer '84. However, Fundacao Atlantica's financial difficulties and soon closure meant the songs were lost until now.

Recovered off the original tapes and lovingly restored, Too Confusing captures the optimism of the sessions, a summer love melody of forlorn youth. Surrender accompanies, recorded back in that cellar in '81, with friend Stephanie Danziger on vocals, its lo-fi simplicity is a perfect take on an all-time classic, making this a newly prized gem of British indie pop history.

Review: Polytechnic are a force of mesmerising sun-drenched melodies, single-handedly pushing Manchester that little bit closer to the equator - a truly uplifting and shimmering sound. Following their Ultra-Limited sold out Transgresive Records debut "Won't You Come Around", perhaps the label's fastest selling 7", Polytechnic return with the anthemic "Pep", the definitive studio version of the live and myspace favourite! The band have been busy, supporting the likes of The Strokes, Breeders, Doves and Nine Black Alps and are now assaulting the Summer festivals! With radio support from Zane, Lamacq and John Kennedy's single of the week, and previous support and forthcoming features in NME, Dazed and Confused, Clash and Disorder, Pep should be the single to push the band into the greater consciousness!

Review: Polytechnic are a force of mesmerising sun-drenched melodies, single-handedly pushing Manchester that little bit closer to the equator - a truly uplifting and shimmering sound. Following their Ultra-Limited sold out Transgresive Records debut "Won't You Come Around", perhaps the label's fastest selling 7", Polytechnic return with the anthemic "Pep", the definitive studio version of the live and myspace favourite! The band have been busy, supporting the likes of The Strokes, Breeders, Doves and Nine Black Alps and are now assaulting the Summer festivals! With radio support from Zane, Lamacq and John Kennedy's single of the week, and previous support and forthcoming features in NME, Dazed and Confused, Clash and Disorder, Pep should be the single to push the band into the greater consciousness!

Review: What is great pop music? Something that when you hear it sounds utterly alien and yet utterly familiar, something which lodges in your head in such a way that it feels like it's been there all along, a false memory syndrome of rhythm and harmony, a perfect recollection of the best sex you never had. Ladies and gents, please welcome Pop Levi. If you're not familiar with him yet you soon will be. A Prince-sized pixie, channelling Bolan and Hendrix, a wide-eyed John Lennon with an interest in magic and androgyny, the man could have few better calling cards than "Sugar Assault Me Now," a surreal and utterly heartfelt plea for some sweet, sweet loving. Opening up with rolling drums and hand claps before a filthy fuzz-bass riff is joined by Blueberry Hill-rhythmed guitar, Pop Levi takes this as a jump off point for him to yelp, bark and falsetto his plea for some seriously sticky skin-on-skin action. Check the extended version for a tune that promises to be a smash on indie rock dancefloors, where we fully expect emo-boys to be found humping the furniture and each other's legs and turning up the following week in a nice sparkly blouse they just picked up at Top Shop. When you've cleaned up your bodily fluids, check out b-side, "Cyan Moan" is a track where Levi delineates the links between bluegrass and psychedelic whimsy on this utterly beautiful, wide-eyed nursery rhyme. Throw in alternate versions of "Sugar Assault Me Now" and previous EP lead track, "Blue Honey" and "From The Day That You Were Born" and you have a larder full of finest quality high-calorie snacks.

Review: Pop Levi has led what one might describe as a "melodic" life. From childhood his life has been steeped in music. He took up piano at age 3, joined a gospel choir at 7, and started record collecting at 9 just prior to writing his first song. It was a precocious start for an artist who has proved to be a prodigious talent. This English born, LA based multi-instrumentalist was a founder member of avant-garde rock collective Super Numeri before embarking on a global roller coaster ride as bassist with electro pioneers Ladytron. All the while he's been perfecting his modern spin on rock and soul, releasing two singles on the Trons Invicta Hi-Fi label, and carefully crafting his debut solo album. September 2006 sees the release of his first EP on Counter Records. Drawing inspiration from such luminaries as Van Dyke Parks, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye and Syd Barrett, Levi creates his own brand of gloriously funky alt-rock, meticulously piecing together his kaleidoscopic sound from recordings he's compiled over a ten-year period. The roar of a motorcycle and the Bolan-esque swagger of title track "Blue Honey", kicks off this five track EP. Track 2 "A Style Called Crying Chic" sees Levi pay tribute to the sun drenched sounds of 60s west coast America before he struts his stuff on the Zeppelin-heavy guitar riffs of "Mournin' Light". Penultimate song "Baby Again" (Midnight Version) has a looser, more experimental feel, prior to more close-vocal harmonising and finger clicking beats from Levi on an alternate recording of album track "Skip Ghetto" (Echo Park version).

Review: Pot Tac/Knip's 'Gallist' from the Blank label features bootleg ragga booty in the mood of the punchline.

Review: This DFA label release, "Crackerjack Docker", is by Prinzhorn Dance School. This single exemplifies the unique, raw and natural simplicity of the music that Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn create. Drums, bass and wiry guitar are enjoined in a delicate balancing act where what isn't happening, the space and silence, is just as important as what is.

Review: A budget-priced teaser 7-inch for next Spring's 'Dirty Moons' double album, for which recording began in 1995! This is the group's first new release in 10 years. Maximum R&R that straddles all sub-genres while informed by old R&B and plenty of bad attitude.

Review: Protokoll are a four piece indie rock band with a healthy dose of electronica hailing from Boston, USA. They were one of the stand-out bands at this year's SXSW festival. "My favourite band of SXSW. Like the Rapture meets the Chameleons. My tip for 2006" said Steve Lamacq. This is their debut single. Whilst obvious influences are the 80s English sounds of bands like Bauhaus and Joy Division, they fit today somewhere between Editors and Bloc Party. The A-side 2Moving Forwards" is a cross between post punk and 80s pop with a chorus like the Killers introduced by Thin Lizzy twin guitars. The B-side "Holy Divine" is a moodier bass driven gloom rock affair.

Review: Having released chart-topping refixes featuring the likes of Kelis, Damian Marley and Ms Dynamite, Punchline Records are the UK's hottest dancehall/r&b remix imprint. The label returns with two more big tunes for autumn 2006, both produced by the notorious Heatwave Collective and carefully crafted for maximum dancefloor destruction. First up, a timely dancehall reworking of one of the biggest tunes of the year, Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy'. This time round it's all about dancing the crazy hype as Heatwave bring in their MC Rubi Dan alongside TOK, Beenie Man and x-amount of FX and vocal samples. Some slick cut-ups add an extra ragga twist to the riddim to make this a surefire club hit. On the flip, there's a refix of one of the all time great r&b club tracks, Mary J Blige's 'Family Affair'. It's expertly blended with the Carlton Patterson's foundation reggae riddim 'It's Raining' (aka 'Weatherman'), unearthed from the vaults to provide a skanking take on this classic vocal.