Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Prolific composer and ambient explorer Sarah Davachi presents a new, longform commissioned work on her own Late Music label. 'Long Gradus' was the result of an invitation to Quator Bozzini's Composer's Kitchen residency in the Netherlands, which was supposed to take place in 2020 but was unsurprisingly postponed, giving rise to an extended composition time. While Davachi has explained the composition could be performed on a number of different orchestral arrangements, she considers the string quartet version, captured on this double-disc pressing, as the definitive one. Slow and sustained, and quietly captivating, it's another marvel from one of the greatest composers of the modern age.

Review: The Hold Up is the second album from the QOW Trio, which is a fantastic and multi-generational jazz band. Members include the award-winning young saxophone yahoo Riley Stone-Lonergan as well as the decorated British jazz vet Spike Wells on drums, plus some sublime bass from multi-genre maestro and bandleader Eddie Mye. They came together after a chance meeting in Brighton and share an appreciation for big-toned tenors so bring that along with a fine attitude towards fearless exploration on this risk-taking new album which is full of great swing and plenty of serious melodies.

Review: A 1957 release, and the third in a series of albums expanding on Bird's 10" Clef releases from the early 1950s, Now's The Time boasts some of Parker's purest recordings and strongest playing, featuring two different quartets. His lyrical and fluid improvisations on cuts like 'The Song Is You' and 'Laird Baird' are on full display, prime examples of his unmatched genius. Further delights include the original 'Cosmic Rays', a slow bop on which Parker's sax pops out like a virtuosic winged insect buzzing about its relatively quiet flower; and 'Chi Chi' which, by contrast, takes us by the ear and hurls us down an urbane but brisk sonic chute, its confident combination of rhythm section and Bird lead happily skipping away, but never stumbling.

Review: Queen's The Works in Concert is a powerful and legendary capture of one of the best pop-rock bands this country has ever produced. It was a show that was broadcast by Queen when they were performing in concert in May of 1985 at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Japan. It does across six sides of marbled vinyl and takes in every one of the band's hits you would hope, from the ice-cold 'Under Pressure' to the menacing 'Another One Bites the Dust.' Then there is the theatrical masterpiece that is 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the playfulness of 'Radio Ga Ga' and the ode to empowerment that is 'I Want To Break Free.'

Review: Almost forty years ago now, the legendary pop-rock icons Queen played live at London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday 12 July 1986. This special recording captures the entirety of the show, which was as part of the band's European Magic Tour. The tour came after the band released their widely successful A Kind of Magic album and so features plenty of material from it as well as plenty of their 70s and 80s classics. Coming across four sides of vinyl, it's a hugely atmospheric listen with plenty of audience noise adding to the occasion.

Review: Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme has had some tough time sin the run up to this one - his private life has made it to the music press pages and he has had tough custodial battles with ex-wives, as well as his own cancer diagnosis and losing some people close to him, including former Queens man Mark Lanegan. All that is channeled into this record which is unforgiving and at times surprisingly edgy place to be. Even in the sonically softer moments, for example 'Straight Jacket Fitting', there's a brooding moodiness recalling the heyday of unplugged grunge.

Review: It's been a rough old ride leading up to In Times New Roman for Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme. Private life very much splashed across the front pages (of the music press, at least) amid custodial battles with ex-wives, cancer diagnoses and surgery, the loss of several close friends, including former Queens and latterly solo legend Mark Lanegan. As such we can understand why this latest album is an unforgiving and at times surprisingly edgy place to be.
It's been a while since the Seattle, Washington hard rockers allowed themselves to go this hard, and reveal so much about themselves. For the most part, In Times is their heaviest sounding outing in more than 15 years, essentially since Era Vulgaris dropped. Even in the sonically softer moments, for example 'Straight Jacket Fitting', there's a brooding moodiness recalling the heyday of unplugged grunge. Simply put, they clearly had a lot that needed to be let out, and that's exactly what they've done.

Review: GRAMMY-winning guitarist, producer and Black Pumas co-founder, Adrian Quesada is back with a fantasy new album Look At My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul. This is an all-out celebration of his unique take on deep soul that draws its influences from across the borders and cultural boundaries of Latin America across the end of the 1960s and early 1970s. It is often psyched out and led by big brassy horns, though has plenty tender feels and top guests along the way such as Johnny Hernandez, Kam Franklin and more.

Review: The first Quiet Places album, 2020's simply titled Volume 1, had its roots in a late-night, whisky-fuelled 'laptop jam' by three experienced British producers, progressive house legend Charlie May (most famously a member of Spooky in the 90s) and Dennis White and Dave Gardner of Bedrock-signed outfit Knives Out. We're not sure whether whisky was involved in the production of this similarly immersive sequel, but it certainly shares its predecessor's alluring blend of field recordings, outer-space electronics, pastoral instrumentation, undulating melodies and abstract sounds. This time round, they've taken us on four lengthy trips, each stretched across a side of wax, which bob, weave, rise and fall like the greatest early 90s ambient mixtape (or, if you're more academic, sound collage) that you've ever heard.

Review: Not be confused with UK rock act Quill featuring the legendary Jeff Lynne (ELO, Black Sabbath, The Move), Swedish stoner rock heroes The Quill have been an active entity within the realms of Scandinavian hard rock and metal since the early 90s. Returning with their highly anticipated 11th full-length and follow up to 2021's Earthrise, the current locked in line up of original vocalist Magnus Ekwall, who would depart the band in 2007 before rejoining in 2016, along with Christian Carlsson (Cirkus Prutz) on guitar, Roger Nilsson (Spiritual Beggars, Arch Enemy, Firebird) on bass, and drummer Jolle Atlagic (Hanoi Rocks, Electric Boys, Firebird), are at a stage where crafting the most sprawling variety of metallic magic is their primary concern, with Wheel Of Time conjuring elements of stoner rock, doom metal, psych, prog and even saccharine dollops of melodious AOR for all you Dad-Rockers out there.

Review: Although experimental in nature - most of his music is made from crackling, ultra-atmospheric tape loops - Gareth Quinn Redmond's music is breathlessly beautiful and universally beguiling. He's already proved that on his previous LPs - not least 2019's Satoshi Ashikawa-inspired 'Laistigh Den Ghleo' - but once again confirms it on 'Ar Ais Aris'. He describes the eight-track set as "daydreaming environmental music full of accidental miracles and soothing backdrops", and that's an apt description. Ghostly melodies and enveloping chords, sometimes manipulated for extra wooziness, emerge from dense forests of tape hiss and static, creating becalmed ambient soundscapes that tend towards the poignant and picturesque. There aren't many copies around, so we'd recommend pre-ordering to secure a copy.

Review: Mad About Records officially reissues super rare private press Quintessence's 1981 LP. Surprisingly for the level of talent and production / recording wit that it flaunts, Quintessence was one of many original jazz LPs to remain in private circulation and thus completely wanting of the public ear. Led by Ron Ancrum, with George Sovak, David Gaedeke, Winston Johnson and Steve Muse, the band nonetheless recorded an exceptional slice of artistic pie here, bringing Rhodesy, tritoning sundowners to the then already well-fleshed milieu of 80s jazz, an unmistakably bulbous and gaudy sound to which Quintessence do much justice; our favourite here by far is 'In My Apartment', a tssking blue-jazz suite for boughed double bass and noir piano.