Back catalogue: All genres

Review: In January 2025, Al Wootton visited Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, which is home to a rare archive of vintage drum machines. Once there, he recorded the unique rhythms and quirks of these machines and captured their raw character. Back in the UK, he transformed those recordings through processing and layering to create this new EP, Rhythm Archives. The result is a stripped-back but impactful exploration of rhythm that draws from industrial, dub, post-punk and proto-techno influences. The record stands as both a creative tribute to the iconic machines and their makers and a nod to MESS's mission of preserving electronic music heritage and making it accessible through public engagement and education.

Review: Adam Winchester and Laurie Osborne (probably still best known as Appleblim) are Wrecked Lightship and they have an inventive approach to dub, breaks and bass. Their work creates an immersive world full of rich, atmospheric textures and the latest example of that is Drained Strands, a new album for Peak Oil full of fragmented, genre-blurring sounds. The six-tracker is full of experimentation and new ideas from the off. 'Delinquent Spirits' for example is a jumble of jungle breaks and vast basslines with minimal percussion, 'Reeling Mist' is warm, blissed out dub and 'Somnium Sands' is an eerie and evocative world of synth designs and industrial decay.

Review: The first Wu-Tang release to feature all nine living members in over a decade, this new full-length is a reminder that when aligned, the Staten Island collective still operate on a level of their own. The production is raw and cinematic i heavy with martial arts samples, bassline grime and dusty soul flips i while the verses come sharp, tight and unshowy. No gimmicks, just business. 'Sucker Free City' and 'Mandingo' come in swinging, full of tight drum programming and rugged, overlapping verses. 'Roar Of The Lion' and 'Shaoilin Vs Lama' lean into the classic kung-fu mythology, with a sense of pace that recalls their earliest work. 'Cleopatra Jones' and 'Dolemite' are funk-fuelled standouts, where the crew's storytelling and timing land in full form. 'Let's Do It Again' and 'Trouble-Man' close with a tone of reflection that cuts through the grime. It's a new release, but also a reunion that doesn't feel like a legacy act i more like a sharpened return. No attempt to modernise, no need to. Just nine distinct voices, still bouncing off each other with control and character. A serious addition to the catalogue i and one for the heads.