Staff Picks w / c 13 January 2020

Review: Britain is on the very cusp of the post-Thatcher era, mistakes not necessarily learnt from the past 11 years, but certainly evidence mounting for the failure of individualism and the importance of communities. Change is needed, and change is what the next decade would bring. Some of which began with this album, unveiled in 1989, now regarded among the best shoegaze outings of all time. The label doesn't sit that well with us, though. There's just too much else happening with Pale Saints' pacy, expansive and utterly compelling debut. Post punk accents, eruptions into (and introductions based on) pure noise, and surrealist dream pop. Presented here in a new collector's edition, featuring recordings from the band's seminal John Peel session and demos, we couldn't think of a band so deserving of being discovered by a new generation, and re-celebrated by those who were there at the time.

Review: Renowned since his Livity Sound days for delivering complex rhythms, heavy basslines and intricate electronics, Forest Drive West pitches up on Echochord with a deliciously spaced-out EP that explores the dub techno side of his multi-faceted musical persona. He eases us in gently via head-in-the-clouds opener "Creation Dub", a hypnotic, eyes-closed affair rich in slow broken techno rhythms and echoing Deepchord synths, before delivering the sparse, minimalist dub techno fuzz of "Drift". Side B is all about "Parallel Space", with Forest Drive West's metallic, Livity Sound-esque original mix - think broken techno meets dub techno - being paired with a Conforce remix that re-imagines it as an ear-pleasing slice of rolling dub techno positivity.

Review: You could argue that, of any scene, the pop world has been the biggest beneficiary of the democratisation of access to music. After all, while chart irrelevancy continues to haunt, we've seen a real renaissance in and among the trash, with a resurgence of unfettered poignancy to the songs themselves, and a slew of soul searching stars in ascent. You could also argue that Halsey is the finest of this crop of new schoolers, with "Manic" her finest hour to date. A record that contains both US and UK number ones, but also hidden classics worthy of any "Best B-Sides" playlist you'd want to compile, it calls upon references from relatively unlikely places, for example trap, in its quest for universally acknowledged refinement. R&B, reroofed-future garage rock and even country are also here, making for a soundtrack as arresting vocally as it is instrumentally.

Review: A year or two back, Canadian pianist Blake Hargreaves spent some time touring significant churches in Europe in order to play their mighty pipe organs and record his own improvised pieces. The results, collected here on a curious but hugely enjoyable album, somehow manage to sound both distinctly old and strangely contemporary. What you get is a mixture of jaunty, accessible workouts, hushed laments, slowly shifting ambient pieces and off-the-cuff compositions that draw influence from the cyclical minimalist classics of Steve Reich and Terry Riley. It's certainly a curio, but one that contains some genuinely moving and enjoyable music.

Review: Don't worry, BBC fans, the title here should definitely be considered as a reference to everything other than this album. Sweeping as that is, the outfit have spent six years considering their future, going on "indefinite hiatus" following 2014's astonishing "So Long, See You Tomorrow", and offering excellent solo bits, only to return with work that's both fresh and reassuringly familiar. By now you're probably familiar with "Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)", which forsakes the soft-edges of that preceding, sample-heavy record in favour of something more in keeping with earlier, more "live sounding" fare. There's plenty more here along those lines, not least "I Can Hardly Speak" and the title number itself. Efforts like "Let You Go" rely on glitchy electronics for impact, instrumentation that sounds cast in vivid moonlight abounds on "People People", while "Get Up" is a sultry, sax-filled anthem. This is indeed how you stage a comeback.

Review: Following releases from Marquis Hawkes, Francis Harris and Hamatsuki, Georgia's Horoom label showcases some local talent. Gacha Bakradze is a rising talent on an international level, having recently appeared on Fever AM, but here he channels a sound that should find favour with fans of fellow Georgian talent HVL. Dubby atmospheres and snaking percussive rollers abound, with a hint of UK hardcore and jungle influence lurking in the middle distance but deployed with care. Subtlety is key here, as Bakradze unfurls immersive cuts with a restrained power to take the dancefloor to some truly transcendental places.

Review: After two stunning rounds that featured the likes of Mark Hand, Lerosa and A Sagittariun, Bristol label Innate returns with another various EP of advanced techno ruminations from emergent talent and established names alike. Perseus Traxx leads in with a dense and expressive body popper that channels a little vintage B12, while Ewan Jansen takes things deep and aqueous with the gorgeous "Sinders". Rising electro star Reedale Rise serves up more of his sleek and refined machine funk on "Coral", and label boss Owain K unfurls a shimmering blanket of melancholic house with the sublime "Teifi".

Review: Fans of The Grateful Dead listen up: you should have been taking note of Rose City Band before now. Don't worry, though, this self-titled from a blues-tipped troupe - who clearly understand the joys of psychedelia - is the outfit's debut. As such while you've missed a bit, there's hopefully far more to come. When it comes to outfits like Rose City Band it's easy to simply reel off a list of people the pack have elements of, partly because accurate definitions don't come easy when there are shades of garage rock, tripped out roll, and even some hallucinogenic take on country and western swoon at play. And that's just on the appropriately titled "Wandering Feeling". You could well nod to Moon Duo, Little Feat and the aforementioned Dead, alongside Cosmic Americana, of course. References aside, RCB rank among the finest making this fare, so prepare to get lost in a kaleidoscopic road trip.

Review: He may not have been on this planet since the late 1990s, but the late, great Bryn Jones continues to dazzle from beyond the grave. The latest in a long line of posthumous albums offers another chance to own one of his greatest moments, 23-minute 1996 cut "Arab Jerusalem": a superb sound soup rich in atmospheric field recordings, snatched Arabic radio chatter, hazy ambient electronics, sporadic bursts of hand percussion and unearthly female vocal snippets. Perhaps more alluring for dedicated fans are the three previously unreleased tracks that Staalplaat has plucked from the Manchester producer's vast archives. The standout is undoubtedly "Jordan River", a twenty-minute chunk of sparse, mind-altering electro-dub/ambient dub fusion from the DJ Spooky school of "illbient" that's simply essential.

Review: Recently, dusty-fingered Japanese DJ/producer Ryuhei The Man has offered up tidy re-edits of some suitably obscure - but rather good - gems from the disco era. He's at it again here, putting his stamp on a lesser-known string-drenched disco cut from Reid, Inc's hard-to-find 1977 debut album. His version extends the original by 40 seconds or so, introducing an extended guitar intro and breakdown, both of which increase the impact of the main song when it kicks back in. The band's sultry, soulful and essential original version is tucked away on side B.

Review: Since launching last year, Bristol label Albeit has impressed with two 12" singles: one that raided the archives of hardware abusers Activ-Analog and another from up-and-coming producer Ish. The imprint's third release is another archival affair that offers up three tracks from Marco Repetto's Bigeneric project that were reportedly recorded way back in 1998. First up is "Intex", a fuzzy and distorted slab of leftfield techno futurism built around some suitably off-kilter beats and intergalactic synths. "Calder", a bolder and more percussive chunk of wayward techno hedomism seemingly named after a river in West Yorkshire, accompanies it on side A. Arguably best of all though is flipside "Yunul Dub", an eleven-and-a-half-minute exercise in spaced-out ambient dub/dub techno fusion that's impressively immersive.

Review: If you like your electro to be scraped off the sewer pipes and flambeed for extra effect, then ZEMENT have you covered with this mucky gem from Alonzo. "Time Tales" has the kind of grinding synth tones and dystopian vocoder action that would be right at home in a Helena Hauff DJ set, while "My Vibe" switches things up with a saucy vocal take from WMN that comes on like Peaches jamming with Dopplereffekt. "Shades Of Tuch" takes things in a spooky direction, while "The Dead Cry" keeps things sparse and chilling. "Patch Dance" turns the distortion up to 11, and "Ten Fold Rule" rounds things off with another wonderfully murky lead line for the end of days.

Review: Good things from those who wait, someone should have definitely said at some point. For Bill Fay, who had both the privilege and the nightmare of being able to choose from some 40 years of material to put this together. Amazingly only his third LP, arriving 50 years after his debut, at 76-years-young he has clearly mastered the art of keeping things simple in order to be truly, staggeringly powerful. It's unforgettable stuff to say the least. Tender vocals, gentile guitar, delicate pianos and little more, aside from some incredibly evocative lyrics. Works such as "I Will Remain Here" and the title track summarise Fay in many ways. Songs about ancient, mysterious places and histories imagined and real, our poet-cum-troubadour acting as both guide and accomplice to the act of marvelling at it all. Records like this literally don't come along everyday, and we should treasure every moment of them.