Cherry Red Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Is the world ready for the return of Pere Ubu? Does it even matter? What's important is the legendary post-everything provocateurs are back, led by David Thomas and packing a line-up of lifers, long timers and someone Thomas met down the pub. Their last album on Cherry Red was 2019's The Long Goodbye, and yet they're back again with more of their deconstructed but eternally kicking avant-garde rock. There's a comforting familiarity to the angular squall of the guitars, but it's not an album trapped in the past as is evident on the rowdy cover of The Osmonds' 'Crazy Horses'. Genius coming at you from unexpected angles, which is exactly how it should be.

Review: NME's mail-order 'C86' compilation, released way back in 1986, has become something of a cherished time capsule: an acclaimed, on-point collection that summed up indie and alternative rock in the mid 1980s. This three-disc compilation is touted by Cherry Red as a "prequel" to that legendary comp. It naturally features some of the same artists - usually in the form of earlier tracks or obscurities - as well as the rest of the cream of the crop of indie in 1985. There are pre-fame recordings from James, the Stone Roses and Primal Scream, jangly guitars aplenty, and killer cuts from bands that briefly flickered brightly but time has generally forgotten.