PIAS Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Sunshine Hit Me is the debut album from the British band The Bees. A testament to summery jovialty and DIY ingenuity, the album is as raw and earthen as it is soulful, with the band at the time only made up of founding members Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher, who wrote, performed and recorded the album alone using a home studio in Butler's parents' garden on the Isle Of Wight. Don't be confused by the LP's normative categorisation as "indie rock"; deft listeners can hear everything from reggae to neo-soul in this one, flaunting the pair's impressive musical education going into its making.

Review: Belgian jazz singer Melanie Di Biasio first came to light around 2007 on Igloo, but she's since fostered a steady relationship with indie giants [PIAS] which has resulted in two subsequent albums, No Deal and Lilies. After a six-year gap, she returns with a new set which finds her edging into intriguing new territory. Il Viaggio is framed as 'a quest for musical, physical, and spiritual renewal, born from an emotional memory awakened'. Make of that what you will, but the music contained within finds her voice framed by a broad spectrum of sonics as she leads us through two distinct halves across two discs - Lay Your Ear To The Rail and The Chaos Azure.

Review: Kerala Dust are an indietronica trio hailing from Berlin, and their upcoming album 'Violet Drive' is rightly described by them as a 'pan-European dream'. Recorded between Berlin and a remote Swiss Alpine studio, this is a funky, dark and sumptuous vocal dance project, replete with an overarching nighttime swing and glossy shimmer. Rather than one for twangy, sunburnt all-American road trips, we imagine this one is far better suited for drives across milder Scandi landscapes at night.

Review: The Slow Show are probably the least-Manchester Manchester band we know. Rolling back the years to our first encounter, the mesmerising White Water, we recall stopping dead in tracks as the powerful, somber, and utterly inimitable voice of Rob Goodwin sung out in mournful verse. Love at first sight, anyone who has ever experienced anything even close to loss would have found it impossible to ignore. That was then and this is now. With four albums already under their belt, Subtle Love lands as perhaps the groups poppiest and lightest effort to date, although it is still very much their sound. Minimalist yet epic, summoning elements of northern brass bands, opera, and journeyman blues-rock, tracks here manage to be soft yet commanding, spellbinding and deep enough to dive into and never come back out.

Review: There's a hushed wind blowing through the debut album from London songwriter Will Westerman, but that shouldn't be taken to mean the tracks lack big ideas. Ideas that, thankfully, the young artist seems more than capable of realising with dazzling art rock and pop strokes, making those references to Peter Gabriel in the promo material perfectly understandable. Only time will tell, but on first impact this is exactly the kind of polished but politically charged stuff we need in the world today. Easy to hear but resolute in its determination to consider new possibilities, playing with tempos, times and traditional arrangements to ensure the slow jams, alt-ballads and synth-fuelled serenades are infinitely re-playable and remarkably memorable pre-requisites for any long-lasting success story. One for your list, for sure.