Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: Do you ever stop and wonder where we'd all be without Soul Jazz in our lives? Whether the answer is yes or no, we often do. The label manages to do the business with both archival and brand new releases, straddling genres like an experienced jockey on race day, riding whatever gem of sound it has between its legs all the way to the Must Buy pile.

The last time we had one of these Deutsche Elektronische Musik compilations it made a lasting impression, and now here we are again, gifted aural visions of a future that never materialised, and yet remains embedded in the common conscious. A place of whirring synths and windswept effects, awkward time signatures and glittering chimes, a sonic realm that gave us the likes of Neu! (a track of theirs appears on this excellent album) and Can (sadly missing here). Innovation that's very hard to label.

Review: If you're in the market for a beginner's guide to krautrock and "kosmiche", then the first two volumes of Soul Jazz's Deutsche Elektronische Musik series should be essential listening. This third volume - the first for four years - should be on that list, too. It arguably goes deeper than its predecessors, combining cuts from pioneering electronic and art-rock bands like Neu!, Cluster and Popol Vuh with tracks from lesser-known artists such as Michael Bundt, Dronsz and Achim Reichel. Musically, it's also far more diverse than its predecessors, containing as much space-rock and proto-punk as early electronic experimentation and droning alternative rock. As ever, the accompanying sleeve notes from author David Nobbs expand on the story in brilliant detail.

Review: Here's hoping you've got your super-weird hat on. As the title of this latest Soul Jazz compilation suggests, the tracks on here are anything but by numbers and cross so many genre lines it often becomes impossible to differentiate between the rock and electronic bits, simultaneously teaching us all something about the connectivity of everything, and how real creativity has never been siloed by style.

Of course the likes of 'Guten Abend, Leute' by Deutsche Wertarbeit are firmly in the synth end of things, a building track that uses phaser noises and accordions to create something that could definitely work on today's dancefloors. And next on the list, 'Wolf City' by Amon Duul II, is a strange rock brew of post punk and jazz. But elsewhere work such as 'Pink Sails' by Klauss Weiss, 'Ballet Statique' from Conrad Schnitzler and the heartbreakingly beautiful pianos of Roedelius' 'Halmharfe' make differences harder to identify.