Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: Acclaimed Japanese artist Cornelius is back with a new three-song EP, Bad Advice/Mind Train, featuring a collaboration with Arto Lindsay. The EP's first single, 'Mind Train,' is an epic nine-minute track inspired by Yoko Ono which blends ethereal space-pop with minimalist structures and bursts of exhilarating chaos. Cornelius describes 'Mind Train' as a symbol of spiritual and inner exploration that is designed to prompt self-reflection. The accompanying video, created by renowned visual stylist Keita Onishi, enhances this journey with stunning retro-futuristic graphics that allow you to explore your own interpretations.

Review: This is the second of three inventive and influential albums that John Cale released through Island Records in the mid-70s. The Velvet Underground founding member was in stellar company with Brian Eno, Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera and one of the most prolific studio session guitarists of all time, Chris Spedding, all appearing on the album. The album is stacked with bangers, but of note is the life-affirming and soulful 'Dirtyass Rock 'n' Roll; his cover of 'Heartbreak Hotel', which is one of the best covers ever recorded and 'I'm Not The Loving Kind'. The latter gained recognition most recently when the late, great Mark Lanegan covered it beautifully for his Imitations album. Cale will forever be a wellspring of inspiration.

Review: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band are the latest act to be featured in Warner's series of Now Playing greatest hits-style comps. Born Don Vliet, Captain Beefheart was a true innovator in modern music, boasting a four-and-a-half-octave vocal range, and fused free jazz, Delta blues, classical music and rock & roll with unique rhythms and surreal lyrics. Though he never achieved mainstream success, his influence permeated punk, new wave and post-rock and this album shows why, with tracks like 'I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby' and 'Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles' showcasing his bolder moves, alongside the more introspective 'My Head Is My Only House When It Rains' and 'Clear Spot.' Vliet, a child prodigy in art, moved to the Mojave Desert in his teens, where he met Frank Zappa. They initially collaborated on a film project, but Vliet eventually formed the Magic Band. After several lineup changes, they released the seminal Trout Mask Replica in 1969. Beefheart's career spanned various experimental phases until he retired in 1982 to focus on painting, earning acclaim for his abstract outsider art.

Review: Drag City has reissued Dorothy Carter's 1976 debut album, Troubadour, a significant work in her folk music career. Known for her expertise on hammered dulcimer and psaltery, Carter's musiciinterweaving Appalachian, Celtic, Jewish, and her own compositionsiexudes a timeless, magical quality. This reissue not only revives her debut but also includes an insert with additional photos and notes by producer Eric Demby, recalling his childhood encounters with Carter's music. Troubadour captures Carter's eclecticism and her dedication to melding global musical traditions. The album opens with the medieval French instrumental 'Troubadour Song' and ventures through a variety of folk traditions, including an enigmatic rendition of the Scottish ballad 'The Twa Sisters' and a vibrant Psalm 100 in 'Make a Joyful Sound.' Carter's approach blends Eastern and Western influences most strikingly on 'Tree of Life,' hinting at the spiritual fusion she would explore further in her later work. With tracks like the Israeli folk song 'The King of Glory,' Michael Praetorius' 'The Morning Star,' and Appalachian standards 'The Cuckoo' and 'Shirt of Lace,' the album is a profound exploration of folk traditions. This reissue, presented in its original format with enriched visuals and historical context, offers a deep dive into Carter's visionary artistry, capturing the essence of her early, transformative work. Essential listening for fans of Michael O'Shea, Laraaji, and Jerusalem in My Heart.

Review: Album number three from Massachusetts post-rockers Caspian was the first produced by Seattle studio don Matt Bayles (Pearl Jam, Mastodon, Soundgarden) and would go on to become one of the outfit's best-loved. Originally released in 2012, the record was lauded at the time as one of the year's best, with critics praising its beauty, patience and slow burn impact. This is quickly apparent on the opening title track, with its melodic hook gradually emerging from behind gusts of wind or exhalation, a stunning march towards a crescendo that brings the whole mini-epic to an abrupt halt. Setting the tone for what follows, these huge instrumentals rise as high as Explosions In the Sky and Mogwai, when they want to, in other moments things take a form that's more in tune with Funeral-era Arcade Fire. Whichever speaks to you most, expect big emotion responses from this one.

Review: Hidden in the liner notes of Causa Sui's new live album lies an invitation to join the Danish purveyors of expansive psychedelic jams for a midnight feast at Copenhagen's legendary Loppen venue. Recorded in the heart of freetown Christiania, a place where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur like the edges of a particularly good dream, the band's performance is a testament to their two decades of sonic exploration. The setlist is a treasure trove for long-time fans, a heady mix of fan favourites and deep cuts, including the sprawling seven-part suite 'Visions of a New Horizon' - a track that unfolds like a sonic tapestry, weaving together psychedelic riffs, soaring melodies, and hypnotic rhythms. But the real highlight is a previously unreleased live rendition of 'Red Sun in June', where the band stretches out and explores their improvisational prowess, venturing into Grateful Dead-esque jams that could fill a stadium. Elsewhere, they channel the spirit of Miles Davis' electric period on 'The Spot', all jazzy interplay and free-flowing improvisation, before unleashing their inner Black Sabbath on the monstrous riffola of 'Soledad' and 'Boozehound'. This is Causa Sui at their most free-flowing and spontaneous, a band that's clearly as comfortable in the live setting as they are in the studio. It's a reminder that sometimes, the best music is the kind that's created in the moment.

Review: Chrystabell and David Lynch's album Cellophane Memories emerges from a visionary encounter Lynch had, translating light and voice into a collection of ethereal tracks. This collaboration dives into fairytale forests, mountain peaks, and crepuscular highways, creating an atmospheric journey through landscapes of loneliness and romance. The album is a sonorous exploration of these sublime settings, enveloping listeners in a supernatural experience of colors, weather, and breath. The songs present a fluidity of time, where characters are sketched in the ephemeral moments of daily dramas. Chrystabell's vocals emerge, dissolve, and loop, creating layers of harmony and history, evoking both the presence and absence within each note. Lynch's orchestral arrangements, along with late composer Angelo Badalamenti's contributions, weave together strings, guitar glissandi, and reverb, crafting melodies that suspend time and capture the essence of a first kiss. Cellophane Memories invites listeners to ponder the nature of mystery, without providing definitive answers. The album's music embodies the transient beauty of departures and returns, landscapes and atmospheres and the intricate dance of time and memory. It radiates a distant light from within its darkness, offering a profound listening experience. This vinyl release is a great package to experience the enduring and enigmatic creative partnership between Chrystabell and David Lynch.

Review: This new collaboration between Swedish producer Civilistjavel! and Lebanese artist Mayssa Jallad is both a conceptual inversion and a sonic ghost of Jallad's original record. Refracting material from her Beirut-focused album through sparse dub techno, Civilistjavel! transforms narrative-rich compositions into abstract, often beatless forms where Mayssa's voice floats disembodied in a fog of delay and reverb. Tracks like 'Baynana (Version)' and 'Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29) (Version)' feel haunted by memory, with structure hinted at but rarely resolved. It's a remarkable shift in context, but one that remains emotionally aligned. Civilistjavel!'s production avoids spectacle in favour of slow erosionivocal fragments hover, dissolve, re-emerge. Even more rhythmic moments like 'Kharita (Dub)' maintain an eerie restraint, built on slippery grooves and shimmering decay. Both artists are working far from their geographic homesiMayssa in Boston, Tomas in Uppsalaibut the result sounds uncannily unified. It's a record that holds grief and beauty in the same hand, illuminating the quiet force of Mayssa's voice and Civilistjavel!'s deft minimalism. Not so much a remix album as a parallel reality: austere, spectral, and deeply moving.

Review: Clinic Stars' debut album Only Hinting is a melancholic swirl of downer-pop and shoegaze, crafted by Detroit duo Giovanna Lenski and Christian Molik. Having spent 2022 and 2023 recording at their home studio, they layered each track with dense FX and deep reverbs, creating an emotional undertow that envelops every song. Tracks like 'I Am The Dancer' spiral with strummed guitar swells, while 'Remain' pulses with gated reverb, and the greyscale melancholy of 'Isn't It' drips with dreamy, aching nostalgia. The album is as much about escape as it is about longing. Though the duo cite their industrial surroundings as a key influence, the songs themselves feel as if they're trying to transcend these confines, soaking in the romance of distance and detachment. Previous EPs 10,000 Dreams and April's Past offered a similar slowcore haze, but Only Hinting takes this aesthetic further, blending melody and ambience until they become indistinguishable. There's a delicate balance between lightness and weight, a constant tug-of-war between floating and sinking. The guitars drift, vocals melt into the background, and the production feels both expansive and intimate, stretching across shadowy cityscapes. With this debut, Clinic Stars have created a deeply immersive sonic landscape that lingers long after it fades out. Available to pre-order now, Only Hinting will be released on LP format later this year.

Review: Oliver Coates' Throb, Shiver, Arrow of Time is an exploration of memory and emotion, blending the tactile with the ephemeral. This third album from the British cellist, producer, and composer, released through RVNG Intl., encapsulates six years of introspection and creative evolution. Following the atmospheric textures of his previous work, skins n slime, Coates delves deeper into the interplay of digital and analogue sound. The album's centerpiece, 'Shopping centre curfew,' reflects a surreal fusion of events from South London during the pandemic, manifesting a unique blend of temporal dissonance and vivid soundscapes. Tracks like 'Please be normal' and '90' showcase Coates' ability to weave misty tones and shifting frequencies into a cohesive auditory experience. Collaborations with Malibu and chrysanthemum bear, along with Faten Kanaan's synth textures, enhance the album's depth. Inspired by artist Sarah Sze's installations, Coates applies a sculptural approach to sound, creating a dynamic interplay between digital manipulation and live performance. The result is a rich experience that resists closure, with the final track 'Make it happen' embodying a defiant push against silence.

Review: The Moon and the Melodies, a remarkable collaboration between Cocteau Twins and ambient pioneer Harold Budd, remains a standout achievement in both artists' repertoires. First released in 1986, this enchanting album is now receiving a well-deserved vinyl reissue, meticulously remastered by Robin Guthrie from the original tapes. This album is a stunning fusion of the Cocteau Twins' signature dreamlike atmospheres with Budd's elegant, improvisational piano, resulting in a listening experience that is both expansive and deeply personal. The blending of Elizabeth Fraser's ethereal vocals, seamlessly intertwined with Guthrie's luminous guitar work and Raymonde's resonant bass, creates a sound that is both distinct and evocative. The album effortlessly balances vocal tracks with instrumentals, each adding to its rich and diverse sonic palette. This reissue offers a chance to rediscover a defining moment in the evolution of dream pop and ambient music. The Moon and the Melodies continues to stun audiences. This CD edition is the perfect vehicle to an ethereal beauty of the highest order.

Review: The Moon and the Melodies, a collaboration between Cocteau Twins and ambient pioneer Harold Budd, stands as a unique gem in both artists' discographies. Originally released in 1986, this ethereal album is now being reissued on vinyl, remastered from the original tapes by Robin Guthrie. Unlike anything else the Cocteau Twins ever produced, this record blends their dreamlike soundscapes with Budd's serene, improvisational piano work. The result is an atmospheric journey, at once intimate and expansive. Tracks like 'Sea, Swallow Me' shine with Elizabeth Fraser's otherworldly vocals, intertwined with Guthrie's shimmering guitar and Raymonde's grounding bass, creating a sound that feels both familiar and entirely unique. Instrumentals like 'Memory Gongs' and 'The Ghost Has No Home' highlight Budd's delicate piano, enhanced by the band's signature ambient textures. The album is a study in contrasts, vocal tracks sit alongside instrumentals, each contributing to a cohesive yet diverse listening experience. For fans, this reissue is a chance to revisit a pivotal moment in the evolution of dream pop and ambient music. The album's enduring appeal is evident in its continued influence in social media. The Moon and the Melodies remains a shining light that can happen when artists from different realms come together to create something truly timeless.

Review: South London rapper Confucius MC returns to Native Rebel Recordings for a new project alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Bastien Keb. Dedicated to the "lost travellers" of the world, this is an album of pop-filterless texture and raw admission, filled to the brim with political messaging and wisdom in the face of oppressive social machinery. Toeing lines of fairytale realism and soul-feeder contrition, Keb and Confucius muse on dilemmas of eternal life, striving, perseverance and recompense, crafting a near drumless hip-hop album for veteran ears.

Review: "Random, tense, scary and compulsively fascinating". That's how Chris Connelly describes the period in which the tracks on this album were originally written. As the main man behind some of the most iconic and influential industrial bands in history - Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Murder.Inc... - he's definitely well placed to make this kind of judgment. And it comes across even more understandable if you grasp the fact he's meaning all that in a good way. Throbbing Gristle should need no introduction, having pretty much written the blueprint for industrial musick in the nuclear age. A sound that screamed "get us out". Combine that oeuvre with this guy, then, and you have something which is uncompromisingly explosive and effective. Not to mention fitting, given half the people on the street seem convinced we're rushing headfirst into another atomic standoff, if not something much, much worse.

Review: Loren Connors and Alan Licht's performance on The Blue Hour is a rare and stunning exploration of sound and emotion. Celebrating thirty years of collaboration, the duo's first-ever set with Connors on piano is captured in this live recordings from May 5-6, 2023. The album surprises with its spacious warmth, showcasing the duo's dedicated expressionism and vast spectrum of emotion. The opening notes shimmer, leading into a stunning exchange of melodies and chords. As Connors transitions to guitar, the music deepens, creating sharp, glassy edges and a dramatic, organ-like feedback. The duo's chemistry is palpable as they lock into refrains, creating a melodic and harmonious sound reminiscent of their early days. Licht's ability to delicately place fractures of a Jackson C Frank song among Connors' blues is remarkable.

Review: On The Key, New York drummer and all-round prolific sound generator Chris Corsano offers an acute glimpse into his live performance style. Aside from this evidently idiosyncratic solo approach - on full display here - Corsano also sought another level on The Key, plucking away at the many possibilities of a self-made string drum. The result is a free-improvised extravaganza, elseways one that hardly *sounds* improvised (yet we know it is), perhaps by sheer virtue of its progressive grandeur and singular sense. The mood is whimsical verging on capricious, with confounding titles like 'Unlike An Empty Box' and 'I Don't Have Missions' hinting at a postmodern jest baked into both the artist's personality and musical style, but the music is otherwise towering, cohesive, Babylonian; pree, for example, the flow-static climax that gives rise to suspended guitar solo on 'The Full-Measure Wash Down'.

Review: On their latest release, Crippled Black Phoenix takes their signature mix of atmospheric rock and melancholy to new heights. The band's blend of brooding, cinematic soundscapes and haunting melodies draws you in, but it's the emotional intensity that really grips. 'We Forgotten Who We Are' pulses with a raw energy, while 'Song for the Unloved' taps into a quiet despair that lingers long after the track fades. There's a sense of reinvention on this releaseifamiliar elements are reworked with fresh perspective, making it feel like both a reflection and a bold step forward for the band.

Review: Yet another reissue to come out via David Tibet's current reissues occupation Cashen's Gap is the incredible eleventh Current 93 record Swastikas For Noddy. Playing up recurrent motifs of ruination and spoiling - always present in Tibet's music since early - every facet of this record seems to find an impertinent glee in juxtaposing the beautiful with the ominous, the dainty with the dearth. Perhaps it's a cursed record, as its intent spelt doom from the get-go: it first ran into copyright trouble after its title provoked the ire of writer Enid Blyton, who certainly did not appreciate the apparent Nazification of her beloved character. But over that hump came the real backstory: Tibet said, "I took a load of acid on the top of the house where Rose McDowall was living and I had a vision of Noddy crucified in the sky and it really impressed me...", which led to a crazed but short-lived Noddy consumer fanaticism on the artist's part. This record was of course born of that period of Noddy thrall; it nonetheless mystifies the gaudy children's character and toy's allure, couching it in bewitching pagan folk monodies and dastardly end-of-times industrial-hell crescendos. Perhaps when we forget Noddy, we forget the nation. Remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies!, and with the original artwork refreshed and reborn by Rob Hopeye, this 12" vinyl picture-disc comes in a full-colour die-cut sleeve, which is printed on both the outside and inside.

Review: First released in 2018, The Light Is Leaving Us All is one of Current 93's (David Tibet's) most up-to-date explorations in sound, and is noted by the artist himself as one of his most recent favourites. An expansive collaborative cluster of entities, some human and others perhaps not, assisted Tibet in the making of this morbid neofolk opus, which, when not indulging droning guitarscapes and dulcimer twinkles, humours a spoken word and found sound palette, constructing a conniving persona that perhaps farcically laments the loss of suburban niceties (clues in the track titles like 'The Birds Are Sweetly Singing', 'The Policeman Is Dead', 'The Postman Is Singing', 'The Milkmaid Sings' and 'A Thousand Witches' portray a macabre picture of the dead underside of sleepy hometown life). When Tibet sings, he brings a knowingly resigned tone to the record, sounding almost genderless in his evocation of experience and loss of domestic innocence.

Review: Holger Czukay's late career works for Claremont 56 are celebrated in a new compilation, showcasing the former Can bassist's unique musical legacy. Released between 2009 and 2012, these tracks highlight his inventive and freewheeling approach to composition and recording. Claremont 56 founder Paul Murphy, inspired by Czukay's legendary 2009 Roundhouse performance, curated this collection with a deep appreciation for the artist's creativity. Key tracks include 'Ode To Perfume' and 'Photosong,' both reimagined from the Roundhouse gig. 'A Perfect World (Remix)' features former Can bandmates Jaki Leibezeit and Michael Karoli, while 'Fragrance' offers picturesque Balearic Kraut-dub. The bright 'Let's Get Cool' revisits Czukay's 1979 classic, and 'My Persian Love (Remix)' revives an early solo recording. The compilation also features two potent tracks with Czukay's wife, Ursa Major: the ambient 'In Space' and the mind-mangling 'Music To Be Murdered By.' This collection is a fitting tribute to Czukay's endlessly inventive career, highlighting his unparalleled contributions to experimental music.

Review: Recorded in October 1997, but lost and rediscovered two decades later by digital artist Gvoon Arthur Schmidt, GVoon: Brennung 1 is one of countless gems nestling in the sound archives of the late, great Holger Czukay. Described as a "futuristic sound meditation" by remastering engineer Dirk Dresselhaus (better known as experimental electronica producer Scheider TM), the single, expansive piece was created by Czukay at a point in time when he was happily working with German techno and electronica producers (Westbam included) while exploring the potential of digital music-making and production technology. The results are typically immersive, enveloping and off-kilter, sounding as far-sighted and ahead-of-their-time as they no doubt did when the piece was originally recorded in 1997.

Review: This is the latest album from Berlin-based French producer Cosmo Vitelli and California-based Dutch experimental electronic musician Truus de Groot, who is well known for her work with Plus Instruments. Following their successful collaboration on Vitelli's 2022 album Medhead which featured de Groot's lyrics and vocals on several tracks, the two artists decided to join forces once more and the result is a blend of Vitelli's production skills and de Groot's distinctive voice and lyrical style. It is another fresh, experimental approach to modern electronic music.

Review: This collaborative LP is a beautiful and intimate work that draws on elements of Americana, experimental sound design and post-rock. The duo have a deep connection going back to their hometown of San Antonio, Texas and here create a unique sound with lush textures and emotional depth that, unlike their previous work, involved more found sounds. No Floor showcases their mastery of traditional composition and sound manipulation with tracks like 'Kinda Tropical' and 'The Applebees Outside Kalamazoo, Michigan' evoking nostalgia and the complexities of youth. All throughout this record, you can feel the duo's bond in its delicate, evolving soundscapes.

Review: Homaging mutuality in a robust creative dialogue, More Eaze and Claire Rousay add another flash of brilliance to a mesmerising string of allegorical LPs. Both born in San Antonio, Texas, Rousay and Eaze (Mari Maurice) riff (literally) on strummed country and noise rock echoes, reflecting an uptick in electronica artists sound-repainting the lonesome grasslands and desert great plains of the mid Southern United States. Yet on No Floor, there is an ardent sci-fi leitmotif too, producing a techno-realist vision reminiscent of a Texan Death Stranding and/or Simon Stalenhag painting. From 'kinda tropical' to 'limelight, actually' we hear shortgrass droughts, short-wave police radio chatter, and the bootup zaps of a beaten up pocket survivo-droid, as it scans the semidesert we alone must brave.

Review: Under the open skies of Southern California, with the San Bernardino Mountains in sight, Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, and Dylan Day came together to craft this album in one seamless evening session. Wilkes' bass, Weinrib's drums, and Day's electric guitar unite to form an organic and unhurried collaboration. The trio's sound feels effortless yet focused, driven by the natural chemistry between them rather than stylistic constraints. Each note speaks to a deep mutual understanding, allowing the music to evolve naturally, guided by the landscape and the moment.