Back catalogue: Psych/Garage Rock

Review: Northampton-based psychedelic rock band Dark formed in 1968 while founding member Steve Giles was still at school. They quickly became popular on the live circuit and worked up a tight playing style that they managed to capture when in the studio. Their debut album is their most well-known but a long series of compilations have also been issued. However, this is the first-ever accurate reproduction of one of the last surviving original twelve gatefold copies of the band's debut with the full-colour gatefold sleeve.

Review: In recent years we've had some exceptional examples of what you might call "narco rock 'n' roll". The sort of records that sound excellent when you're high, but seem to lose some of their potency - or relevance - when you're listing through headphones at your desk in the middle of a working day. Darkside's latest is, unsurprisingly, very much of the 'baked goods' ilk, but there's a delightfully pop-friendly element at play here that means you can get a lot out of the experience without having to have your own induced experience.

Musically it's actually relatively conservative stuff, considering the artists involved. Nicolas Jaar is a bonafide electronic visionary who has been pushing boundaries for well over a decade, while Dave Harrington is one of the most forward thinking multi-instrumentalists you'll ever hear. Together, though, they create a space that's strange but also familiar, like rediscovering forgotten albums from the early-1970s psyche heyday.

Review: Dead Sound is collaborative project featuring Marco Sterk (aka Young Marco) and Berlin-based pop-auteur John Moods, two artists with existing links to the Music From Memory label, Sterk being part of the trio Gaussian Curve and Moods released the 2022 album Hidden Gem with The Zenmenn. The eight tracks here are delicate and atmosphere-laden, drawing on everything from reverb-soaked, harmonic folk - 'Eye In Disguise' - to the Geiger counter rhythm and low-in-the-mix mutters of 'Force of Nature', like an understated Throbbing Gristle if such a thing could be imagined. If you enjoyed Trentemoller's recent reinvention of shoegaze, Scandi synthpop and post-punk on Dreamweaver, then this will be well up your street.

Review: Jean Pierre Decerf's records have been sampled by top talent in the game (Wu-Tang Clan's RZA) and have also been massively inspirational to the likes of indie talent such as Air. However, the Parisian has always been something of a recluse and it's only now that his best moments have been collected into a definitive compilation by Born Bad Records. As both the cover and title suggest, this stuff is pure psychedelia from start to finish and tracks like "Like Flight" are simply stunning, where freaky guitar riffs meet with twisted synth patterns, funky percussion swings and seductive vocals. Not to exaggerate or anything but this LP might well be the best thing that's landed here at Juno HQ this week and you'd be silly not to pick it up. Essential electronic and discofied innovations.

Review: Emotional Rescue go hunting in the reeds for forgotten projects, and come up trumps once again. Delay Tactics formed at the beginning of the 80s as a tape looping project from Carl Weingarten and Reed Nesbit before expanding their palette with Walter Whitney's synth vamping. They didn't last past their second album, 1984's Any Questions?, but now the finest of the band's catalogue has been documented here. The sound is prime inquisitive 80s, teetering between the traditional band dynamic and the experimental pastures of technology-powered music. At times infectiously playful ('Oyster') and at others compellingly beautiful ('Kites'), Delay Tactics are exactly the kind of band that deserve another moment in the sunshine.

Review: Formed in 1967 in Ladbroke Grove, London, by musician and psychedelic counter-culture icon Mick Farren, this Deviants album is the second of three that they released at the end of the 60s. The chaotic ensemble of misfits were arguably the first anarchist rock band in Britain and enjoyed not taking life too seriously behind the mic. 'Somewhere To Go' and 'Jamies Song' is Stooges-esque proto-punk; 'You've Got To Hold On' blends 60s psychedelia with proto punk and sounds like it may have influenced Black Lips. 'Slum Lord' has an amateurish lo-fi charm and 'Pappa-Oo-Moa-Moa' is a Captain Beefheart-esque banger. Meanwhile, 'Let's Loot The Supermarket' epitomes their shambolic nature and shows how unafraid of embracing chaos they were.

Review: If there is one thing that you should know by now, it's that volume and ferocity has little to do with numbers. Dhidalah, for example, have been a three piece since the Tokyo space rock underground first conceived them, and make the kinds of cacophonies that threaten to shake buildings down to their very foundations, leaving crowds battered, bruised, and faced with a slow clamber back to the safety of Japan's notoriously conservative and non-shouty mainstream.

Sensoria is their latest outrageously powerful adventure, and it's just as uncompromising and cosmic as ever. From the rolling, and delightfully drone-y riffs of opener 'Soma', through to the more emotionally captivating and subtly moving 'Dead', there are incredible ideas in abundance here, it's just a question of whether or not you're ready to find them.

Review: This is a special ivory white vinyl version of Zani Diabate's Super Djata Band is another essential release from Numero Group. The band was a leading force in Mali's music scene during the 1980s when they blended Wasulu hunter music, griot praises, Senufo dances, Fula and Mandingo tunes with Western psychedelia, blues, and Afrobeat. Their 1982 album captures Diabate's virtuosity and is a showcase of his mastery of the guitar through eight compelling tracks. The resulting album is a gold standard in world music that confirms Diabate's place among the legendary West African guitarists and illustrates his unique ability to fuse diverse musical traditions.

Review: Zani Diabate's Super Djata Band was a leading Malian orchestra in the 1980s. They were known for blending Wasulu hunter music, griot praises, Senufo dances and Fula and Mandingo repertoire with Western psychedelia, blues, and Afrobeat into their own unique forms. In 1982 their album cemented Diabate's place among legendary West African guitarists as he mesmerised listeners with eight vibrant compositions featuring plenty of his hypnotic guitar work. Now it gets reissued on Numero Group and the record solidifies his status as a mythic figure in West African music so for anyone with an appreciation of house styles it is a must.

Review: Dogo du Togo & The Alagaa Beat Band bring a unique sound to West African music that blends psychedelic rock, traditional Togolese rhythms, voodoo-inspired melodies and infectious dance grooves. Led by Dogo, who dubs their style 'Alagaa Trance,' the band's music weaves hypnotic layers and vibrant beats that are both captivating and energising. Their much-anticipated album, Avoude, captures this powerful fusion and is set for release in November on the We Are Busy Bodies label and promises to transport you into a new world with its mix of cultural depth and rhythmic intensity.

Review: Take a trip back in time with this exquisite live recording of The Doors back in their pomp and heyday. It was on June 5th 1970 that the legendary group fronted by Jim Morrison headed to the Seattle Center Coliseum following widespread plaudits for their recently released Morrison Hotel album in February of the same year. They were warped up in several legal issues but played out of their skin on this night for a broadcast on KUOW-FM radio. It was the fifth and last time they played in Seattle and finds them playing with power and vitality despite a hostile crowd and some sound issues.

Review: If you're unfamiliar with Dr Robert, we recommend checking out The Blow Monkeys. Robert Howard, as he's credited, formed the iconic new wave and 'sophisti-pop' group in 1981 and his piano keys, bass notes, guitar melodies, vocals and words define the band's sizeable back catalogue. Matt Deighton, meanwhile, might mean Mother Earth, Bill Fay, or Paul Weller to some listeners. He's been involved with them all. Here, the esteemed UK musicians run into one another on Last Night From Glasgow, a treasure of a patron-funded, not-for-profit label out of Scotland's biggest city. It couldn't be a more credible and thoughtful combination. Musically, the result packs crazy levels of musicality, taking a lead from pop, soft, folk and psyche rock to produce a sound which moves between soaring to understated grandeur to deceptively complex and overtly intimate.

Review: Brian Auger's Streetnoise was originally recorded in 1969 with Julie Driscoll and The Trinity. It stands proud as a genre-blurring work of jazz, rock, folk and soul greatness that found the group moving beyond their r&b and jazz roots. Instead, Auger and Driscoll crafted a progressive, avant-garde yet deeply soulful record in which Driscoll's haunting vocals contrast beautifully with Auger's instrumentation. The gatefold sleeve was designed by Hunter S Thompson collaborator Ralph Steadman and was inspired by Hogarth's satirical etchings which in turn reflects the album's artistic ambition. Streetnoise features dynamic instrumentals like 'Ellis Island', great reinterpretations of 'All Blues' and 'Flesh Failures' and standout tracks such as 'Indian Rope Man' which highlight Auger's visionary fusion of styles.

Review: This marks the first re-press since the 2019 release of Lux Prima, which is the critically acclaimed album by Yeah Yeah Yeahs' lead vocalist Karen O and renowned producer Danger Mouse. Hailed as a "dreamy and poignant collaboration" back then, the album featured the single 'Woman' which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance and a Spike Jonze-directed performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The reissue includes original artwork and a 16-page booklet highlighting their interactive exhibition, An Encounter with Lux Prima, which featured a 360-degree soundscape mixed at Skywalker Ranch.