Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Newly signed to Ninja Tune, Ebbb debuts with a five-track EP that shows great intent. Emerging from the same London avant-garde live scene that birthed black midi and Black Country New Road, the band has quickly developed a unique sound in just a year. Their music blends pulsing rhythms, immersive electronic production, sparkling melodies, layered vocal harmonies, and beats that range from ambient to industrial. Described by the band themself as "Brian Wilson meets Death Grips," the EP is experimental and unpredictable yet deeply considered and precise with an idiosyncratic hybrid of sounds that showcases Ebbb's innovative and tightly crafted music.

Review: Eyes of the Amaryllis is a collective that announced its arrival with a debut self-titled album back in 2021 on cassette tape. A year later they landed on Horn of Plenty with a second album which came on vinyl, and now they offer up a first 45rpm in the form of 'Lunchtime On Earth' on Swedish label I Dischi Del Barone. All four tracks are decidedly short and to the point and sit somewhere between post-rock and experimental with elements of lo-fi, folk and world & country. It's the title track that stands out with its doleful guitars, plenty of echo and drifting, wordless vocal sounds making for a beautifully melancholic vibe.

Review: Primitive and Deadly is Earth's tenth album and one where Dylan Carlson and longtime drummer Adrienne Davies complete a creative journey 25 years in the making while pushing new boundaries. For the first time in their second act, Earth embraces a stripped-down rock sound and it results in a thrilling new sound. Carlson's guitar and Davies' drumming remain the core and are supported by bassist Bill Herzog and additional guitars from Brett Netson and Jodie Cox. Guest vocalists Mark Lanegan and Rabia Shaheen Qazi bring a new dimension and more structure to the songs which were all recorded in Joshua Tree and add up to an album that balances Earth's past meditative style with forward-looking rock energy.

Review: Papir and Cause Sui members Martin Rude and Jakob Skott are Edena Gardens, an innovative post-rock group that only this month is dropping new album Agar - a bold statement and second studio long player that ranges from stoned and cosmic folk to intensive rock epics. This new live album is another fine showing that invites you to explore and tease apart the band's DNA as they work through the centre piece of that album, 'Veil' as well as two tracks from previous albums. It's raw, expressive and immersive rock.

Review: There's a juxtaposition of gravel and soaring, almost-gliding quality to the epic guitar work that welcomes you into Eden Gardens. It's as though the refrains and chords are so expansive they envelop everything from ground level to stratosphere. The work of Papir and Cause Sui members Martin Rude and Jakob Skott, the result is both technically impressive and spiritually beneficial. Post-rock that makes you feel genuinely freer than before pressing play.

As grand as it sounds, there's also something very real happening here. For some, this kind of stuff may come across overblown and inflated, but then there's no pomp and pageantry present. And by that we mean the parts that exist are well balanced and you can understand why they are there without necessarily knowing. Everything feels right, and in the correct place, which is probably the best recommendation we can give.

Review: Spring is certainly in the air on the third outing from Elephant Gym. The Taiwanese (Kaohsing) rock band have set out to delve pretty deep into our minds, projecting sounds that bore holes and become earworms, bringing about a state that's almost hypnotic. The impressive thing is, that's done with a collection of 12 tracks that pack so much personality and - at times - energy, they couldn't possibly have this effect.
As an album, this sounds like prog rock balladry ('Dream Of You'), good time jazz ('Dear Humans'), spellbinding piano solos ('Dreams', 'Wings'), experimental funk ('Witches'), and numerous raw, dense, psychedelic odysseys that can be challenging to unbox and absorb, but, once immersed, the full experience is mind-bogglingly rich and rewarding, with a multitude of genres happening, interpreted by one star attraction.

Review: The End of the Ocean has joined forces with Post Recordings to offer up a revisited and remastered version of In Excelsis. This one comes on lovely 180 gram coloured vinyl and is limited to 200 copies. It is a classic bit of post-rock that is notable not only for the musicianship, complex songwriting and subtle pop sensibilities in a monist the big walls of fuzzy and textural guitars but also because the band had two female members. The Columbus, Ohio outfit dropped the album originally in June of 2012 but the ensuing decade has done nothing to diminish its charms nor originality,

Review: Swedish free-folk supergroup Enhet For Fri Musik are a collective culminating of multiple free-jazz and free-folk bands in Gothenburg. Their sound is eclectic, organic and avant-garde, with the recording process being much the same. Originally aiming to make a progressive jazz record, the collective would drink together and someone would randomly start playing an instrument, resulting in miniature epics - hence 'Dokument 1'. Document is a perfect descriptor, with tracks like 'Vilsen' having an eerie atmosphere created by the disjointed string progressions - an organism deserving of an SCP number. The record is cerebral and somewhat cinematic, evoking memories of avant-garde soundtracks like 'Drawing Restraint 9' and it's supernatural aura.

Review: Japanese post-hardcore auteurs Envy return with their highly anticipated follow up to 2020's The Fallen Crimson. Marking their eighth full-length LP, Eunoia proves testament to the sextet's enduring legacy with its dexterous marrying of cathartic screamo and post-rock serenity. Throat-shredding howls are subdued under mercurial waves of ethereal crescendos, pulling from cavernous quiet to utter bombast, whilst melodious intricacies weave a hypnotic tapestry of aquatic, abyssal despair. Boasting a tenure spanning multiple decades, the collective's latest endeavour serves as yet another accomplishment that consistently places them in their own lane, admired from afar by the countless acts they continue to influence yet simultaneously eclipse.

Review: Delivering the biggest walls of synthy, shoegazing nostalgia since M83 or The Jesus and Mary Chain before that, comes Epic45 who deliver a deep memoriam to their long-lost 20-somethings. Presenting their first album in six years, Through Broken Summer is as dark as it is light, with reverb-drenched guitars, distant voice echoes and spells of light electronica cascading across the album like the autumnal memories that inspired it. Deeper reflections include "New Silence" and "Other Rooms", the latter bringing to mind Leyland Kirby's haunting Caretaker project, while more experimental, Boards of Canada-like influences can be heard in "Cornfields & Classrooms". A saturnine, sentimental listen from start to finish.

Review: If only all of life was like Big Bend national park. The Texan reserve is spectacular, from steep lime-stone cliffs to the hot springs. It represents everything that should make us content - namely the whole 'isn't Earth a spectacular fluke we really need to be more careful with' kind of thing. The reali-ty being, when you consider how our time here is panning out, you feel at once heartbroken and in-spired.

Without wanting to be reductive, Explosions In The Sky have always had a similar effect. A band that can conjure the strongest emotions while still somehow delivering the ultimate background music, it's no wonder this isn't their first score. But what a score it is. At once subtle and yet foreboding, it's a subtly commanding masterpiece.

Review: Fans of Explosions In The Sky no doubt read the band's new album title with a degree of trepidation. Would this be the grand finale it has always felt like the outfit were gearing up for? Hopefully not, but nevertheless it certainly has the power of a magnum opus. "Every song comes from a story, or an idea one of us has had that we've all expanded on and made its own world," the group say of the new LP. "Our starting point [here] was the concept of an ending - death." If that sounds bleak then it might be worth reconsidering attitudes towards endings. Rather than wallowing, Explosions In the Sky do what they have always done so well here, but perhaps even better than before. Monumentally-sized operatic rock music highly influenced by classical, grand enough to see your entire life pass before the mind's eye as the keys, refrains and bombastic melodies unfold, reminding us that while nothing last forever, it was probably a blessing to be here in the first place.

Review: The trio of Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto all have their own international audience and together they create a sound that is uniquely their own. They always have a live-centric focus and now unveil their third album which was recorded during a live session at Shimokitazawa ADRIFT in 2023. The album was re-edited, mixed, and mastered by O'Rourke with recording done by longtime collaborator Joe Talia. This work transcends a traditional live album and stands proud as a fully realised studio project. Embracing improvisation throughout, Kafka Ibiki redefines roles while weaving their interplay into a singular, evolving sound that is an immersive narrative overall.