Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Ace Records are she-pop experts who have kept a constant stream of high quality offerings from the 1960s coming. Featuring mostly British and American artists the label now widens its net to serve up a pair of high impact tunes from their well-received Ciao Bella! Italian Girl Singers Of The 1960s compilation CD. Brunetta's 'Baluba Shake' has big and cavernous drums, plucked guitar riffs and rollicking great chords next to lung-busting vocals. It's a real dancer. Things get more impassioned on the high speed funk chase that is Rita Pavone's 'Il Geghege.'

Review: Darron Robinson is a former frontman of London's Mod 'n' Soul group The Sha La La's and has been delivering impressive solo material with his latest double A-side single on Detour Records being his most uplifting yet. 'Ready Your Love (Be Happy)' and 'This Time I Can't Lose' embody the hopeful lyrics, energy and attitude that have become synonymous with Darron's writing. His skill as a songsmith continues to shine and has caught the attention of legendary Northern Soul DJ Richard Searling and BBC 6 Music's Craig Charles, who both featured his track 'When Love Comes' on their shows.

Review: Happenstance can be a fortuitous element. A union-funded single discovered in a dusty store, a long disbanded band found, leads to unreleased post punk dubs in a box of unreleased demos.

Formed during the mid-80s in the downbeat town of Walsall, their music is a blend of disparate influences from 50's crooners, blues and reggae to Killing Joke and The Bunnymen; Ron's Neighbours were out of step with the perfect pop of the C86 indie generation.

Their only single - "To The Fight" - a split 7" was supported by the Trade Union Resource Centre, while many gigs were benefits for striking miners, leading to a loyal local following.

Engineered by Ozzy Osbourne's brother Tony, tracks were recorded at an 8 track bedroom / home studio, while a terraced house served as rehearsal space. Here Ron Next Door was born. When a tape recorder was left running it captured the long-suffering neighbour for posterity. His outburst gave the band and song, its name.

Experimenting with drum machines, the resultant jam track, here in its "Alternative Mix", languished unheard until now. Ron's 'Black Country' tones lead to driving bass / percussion against crashing Stratocasters and repeating, refrained vox - a post punk dub turned symphony.

The B side, Sitting On Top of the World, is an indie anthem, becoming their theme, a blend of grandiose and banal that characterised their songs.

Review: After the natural commotion that surrounded the sudden news of an eighth Radiohead album available for immediate download - and some loose limbed moves from Thom Yorke last month, the band finally appease their fans that prefer a tangible product. The King Of Limbs sees Thom Yorke and company continue the sonic experimentation that has characterized the latter part of their career. Those expecting a full-on Aphex Twin style electronic assault may, though, be disappointed. While it's all densely layered and impressively textured see the droning guitars, electronics and tape loops of "Bloom" or the atmospheric dubstep of "Lotus Flower" there are still plenty of authentic experimental rock moments, not least the uptempo "Little By Little" and semi-acoustic dreamscape "Give Up The Ghost".

Review: Coming off of the back of 1983's Subterranean Jungle, which saw a return to their punk rock roots, the brothers Ramone opted to stay the course for their 1984 follow up Too Tough To Die. Enlisting drummer Richie Ramone for his first project, the collective creative intention was to further stray from the lukewarm reception bestowed upon their more pop-centric End of the Century (1980) and Pleasant Dreams (1981), and rediscover the harder edges that built their initial success. With this unifying vision in mind, the band opted to record as live and raw as possible in order to capture that punk rock ethos, with this compilation providing a bevvy of demos, B-sides and alternate takes from these sessions, many of which feature Richie on lead vocals. A true gem for devout followers of the real Fab 4 as well as a curious bridging point between the aforementioned Subterranean Jungle and the fully realised product of Too Tough To Die.

Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers have found some good form of late with a new album Unlimited Love earlier in the year now followed by a surprise second new album. Anthony Kiedis and co's Return of the Dream Canteen is a second Rick Rubin-produced album. The group said of the album "We went in search of ourselves. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundreds of times along the way. Once we found that slipstream of sound and vision, we just kept mining." This one sounds like classic Chilis with plenty of funk and big riffs as well as great songwriting.

Review: During the 1980s, The Redskins became a celebrated English band. Next to their highly danceable indie output, they were also known for left-wing politics and a bold skinhead image. This new compilation, as the title suggests, brings together some rarities and hard to find tracks from their heyday. Elements of soul, rockabilly, pop and punk rock all inform their tracks and breath new life into the new wave and post punk forms they work in. Highlights include the strident 'Reds Strike The Blues' and fierce 'Young & Proud.'

Review: For Left Ear's 35th release, the label revisits the archives of Spanish musician Jesus M' Catalan and his project, Respuesta Alternativa. Unlike his previous release, these tracks, which were created between 1987 and 1990, were recently discovered in a forgotten shoebox. While working as a sound technician, Jesus crafted atmospheric tracks in his bedroom, later refining them with collaborator Julian C. Perez. Their music evolved from simple themes with guitars to incorporating vocal samples. Influenced by his Asturian roots, Jesus blended serene and stormy elements, reflecting the contrasting seas of the Balearic and Asturias Islands, creating unique, enduring soundscapes.

Review: Since returning in 2015 following a two-decade long hiatus, post-punk experimentalists The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus has offered up a trio of admired albums. Even so, The Dream We Carry is still the multi-media-loving Liverpool collective's first new full-length for four years. It's an inspired set all told, with the band shrouding their beautiful neo-folk and ethereal compositions in simmering strings, dusty sound design, oodles of effects, and all manner of samples and field recordings. It's quietly picturesque and exquisitely crafted, providing a mixture of musical melancholy and hopeful positivity. It comes highly recommended.

Review: Finish dub techno powerhouse Joachim Spieth welcomes UK artist Rhubiqs to his well-regarded Affin label for a debut appearance that sinks you into a widescreen world of ambient lushness. His Aegis of Silence album takes cues from divergent sounds like post-rock and soft ambient as well as drone and even modern classical. It's an ever-shifting soundscape with smeared pads and nostalgia dreams, half-remembered thoughts and a sense of mood that ranges from escapist and blissed out to more ominous and paranoid.

Review: Shoegaze legends Ride are on a reissuing role, having announced a re-release campaign of almost all their early classic albums on Wichita Recordings. 'Going Blank Again' is the patrician's choice, being one of their most acclaimed and praised. Unlike contempories a-la My Bloody Valentine, Ride's sound at this point was clear and crisp; it was drowned in sonic light, not vacuum fuzz, and carried with it a cheerier edge that predicted the sounds of later bands like Weezer. Don't miss this orange vinyl bundle version.

Review: Shoegaze legends Ride's reissuing roll reaches their first four EPs; the first here, simply titled 'Ride', was emblematic of the band's sound and, outside of that sphere, paved the way for an entire genre. After that, and before 'Nowhere', came the subsequent EP's 'Play', 'Fall' and 'Today Forever', which make up this sprawling blue vinyl boxset. Once again, you can now bask in the shimmering waves that lap at this jolly band's feet, and ours.

Review: Tarantula is one of those bittersweet moments in the history of UK rock & roll. On the one hand, it's a fantastic album that showcases the natural talent and innovative approach to song craft that Ride had first grabbed attention with. On the other, it marked the beginning of the end for the group, or more accurately, the first chapter following the end - finally getting a release after the outfit had called time and gone their separate ways. Still, in so far as swan songs go, there are plenty to celebrate here. Tarantula is a purist's rock & roll extravaganza at times, with its gritty riffs and forward momentum, tracks like 'Burnin'' perhaps best typify this, or those looking for a taste of the genre's 1960s origin story might look to 'Deep Inside My Pocket'. But then it's all much more complex than that, too, with the reflective indie balladry of 'Castle On The Hill', noise pop on 'Gonna Be Alright', and hypnotising layers on 'Ride The Wind'.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The return of Ripley Johnson, and what a return it is. The man better known to most (confusingly) as Rose City Band, alongside Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, started this project as an outlet for all the bits and pieces that wouldn't fit in with those two other endeavours. In truth, RSB isn't a million miles from either but wins out in terms of the freedoms it affords.

Rather than finding himself beholden to bandmates and communal touring schedules, instead the Band has always allowed Johnson complete control to do what he wants, when he wants it, and perhaps most significantly, with who he wants. Inviting select players to join in the creative process, it's a wistful and laidback steel pedal guitar groove from start to finish, touching on progressive rock, folk, Americana, blues, jazz and more.

Review: Stranded is the third album for Roxy Music, and most notably it was the first after Brian Eno had departed. It was also the first album on which Ferry shared songwriting duties with Andy Mackay and Phil Mazanera, and so it captures the band in that moment of transition away from synthesiser sparkle towards a fuller, more rockist sound. The pianos and guitars pile on, creating a more driving sound even on the softer tracks like 'Just Like You', but there's still a thread of the unusual tucked away in every track - that curious magic which made Roxy Music such a vital force in 70s music.

Review: This cult classic disco album is now a full four decades old, so what better time to reissue it in a special 40th Anniversary Edition? Spittle Dependance out of Italy have done that here and it is an alluring listen all these years on that kicks off with the proto-house sounds and echo-laden slow-motion grooves of 'Fire' before 'Sexual Desire' get tinny and analogue and cold, 'Marry A Bad Girl' plays with some more colourful synth sequences and nice deadpan vocals and 'It's Not Too Grand' is a real low slung disco chugger. A wonderful album if you ask us.

Review: Surprisingly, Arthur Russell's first posthumous collection of music, 1993's Another Thought, has never before been released on vinyl. With this gatefold double-album, Be With Records has finally set the record straight. It's well worth picking up, not least because the set, which was initially put together after raiding the legendary cellist-turned-producer's archive of unreleased recordings, is little less than superb. Full of hard-to-pigeonhole songs in Russell's unique style - effects-laden blends of cello, acoustic guitar, emotive vocals, twangy double bass and so on - Another Thought contains some of Russell's most refined and emotional recordings, including such classics as 'How We Walk on the Moon' and 'In The Light of a Miracle'.