Back in stock: Rock (All)

Review: This deliberately mysterious outfit hailed from Italy, and this, the first of two previously ultra-rare and highly collectible LPs, is no less than a psychedelic classic, chock full of wild keyboards, fuzz guitar rampage, blissed-out trance states and fearful avant-garde trickery. It's been ascertained that Braen's Machine was the work of heralded soundtrack composer Perio Ulimani, as well as Morricone collaborator Allesandro Allesandroni, and this would make perfect sense, as "Underground" is very much in the metier of Italian soundtrack legends Goblin, and bound to appeal to fans of the widescreen psych sweep of Aphrodite's Child. Bellisima.

Review: Lucinda Chua is currently based in South London and is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. She crafts elegant and emotive music mainly using her voice and cello, plenty of effects units and draws on ambient for her inspiration. What results is atmospheric and intimate music that is utterly enchaining as this album on 4AD proves across ten tracks that come after she spent an intensive period studying Chinese dance forms. Lead single 'Echo' is a pop song about ancestral trauma that walks a thin line between respect for the past and the hope and freedom of a new future. It's captivating indeed.

Review: P-Vine Japan does great work once more here by bringing back into print some hugely sought-after sounds from the blues and r&b world. The first release in their new series revives Larry Davis' 1969 Kent Records single, which was originally written by Sherwood Fleming. The A-side, 'For 5 Long Years' delivers a gritty mid-tempo funk-blues groove while the B-side, 'I've Been Hurt So Many Times' (a classic subject for a blues tune) channels Willie Cobbs' signature sound. These will be familiar to anyone who has danced at a Northern Soul event and cannot be slept on.

Review: Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. last appeared don our radar when the Baron of Techno MR Dave Clarke was busy remixing them. Now comes this deluxe and 180g gatefold album Skint Fa with an alternate cover and 20 page lyric book. This is the band's third album in as many years after 2020's A Hero's Death saw them hit the number two spot in the album charts and pick up nominations at the GRAMMYs, BRITs and Ivor Novello Awards. After a sell out tour at Alexandra Palace that now serve up more darkly political ones, thrashing riffs and hard edged drums.

Review: Los Jaivas' Alturas de Macchu Picchu arrives newly remastered and reissued by state51 on heavyweight wax, and it remains a landmark of South American music. Its blurring of psychedelic rock, Andean folk and Pablo Neruda's poetic power makes the album, which was recorded in exile during Chile's Pinochet era, an evocation of both the spirit and struggle of Latin America. Tracks like 'La Poderosa Muerte' and 'Sube a Nacer Conmigo Hermano' swirl with emotion and complexity to deliver a cinematic spiritual experience. Inspired by Incan ruins and resistance, Alturas is more than music-it's a cultural beacon that invites you into a timeless soundscape.

Review: Seattle label Light In The Attic Records is proud to present a reissue of material from Nancy Sinatra's most prolific period between 1965-1976, with 23 tracks including her revered collaborations with Lee Hazlewood. Sinatra's performance of 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin'' became her signature tune. The pair began a three year run of successful recordings, with 'Sugar Town,' 'Some Velvet Morning,', 'Summer Wine' as well as the James Bond theme 'You Only Live Twice' being just a few. She also worked with songwriter Mac Davis, producer Lenny Waronker and arranger/producer Billy Strange on the album.

Review: Having made their names respectively as a modern-day psych-pop connoisseur somewhere between Prince and Syd Barrett (Connan Mockasin) and the man behind one of the most underrated debuts of the last decade (LA Priest, AKA Late Of The Pier's Sam Dust), these two charismatic square-pegs have joined forces, and the result is as strange and beguiling as one might hope for. Mixing luminous pop hooks with experimental flourishes, and sexed-up atmospherics with cockeyed '80s sonics, 'Soft Hair' is a skewed and seductive mission statement from an odd couple hopefully built to last.

Review: For the first time, David Sylvian's 29-track career retrospective, Everything & Nothing, comes to vinyl format. Spanning the incipience of Sylvian's craft with key cuts from his Japan and Rain Tree Crow days, through to his solo years with Virgin Records, this is a right summative beauty. We're surprised by its oversight on the part of record companies until now, with the album having initially only made it to a short CD and Minidisc run. Sylvian's sonic and lyrical Romanticism shines as brightly as ever here, with the pith at the wilful core of the record cogent in the pre-chorus line of 'The Scent Of Magnolia': "none of the history books describe what I've seen." Here we're also met with new remixes of 'Ghosts' and 'Bamboo Houses', as well as new session versions of tracks from the standout albums Secrets Of The Beehive and Dead Bees On A Cake.

Review: Washington DC-based label People's Potential Unlimited is one of those that seems to have an endless supply of magical sounds that all very much fit with its MO and are all pretty unique. Often times that is down to the smart digging of the owners who unearth plenty of treasures for reissuing but this time out it is a new record from a contemporary outfit, TAMTAM. The four piece band formed in Tokyo and started making reggae and dub before moving on to jazz, soul, new age and psych-pop. They bring subtle euphoria to what they do as well as catchy grooves and nostalgic melodies as exemplified here on this mature new work that will be lapped up by fans of Khruangbin.

Review: Way back in 2004, Sanctuary Records commissioned pre-Britpop pop hipsters St Etienne member and serial compilation curator Bob Stanley to put together a collection celebrating the British 'acid folk' movement of the late 1980s and early 1970s. Long deleted, the previously CD only compilation is finally returning on vinyl - this time in expanded form, with the inclusion of additional tracks and a few picks from its (also unavailable) sequel. It's a superb set all told and one that showcases a take on folk heavy on effects, unusual rhythms, sweet vocals, horror-adjacent sounds and pastoral but otherworldly instrumentation. A few well-known names aside, it's a genuinely deep dive too - as you'd expect from someone of Stanley's knowledge and experience.