For more than 30 years, Beth Orton has been our antenna to the cosmos, the poet laureate of forces too vast to take in all at once. A testament to her artistry, ‘The Ground Above’ is Orton’s most direct and unapologetic music to date; urgent, raw, embodied and emotionally fearless, moving between subconscious expression and expansive, timeless song craft. Her voice, from whispered incantation to primal wail, equally delivers melodies reminiscent of classic songbook form. Throughout the album, Orton documents survival and renewal, motherhood and identity, political unease, and the ongoing choice to stay - in love, in art, and in the world.

As with 2022’s critical breakthrough ‘Weather Alive,’ Orton self-produced the album, staying true to the collective spirit of the initial live recordings whilst sculpting and expanding, over a year long process, the record we hear today. Working with trusted musicians including multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, Vernon Spring’s Sam Beste, drummers Chris Vatalaro (Antibalas, Radiohead) and Vishal Nayak (Nick Hakim), Trumpet player Christos Styliandes and bassist Tom Herbert, Orton reaches new heights as a producer and songwriter.

'Bossanova' is the third Pixies album. The band continued to work with Gil Norton after collaborating to such success on their platinum-selling second album 'Doolittle'. Their third album in as many years, 1990 was a particularly fertile time for the band with Kim Deal also having success with The Breeders, who released their debut album 'Pod' just a few months prior.

Featuring the singles ‘Allison’ (a tribute to jazz and blues pianist Mose Allison), ‘Dig For Fire’ and ‘Velouria’, plus the first cover to feature on one of their albums ‘Cecilia Ann’ (originally by The Surftones), 'Bossanova' showed a less primal side to the band, with surf and space rock rising to the fore. Lyrically, Black Francis is even more cryptic with a recurring sci-fi theme running throughout, which in turn influenced Vaughan Oliver’s classic planet design for the sleeve.

'Trompe le Monde' bookended a golden run of landmark records released in quick succession that cemented Pixies as one of the best of a generation.

Translated from French to mean “fool the world”, 'Trompe le Monde' showed the band still restless to push their sound forward. With producer Gil Norton again at the controls, their fourth album is arguably their most playful with Black Francis’s lyrics on UFOs and conspiracy theories keeping things weird while power pop creeps in to amplify the space rock established on predecessor 'Bossanova'.

'Trompe le Monde' goes full throttle with 15 tracks coming in a quickfire 40-minute salvo. It proved to be the end of act one for the band with them taking over a decade before returning to stage together.

After thirteen years of silence from the compound, during which anticipation has grown day by day, Boards of Canada finally return. Inferno retains their signature melodies and atmospheres, drawing on the esoteric influences explored in Societas X Tape (their 2019 NTS mix for Warp Records’ 30th anniversary) and the darker ambience introduced on Tomorrow’s Harvest, further deepened by an expanded role for speech soundbites.

Spanning seventy minutes, the new album is available on special edition limited red translucent 2LP vinyl in triple gatefold sleeve with a 16-page booklet, black 2LP vinyl and CD with 20-page booklet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of the most beloved electronica bands of the past several decades returns for another highly anticipated slice of retro-futuristic, saturated bliss. Bucolic drifting ambience and deep, clattering percussion with guitars and those ever-present vocal snippets. Undeniably brilliant .

UNRELEASED STUDIO TRACKS FROM THE OCT 1977 MEMPHIS RECORDING SESSIONS THAT UNLEASHED HUMAN FLY!!
MIXED BY ALEX CHILTON, POISON IVY AND LUX INTERIOR!!

With tracks selected and mixed in the late 1980s, Gravest Gravy was designated by Lux and Ivy for release years ago, but for reasons lost to time, remained shelved until now. Completely rippin’ versions of classic early Cramps tracks, two of which feature Alex Chilton on organ. Cut from the analog source tapes, and mastered expertly in Nashville. Stay Sick! Turn Blue!

In October 1977, the Cramps, who were at that time, Lux Interior on vocals, Poison Ivy on guitar, Bryan Gregory on guitar, and Nick Knox on drums, ventured into Ardent Studios with the extraordinarily talented musician and producer, Alex Chilton. These sessions were responsible for the first two Vengeance Records releases, both permanently disfiguring the music world in 1978.

Surfin’ Bird / The Way I Walk

Human Fly / Domino

In 1979, young British degenerates were treated to a five track 12” EP by the Cramps called Gravest Hits, which featured all four tracks released in the USA, along with another from the October 1977 sessions, a great channeling of Ricky Nelson’s hit Lonesome Town. From there, the band released their first LP, Songs The Lord Taught Us, again working with Alex Chilton, and went onward, releasing records and touring all over until the sad passing of Lux in 2009.

What Cramps fans might not know, was at Ardent, the band had planned to record their song T.V. Set to be their first A side, along with another track or tracks. Alex told them that he liked to have a band play every song they knew and the best of the batch would be committed to vinyl. This was fantastic advice, and luckily for us, that’s what the Cramps did. This is how Lonesome Town found its way to Gravest Hits. But, there was much more to the story.

In the late 1980s, Lux and Ivy endeavored to release more recordings from the October 1977 sessions. It was to be titled Gravest Gravy. It was a record for the fans, a journey back to Memphis, back to the first Cramps records, that, try as it might, the world has been unable to heal from. Lux and Ivy mixed several tracks between June 14 and 30, 1989 at Present Time Recorders, in North Hollywood. Alex mixed a few tracks in Memphis. The album had a title, a cover by the great Stephanie Chernikowski, who passed away recently, but for reasons lost to time, Gravest Gravy was shelved.

In 2026, we sought to change that. It was apparent that this record absolutely needed to be with the fans. A team, still severely cramped from initial contact with the band, began to form and got to work.


Greetings. Henry Rollins here.
I am beyond stoked to announce the formation of The Cramps Inc. that will restart the Cramps’ label Vengeance Records, create official merchandise, and venture into the vaults to unleash unheard recordings of this amazing band.

The Cramps Inc. is the artist formerly known as Poison Ivy Rorschach, Larry Hardy, owner and operator of In The Red Records, and Jimmy Maslon, a former Rollin’ Rock recording artist, film producer, and owner of the Herschel Gordon Lewis, and Doris Wishman film catalogs. Both have deep ties to Lux and Ivy, forged over decades. Ivy is the major beneficiary. Larry and Jimmy are handling all the logistics. They are perfect for this.

Ian MacKaye and I, operating as RAM Prod. (Rollins and MacKaye), are working on behalf of The Cramps Inc., coming up with release ideas, handling tape maintenance, editing, mixing, mastering and lacquer cutting responsibilities. We are aligned with Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA and Infrasonic Sound in Nashville, TN.

Many Cramps records and items, such as t-shirts you see on the Internet—are bootlegs. The Cramps Inc. is striving to right that wrong and recently made a deal with the merchandising company Easy Partners. Cool designs for official merch are well underway.

The tracks on Gravest Gravy were contained on seven 1/4 inch reels. Six were generated by Lux and Ivy, one by Alex. The tapes were carefully transferred by Brian Kehew. He was happy to report that all seven reels had withstood the test of time, and the tracks were in pristine condition. Many of the songs had multiple mixes. We had to determine which ones were the keepers. Over several nights of concentrated listening, and copious notetaking, I was able to get an understanding of the changes made from mix to mix. Within a few nights, I was able to determine that the last mix of each song was the keeper. Not only did the tracks sound to be at their fullest potential, it made sense.

I sent the mixes and my notes to Ian MacKaye, whose ears I trust more than anyone I know. I asked him to take his time, go through the tracks and form an opinion of my selections. Days later, he reported back that he agreed with me on all of them. He then volunteered to do some EQ and level adjustment on two of the tracks with Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios, in Arlington, Virginia.

Days later, all the tracks were at Infrasonic Sound, an excellent studio in Nashville, Tennessee for mastering under the careful watch of engineer Pete Lyman. I sat for hours and listened as Pete coaxed the frequencies to be at their best. The results were two six song sides of the Cramps, extracted from a 1977 amber block, de-fossilized and ready to be inflicted upon the ears of those who would rather Stay Sick and Turn Blue than hope for sunny weather.

Dundalk’s finest The Mary Wallopers have announced details of their third album – produced by The Coral’s James Skelly and packed with their own songs - a new single and their biggest headline tour to date, including arena shows in Scotland and Ireland

Paddywhackery follows up 2023’s hugely acclaimed Irish Rock’n’Roll. That album saw the band grow in confidence, writing their own songs for the first time. Paddywhackery finds them leaping forwards to create an album that sounds like it’s been made by a band with a tightness and a power that’s unparalleled in music right now.

Recorded in an intense two-week period in Liverpool with producer James Skelly and engineer Chris Taylor, Paddywhackery lets the band’s grand wildness shine through and allows their songs to flow out of the speakers with the kind of verve and potency that will make you - the listener - press play again, and again, and again.

Andrew and Charles Hendy on the album: “It’s mainly about the fact that people would call us “paddywhackery” because we are too Irish or whatever, but it’s all very fucking hip to be Irish the last couple of years, and maybe that’s performative too, it’s very sincere. If all you do is serious songs, it sterilises everything. It becomes like there’s only one human emotion and its seriousness. People are terrified of being laughed at. If people are going to call us paddywhackery anyway, we might as well just call the album Paddywhackery. So its more of a “fuck you” than anything else. We want to spread like a virus and destroy anyone who thinks they are above The Mary Wallopers”.

We went back to an older method of writing for this one.
We jammed and jammed and jammed.
I took the tapes home and ironed out some mutant tunes.
We went back into the studio and burned them to tape live and then I took it home to Stu-Stu-Studio and did the vocals and bought in Tom Dolas & Brigid Dawson to put the finish on.

Spice is always nice.

Mixed it all up in the cauldron and thus we have a strange brew indeed
Floating in the smoke we have:
A couple long jams, a couple short jams and a finale that’ll dump a bucket of ear worms on you
(reminiscent of “the axis”?)
Dip your toe in organ rock and roll

So without further ado
We present to you
“OFF COURSE”

An album wondering where the fuck are we and how did we get here

A signal dispatched out into the darkness

We are here
We are alive
And we are together


CHEERS NO EARS
JPD/DG/OSEES 

For their 6th outing on the Benders imprint, the brothers bend have discovered a long forgotten gem that they can’t quite believe didn’t get more airplay at the time. Reimagining the original with their own twist for a one-off, single sided 12”, "Macareno" is coming to clear a dancefloor near you. Play with caution.

“Some of us remember when that was played non ironically and it will never ever - until the sun expands and consumes us all - be soon enough to play it out again” - Anonymous radio listener.

Clearly a marmite record, but U-BEND love marmite.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Has "Macareno" spent long enough in the cooler to warm us up this summer festival season? I let the public do the talkiing, and judging by the number of pre-orders we've got - the resounding answer is: YES! Cue: Tik Tok dances and audio memes... but that groove is pretty undeniable ain't it!?

Much like a teacher, Meryl Streek imparts his knowledge and lived experiences to all who are willing to listen. His third album, ‘Stories They Don’t Teach You At School’, serves as an alternative form of education, delivered through a visceral blend of factual soundbites and raw emotion, loops and samples, guitars and bass. The lyrics resonate with core values of compassion, resilience, and community—themes rarely explored within a classroom setting or seen in today's fragmented society. By prioritising conviction over commercial success, the Dublin artist's outspokenness may invite controversy. Yet beneath the fervor lies a profound desire for positive social change at home in Ireland, and beyond.

Meryl Streek returned to Darkland Studios in Dublin to fine-tune the recordings previously made in a shed at the back of his ma's garden. Here he continued the genre-blurring nature of his earlier work, enticing listeners toward dissonant landscapes and hypnotic rhythms. Gentle piano tones collide with abrasive synths, creating a striking tension between beauty and noise. Streek tempers his rage when appropriate, integrating atmospheric textures and pop sensibilities into his ever-expanding sonic collage.

As is tradition with any Meryl Streek record, ‘Stories They Don’t Teach You At School’ unearths many uncomfortable truths. ‘Rotten Fruit’ examines media manipulation and the numbing proliferation of misinformation, all soundtracked by synth-punk. With gliding keys and a crunchy bassline, ‘Council Estates’ critiques systemic government failures affecting the working class. ‘Kelly’ is a slice of electronica that details an ongoing criminal investigation, currently classified as a “Contested Cause of Death”. The indie pop of 'The Chancer' brings much-needed attention to landlord politicians. As the album progresses, the mission remains absolute: to provide a voice for the voiceless.

To amplify these narratives, Meryl Streek handpicked a diverse group of collaborators for the project. ‘Rotten Fruit’ features Steve Ignorant of anarcho-punk collective CRASS. ‘Depression’ opens with a touching recording of the late Liam Norton, close friend and former touring companion, while Pete Holidai of The Radiators From Space contributes guitars on the song. Comedian Phill Jupitus provides the spoken outro for ‘The Chancer'. ‘Housing For All’ incorporates audio from Derelict Ireland campaigners Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry. Venn Records owner and Gallows guitarist Laurent ‘Lags’ Barnard joins forces with Adebisi Shank bassist Vinny McCreith on the aggressive ‘Bullet,’ while Sophie Porter of Other Half provides bass guitar for ‘Life is Not a Rehearsal’. The album concludes with a three-minute spoken word piece by Frankie McNamara, the viral creator behind ‘Meditations for the Anxious Mind’.

In her 1990 protest anthem 'Black Boys on Mopeds', the late Sinead O’Connor warned, “To say what you feel is to dig your own grave”. With this release, Meryl Streek firmly holds the shovel.

Some artists don’t ask permission; they just land in your gut and stay there. Some records arrive polished and pristine. Others bleed the moment you press play. On their debut album ‘Put A Smile On For Me’, the fast-rising London four-piece Keo choose the latter. Raw, bruised, and unflinchingly self-aware, their first full-length release captures the emotional fallout of love, guilt, shame, and self-destruction with a clarity that feels almost confrontational. The record captures a band documenting themselves in real time, preserving every fracture, ugly thought and moment of collapse without compromise.

Blending grunge intensity, shoegaze textures and confessional songwriting, the record draws on the charged candour of artists including Led Zeppelin, Sun Kil Moon and Smashing Pumpkins, while carrying the lyrical directness and storytelling instinct of artists like Radiohead. Across its 11 tracks, Keo move between moments of towering vulnerability and total collapse, pairing brooding atmospheres with melodies that feel built to be screamed back in over-spilling rooms.

“The next big guitar band." - The London Standard.
“A sound that has given UK guitar its biggest kick up the fretboard in years.” Rolling Stone UK.
“Keo are already that band." - DORK.
“There’s something undeniably compelling about Keo’s willingness to lay everything bare.” -Kerrang!
"Indie-rock’s most promising new proposition” - DIY.

The Dinked Edition of ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ comes in an exclusive collector’s format featuring alternative artwork and a limited yellow marbled vinyl pressing. It includes a heavyweight outer sleeve with alternate artwork, a printed inner sleeve, transparent outer sticker and exclusive fold-out poster. 

‘Renascent’ marks the long-awaited return of legendary Manchester outfit The Durutti Column, their first new studio album in over fifteen years.

Around the guitar work of Vini Reilly, the album plays between sonic atmospherics and structure: warm ambient washes, piano, beats and guest vocal turns by a new generation (Caoilfhionn Rose).

Both contemporary and otherworldly, and with a swathe of new champions citing the band as an influence (Blood Orange, Harry Styles, The Avalanches, Mark William Lewis), 'Renascent' is a timely and vital rebirth for The Durutti Column.

Kurt Vile returns with third release on Verve Records. The album title, 'Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me', illustrates his love for his home city, where he still resides and records most of his music.

Musically, the album includes everything fans have come to love about KV: jangly guitars, soaring instrumental passages, and lyrics that are both cheeky and sentimental at the same time.

This album depicts a musician who, in spite of having a majorly successful career, has stayed true to his roots and continues to represent artistic integrity.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brand new suite of laid-back slacker grooves and slo-mo rock from the king of laid-back, Kurt Vile. For a start, the superb video for standout single 'Chance To Bleed' (inc. appearance from Barry & Liam's favourite 19yo alcoholic poet) is brilliant, and it highlights a deep sense of fun and anti-serious tomfoolery. All wrapped in Vile's consistently brilliant musicianship.

Willow says: For his whole career, Kurt Vile has been strongly poised in the Neil Young lineage of cutting-edge country-infused rock guitarists. He has as much right as anyone going, then, to take something of a victory lap ten solo albums deep with Philadelphia's Been Good To Me, which sees Vile showing off all his tricks with some style. From some of the most rocking moments of his solo career to the warm blanket of his familiar, winding woodland drawl, Philadelphia... is one of the strongest statements Vile has made with a record, an endearing boast of his undeniable skill as a songwriter and guitar player. Skronk.

The Coral return with '388', their thirteenth studio album, officially released following an initial physical-only run through record shops across the UK. Led by new single ‘Let The Music Play’, the record draws inspiration from the sound and spirit of vintage reggae and dub cassette tapes, while continuing the band’s long-standing blend of psychedelic rock, melody and escapism.

Following the UK Top Five success of 2023’s 'Sea Of Mirrors', '388' further expands a catalogue that has produced six UK Top Five albums, including the Mercury Prize-nominated self-titled debut The Coral, alongside 'Magic and Medicine', 'The Invisible Invasion' and 'Coral Island', as well as defining singles such as ‘Dreaming Of You’ and ‘Pass It On’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Coral return! Bringing with them an initially limited, but now widely available new LP that swims in the rippling waters of dub, via their more established psychedelic rock filter. There has always been an element of sunny dub-forward grooves and syncopated stagger to their sound but this time it's bolstered by a saturated, straight-to-tape heft and woozy, hazy warble. Top stuff.

On its 56th birthday this influential slice of soul is celebrated again. A 7" remastered, reissue of Minnie Riperton's iconic, majestic and much sampled 'Les Fleur' in a hand numbered, limited edition picture sleeve on purple vinyl. Favoured by the likes of Jurassic 5, Damu The Fudgemunk & Cut Chemist, famously covered by Dego and backed with the equally serene 'Oh By The Way'.With original copies selling for upwards of £60+ here's a chance to own this slice of soul perfection at a fraction of the price.

In an age of algorithms, Westside Cowboy are pure-spirited proof of the magic that can only come from human connection. Just three years on from forming in Manchester, starting a band for the fun of it without so much as a plan to even play a gig, the quartet - Jimmy Bradbury (vocals, guitar), Reuben Haycocks (vocals, guitar), Aoife Anson O'Connell (vocals, bass) and Paddy Murphy (drums) - have crafted perhaps the year’s most exciting debut by simply figuring out what feels good, and following it into the horizon.

There’s no computer that could make 'It Goes On'. No formula to creating the joyous whack of emotion that comes from these four mates pooling their ideas and watching them fly. “If you go in with a preconceived notion of what you're doing, it’s sort of destined to fail because you’re not truly being yourself,” suggests Aoife. “So because we didn’t think we were gonna [do any of this] at the beginning, all we were thinking was: ‘What’s going to be the most enjoyable thing to play right now?’"

Aoife, Reuben and Paddy all knew each other from the Royal Northern College of Music; Jimmy and Paddy had played in a band together a few years previously. When they decided to sit in a practice room as a quartet for the first time, there was only one rule for what would follow. “We just wanted to make simple music. I think the reason there was such chemistry - and when we look back, even after two weeks we were really working well together - is because it was such a simple statement of intent,” recalls Reuben. “Any time we’d disagree on something - which was very rare - we’d just consult the original mission statement: if you’ve got too many chords in it, you’re wrong.”

A purposeful reaction against the “more abstract” styles they’d individually been dallying with before, Westside Cowboy swiftly became a place for concise, straight-hitting ideas influenced by “early rock’n’roll: Lonnie Donegan, The Beatles and The Velvet Underground,” says Paddy. Jimmy remembers spending the bulk of 2023 playing the first five songs of an Elvis Presley album on repeat. “When we started the band, people would ask who was in it and we’d be like, ‘We got this guy who works in a guitar shop, only listens to Elvis and dresses like Marty McFly - you know, that guy!’” Aoife laughs.

If these were the solid early seeds of Westside Cowboy, then the biggest thing that’s shaped them into the exploratory, melodically robust band they are now, has been their own journey. When they did start playing gigs (their first two shows were at a coffee shop, and for an animal rights charity), they found that their songs were being stretched and pushed forward in real time. Paddy notes that the true crux of It Goes On’s propulsive, heady opening track ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ is “as much about how we made it as the lyrics”.

“We loved the way it felt to play, but we thought we couldn’t record it like that or people would think we wanted to be a stadium rock band,” Aoife jokes. Instead, they translated it through their own lens, using a live recording of The Velvet Underground’s ‘What Goes On’ as their primary reference point. “We always thought, if we can pull this off it could be really fun,” Paddy grins. “Taking this mad, ‘70s rock thing but then having it played by a bunch of scrawny kids.” Since those first shows, Westside Cowboy have found themselves notching up an increasingly wild list of live milestones. Last year, they won Glastonbury’s prestigious Emerging Talent Competition, leading them to an opening slot on the televised Woodsies Stage. Since then, they’ve toured with Black Country, New Road and Geese while, later this year, they’ll play their biggest headline gigs to date, including stop offs at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum and Manchester’s Albert Hall. Winning the Glastonbury slot, says Reuben, felt like “the first moment that we realised we really were a band”. Now, with the making of 'It Goes On', Westside Cowboy have underlined exactly what kind of band they want to be.

Recorded with producer Loren Humphrey (Geese, Cameron Winter, Wunderhorse) at Greenmount Studios in Leeds over a period that saw them thinking on their feet and remodelling their production into an even more directly energetic new form, there’s an urgency of feeling to 'It Goes On' that could only ever really happen with a young group’s debut record. “First albums are often my favourites because you can tell there’s a point to prove. You’re firing on all cylinders because you know that this may never happen again,” says Paddy. “You’re trying to create these big feelings, but all you have with you to string it together is a pencil and a Pritt Stick.”

Big feelings are at the heart of the matter: these are songs that aim to distill the confusion, desperation and blind hope of youth into eleven tracks that hit you in the chest. Westside Cowboy describe it as ‘the yank’. “There’s a major key, triumphant sound to some music - like the first Arcade Fire album, or ‘Someone Great’ by LCD Soundsystem - where there’s a persistence that’s contemporary and energetic, but also a simplicity,” Paddy continues. “It’s as though someone is shoving emotion into it in a way that feels like it’s reverberating,” Aoife nods. The lyrics across Westside Cowboy’s debut might often be up for interpretation, but the emotion that pours out of them is clear. On ‘Well Done Kid, You Did It’ they address the confusion of trying to make your way in a broken and terrifying world with the same cathartic forward motion of its central idea: that sometimes, all you can do is try your best. The rousing ‘Pin Up Boys’, explains Reuben, became “heavier and more aggro” every time they played it live; a mirror to its preoccupations with the struggles of self control. Meanwhile, though ‘Worried Age’ might wear its fears in its title, there’s a sense of defiance and resistance to its steadily escalating sonic scale that feels like strength. By the track’s raucous, screaming crescendo, the only answer is to come together and dance it out.

In a time of terrifying division and conflict, Westside Cowboy always try to focus on what unites us. Early on in the group’s life, they co-created No Band Is An Island: a Manchester-based collective putting on fundraising nights to spotlight both local artists and important issues via speakers from charities and direct action groups.I think we wanted to engage with politics in a way that felt more impactful beyond the music,” notes Aoife. In their current video for ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’, they called upon the skills of FC United: a splinter team that started when Man United were sold to an American corporation. “They’re very community minded and they have a similar atmosphere to what we want to be,” says Reuben. “Their ethos is ‘making friends not millionaires’.”

'It Goes On' ends with ‘You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor’: a track that the quartet purposefully wanted to leave as the record’s parting note. It’s a wide-eyed, open-hearted ellipsis that cuts to the core of everything that’s come before; the final air punch in the name of hope. “The final lyric is ‘I am everything but perfect / But I’m trying, so please keep me around,” smiles Reuben. “And that’s the spirit of Westside Cowboy.”

Ezra Collective's 'Here Because Of Hope' is the most ambitious and personal record of their career - conceived as a body of work split into three spiritual and geographical movements, the album traces the movement of Black people across continents and decades, from the music of Africa to the rhythms of the Caribbean, and home to the streets of London.

Formed in the youth clubs of London, Mercury Prize and BRIT Award-winners Femi Koleoso, TJ Koleoso, Joe Armon-Jones, James Mollison and Ife Ogunjobi have now spent over a decade making jazz joyful, urgent and undeniable. On 'Here Because Of Hope', they push that vision further than ever, asking a simple but profound question: why does so much Black music born out of pain sound so joyful? Their answer is hope: the belief, carried across generations and oceans, that something better is possible. Anchored by collaborations with Pa Salieu, Lila Iké, Leona Lewis, and reaching across the full breadth of the global African diaspora (including America, where those same African and Caribbean roots gave birth to jazz itself) 'Here Because Of Hope' is a record of remarkable warmth, ambition and humanity, and the sound of Britain's most vital band at the peak of their powers.

From the producers of Bridget Jones's Diary and Love Actually comes the heartfelt new romantic comedy Finding Emily.

The list of legendary bands to emerge from Manchester goes on and on. So naturally, music needed to play a critical role in Finding Emily. "Music was always going to play a vital role," director Alicia MacDonald says. "I wanted it to be the beating heart of the film and a key element of the emotional language. In addition to our leading lad being a struggling musician, music felt like the setting and a character itself."

The filmmakers recruited Morgan Kibby to compose the film's score - a classical pianist, cellist and vocalist, Kibby was a longtime member of the French act M83 and has worked with artists including Harry Styles and Lady Gaga.

To assemble the soundtrack, the filmmakers turned to music supervisor Iain Cooke whose credits include the Lena Dunham Netflix series Too Much and the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black . "Alicia's vision has always been to do something slightly different," Cooke says. "We all know the headline acts in Manchester, but it's not just about placing them within the film - it's about looking under the surface and using forgotten classics or crate digging and unearthing songs by incredible acts that have not necessarily been heard on screen before. We wanted the overall soundtrack to feel very curated and true to Manchester and the northwest of England but inherently unique and distinctive to this film."

With that in mind, Cooke chose to feature local acts like The Durutti Column and Black Grape on the soundtrack. Further helping set the film apart are appearances from groups including W.H. Lung, who perform the track "How to Walk" in the film at the famous Night and Day Cafe. The legendary music venue in the Northern Quarter hosted many of Manchester's best-known bands over the years, especially when they were still lesser known and up and coming.

Since 2023, the noble brothers Klek and Khn de Poitrine have been offering a repertoire of instrumental, anti-arena rock that, like techno music, revolves around a dynamic interplay of adding and subtracting constantly metamorphosing sonic motifs.

Using his nimble toes and an electronic looping module, Khn records and harmonizes multiple layers of melodic ornamentation in real time, constantly alternating between microtonal guitar and bass, which intertwine in angular, chromatic phrases of quarter tones.

In this vortex of repetitive cells, Klek's drumming, with its muted timbre, behaves with the wisdom and temperance of a sherpa; The gradual and calculated addition of elements or the stoic dosage of silence guides the listener on the journey, making asymmetrical grooves dance, climaxing in intensity or shifting the rhythmic anchor point at the right time.

'The Suicide Handbook' is Ryan Adams’ most elusive and mythic recordings. The album is a raw and intimate collection of songs that captures the songwriter at his most unguarded. Recorded at the beginning of his solo career and long circulating only through bootlegs, the album has earned a legendary status among die-hard fans and fans of the americana genre alike for its stark stripped-back beauty.

Acoustic arrangements and hushed, late-night vocals, these songs feel like private confessions set to tape. Adams leans into themes of heartbreak, isolation, and emotional vulnerability, delivering recordings that are as fragile as they are compelling. There’s an immediacy here that sets 'The Suicide Handbook' apart from his studio releases. These are the original recordings in their rawest and un-touched form.

Released officially for the first time, experience the record as a cohesive piece, bringing warmth and depth to its lo-fi origins. The analogue format enhances every subtle nuance, from the quiet creak of strings to the tremble in Adams’ voice.

For longtime fans and collectors alike, 'The Suicide Handbook' stands as a haunting, deeply personal snapshot of an artist laying everything bare—an essential addition to the Ryan Adams collection.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Finally, the album every Ryan Adams fan has been clamouring for for a couple decades (and the rest). The Suicide Handbook sees Adams eschewing the upbeat country rock and rousing indie of Heartbreaker for a darker and more elusive, late-nite vibe.

The 10-track 'Train On The Island' was co-produced by long-time collaborator John Parish (PJ Harvey, Dry Cleaning) at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, where the pair recorded the New Zealander’s previous bodies of work, 'Party' (2017), 'Designer' (2019) and 'Warm Chris' (2022). Joining Harding and Parish on 'Train On The Island' were pedal steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte, harpist Mali Llywelyn, synth artist Thomas Poli, drummer Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear) and Huw Evans (H. Hawkline) on bass, vocals, acoustic/electric guitar and organ.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderfully evocative collection of swooning alt-pop, insistent folky indie and jam-adjacent fluidity, all topped with Harding's unmistakeable vocal. A wonderfully warm, constantly evolving suite of pieces, packed with personality and groove.

With two extraordinary mini-albums – 'In Spring' (2021) and 'On The Turning Ground' (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, 'Somewhere Good' is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic approaches, Clerkin & co. color in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song.

The second LP from those mad polkadot wearing microtonal wizards Angine De Poitrine. Amazing wacked out psych that's got r/indieheads in a frenzy!

Channeling the spirit of Earth’s greatest rockstars, time-traveling duo Angine de Poitrine are endlessly fascinated by hot dogs, pyramids, and the sheer grandeur of rock music.

With driving drum grooves and intricately layered microtonal guitars, Klek and Khn de Poitrine conjure hypnotic sonic and visual vortices. Their live KEXP session has racked up millions of views—and counting. At the time of writing, Fabienk sits among the 50 most Shazamed tracks worldwide. Add to that sold-out shows, international festival appearances, and vinyl pressings in the tens of thousands to keep up with demand… All of which mostly matters to humans. Angine de Poitrine, for their part, are just happy to play rock’n’roll.

With Vol. II, a dense, no-frills, high-impact record, the “Poitrine brothers” push their sound even further, with sharper dynamics, stranger structures, and a sense of humor that reveals itself only if you’re paying attention. The recipe still revolves around the same three ingredients: acid techno, disco, and rock. 

The Real People is the 1991 self-titled album from The Real People. It includes the singles "Open Up Your Mind (Let Me In)", "Window Pane" and "The Truth", which feature the band’s distinctive combination of guitar-driven melodies and layered vocals. Recorded during the early 1990s, the album captures the band at a formative stage, offering a snapshot of the UK indie scene just before the Britpop movement emerged. The tracks move between lively, guitar-driven, baggy songs and more introspective moments, giving a sense of the band’s approach to melody and arrangements. "The Real People" offers a clear picture of the band’s formative style and the musical environment they were part of, highlighting their role in shaping the sound that would influence other British bands in the years to come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Ultra-melodic, semi-baggy, Scouse, psychedelic pop that was a big influence on Oasis. Is right!!

Continuing the band’s 40th anniversary celebrations, 'Complete B-Sides: 1988-97' by Pixies is being reissued 25 years after its initial release - having been remastered.

Originally released on CD in 2001, while the band were almost a decade into a hiatus, 'Complete B-Sides' contained 19 b-sides from the band’s classic 4AD era (1988-1991) and featured beloved Pixies tracks including 'Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)', 'Into The White', 'Bailey’s Walk', and 'The Thing'. As Pitchfork said in their glowing 9.6 review, “If nothing else, this release proves that, like Dylan in the 60s and Brian Eno in the 70s, the Pixies were the blinding visionaries of the 80s. Virtually everything they touched was groundbreaking and revelatory, leaving one to wish they could only have touched more.”

For 'Complete B-Sides: 1988-97', all the tracks have been remastered from their original analogue tapes by Kevin Vanbergen - sounding amazingly fresh, it completes his extensive remastering work across the band’s catalogue. With the original tracklisting neatly fitting across 3 sides of vinyl, a fourth side of bonus live tracks has also been added, featuring six tracks culled from latter Pixies single releases including 1997’s 'Debaser' re-release.

This new edition works as a companion piece to the band’s recent 'Live at the BBC' compilation reissue, where designer Chris Bigg (v23) has created striking new art, taking photos from Simon Larbalestier’s archive that were originally slated for use by Pixies, but were later shelved. Both long-term collaborators with the band, they worked on both reissues in tandem to remember and honour the band’s late-visual director, Vaughan Oliver.

Scotland's incomparable and influential Arab Strap are back with their ninth studio album 'Half-Told Tales': almost exactly 30 years since the beloved duo’s first ever single, 'The First Big Weekend', was released. The follow-up to 2024's acclaimed 'I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a fuck anymore 👍' , 'Half-Told Tales' is rich with Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s trademark wit and dark humour, whilst creating moments from quiet brooding to a self-described “disco-metal incantation that might make you dance” . Including the single 'You You You', the album was recorded with long-time collaborator Paul Savage (Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand).

An album called 'Roses' would be concerned with romantic gestures. Across the ten tracks that make up the seventh and newest Widowspeak record, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, vaseline-coated lens. Candles burn inside red glass as lovers get close in a leather booth. Celebrity headshots gaze down like angels in a restaurant. Elsewhere, carnations are pressed in a black book and dancers pull each other close. Widowspeak is a band that riffs on big emotions without being too self-serious. The sweetness, even silliness, of an extended limerent phase that becomes as all-consuming as a pulpy trade paperback. Cars and their drivers serve as a way to talk about codependency. If music can simultaneously be naturalistic and noir, saturated and lush, that is Widowspeak. They’re a band that knows how to set a scene.

These songs use intimate moments to talk about deeper heartaches: the restlessness inherent in modern existence, waiting around for something to happen. Or, feeling at odds with playing a role in your own life. 'Roses' might be the most romantic Widowspeak record, but it’s also the most deeply realist: the stage is set not with dramatic overtures but the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts. Small observations before, during, and after work: the ritual of pouring water for customers, catching a cold on your day off. Daydreaming about winning the lottery, or maybe realizing you already won. Here, love is a way to talk about what drives us, and Widowspeak suggest it can be the whole point. The light that illuminates the dark corners of a day, a life. A reason to keep going despite the pain it can cause.

Widowspeak are one of the most prolific and hardworking bands going, bubbling just under the surface. Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas are the core of the group and its songwriters, and they have honed their sound across sixteen years and an impressively consistent catalog. One of many bands to crop up in a fertile New York City music scene, they started out shuffling gear between venues now-since shuttered and their practice space in Monster Island Basement. Widowspeak is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Robert is a carpenter, Molly a waitress. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Widowspeak return with another collection of gentle, country-tinged pop songs. Molly's understated vocals evoke the dreamy intimacy of Hope Sandoval, while the melodies and guitar work bring to mind artists such as Tom Petty and R.E.M. There's no grand statement or dramatic flourish, just a set of quietly beautiful songs that reveal their charm with effortless grace.

'LOVE', Dexys Midnight Runners latest, possibly last ever album, is a luminous collection of scenes and reckonings. Stories of family and friends, tales from past and present. All drawn from Kevin Rowland’s life, each an individual jewel, threaded together with love. Songs begun three decades ago sit alongside those written in the last year. A vivid depiction of Rowland's Irish immigrant childhood (‘My Life in England Pt 1’); a moving letter to his grandchildren (‘You’re Alright’); a wistful moment at the start of a love affair (‘I Want To Be Holding You Next Christmas’); a pin-perfect portrait of time spent with a dying parent (‘Once A Man, Twice A Child’); the difficulties of relationships when you're older (‘Old Love’). All deeply personal, all true, all here; the full human span of relationships, family and intimate emotion.

The theme of this album - Kevin's ninth, Dexys' seventh - gradually emerged as the songs progressed. "I don’t remember when it happened, but I just thought, 'Hang on, these are all love songs, of different kinds',” he says. "I knew then: Call it 'LOVE'." These are love songs, but not of the usual pop style. Not will-she-won't-she romance, but something more emotional and all-encompassing. Those small moments that illustrate a rollercoaster sweep. "Everyone came at this project with love," he says. To tell a lifetime of different loves. A love life.

'LOVE' is also their first album under the Dexys Midnight Runners name since 1985’s 'Don’t Stand Me Down'. “We realised a couple of years ago that some young people know Dexys Midnight Runners from ‘Geno’ and ‘Come On Eileen,’ but some that we spoke to, were confused by the name, Dexys. And some, thought Dexys was a different outfit to Dexys Midnight Runners.,” says Kevin. “Since Dexys returned in 2012, we’ve always felt what we do is worthy of a young audience, so it was a no brainer to revert to Dexys Midnight Runners”.

Those familiar with Kevin’s wonderful autobiography, Bless Me Father, will recognise some of the people in these songs: his dad, his brother, his first love, more recent romances. But this is a Dexys Midnight Runners album, the group of players where Kevin began his music career, and where he works best. So his lyrics are explored and highlighted, lifted to greater heights by the songwriting and creativity of long-time collaborators Sean Read, Mike Timothy and Jim Paterson. There are strings, too, arranged by Brian Irving, originally from Belfast.

Fellow Belfast man, DJ and musician David Holmes, is the album's producer. Holmes had long wanted to work with Kevin and Dexys: “They were the first act I was ever truly obsessed with, the first I saw live”. David's older sister bought him a Walkman when he was 11, and his first cassette was Searching For the Young Soul Rebels. When Kevin sent him a demo of ‘Once A Man, Twice a Child’ (written with Sean soon after Dexys' triumphant 2024 Glastonbury appearance), David was captivated. "His song writing is so strong," he says.

Between 1978 and 1988 European disco producers changed the face of pop music forever, creating a golden era outside the gaze of the US and UK pop charts.

Kano, Den Harrow and Gazebo scored hit after hit, spilling out of the clubs and onto turntables across the continent with classics like ‘Another Life’, ‘Catch The Fox’ and ‘I Like Chopin’. Forty years later these highly sought-after hits (and more!) have found a new life, thanks to streaming and a new generation of dancers with an ear for the electric and obscure.

"Promise Me Delight” is a love letter to Italo disco and European pop, and an imagined soundtrack to wild 80s nights of hot abandon we could never truly have known, compiled by record store veteran David Perry, who runs East London's longest running all-vinyl Italo disco night

Since their beginning, breaking through as a smart, witty new force within the British guitar music landscape back in the dark days of the pandemic, Yard Act have been wrangling with the knotty complexities of the human condition.

Their Mercury Prize-nominated 2022 debut The Overload span wry, winking tales of capitalism and the strive for success, wrapped in the sort of propulsive, serrated riffs that quickly saw them labelled as post-punk’s new darlings. With its Top Five-placing 2024 follow-up Where’s My Utopia?, the band - vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shipstone and drummer Jay Russell - blasted both of those conceits apart, creating a musically-exploratory and diverse record that worked to unpick and examine the very notion of ambition and fulfillment; of ‘what happens next’.

The journey of Smith’s lyrics across each of their albums, Shipstone muses, has always been quite Faustian: “It’s someone who’s seeking a goal, and then makes a pact with the devil to get the goods they want, but when they get them they’re corrupted so they get the rewards but also this bitterness too.” “And how does Faust end?” questions Needham. “Oh, not well…” If this sounds like a macabre place to root the objectively excellent third album from one of the country’s most celebrated bands of the last decade, then it’s also crucial to understanding Yard Act’s newest - and best - record yet, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music. Simultaneously the most dynamic, collaborative, energised work they’ve laid to tape, but also containing some of the darkest, most cynical and truly questioning moments they’ve concocted too, it picks up their tale and examines the findings more unsparingly than ever.

It feels appropriate that, in order to interrogate these existential subjects, the writing and recording of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music involved the four musicians coming together and strengthening their own core unit more than ever. Weirdly, for a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, their third LP marks the first time that the quartet have ever made an album together, as a live band in the same room. “The first two records were both laptop records essentially,” says Smith. The Overload was written alongside Needham before the band had fully formed; its follow-up was carved out in snatches of time on tour buses and hotel rooms, amongst a relentless schedule of “slinging [all our gear] in the rehearsal space, going back home, and then a week later piling it back into a van again.”

If their last record was created like a game of Exquisite Corpse, each member taking the track and adding their part in turn (“I always thought that was a really over the top name for a piece of folded down paper…” Needham notes), then this time they laid down roots and gave themselves time. Russell kitted out their new studio in Leeds with everything they required to track the band live at the same time throughout the writing process, including an old piano passed down from Smith’s late aunt that would become integral to the process. For the first time in a long time, Yard Act were able to settle into an “uninterrupted five month period” of creativity, crafting “40 or 50 songs” and allowing themselves to follow their ideas with no external pressure. “It felt like freedom,” says Smith. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band - to be able to make enough money to be left alone.

The results speak for themselves. Recorded between Leeds and Glendale, Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St. Vincent), You’re Gonna Need A Little Music rings with the chemistry and energy of a band absolutely locked in. Each track has its own distinct character, whether in the ominous, guttural ferocity of ‘Redeemer’, the sleazy disco odyssey of its title track, the fizzing indie smarts of ‘Cherophobe Rock’ or the loose, cerebral meditations of ‘Janey Said’. It stems from a time of experimentation and exploration - ask Shipstone about “The Code” and he’ll give you a technical explanation as to why these songs are able to constantly veer into unexpected places whilst never undermining their melodic clout. The sense is of a band hitting a purple patch, where all the efforts of the last half-decade come together and create magic. “I think most bands’ best stuff comes around the 3rd or 4th album where they really outgrow their influences and become their own thing,” muses Smith as Needham chips in: “I keep saying, it’s like Blur. This is Parklife. The first album they were doing the genre-y thing; the second one was a kick against that but they didn’t really know what they were doing, and then they made Parklife, which was the perfect distillation of it all.” You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, however, is no whimsical walk through suburban England. From the opening self-analytical sprawl of ‘Empty Pledges’ - a track that begins with juddering deep breaths at the top of a skyscraper and freefalls into a torrent of thoughts about purpose, pride and the feeling of punching your way out of a prison of your own making - Yard Act’s third seeks to work through some of the most complicated facets of life.

In some ways, and on purpose, it is a step away from Smith’s venerated vignettes and character studies; a move towards something more “impressionistic” and up for interpretation. “I felt like I’d taken it to its logical extreme on ‘Blackpool Illuminations’ [on the last record], and I didn’t want to tread old ground,” he says. And yet the feeling still pours through, perhaps more than ever. There is a journey, should you want to trace it, from the fictional Isle of Balamory to the fantasy/ reality of San Francisco Bay. Tread the path with him and you’ll keep running into Janey - a mirror to Smith’s own psyche; a person but, y’know, not exactly. “I think the album is about multiple realities and how individualism has led us, in the modern world, to question if there even is a shared reality anymore because everyone just believes what they want now, this is the price we've paid for pursuing neoliberalism ultimately” Smith suggests.

The questions are deep, but the spirit of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is boundless - not for nothing does its title point to the power of art and creativity to rescue us from the mire. ‘Thrill of The Chase’, with its snarled, frenetic climax as close to rap as Smith has ever reached, is filled with venom but you can also picture it giddily going off in the mosh pit. ‘Redeemer’ might have thrown the kitchen sink - or at least its cookware - at the situation, with Meldal-Johnsen concocting a brittle, metallic soundscape out of a day of rattling pots and pans, but the result is direct, visceral and exciting.

It’s a balancing act that culminates, as all Yard Act albums do, with a final moment of optimism in ‘Over The Barrel’: a track that travels from rinky dink bar-room piano through a euphoric indie- rock chorus and out, finally, into that sought-after ocean. Perhaps it’s less certain than Smith has been in the past. “‘Over The Barrel’ [as a saying] can have multiple meanings. The choice is yours. But,” says the frontman, “personally, I still have a bit of hope in me for how it all works out.” The destination might still be unknown, but the journey is unequivocally Yard Act’s finest yet. Maybe Faust didn’t have the ending all worked out after all.

Osees return with a four-track EP recorded last year in Tornio, TX. A couple fried trippers and couple tight dance punk numbers. Crazy face indeed.

'The Boys of Dungeon Lane' is a collection of rare and revealing glimpses into memories never-before shared, along with some newly inspired love songs, from one of the most culturally significant figures of our time. These extraordinary new songs find Paul writing with rare openness about his childhood in post-war Liverpool, the resilience of his parents, and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon long before the world had ever heard of Beatlemania.

Released via Sony CMG - 8-Tracks features eight essential classics selected from the Pink Floyd’s 1971 – 1979 era.

The track list includes the instantly recognisable hits ‘Money’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2’, ‘Time’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’, alongside earlier cuts in ‘One Of These Days’ and ‘Wot’s… Uh The Deal’, as well as an exclusive full version of ‘Pigs On The Wing’, previously available only on the 1977 Animals 8-Track cartridge release. The track sequence has been edited by Steven Wilson for a continuous listening experience.

8-Tracks documents the full measure of Pink Floyd’s transition into their breakthrough era, propelled into superstardom throughout the 1970s. The eight-year period this special release celebrates encompasses music from some of the band’s most successful and celebrated records ever. 1971’s Meddle, 1972’s Obscured by Clouds, 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, 1975’s Wish You Were Here, 1977’s Animals and 1979’s The Wall.

8-Tracks offers a brilliant insight into this incredible period of creativity. A starting point for new listeners to discover the depth and breadth of Pink Floyd’s peerless album catalogue, as well as a carefully curated collection for longtime fans to appreciate. 

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 1998

Outstanding debut album for Warp from Scotland's Boards Of Canada. Taking influences from Aphex Twin, 'Artificial Intelligence' era Warp releases and laid back hip hop rhythms, then twisting those ideas through a sun-refracted kaleidoscope of lush ambient sounds, Scottish brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin came up with a much copied sound all of their own. This was Piccadilly Records album of the year in 1998 and is an unsurpassed collection of melodic electronica tracks. You need this!

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: From 1998:

Martin says: A thing of eerie and absolute beauty, which manages the rarely accomplished and apparently mutually exclusive task of creating deep emotional connection through electronic music. Haunting intervals punctuate primitive, meditative reflection throughout; summoning wistful echoes of an ominous, half recalled childhood summer.

"In marked contrast to Singles Vol One, this compilation showcases an altogether more stable line-up - the one that recorded Hex Enduction Hour to be precise, notwithstanding some to-ing and fro-ing on the kit between me and Karl.

"As with previous releases, there are some revelatory versions here, and the mastering is a wonder to behold, or whatever the aural equivalent of 'behold' is. The earliest, Putta Block, from May 1980 was recorded at the Beach Club, a short-lived Manchester venue that also saw New Order's debut gig. The latest, Ludd Gang, comes fom New York's legendary Danceteria in 1983. Apparently Madonna was there, but you can't hear her.

"In between you can judge what 'The Man Whose Head Expanded' sounded like with Marc and what 'Fantastic Life' sounded like without me. They're both remarkable, of course."

Paul Hanley, December 2025

'Collaboration is stimulating, it's in my blood.' Thus speaks Brian Jackson and his philosophy for making music and it's indeed collaboration that runs through this amazing album of reimagined and revisited songs from his artistic past. Featuring artists such as Black Thought, Rahsaan Patterson, Josh Milan, Moodymann, Omar, J. Ivy and others and being produced by Masters At Work, Now More Than Ever takes the enduring classic tracks that Brian made with Gil Scott-Heron and places them in the now over nineteen tracks and across a triple vinyl LP, CD and digital release.

Songs such as Lady Day & John Coltrane, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Winter In America, The Bottle and more soundtracked a generational movement of Black Consciousness in the 70s and 80s. As Brian says, 'This album is one way to connect to what we were about in the 70s; we were about change and this is part of the lineage of resistance. These tracks mark a period of time when resistance was essential and now a younger generation has picked them up.' 'As young men in their twenties we (Brian and Gil) just wrote about what we saw and were feeling and people interpreted these songs in ways we never thought about but as Sly stone said the song comes from me but it's for you.' This statement from Brian perfectly sums up the collaborative nature of Now More Than Ever and the relevance of these songs in a contemporary perspective can be perfectly summed up by the songs themselves. The formidable stable of artists contributing to each track and the excellent production from Louie Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez make this album an event in itself. However, these songs are there to be enjoyed as a canon or as individual masterpieces, whether on the dancefloor or on a home system.

Unlike the main Magic Wand label, the imprint's offshoot 'Special Editions' series is a little more fluid about what it releases, with some EPs sporting original productions - many of which are admittedly sample-heavy - as well as re-edits. That's the case for this second missive from Matsoaka (real name Matt Lundgren). So, while the EP begins with a genuinely gorgeous and Balearic original cut (the dreamy and slow-motion folk-rock of 'Butterflies', featuring the emotive and harmonic vocals of Butterflies), much of the rest falls into the "Balearic re-arrangement" category. In this camp you'll find the immersive, trip-hop style dreaminess of 'Faith', the mid-80s Yellow Magic Orchestra-style Fairlight-sporting electro of 'Gin Yuzu', and the dollar bin brilliance of 'Sheriff' (a take on a Japanese city-pop cover of a reggae favourite).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliantly varied mix of floor-filling funk-pop, airy horizontal wooze and sleek, reverbed disco-adjacent edits. The original cut on here is a winner too, with svelte soft-rock guitars atop a silky filtered percussive loop and seductive vocals from Daniel Giglund.

Following with Jane’s first full-length album in 2006, 'Seven Day Smile' is a tongue-in-cheek collection of modern kitchen sink dramas; a wide-ranging set of floating dreampop episodes focusing on bittersweet bedsit tales, beautifully balanced between distant Americana and breathy new folk. Created by Jane featuring collaborations with Doves and Andy Votel, it’s a downtempo mirror of the northern post-Britpop era, with impetuous rhythms and super-real commentary. 'Seven Day Smile' is a mix of the unreleased 'Supersister' album sessions and her own home recordings that remains an intensely personal collection of songs.

'★ (Blackstar)', Bowie’s final studio album, was released on his birthday, 8th January, 2016. Never one to stand still, Bowie worked with Donny McCaslin’s jazz quartet and longtime producer Tony Visconti, to create a challenging album of Art Rock with Jazz influences. Critically acclaimed, the album debuted at #1 in the UK and US as well as almost everywhere else in the world, and received three Grammy Awards.

‘Massive Champion’ is the highly anticipated new album from Bristol’s Getdown Services, the follow up to cult classic debut ‘Crisps’.

An odyssey of anarchic joy, seditious wit and boundless energy, the album finds Josh Law and Ben Sadler pushing deeper into the singular world they have been building for years, while opening up new emotional and lyrical ground. Written in green rooms, on long car journeys and in the gaps between relentless touring, it stands as their boldest and most expansive statement to date, an ode to childhood, British cultural detritus and the absurd poetry of everyday life, distilling everything that has made Getdown Services one of the most exhilarating and unpredictable bands around. In the band’s words it is “about self pity and realising that maybe all of the healing your inner child stuff you hear about isn’t actually total bollocks. Musically and lyrically I think it’s about us trying to clean up our act a bit.”

New single ‘I Can’t Die Like That’ provides the second taste of the album and is the kind of instant earworm built for festival crowds. Wildly infectious, it is quintessential Getdown Services, pairing huge hooks with the band’s perceptive and poignant lyricism. As the band explain, “‘I Can’t Die Like That’ is about the feeling of simple things becoming complicated. We thought it was interesting to think about the ways in which something as straightforward as dying can be difficult. It’s also about clinging on to feelings that comfort you but aren’t necessarily healthy.” Like much of ‘Massive Champion’, it finds catharsis in contradiction, meeting often heavy subject matter with both candour and humour.

A triumph of hard work and the grassroots scene, Getdown Services jokingly coined themselves Britain’s Best Band. With ‘Massive Champion’, it feels less like a punchline and more like a statement of intent. As their audience continues to grow exponentially both at home and across the world, they look every bit on a fast track to becoming one of the country’s biggest and most vital bands. Joyous and utterly singular, ‘Massive Champion’ feels set to soundtrack the year ahead and, very likely, many more to come.

Following an initial pressing which sold out in minutes, Bleech 9:3’s debut self titled EP is released on black vinyl. The limited edition 12” includes the singles 'Jacky', 'Underrated', 'Cannonball' and 'Ceiling' alongside 'No Surprise'.

Headed up by Baz Quinlan (vocals/guitar) and Sam Duffy (guitar) - the pair met at AA, where Baz became Sam's sponsor. The moved from Dublin to London together in 2024. "I think the vulnerability of those meetings helped us be a lot more comfortable with each other from the get go" they say about these first recordings.