Latest new releases on vinyl record, CD and cassette tape

You’re probably familiar with the ‘C’ series of compilation albums that were inspired by the era-defining NME C86 cassette. C90 is the latest is that lineage, compiled by the guys at Cherry Red who have a whole heap of indie box sets under their wings. C90 contains tracks by bands that went on to become household names such as The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene, Boo Radleys, Spiritualized and many more.

The precocious Billie Eilish drops her debut LP. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? - no need to shout, Billie - is a family affair, with Eilish’s brother Finneas O’Connor co-producing the record. Music-wise the songs here lean into Lana Del Rey’s dark-Disney Americana while also incorporating EDM and Adele-ish balladry.

Modern pop from Ashnikko who is the definition of a modern pop person. She's a sexually liberated American-British-Latvian who doesn't give a flying hoot. She grew up on a weird mix of country, hip-hop and Slipknot and has channeled all three into a kind lo-fi anthemic electronic pop. This is her third EP featuring the song Stupid that did really well on tick tock. 

Graham Coxon as you may know by now is the guitarist from Blur. He's also done solo stuff and is now dipping his toe into the lucrative world of soundtracks. The End of The F***ing World isn't a look ahead to what will happen in.. oooh about 2022 but a darkly comic tale about a pair of runaways. Coxon has already released the soundtrack to the first season, now courtesy of the aptly named Graham Coxon Records is Season 2. 

Fuck Yo Feelings is the latest studio project from the prestigious Robert Glasper, multiple Grammy-winning pianist and record producer. The result of a two day-session in which Glasper’s musician friends contributed in spontaneous improvisation, it has a refreshingly unplanned ‘mixtape’ feel. 

Norwegian Psychedelic impro-rock band Kanaan teamed up with Danish musical polymath and Causa Sui guitarist Jonas Monk to explore sound in a semi-improvised way. They got together in Monk’s Odense studio, hence the Odense Sessions name. The resulting recordings find Monk and the band jamming,  weaving guitars a la The Grateful Dead. A dream for any fan of experimental psych rock. 

The title alone says all you need to know about where Helicon are coming from with their second LP. Yes it's the mess everything is in. Helicon have turned their external anger into a rebellious album which questions what the hell is going on and why is it happening and what we can do about it whilst at the same time giving listeners some escapism with some kraut rock heavy on the synths and guitars. Seriously pissed off but seriously good. 

Grimes is back with her first album in five years and third for 4AD. Miss Anthropocene contains the singles 'Violence' and 'So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth', which you may have heard on t'wireless. It is the follow up to the brilliant Art Angels - an album so good that former Normanite, Robin, gave it a 9/10 review back in 2015. Features collaborations with 潘PAN & i_o on some proper pop bangers.

Guitarist Ben Chasny returns with a new Six Organs Of Admittance album, Companion Rises. It his first since 2017’s Burning The Threshold in what is a well populated back catalogue. The album develops on the groove he created on tracks such as Taken By Ascent from Burning The Threshold. It also sees Chasny reverting back to analogue lo-fi recording techniques of his earlier work.

Returning for their first album in nearly five years, Spook The Herd is the fourth studio effort overall from Newcastle-based indie quintet Lanterns On The Lake. Having worked with the Royal Northern Sinfonia in the meantime, the band are now more detached from their roots than ever and embracing a wider range of influences. As the pointed title suggests, Spook The Herd seeks to explore the psychological manipulation that the media is able to have on people. 

Richard H. Kirk is most famous for being a member of Sheffield industrialists Cabaret Voltaire. He also struck out on his own in 1992 under the name Sandoz, a name taken from the lab that developed LSD in the ‘30s. He has released 12 albums under that name to date. Second Circle have been sifting through his archive and found four tracks that were originally released in the early days of his solo career and made one stunner of an EP.

South of Heaven is the second full-length album from Fotocrime, the darkwave project by Ryan Patterson, formerly of hardcore punk act Coliseum. Produced by Jawbox’s J. Robbins and engineered by none other than Steve Albini, it’s a brooding and more immersive follow-up to the 2018 debut Principle of Pain. 

This might blow away the cobwebs. OZO self-describe as an alto sax free jazz rock trio. They blend improvised sax workouts with wild drumming and guitar freak outs. Inspired by John Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders amongst others, this is not for the faint hearted. if you like your music smooth and relaxing then probably best look away now.

Coming off the back of his 100-song marathon set on NYE in Los Angeles, Robert Pollard certainly doesn’t intend on slowing down in the new decade. Surrender Your Poppy Field is the 30th (thirtieth!!) Guided By Voices album, and something like the 105th Pollard has released overall. Phew. Furthermore, it stands to be one of his most adventurous yet, mixing shiny hook-laden psych-pop with lo-fi, spontaneously recorded efforts. 

CEL is the duo of Felix Kubin and Hubert Zemler. Kubin who you will know from a myriad other projects handles the electronics and zemler the percussion. Together they come up with seven instrumentals ranging from electronic pulses, ghostly synths and teutonic grooves. It's a wild ride with some out-there collaboration as you may expect. the wildest thing though is the press release we've been sent. Read it and believe that Kubin actually melts plastic and concrete with his music.  

Who Is Experimental Music? What a great question, asked with experimental grammar. Lolina is Russian experimental musician Inga Copeland who also makes up one half of art duo Hype Williams with Dean Blunt. It would seem that Lolina knows the answer to her question and that answer is Lolina. Not on label, comes with labels handwritten in fluorescent marker. 

Archy Marshall has already proved himself as a unique British voice with previous albums 6 Feet Beneath the Moon and The Ooz under his King Krule moniker and here the baby-faced crooner returns with his third album. Once again it is a sonically fascinating work full of scope and ambition and with his trademark yelp belting out corrosive words.

Austrian artist Albin Julius returns under his recording moniker Der Blutharsch, in league with the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand, works once again with British noise rock veterans Skullflower on the bluntly titled A Collaboration. Following their 2016 hook-up Angel of Darkness, it ought to be another workout of dark, droning psychedelia. 

Soon after the announcement of lead singer Kelly Finnigan’s debut solo album comes news of a new Monophonics LP, titled It’s Only Us. Their first new studio effort in five years, it’s led off with this 7” single release, a soulful yet gently psychedelic track titled ‘Chances’, with the instrumental version on the flip. 

Titled with the sort of phrase Phil might come out with to keep his staff in line, Renaldo Domino is actually an old timer Chicago based soul singer who started out in the 1960s but this is new work backed by some of Brooklyn's finest soul musicians. The aim was to create something to live up to Domino's earlier work and by the sounds of this stonker they've succeeded. 

Names of North End Women is a new collaborative record between former Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and Spanish composer Raül Refree. The pair had previously worked together when Refree produced the guitarist’s 2017 solo album Electric Trim, but soon after touring they decided to head back to the studio on a more equal creative footing. 

Sorry I’m Late is the first EP on Don’t Be Afraid by Minos. The Irish producer has disparate influences including Jeff Mills, Slayer, Downwards and Drexciya. Over the six tracks expect a mix of IDM, Techno and metal. There’s also a remix of Brown Sauce by legendary Detroit producer and DJ Claude Young Jr.

Here comes Sweden's Anders Broström (AKA Domboshawa) with his third album entitled Fyra (four). Four refers to the amount of tracks on the album which were whittled down from a large number of recordings.  He blends longform instrumentals, tripped out space rock and psych dirge on an album that should appeal to fans of Carlton Melton and Electric Moon.  

Turns out that before Mika Vainio formed Pan Sonic as a means to explore sonic brutalism, he was in a band called Gagarin Kombinaati, making crushing industrial music. Although the ingredients are very different, that Vainio heaviness is definitely audible. All 12 tracks taken from original cassette recordings, released on Sakho.

Jan St. Werner is a German electronic musician known for his solo work and for his work with electronic group Mouse On Mars. He has created an electro-acoustic backdrop and used samples of the late Mark E. Smith from The Fall discussing everyday subjects to make narrative for Molocular Meditation. Jan St. Werner worked with Mark E. Smith in 2007 in the electronic supergroup Von Südenfed. 

A real treat for fans of soul and gospel right here. The Staple Singers featured, most famously, Pops Staples and Mavis Staples and were known for hits such as I’ll Take You There. Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection contains 7LPs - six albums and one disc of rare tracks and non-album singles. Remastered from original analog tapes.

New York producer and co-owner of Incensio and Proibito Anthony Naples issues a ghostly, imaginary radio transmission of house music through a filter of “fluorescent static”. Mechanically stored and reproduced culture is increasingly timeless and intra-referential: it’s this into which Naples seems to tap with his warm, era-spanning frequencies.

Fans of the Rephlex imprint  this is for you. A split 12" on Massive Brain Cult featuring D'Arcangelo, Mause, Jessica Walrus, fxbip and Velum Break.  Hopefully the word Rephlex will do enough to describe but if not then this is madcap IDM, drill and bass and acid techno wibble for fans of the likes of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. 

SUDS is German electronic producer and experimental artist Christoph de Babalon, known for his work on Digital Hardcore Recordings, the record label owned by Alec Empire and enigmatic German artist Wilted Woman aka DJ Puddle. Sick Universe Demands Sharing sees the pair collaborating on a four-track 12”, released on Anna.

Suggested Forms brings together all of the material from New York-based multimedia artist Tristan Arp’s first EP releases. It spans seven pretty breathtaking pieces of original music, which suit the dancefloor but are really tricky to actually dance to, with additional remixes from Kelman Duran, Machine Woman and Beta Librae. 

Continuing a run of fascinating releases, Suction Records trawls Erik Jong’s vault for yet another RX-101 album, presented on double-vinyl. Recorded during the late Nineties, Serenity recalls the unhinged digital beat avalanches of classic Aphex Twin material, only with infusions of evocative melody to go with it. 

Here’s a genre of music that we have referred to as both techjazz and hi-tech jazz in the past. It is a fusion of two American institutions in Detroit techno and Jazz. On both of these occasions we were talking about music by the Joel Dixon-led Timeline. Their latest EP is called The Conscious Dream. On Underground Resistance.

Top notch EP from Shadow Child and Mark Archer present MASC here. Return of the MASC, on side A, is a slug to the guts that will have you reminiscing for those days in the ‘90s with Dan Bell and DJ Hyperactive blasting out. On the flip there’s a real mish-mash of genres going on with a Dance System remix of Eye Feel and some ‘80s electro and freestyle vibes with closing track WKP. On Super Rhythm Trax.

Bubble Chamber is a compilation showcasing the influence Detroit electro duo Drexciya had on music and finds connection between them and early ‘80s producers and DJs. Taking tracks from 1982 all the way up to 2019. Features tracks from DJ Dijital, Plant43, The Exaltics, Kuldaboli, Iko, Tom Ware, Kuldaboli, Luz1e, Sansibar and more plus booklet linking the album with the Bubble Chamber exhibition is Zurich.

Top Italo disco classic alert! Robotic vocals and fat bassline with a spacey disco pop vibe, this is a seminal track which is widely regarded as the cream of the cream of Italo. The B-Side features an instrumental version of the track. Originally released on the Squish label back in 1981 and produced by Flavio Vidulich, Giorgio Bacco.

Recent years have seen Lowfish and Solvent’s Suction Records put out a few compilations of RX-101 tunes. Dopamine might be their best yet. The one born Erik Jong made these tracks for private use at some point in the late-’90s, and as such there’s a time-stamped quality to the harmonious techno and electro on this record. Cuts like ‘Warm Electronics Box’ and ‘Tracker’ have a strong affinity to what Rephlex and Warp were doing around the same time.

Milkteeth is the third album by accomplished musician, singer and songwriter Douglas Dare. Dare makes music that could be described as chamber pop and/or art pop. With the help of Tuung’s Mike Lindsay in the producer’s chair, his music has been stripped to just the necessary elements. You may know Douglas Dare from his tours with Erased Tapes label mate Olafur Arnalds or as his drag persona, Visa Reasons.

Lord knows where Night School have dredged this up from but its a fascinating curio from Kiev underground stalwarts Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko. Though the duo have worked separately both in bands and as solo artists, Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy (Know How? Tell Me) is their most realised collaboration. The sound is disconcerting and atmospheric soundscapes topped off with operatic vocals that recall Liz Fraser. One for fans of Dead Can Dance and Nico. 

It's probably fair to say that Jonas Munk gets about. Back in the early 2000s he was known as Manual, today he's better known as the guitar player and producer of Causa Sui. Out on his own he makes ambient pieces out of his own guitar and effects pedals. The sort of album that is a slow burn with every component taking its time to reveal its colours. Another string to what is a very large bow.  

Ecovillage are Emil Holmstrom and Peter Wikstrom. Arrived is the Swedish electronic duo’s seventh album. They have described this as the most difficult yet most rewarding album they've made. Influences pop in from everywhere - William Basinski to Simple Minds, Incredible String Band  to Brian Eno and Luke Vibert to Arvo Pärt, it seems their music is built on a little bit of everything.

After regular Radio 1 slots and festival-slaying DJ sets, new Mute signing Teneil Throssell - known better as Australian-born producer HAAi - presents her first EP for the label. Systems Up, Windows Down is a step up in production terms from her self-released mixes, with every element of her psychedelic, melodious music sharpened up. 

Alternative mixes of old Drexciya favourites have been located, and since it would be a shame not to have the world hear them, Black Sea and Wavejumper’s Aqualung Versions have been pressed to vinyl. These mixes sound as future-slick as you could desire, and a third track, ‘Unknown Journey XI’ is added to sweeten the deal.

June hails from Greece and makes music influenced by electronic music from the late ‘70s to the mid-80s, what he calls the golden age, using an array of vintage synths, drum machines and processors that would make your average electronic music fan drool. Silver Demon is his debut LP for Alessandro Adriani's on point Mannequin label and follows releases on his own eponymous label as well as killers for Suction and These Days.

Couple of versions of Flashlight pressed onto 12" wax by house practitioner Tom Noble courtesy of Netherland imprint Rush Hour. This super loud pressing brings out the detail in his '80s house-style melodic jams and the flip is dedicated to a Italo-house rework by Masalo. Dreamy, hypnotic stuff.  

Fred A aka Fred Angst is the moniker of Belgian musician Gerry Vergult. His music was experimental, mixing elements of electronic, folk, rock, country and world music. He made these tracks during the time of New Wave and was influenced by Kleinkunst, a flemish / Dutch comedy cabaret / theatre type thing. The tracks that make up De Angst Voorbij are leftovers from that time, released with Gerry’s support and blessing, as a document of him at the time. 

Origens Da Luz is a brief highlights package of the career of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Priscilla Ermel. Assembled from original recordings made between 1986 and 1994, this double-LP package showcases Ermel’s love of taking traditional musical forms and enhancing them with her own take on synth technology. 

Wolfgang Matthes leads the loose spacey, acidic bass, slow funk collective known as Liquid Canoe. Their eponymous album takes its cues from German electronic music and space rock of the 1970s. I don’t really want to write the cliche but I feel it’s necessary - this might be one to turn on, tune in and drop out to.

Lasse Marhaug & Jon Wesseltoft make up Norwegian drone duo Tongues Of Mount Meru (Important Records, The Tapeworm). The Hex of Light is their third album. The two pieces that make up the record are precise, slowly shifting and ultimately blooming, but they do it in their own time and space. On Moving Furniture Records. 

Blue 07 by Happa, aka Samir Alikhanizadeh, comes from the furthest reaches of the experimental dance world, but it’s focus remains the dance floor. The theme of the EP is the human voice. The tracks are built from samples of singing, screaming and laughing because Alikhanizadeh thinks there isn’t enough ‘weird shit’ in dance music. 

Japanese experimental music legend Merzbow teams up once again with Gareth Davis for a new album. Titled Broken Landscapes, the suite is preoccupied with ecology, and dovetails into the themes of their first collaboration, with a sense of natural peace and tranquility being encroached upon by mechanisation and tech over these three tracks. 

This Japanese import cassette, released on the birdFriend label, is another excellent piece from Osaka-based composer Koshiro Hino, professionally known as YPY. Mastered by Nisikawa Bunsho and with accompanying artwork by Atsumi Tagami, NYE​/​D IN DUB​!​!​!​! bases itself on techno but uses it as a platform to explore other textures. 

Uzelli Psychedelic Anadolu gathers together a bunch of Turkish psychedelic music , and various psych sub-genres, from 1975 - 1984..There are plenty of previously undiscovered artists here. The music has been compiled from the archives of Uzelli - the Turkish cassette label founded in 1974. Features tracks by Zor Beyler, Erkin Koray and Neşe Alkan among others.

Who likes wind? Who likes ocean? Well if you like both (or either) then you may have come to the right place. Gamardah Fungus are a duo straight out of Dnipro, Ukraine who celebrate their 10th anniversary with this album celebrating the two elements. The results are an intense blend of powerful ambience and doomy electronics perfect for that wind-lashed drive through Lytham St Annes. Limited edition CD of just 100. 

Scottish producer Johnny Lynch prepares the release of his eighth album as Pictish Trail, following four years on from his Scottish Album of the Year-winning Future Echoes. Probably his weirdest and most collaborative work yet, Thumb World was forged alongside visual artist Swatpaz, a process that had them both imagining that the music was taking place in a retro ‘80s arcade game world. 

Terrie Ex AKA Terrie Hessels from Dutch anarcho punks The Ex and Slovenian composer and pianist Kaja Draksler are no strangers to improvisation. Their musical backgrounds are very different, but that’s what makes The Swim so good. A live improvisation between the apparent musical opposites was recorded at Cafe Oto in London and sees conventional guitar and piano mixed with toys and tools.

Courtney Barnett is probably best known for her verbose and charming indie-rock songs but following in a long tradition of the likes of Nirvana and ..um Hootie & the Blowfish she has recorded an MTV Unplugged session. You'll need this not only because it showcases her songs in a more stripped back and vulnerable setting but because she has chosen an array of covers plus a completely unreleased track.  

Alex Rex, real name Alex Neilson, was the drummer in Scottish folk rockers Trembling Bells, as well as drumming for the likes of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Shirley Collins, Jandek and Current 93 among others. Andromeda is his third album. It follows Vermillion and Otterburn. Judging by the track ‘Pass the Mask’ this should please fans of Bonnie “Prince” Billy and promises to be a bloody good record. Folk legend Shirley Collins and Belle & Sebastian guitarist Stevie Jackson make guest appearances.

Karkhana are a supergroup from the Middle-East made up of members from Dwarfs Of East Agouza, A-Trio, Konstrukt, Chicago Tentet, Land Of Kush and a few other bands. Among their contemporary and oriental free jazz, western improvised prog rock and electric and acoustic sounds, they are also known to play ‘distorted unrock’, which sounds like a beautiful thing, doesn’t it? Bitter Balls is their latest album.

Hyacinth is the second album by highly regarded Scottish indie band Spinning Coin. The band have relocated from Glasgow to Berlin and recruited Rachel Taylor, replacing Cal Donnelly on bass, since their last album - 2017’s rather marvellous Permo. Some things never change though, and like everything else they’ve released, this is on The Pastel’s Geographic label - an endorsement of quality.

The 62nd issue of Electronic Sound magazine comes with a four-track 7” vinyl EP of cover star Joe Meek, the pioneering pop producer of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, a re-issue of his 1960 release I Hear A New World that he released with his Blue Men band. The mag itself includes features on Cerrone, Squarepusher and Kl(aüs). 

Collocutor have reduced their members from seven to five for the making of Continuation, and as the title suggests, it’s business as usual for band leader Tamar Osborn and Co. It is their third album, and finds Osborn dealing with grief and trying to keep things on an even keel. The modal jazz crew’s previous album, The Search, won praise from Giles Petersen and music mag The Wire.

Here we have Marc Riley Sessions Volume 4 by Leeds indie legends The Wedding Present. Of the nine songs that make up the latest installment, they go all the way back to tracks from their debut album, George Best to early singles collection, Tommy, up to recent single Jump In The Water’s Fine. On Hatch Records.

A decade after they first emerged with their fuzzy, charmingly retro guitar-pop, Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno present their fourth Best Coast album, and first in nearly five years. Produced by Carlos de la Garza and Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Always Tomorrow sees them faithfully exploring classic rock and pop influences once again. 

Djrum’s second LP, and first for R&S, finds the producer returning to his roots in order to expand his sound. Still keeping the heady, sampledelic house and techno style as his bedrock, the one born Felix Manuel also gravitates back to his first instrument - the piano. Writing at the keyboard makes much of Portrait Of Firewood more harmonically lush than previous Djrum work. It’s a good look. The LP features Lola Empire and Zosia Jagodzinska, and nestled among the tracklist is another instalment of the ‘Showreel’ series that began on 2017’s Broken Glass Arch EP.

Myopia is the fourth album by the exceptional Berlin-based Danish singer / songwriter Agnes Obel. It is her first album in three years following 2016’s Citizen Of Glass. With a voice that most people would kill for, on Myopia, Obel explores themes of trust and doubt. Features the single Island Of Doom.

the art of being empty is the debut studio album from Dutch-born, Melbourne-based bedroom artist Julien Mier, who records under the moniker santpoort. Constructed through meticulous beats and Mier’s psychedelic and slightly twee vocals, his first effort is one for getting deliciously lost inside. 

Joe Hisaishi is the Japanese composer best known for his Studio Ghibli productions. If you are at all daunted by the 100 plus scores he has produced in his lifetime then this two CD collection of his essential work could be a good place to start. His work dates back to 1981 and stylistically includes minimalist, experimental electronic, classical and piano compositions.   

Introduced with inebriated guitars and quirky vocals, '4 X A Dream' is the wonky exploration from Japanese multi-media pioneer Masumi Hara. Having originally landed way back in 1984, This reissue presents a chance to re-discover this curious and colourful mashup of various genres, styles, mood and ideas.

The self-explanatorily titled 18 Tracks was originally released in 1999, aimed at Bruce Springsteen’s more casual fanbase. It was a condensed version of the previous year’s Tracks box set, but notably included ‘The Promise’, an unreleased fan favourite dating back to 1978’s Darkness On The Edge of Town. Now, it arrives as a double-vinyl package. 

Having scooped many nominations this awards season for its thoughtful depiction of one of the most historic transitions of power ever, as well as for starring roles from Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes is scored by Bryce Dessner, guitarist with global indie favourites The National. Consisting of 21 tracks of lightly orchestrated folk, Dessner brings in contributions from other musicians, including Tinariwen. 

When purveyors of heavy music get together then things get really heavy as is proven by this collaboration between Lee Buford (The Body), Kristin Hayter  (Lingua Ignota) and Dylan Walker (Full of Hell). The project took them two years to make and the trio have carved out their own path which at times references their past work but creates a whole new entity. Their world view may be bleak but this carries an impressive emotional weight. 

Raspberry Bulbs are a New York-based punk band from who feature members of New Jersey hardcore punks Rorschach and Californian black metal band Bone Awl. Elements of these sounds make it into their otherwise lo-fi, gritty punk sound. Before The Age of Mirrors is their new album, CD and LP on Relapse.

Wilsen are a Brooklyn-based trio who made some waves with their 2017 album I Go Missing In My Sleep. Ruiner is the follow up and sees the band toughening up their sound somewhat and escaping out of the shadows of their debut. Their music is a lovely romantic emo-twinged thing that brings to mind Big Thief and Death Cab For Cutie. 

A New Kind Of Sky is the new album from The Hanging Stars. The London-based band, play a mix of psych, folk and country with harmonies and 12-string guitars weaving through the whole thing. You may have picked all that up from a glance at the album cover, though, which wouldn’t look out of place in the racks with classics by The Band and The Byrds. Their sound is also authentically of that magical late ‘60s early ‘70s era.

Jeff Mills is a legendary producer and DJ from Detroit known, among other things, for forming Underground Resistance with Mike Banks and Robert Hood. Here, under the name Millsart, he continues his long-running series of techno/jazz EPs with Every Dog Has Its Day Vol. 5. Released on his own label, Axis.

The sleeve kinda sums this up. Delve inside and you'll get an album of punk blues from Left Lane Cruiser  - the duo of Freddy J IV and Brenn Beck. They use bass, harmonica, organ and cardboard boxes to create their voodoo hillbilly racket which is present here on a starburst coloured vinyl edition of just 100 copies. 

The Angelic Process combine the ear-bleeding guitar of My Bloody Valentine, the post-metal expansiveness of Neurosis and unstaunched emotion of Swans with complex musicality. Weighing Souls With Sand, the band’s third album, was originally released in 2007, after which the band was put on indefinite hiatus due to founding member Kris Angylus severely injuring his hand. It turned out to be the band’s final album after Angylus sadly took his own life in 2008.

A first ever 7” vinyl release for ‘Thru The Flowers’, the classic debut single from Coventry indie-popsters The Primitives. While it didn’t chart, it helped launch the group’s career by establishing their sound. This version is the original 1986 recording, not the subsequent re-recording that often appears on the band’s compilations, and includes a postcard and poster. 

The second single from long-running Sydney-based indie band Even As We Speak in late 1987, ‘Blue Suburban Skies’ became better known when bundled up with the ‘Goes So Slow’ single in 1990 to make a five-track EP on the famous Sarah Records. The original recording, with a cover of New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ on the reverse, now gets a 7” single re-issue via the Optic Sevens series. 

Billed as a ‘mini-LP’, SDX is the first musical statement of length by the immensely promising Saint DX, the recording moniker of singer Aurélien Hamm. Influenced by the Buddhist beliefs of his parents and the sensual R&B and hip-hop of artists from Prince to Kanye, the nine-track album follows Saint DX’s three excellent singles over the last year and a half. 

If, like me, your grain is doing somersaults trying to recall Michael Cashmore then let me assist you by reminding you that he is the long term composer of Current 93 as well as collaborator with the likes of Marc Almond and Anohni. His latest work is the second of a series exploring a personal transformation and is a deeply experimental but melodic work with nods towards techno and electronica. Little Annie guests on vocals. 

You may not know Village of the Sun but if I said it was a collaboration between Binker & Moses and Simon Radcliffe of Basement Jaxx then your ears may prick somewhat. Expect two future Balearic classics here, both sun-ready and upliftingly vibrant. Collectible limited pressing 12" with die cut sleeve.    

You may not know Kearney Barton by name but if I mention the likes of Quincy Jones, The Ventures, The Wailers, The Sonics and the Young Fresh Fellows then you might sit up and take notice. You see all of those have been recorded with this 80 year old veteran who had been recording bands for 50 years right up to his passing in 2012. This labour of love is a collection of some of the masses of tapes in his collection from local obscurities to more well known artists. Lovingly compiled by Lights in the Attic. 

J.R. Robinson and Esther Shaw present their fifth Wrekmeister Harmonies album, We Love To Look At The Carnage. Recorded with Swans’ Thor Harris and Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart on additional percussion and electronics, the album purports to soundtrack the feeling of night thoughts, and being unable to drift off to sleep. 

Legendary British musical mystic Julian Cope shows no signs of slowing down as the 2020s begin, announcing his 35th solo album Self Civil War. It’s said to be the first in a series of releases titled Our Troubled Times, and each of the 13 tracks looks at the current state of world affairs through the lens of a different topic, all tied together by Cope’s unique vision. 

In Japanese folklore, Afuma indicates a time of day marked by a spiritual or mysterious encounter - this enigmatic band name was elected by the duo of guitarists Taketo Shimada and Stefan Tcherepnin. On 'Songs From The Shore', they create a tremolo-laden offering which opts for spacious and sparse soundscapes.

Can you believe it was 10 years ago when we were all dancing at the indie discos to Los Campesinos? Romance Is Boring was their third album which broadened their sonic palette to include brass and other accoutrements. If you've struggled to get yourself a copy in the intervening years then never panic  - Wichita have re-pressed the album onto gold vinyl and chucked in a download which includes their All's Well That Ends well EP.  

Cellist and composer Rebecca Foon is a big, albeit gentle, noise in the Montreal music community. As well as being a solo artist under her own name and as Saltland, she was a member of Silver Mt. Zion and chamber ensemble, Esmerine. Her new solo LP, Waxing Moon, sees her writing some haunting songs that are both despairing and hopeful, concerned with climate change and personal heartbreak.

I hadn't even heard of Blake Mills despite this album ten years old (and therefore ripe for re-issue) but turns out he was in the Americana band Dawes and has produced anything from Laura Marling to Alabama Shakes. This was his debut album and was only initially available in a limited run and so this will be the first time it has been available to many listeners. Eric Clapton has called him 'phenomenal' but please don't let that put you off. 

All My Feeling’s Denied is the new single from the Godfather of Kent garage rock, Billy Childish under the name Wild Billy Childish & The Chatham Singers. It a new version of a Billy Childish classic which has been reworked and given the Chicago blues treatment. The b-side, which is exclusive to this 7” is a cover of Willie Dixon’s I’m Ready.

Straight out of Washington (and that's DC not Tyne and Wear) are Too Free  - a three piece who feature ex members of Merchandise and Big Freedia. The trio use the landscape of their hometown to inspire kinetic and freewheeling avant dance-rock high in improvisation and low in tried and true structures. Forward thinking avant-dancefloor certainly with nods to Arthur Russell and Anohni (to these ears anyway).  

Cave Hill is a hill that overlooks Belfast in Northern Ireland. Climbing it, and the view, is quite a thing to experience. So much so that United Bible Studies, a trio made up from Alison O’Donnell  and Dominic Cooper of The Owl Service and electronic musician David Colohan, have made an album about it. Cave Hill Ascension combines two long-form devotional instrumentals with two folk songs. 

Hayden Berry is a musician from out Hebden Bridge way and you may know him as head honcho of the Preserved Sound imprint. Visionary Hours is his musical project which uses all manner of organic instruments to create lovely bucolic pieces that sit somewhere between rural folk and neo-classical. Coalescence of Form comes out on the Hidden Vibes imprint in a very limited edition of 100, 

Originally released in 2001, Ride The Skies was the second studio album from Lightning Bolt, who, 19 years later, are beloved veterans of the noise-rock scene. It’s now getting a well-deserved re-release, complete with original artwork from the band’s Brian Chippendale and available on ‘baby blue sky’-coloured vinyl. 

John Frusciante enjoyed two stints as guitarist in Red Hot Chili Peppers from 1988-1992 and 1998-2009. Frusciante’s solo albums have a bit of a cult following and there’s quite a lot of them too, 14 in fact. Curtains was his eighth album, originally released in 2005. It features guest spots from Autolux drummer, Carla Azar, upright bassist Ken Wild and regular collaborator, Mars Volta and At The Drive-In guitarist, Omar Rodrigues-Lopez.

Having collaborated with the likes of Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins as well as being a part of Buttering Band, Tel Aviv-based star Rejoicer delivers a new solo album of glorious hybrids of jazz and electronica, which will delight any fans of Flying Lotus or Brainfeeder’s roster. Spiritual Sleaze also features the likes of KerenDun, Jenny Penkin and Sam Wilkes. 

The Men are like a microcosm of men as a whole in that they are both good and bad.They do great things and they do less great things but I think we're all still ok with them being around. They've actually been rather consistent over the last few years and this stability has led to their new album Mercy on which they make music with some of the classic rock moves of the 70s era old timers alongside the experimental churn of someone like Suicide.   

Nottingham’s Kogumaza have spent four years painstakingly creating their third studio effort, the sprawling double album Fugues, presented here over two sides of clear 180g vinyl and released to coincide with the band’s tenth anniversary. Expect intense, drawn-out passages of post-rock fireworks.

American folk guitarist and pianist Robbie Basho was a contemporary of guitarists John Fahey and Leo Kottke. The three of them all wanted to elevate the status of the acoustic guitar to grandness of a concert instrument. Unlike a nylon strung guitar Basho said it could bring about metaphorical fire. He was inspired by music and philosophy from different cultures around the world and particularly the music of Ravi Shankar. Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a feature-length documentary about is life. Available on Blu Ray and DVD

Moshi Moshi presents the long-awaited fifth studio album from indie-popsters Summer Camp. With multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Warmsley returning from his solo projects last year, Romantic Comedy is designed as a soundtrack to a film of the same name by his bandmate Elizabeth Sankey, and comes out on Valentine’s Day.