Latest new releases on vinyl record, CD and cassette tape

Australian artist Eugene Ughetti has worked with a number of guest composers and fellow countrymen such as Anthony Pateras, Liza Lim and Robin Fox to create his latest album, Agglomeration Of Measurement. What results is a series of layered, intricate and fabulously executed pieces of percussive masterpieces. 

American experimental music icon Ellen Fullman, performing her custom ‘Long String Instrument’, an installation spanning over 40 strings and 70 feet in length, and cellist Theresa Wong come together for Harbors. Concerning itself with how bodies of water generate folklore and tradition in societies, it’s built around the harmonics of a cello’s open string notes. 

Sound installation artist and graphic designer Richard Chartier has spent many years mapping out the innermost parts of the human psyche as Pinkcourtesyphone. With the project’s latest studio album, Leaving Everything To Be Desired, he lays on arguably his most luxurious listening experience ever. 

Peter Ulrich is probably best known as the drummer in Dead Can Dance and for collaborating with This Mortal Coil, although he has a solo career which has seen him release five albums to date. Pathways and Dawns was the first of those and was originally released in 1999. It is made up from sessions recorded in 1990 and 1996-97. Hypnotic rhythms and poetic lyrics are augmented by guitars, arrangements and production from Dead Can Dance bandmate Brendan Perry.

The endless supply of Coil re-issues continues apace with Sara Dale's Sensual Massage which was their soundtrack to the erotic video of the same name. Unlike a lot of the group's work this is a dreamy ambient work with soft harmonies and a rather bucolic feel with birdsong and bells but also has elements of their more rhythmic work. Artwork by Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound). 

For his latest album, Bristol resident Memotone takes influence from Italo Calvino's novel 'Invisible Cities'. Like the book, his music explores imagined and exaggerated landscapes through the lens of some elaborate, fourth-world dreamscape. Using a finely balanced blend of improvised instrumentation (clarinet being at the forefront) and programmed electronics, the album benefits from a ranging textural and tonal exploration, as if we were following Marco Polo on his journey to discover cities as yet unknown, passing the landmarks of dub, exotica and jazz en route. RIYL Jon Hassel, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nino Nardini... “it is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear” Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities

Legends of the Factory Records stable, A Certain Ratio are back with their first new album in twelve years. ACR Loco features three founding members Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson who are supported by a cast of musicians including The Smiths drummer Mike Joyce. This album covers a whole range of feelings and emotions, but mostly it implores you to party.

Getting back together once more as a trio, having worked with ex-Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore on a couple of projects, Cuts Open is another enthralling collaboration between Japanese noise music legend Merzbow, Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Hungarian percussionist Balás Pándi. 

Hen Ogledd is the kind of supergroup that we celebrate around these parts, comprising as it does the talents of Richard Dawson, Rhodri Davies, Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington. 'Free Humans' is their second album and has an unsurprisingly eclectic range of influences - everything from ABBA to medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen, surreal pop star Hannah Diamond to artist Agnes Martin. Lovely old job.

Following their breakout into wider mainstream consciousness with 'Joy As An Act Of Resistance' back in 2018, beloved Bristolian post-punk outfit IDLES reveal their third studio album. Entitled 'Ultra Mono', this record finds the band bringing in hip-hop production aesthetics by working with Kenny Beats. But staunch punk heads need not fret - this is as scathing and vitriolic in its politics as the band’s previous work.

A first-ever release on vinyl for The Sunset City, the mythological ‘lost’ electronic album that Los Angeles synth duo Turquoise Moon recorded for a major American label in the mid-Eighties but which has apparently sat in the archives ever since. It gets a release on ‘sunset fireball’ or transparent turquoise coloured vinyl, with artwork designed by ‘Stranger Things’ graphic designer John Bergin. 

DJ and Acid Jazz label owner Eddie Piller was the right sort of teen age to accept the mod revival in 1979. He’s been obsessed ever since - he’s got the haircut and the Fred Perry polo shirt to prove it - lookin' sharp! Eddie Piller presents The Mod Revival is a collection of his favourite mod revival tunes from bands such as The Jam, The Chords, Secret Affair and loads more. If you want the motherlode, there’s a 92-track 4CD box set. Alternatively there’s a 28 track double vinyl LP. You could even get both!

Demon presents the soundtrack to Marco Polo, the infamous ‘lost’ series of episodes of Doctor Who that were broadcast in early 1964 but of which no archival recordings survive. Across four ‘sandstorm’ coloured vinyls are the incidental music, from Tristram Cary, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s iconic theme, as well as the voices of the cast, including the original Timelord William Hartnoll. 

Last year, Kit Sebastian were one of the most well-received newcomers in the world music scene, their stunning debut album Mantra Moderne sourcing styles and traditions from across the globe. Mr Bongo now presents two hitherto unreleased tracks from the album’s sessions, ‘Rain’ and ‘Kozmos’, on 7” vinyl. 

The world of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust fantasy novels comes to vinyl with this 5xLP box set, Neil Gaiman’s Stardust Record Collection. The three full-cast radio dramas (including the talents of Derek Jacobi, Diana Rigg and Frances Barber) based on his books are pressed up to gold-coloured vinyl. The two gatefold packages and a single-LP package each come with their own extensive sleeve notes, written by Gaiman himself. 

Samutek is Polish musician and artist Mateusz Woś. Omamy is a meticulously pieced-together recording of haunting and hypnotic sounds, from gongs and chimes to drones and insects. He creates the kind of unsettling soundtrack you might expect to hear on films such as Midsommar or The Blair Witch Project. 

It's been a long while since we heard from Library Tapes - although looking at the press release their last album was in 2018 so I must not have been paying attention. The project usually consists of just David Wenngren but this time a gaggle of other musicians are involved including Julia Kent and Akira Kosemura leading to the perfect combination of electronics and neo-classical. Gonna be good this... I can feel it in my bones. 

Featuring Debbie Googe of My Bloody Valentine on bass and backing vocals and his erstwhile Sonic Youth bandmate Steve Shelley doing some of the drum parts, By The Fire is alternative rock icon Thurston Moore’s seventh solo album. Completed in the short gap between his band’s tour of Europe and the coronavirus lockdown, it’s one of his most focussed solo efforts yet. 

No One Can Ever Know was the third full length album by Scottish miseries The Twilight Sad. It introduced a more keyboard-led sound without at all disturbing the atmospheric and emotional post-punk sound they'd been peddling until this point. It was produced by the sadly departed Andrew Weatherall who, if anything, made their sound even more claustrophobic. All their albums are worth a listen and this is no exception.   

Knaresborough-raised troubadour Bill Callahan returns with Gold Record  - an album made whilst he was preparing to tour his previous album Shepherd In A Sheep's Vest. A lot of the album is culled from tracks he'd written over the years for other artists to sing  - all recorded on the hoof in an intuitive and creative burst with some good friends helping flesh the sounds around that rich, warm baritone.  

Fontaines D.C. really hit the ground running, both artistically and commercially releasing two critically acclaimed albums, Dogrel and A Hero’s Death  in less than two years. Here we have a limited edition 7” single featuring the tracks  A Hero’s Death and I Don’t Belong. On Partisan Records.

Orchestra Baobab are an iconic Sengalese dance band who, in 2020, celebrate their 50th anniversary. To celebrate, World Circuit are reissuing the band’s 2002 album Specialist In All Styles. The album takes in afro and latin influences underpinned by a rhythm section that really cooks, the astonishing guitar playing of Barthélemy Attisso and the brilliant saxophonist Issa Cissokho. Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club) and Youssou N’Dour makes guest appearances.

Impulse! presents Palo Alto, a previously unreleased live recording by legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, from a concert in October 1968 that came about in curious circumstances. Organised by a student at the Californian college town’s high school named Danny Scher and hosted in the school’s parking lot, it features Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums. 

Templefeld is a brand new side-project from veteran British DJ and producer Kirk Degiorgio, also known under the name As One. Boasting a remix on the reverse from Anthony Child (a.k.a. Surgeon), ‘Day of Reckoning’ is a tour-de-force of techno and drum’n’bass, presented on 12” vinyl. 

Strom|morts is a project established by members of Swiss mathcore band Knut and post-metal outfit Abraham. Inspired by the geography and climate of their homeland, the mountainous landscapes their accompanying weather, Clock Resistance is an in-depth listening experience that evolves, ebbs and flows almost imperceptibly. 

Documenting a series of live performances from 2017 to 2019, My Body Did This To Me is an intriguing compilation from Los Angeles-based artist Gabie Strong. An experimental, inter-disciplinary artist dating back to the Nineties and committed to releasing music by under-profiled women, queer and non-binary artists, this cassette is an excellent showcase of her talents. 

Veteran electronic artists Richard Francis and Frans de Waard got together in the Dutch city of Nijmegen some years ago for a day’s improvised recording, using modular synths, tapes, field recordings and a Korg. Eventually revisiting it, they boiled down the results to give us Retired Dilettantes, released on cassette. 

Back in my day, Shakey is what we used to call ol' wobble legs and Cardiff's answer to Elvis - Shakin' Stevens, but times have changed, and this Shakey is a new project from Silvia Kastel (of Control Unit and the Ultramarine label) and Lizzie Davis (Wilted Woman) in which they explore their love for digi-dub, jungle and ambient. It's a far cry from 'This Ole House' but probably all the better for it. 

Manchester-based newcomers Heavy Salad deliver their highly anticipated debut studio album. Recorded with the help of former Arctic Monkeys producer Ross Orton, Cult Casual sees the band drawing down on their acid rock and psychedelic pop influences to make a memorable first impression, conjuring up nightmarish but also utopian visions. 

One of hip-hop’s heavyweights, Eminem drops another surprise album, just like his clipped 2018 effort Kamikaze. Conceived of as a sort-of tribute to the great director Alfred Hitchcock, Music To Be Murdered By is a 20-track record, and came with a tweet from Marshall Mathers himself warning that there would “undoubtedly be quite a bit of controversy surrounding it”. No kidding, Em. 

Be With present a re-issue of this lost 1970s caper featuring Walter Morrison (also of Ohio Players) playing soulful funk, jazz and boogie. It's full of infectious grooves, funky horns and liquid bass lines. Comparable to Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone, the album has been a favourite of artists as well known as Prince and Solange. Time to take a listen. 

Be With are really finding some lost gems of late. The latest is this 1982 album by Caiphus Semenya - a South African in self imposed exile in Southern California. He was already well known as a collaborator with the likes of Lou Rawls and Quincy Jones when he finally got round to making a solo LP. The album blends funk, soul, jazz and boogie with his South African roots for a modern soul album which blended '80s production with more traditional sounds and compositions. 

Provoked by a period of reflection following personal loss and grief for El Ten Eleven’s leader Kristian Dunn, Tautology is a mammoth triple album whose duration represents the grand arc of life. Traversing everything from attack-minded riffing to vast ambient landscapes, it’s being released digitally in three parts, but a triple-vinyl release in September will gather up all the movements in one package.

Emma Kupa is probably best known for being the front person of the likes of Standard Fare and Mammoth Penguins as well as being a bigwig at the annual Indietracks festival. It Will Come Easier sees her exploring more mature themes of life and love in your early thirties over music that takes '60s girl group pop, folk and electronic pop as influences. 

The Fifth Season is the second album by UK artist Lafawndah. It follows her highly regarded debut, Ancestor Boy. It is a volatile, spontaneous and free album  inspired by the Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin. Includes musical contributions from Theon Cross on tuba, Nathaniel Cross on trombone, percussionist Valentina Magaletti, and keyboard player Nick Weiss

Telas is the sixth album by Chilean / American electronic composer and musician Nicolas Jaar. It is the sister album to Cezinas, which was released in early 2020 and blends ambient with Musique concrète. It also shares some musical themes with his recent Against All Logic releases.

Minor Planets is the third and final part of an electro-acoustic trilogy by Twinkle³ - a trio who base themselves in the UK and Berlin. It was preceded by 2009's Let's Make A Solar System and 2015's Debris In Lower Earth Orbit. The album’s influences are wide and varied from Lee Perry to Noh Theatre, Karlheinz Stockhausen to King Sunny Ade.

With an enjoyably self-promotional title, 'Esoteric Pop' by Stockholm's own Initiates draws from cult faves Swirlies and, according to bandleader Andreas Lagerström, is 'laid-back' and not so 'serious' as his previous work with Holograms. Expect guitars, guitars, reverb, and more indie chops than you can shake a stick at (yum!). 

Canadian outfit The Death Wheelers blend the frenetic rock of Motorhead, the scuzzy punk of The Cramps and the surf guitar virtuosity of Dick Dale to make their in-your-face sound. Their second album, Divine Filth, is the soundtrack to a biker film that never existed. It even includes some snippets of dialogue!

CCR Headcleaner or an acid rock band from San Francisco. Their live show includes everything from fire to guitars played with machetes and the odd Tom Petty cover. For their second album, Street Riffs, they enlisted the help of legendary SF producer Eric Bauer who was able to enhance the band’s sound without taking away their blistering acidic rock tendencies.

Prana Crafter is the music-making moniker of William Sol, a multi-instrumentalist who makes pysch / folk sound collages by melding guitars, synths and singing bowls with 'raw natural energy'. He takes his influences from Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, and Manuel Göttsching of Ash Ra Tempel. MorphoMystic is recommended for fans of Popul Vuh, Agitation Free and Six Organs of Admittance.

Actually, unlike the regular adage, there are THREE certainties in life: death, taxes, and a new Oh Sees album every year. On top of a forthcoming album as part of a new group called Bent Arcana, it’s clear that not even lockdown can stop Dwyer from his furious creative output. For their 23rd studio record, John Dwyer’s merry men undergo yet another slight name change to release Protean Threat as Osees.

Space rock band Slift hail from Toulouse, France. Their new LP, Ummon was written whilst on an extensive tour of Europe in 2019. What a great way to try those space rock jams out, live and direct. The three-piece are influenced by Science-fiction and specifically French writer Alain Damasio. On Stolen Body.

Richard Norris, known for his work with The Grid and Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve, as well as collaborations with countless high-profile musicians, returns with Elements. It’s an alchemistic blend of hypnotic sounds, drone and deep ambience, assembled in a way only someone with Norris’ experience on such matters can. 

Northern Songs was of course the publishing name used by the Beatles and although The Asteroid No 4 don't exactly ape the fab four they are indebted to the shimmer and jangle of 1960's psychedelia with nods to the Byrds and the Rain Parade front and centre. The dronier, druggier influence of Spacemen 3 is also notable but if the pure pop songwriting of the brilliant title track is replicated across the record this could be a classic sunshine pop record to cheer up 2020.  

Rid of Me was the second studio album released by P J Harvey following on from her debut Dry. It was recorded by Steve Albini and (possibly as a result) had a much rawer and primitive sound than Dry. It was performed by the trio of Harvey, Rob Ellis and Steve Vaughan and was the last LP the trio would record as a unit.

Reverting back to a solo project after life as a duo for last year’s [Detention] and a collaboration with The Melvins and Paul Leary, Swedish singer Åsa Söderqvist’s ShitKid therefore returns to the introversion of her earliest material. 20/20 is a fantastically observed series of DIY anti-pop songs. 

In news that is likely to break the internet, Deftones return with Ohms. It is their 9th album and first since 2016’s Gore. It was produced by Terry Date who also produced Adrenaline, Around the Fur and their classic, and one of the most adored albums of all time, White Pony. What’s more, Ohms is released in the 20th anniversary year of White Pony! Excitement abounds!

Acoustic Shadows was initially an event which took place in the body of the Deutzer Bridge in Koln, Germany in 2018. The sound installation which lasted over a week was then edited down by artist and composer Lea Bertucci to form this LP featuring segments of the results. But it didn't stop there, they've actually made a sample library of the sounds for other musicians to use. A fascinating sounding project.  

Here is the classic latter day Record Store Day item. A vinyl edition of Slowdive's 1992 compilation 'Blue Day'. At least its not ludicrously limited, 2000 of you have the chance of owning or re-owning these selected tracks taken from their first three EP's. Considered a joke in their lifetime, Slowdive are now one of the most revered bands on the planet, reforming with added beards for a successful tour last year.  

Outnumbered is a collaboration between Detroit techno DJ & producer Terrence Dixon and Jordan GCZ of Amsterdam-based duo Juju & Jordash. The pair holed up in a studio for a week in late 2019, combined their distinctive styles and produced a bunch of music. These two elongated electronic soundscapes mark the first music to be culled from the sessions.

L.I.E.S. delve into the ferocious warehouse acid archives of Brooklyn techno warrior and Sonic Groove label/store honcho Adam X. Frankie Bones' brother has lived and breathed techno since the dawn of time - back in the day he was pushing his 303 to the limit with storming tracks alongside Heather Heart on Dave Clarke's Magnetic North label, creating caustic mayhem with Jimmy Crash as X-Crash on Direct Drive, Peacefrog and Drop Bass Network to name a few. Adam has since released on Sativae, Neil Landstrumm's Scandanavia, Prologue and so on. This compilation is a taste of how he did things back in the day - intense, acid pandemonium created between spraying graffiti and working at NYC's legendary record store.

Logic System is the solo project of Hideki Matsutake, ace synth programmer and ex-member of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Unit and Clash are tracks taken from his 1981 proto-techno debut album, Logic. This 12” also comes with an Italo Disco version of Unit, produced by Italian production group Mito, on the flip. On Tempo Dischi.

A new single on 12” vinyl from Swedish musician and producer Baba Stiltz. In keeping with his maverick reputation and lineage in electronic music (he’s the godson of techno legend Daniel Savio), ‘Running To Chad’ is another terrific cut, backed here by remixes from DJ Python and Jesse. 

Documents 01 is the first in a series of releases from a project centred around the Acephale music venue in Cologne. This six-track compilation features contributions from Frank West, Future Transfer, Keshavara, Tulips, Robert Bergman and Montel Palmer - all connected to the Acephale in one way or another - that span house, krautrock and ambient music. 

Blue 08 is a limited edition four-track EP on the AD 93 label (formerly Whities), and a truly international affair headed up by Fake Rolex’s Mucho Sueño covering Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’. There’s also contributions from Dutch DJ and producer Bas Dobbelaer, Swedish star Martinou and Japanese producer Sapphire Slows. 

A blackly appropriate soundtrack for the world around us collapsing during lockdown, Untitled is Texan experimental artist JT Whitfield’s first release for the L.I.E.S. imprint. A mini-album of six pieces of ominously slow and mightily destructive industrial electronic music, it’s a physically draining experience. 

This 12” vinyl bears re-mastered and remixed versions of ‘Hot & Sexable’ by Natural Wild, a Quare Groove classic originally released in 1985. As well as the extended club mix of the full vocal version sung by Denise Keogh, there are three additional versions, all overseen by producer Morgan Buckley. 

Joanne Robertson as well as being a musician is a fine art painter so maybe she has painted stupid girls in that line of work? Musically however, she makes experimental folk which as seen her collaborate with Dean Blunt and the Flying Lizards bloke. In fact this album comes out on Blunt's imprint World Music while previous works have appeared on Textile and Feeding Tube Records.

Barry Cleveland made his new age/ambient compositions back in the early '80s and released Stones of Precious Water in 1986. The album blends ambience, new age, kosmishe and jazzy progressive sounds into a gently undulating whole in which every part was played by Cleveland himself.  First time pressing for this lesser heard masterpiece courtesy of Morning Trip. 

Off the back of an intensive touring schedule that continued right up until lockdown, a new EP from Dutch producer and DJ Identified Patient. A five-track affair on 12” vinyl, Nerve Deposit sees him expand his already broad sound palette even further, embracing elements of electro, industrial and synth-rock. 

Portuguese production trio DJ Kolt, DJ Noronha and DJ Perigoso - collectively known as Blacksea Não Maya - return after a five year break with Máquina de Vénus. Playing around with established Tarraxho and Batida styles, it represents an incredible series of mutations of Angolan dance music. 

A compilation that will hopefully gain Durban-based outfit Phelimuncasi some attention outside of their native South Africa, 2013-2019 is a collection of dark, unfiltered gqom. Here, the collective imaginations of Malathon, Makan Nana and Khera are set to incredible, mutant dancehall productions from DJ Menzi, DJ Mp3 and DJ Scoturn. 

As heavy as the thing with antlers on the cover art, Pushing Through A Wall is the new album from Oliver Ho aka Slow White Fall. He creates a dark and swirling semi-industrial sound that has elements of Dead Can Dance, Throbbing Gristle, Godflesh and Zola Jesus. Challenging and uncompromising music for similar times.  

Black Phoebe nay not be a name you know anything about but if I told you this was Mark Lanegan and his wife, Shelley Brien doing dark gothic and techno dirge then I can see you sit up and take notice. The influences range from post-punk like Joy Division and Cabaret Voltaire to noise techno such as Sandwell District and Vatican Shadow. Adorably all proceeds go to the RSPB. 

Environment Remixes is My Disco’s album of the same name remixed by a selection of Downwards artists and more. Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement (aka Prurient/Vatican Shadow) Bristol's mighty Giant Swan, Cub (aka Simon Shreeve and Karl O'Conner), Slow White Fall aka (Oliver Ho/Broken English Club) and Kerridge are among the artists to reshape, bend, slow down, stretch and evolve the album’s original tracks in often savage or soporific ways. 

Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote is snapped up by Ghostly International for his latest studio album as Khotin, Finds You Well, having self-released his acclaimed record Beautiful You back in 2018. As ever, his work is tremendously evocative and emotional, constructed from crisp, intricate beats and synths that manage to be both pastoral and eerie. 

New Signs of Life is the second album, and first for Dais, by newly LA-based Australian band Death Bells. It is an album of impassioned guitar music built with a DIY aesthetic and reaching into dreampop territory. The lyrics are succinct and there's the odd nod to the California’s surf history.

Teaming up with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, jazz organist Jimmy Smith released the classic Prayer Meetin’ in 1963 on the iconic Blue Note. The label’s Tone Poet Audiophile reissue series makes this masterpiece available once again, remastered from the original tapes and pressed on heavyweight vinyl. 

A coda to his acclaimed 2018 album Universal Beings that was a soundtrack to a documentary of the same name, Chicago-based drummer Makaya McCraven presents 14 new pieces from the original sessions. Universal Beings E&F Sides is a fantastic complement to one of the best jazz albums of recent years. 

The Nix are a collective of musicians pulled together by Franz Ferdinand’s Nick McCarthy and composer Seb Kellig. The Sausage Studio Sessions were recorded at their own studio, unsurprisingly known as Sausage Studios. Inspirations for the album came from jazz pianist Mal Waldron, roots reggae sound system supremo Jah Shaka and night bike rides in London, among other things. Features Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), KT Tunstall, Vula Malinga and more.

Elliott Smith’s eponymous album is his second solo outing. It was released in 1995, so here we have a 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition. As well as a remastered version of the original album it includes the earliest known live recording at Umbra Penumbra in Portland. It comes packaged with a 52-page coffee table book with lyrics and previously unseen photos. Essential stuff. 

Public Enemy are back on Def Jam with 'What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down'. The album is a clarion-call for people to demand justice for the black community, a sentiment which hits even harder in the wake of recent events. Built on Public Enemy's signature riot-starting hip-hop style, 'What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down' includes guest spots from DJ Premier, Mike D, Ice-T, PMD, Run DMC and Jahi.

Los Angeles residents, composers and multi-instrumentalists Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson flew to Chicago to contribute to the Makaya McCraven album Universal Beings. They were so inspired by the city, and Lake Michigan, that it spawned an LP. Chicago Waves comes to us via International Anthem.

Kate NV is a Moscow-based producer, songwriter and composer with a background in post-punk. She was a member of Russian band ГШ, or GS for those who can’t read Cyrillic (like me!). Her latest album, Room For The Moon, follows-up  для FOR and sees her manipulated vocals woven into a fabric of xylophone, guitars, sax and synth. 

Who Gives A F**k is the new 7” from Leicester’s alternative pop band Easy Life. It features two tracks. Side A is the previously released Nightmares which has proved its worth by being the band’s most streamed song to date. It is backed, on side AA, with Pop Tarts which is the main focus of this release. On Island.

Anteloper is trumpeter Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary. During Branch’s residency at Pioneer Works - a Brooklyn art centre - she invited Nazary along to make some music. The resulting recordings, Tour Beats Vol. 1 were released as a tape to be sold on their tour with punk / jazz / noise duo Blacks’ Myths. Now those recordings are available on vinyl through International Anthem.

Have you ever thought about where the hell to start with ambient and chilled out Japanese sounds? Well Oto No Wa has the answer as it collates 14 tracks from a wide range of Japanese artists beginning in the late 1980s. This contains all kinds of music from Japan from electronics to kosmische to library music. Most of it you won't have heard before and therein lies the beauty. 

Noisy New Zealand-based indie outfit Wax Chattels look to capitalise on the slow-burning buzz around their acclaimed 2018 self-titled debut album with Clot. Like its predecessor, it was written partly on the road and partly in their bedrooms, but all of the elements are heavier and deeper than before. 

To mark the 35th anniversary of its release, the pop soundtrack to Robert Zemeckis’ iconic Back To The Future is re-released on tri-coloured vinyl. Fronted by Huey Lewis and The News’ specially commissioned ‘The Power of Love’ and featuring original music from composer Alan Silvestri, it comes packaged with new artwork from poster designer Drew Struzan. 

Gabrielle Roth is a dancer who, in the ‘60s, rediscovered a type of shamanic dance which she named 5Rhythms. Side one of Endless Wave: Volume One shifts mood from meditation to movement with drums, funky bass, gentle vocals, didgeridoos and instructions from Roth creating a sound environment for the dance to unfold. Side two features the same tracks without Roth’s instruction.

Originally released in the summer of 1958 on the legendary Blue Note, Further Explorations by the Horace Silver Quintet saw the pianist leading stellar performances from Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan and more. The label’s Tone Poet Audiophile reissue series makes this masterpiece available once again, remastered from the original tapes and pressed on heavyweight vinyl. 

Following two well-received EPs that arrived at the end of last year, international collective The Cult Of Free Love finally get around to releasing their second studio album. 2016’s Love Revolution saw them compared to dance luminaries from Andrew Weatherall to Kraftwerk, and Visions cements that reputation. 

Los Angeles-based producer and musician Josiah Steinbrick releases his second solo album, with the complex title Liquid / Devotion & Tongue Street Blue. Released jointly by Hands In The Dark and his own Full Bloom label, it’s a vivid, lush tapestry of synthesisers, splashy percussion and snaking basslines. 

WILDERNESS STUDIO 2005-2019 / On-site Composition in the Wild is the result of workshops directed by Francisco López over a 14-year period at Mamori Lake in the Brazilian Amazon and the Mmabolela Reserve in the South African savanna. Over two CDs, López and a host of guest musicians work with his portable studio to create inventive sonic compositions based chiefly on field recordings. 

Cantus, Descant by prolific drone artist Sarah Davachi is built on the sound of various organs - electric, reed and pipe - mixed with mellotron and echo. Cantus is the highest voice in a polyphonic choral arrangement, descant describes the interaction between two or more voices. It is released through Late Music following previous releases on Superior Viaduct, Ba Da Bing!, Recital etc.

This is a 2012 remastered CD edition of 1985’s highly treasured Technø Primitiv album from Throbbing Gristle spin-off Chris & Cosey (i.e. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti). Incredibly, it’s not been available on CD since the 1990 Wax Trax! re-issue, and copies are sure to fly out! 

Politically charged Tameside post-punkers Cabbage unveil their second studio album, Amanita Pantherina. Spearheaded by new single ‘Get Outta My Brain’, it explodes in technicolour where their early EPs and 2018’s debut Nihilistic Glamour Shots were content to dwell in black-and-white atmospherics. 

As well as having a superb name, Clancy Eccles was an influential and successful singer, songwriter and producer. He had a massive reggae hit, both in Jamaica and the UK, in 1969 with Fattie Fattie. His debut album, Freedom, was then gladly put out by Trojan Records. It is now reissued on orange vinyl through Music On Vinyl in conjunction with Trojan.

Released in 1989 as the eventual follow-up to the all-time indie classic Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons saw XTC’s commercial fortunes revived for the first time in several years. Built on Andy Partridge’s insightful lyrics and a basic template of pop and rock, a number of more exotic elements, from jazz and reggae to Middle Eastern music, are mixed in. Housing the wonderful single ‘Mayor of Simpleton’, it’s now re-issued on heavyweight vinyl. 

Ennio Morricone’s score to 1979 Italian comedy Viaggio con Anita shows his versatility as a composer. The music is based in the genre of pop and is simple, but effective with its use of strings and woodwind. The film was directed by Mario Monicelli and stars Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini. 

After waiting over two decades for Rod Modell’s (cv313, DeepChord, Echospace, Our Lady Of The Flowers, Shorelights) collaborative ambient project with Chris Troy, Waveform Transmissions, to release new music, V 3.0-3.9 comes along comparatively quickly. Mastered by Noel Summerville, it arrives in a gatefold sleeve adorned with original artwork by Theo Ellsworth. 

Pathways & Passages by Cosmic Vibrations featuring jazz vocalist extraordinaire Dwight Trible who is the vocalist with the Pharoah Sanders Quartet and vocal director forHorace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. This album arguably the ultimate experience in spiritual jazz, with woodwind, percussion and saxophone brought alive by Trible’s amazing voice. 

Schlammpeitziger (Mud Whip) is the recording moniker of Jo Zimmerman, who turns his hand to illustration and performance art as well as music. Ein Weltleck in der Echokammer (A World Leak In The Echo Chamber, apparently) is hsi 10th album. The music he’s been making since 1992 is best described as weirdo lo-fi eletronica-meets-krautrock. Here he even blends in some ethereal dub loops. Although according to his friend and reggae expert, Bettina Lattak, his music has always shown reggae influences. 

The Pretty Things singer, Phil May, sadly died in May 2020 - shortly after the completion of a new acoustic album by the legendary ‘60s band. Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood is the album. Fans may want to click on the ‘press release’ link as it features some thoughts on the album written by Phil May just over a week before he died.

A re-issue on vinyl for History Is What’s Happening, the second studio album from Dutch anarcho-punk outfit The Ex. Originally released in 1982, it rattled through 20 tracks concerning topics ranging from the squatter movement to the media’s role in politics in just over half an hour. This new edition comes with the poster and 24-page booklet found in the original release. 

Veterans of the global underground for over four decades now, Dutch anarcho-punks The Ex re-issue their debut studio album, Disturbing Domestic Peace, on vinyl. First released in 1980, it sold out of all its pressings in double-quick time. 40 years later, it comes packaged with the original accompaniment live 7” vinyl, 20-page booklet and inserts. 

Repulsion were the first grindcore group. This isn't the first grind LP, however, as it was released after the group split up, finding success in the UK with Carcass distributing a compilation of Repulsion's. The Flint, Michigan group blended extreme death metal with chaotic and fast-paced punk - it's a sound which inspired the likes of Napalm Death to start making music. 'Horrified' is one of the most famed records in the grind genre and will also appeal to fans of death metal, hardcore punk and thrash.

If it is psychedelics you want then Polymoon are possibly the place to go. The band play cosmic rock and out there psychedelia using fuzzy guitars and stacks of modular synths to take the listener to a higher plane of consciousness. This, we think, is the debut album from the Finnish band who are part of an explosion of similar artists out of their homeland. 

The Secret Migration was the fifth full length album by magical Disney-inspired and long running band Mercury Rev. When it came out it was just a single album but now as if by magic it has extended into a 5CD box set with B Sides, rarities, a live show and a CD of their soundtrack album Hello Blackbird. A bumper edition of an often neglected work.