Latest new releases on vinyl record, CD and cassette tape

Fusing thrash-metal and punk to make a transcendent, furious and highly melodic compound, Texan band Expander return to the fold with their second full-length album Neuropunk Boostergang. It follows the generous reception afforded to their 2017 debut effort Endless Computer, and keeps very much in the same lane. 

Their name deriving from a mis-heard Rolling Stones lyric, London neo-psychedelic band Green Seagull return with their second album Cloud Cover. Expanding on their songwriting team since their 2016 debut Scarlet Fever, they bring in mellow Seventies Laurel Canyon vibes into the mix this time around. 

Sleep Has His House was an album released by Current 93 circa the year 2000 and is inspired by the passing of David Tibet's father. This new version is remastered from the original tapes and includes unreleased mixes and alternative versions. A meditative exercise in grief and loss, the album has regularly been cited as one of the band's best.   

Part of Scottish independent techno label RIOT Radio’s Limited As Fuck series of 12” releases, Scream!!! is from veteran producer Nomad. Consisting of three tracks of brain-bending techno and electronic music, he takes the listener on a pretty unnerving trip. Certainly not one for the uninitiated, it’s nevertheless an absolute ripper from the label boss himself. 

Having first appeared on RIOT Radio Records’ Stay Tuned sampler a couple of years ago, techno veterans Cymbol - an offshoot of Wave 7 - unveil their first proper release for the Scottish independent label. Banish The Phantom is part of the imprint’s Limited As Fuck series of 12” releases, and consists of four striking and memorable tracks mashing together techno with countless dance sub-genres. 

Emerging quickly from a collection of analogue-based jams and inspired by books on hermetism and the symbolism of other world religions, Hermetica is a new EP from French DJ and producer Jérôme Meyer - also known as Von D. It’s released on 12” vinyl by dubstep-based label DEEP MEDi MUSIK. 

Recorded remotely in Brussels and London around the start of the COVID lockdown, Mi Cuerpo - translated as ‘My Body’ - is a collaboration between Clara! and Pearson Sound (a.k.a. David Kennedy). Released on 10” vinyl, Kennedy’s driving electronic soundscapes perfectly complement Clara!’s passionate vocals. 

The Exciting & Dynamic Sounds of the Hammond B3 Organ is, as it says on the tin, a compilation on PTR celebrating the instrument. First produced in 1935 and selling two million units covering later models over fifty years until the company went bust in 1985, it’s been routinely used in jazz, rock and blues bands over the decades. 

Unreleased and unheard since it was committed to tape over back in the Sixties with producer Dave Hamilton, Deep Shadows was the solitary album by soul singer Little Ann (real name Ann Bridgforth). Finally released in 2009, six years after her death, it’s a lost artefact of the Detroit soul scene, and is re-issued with a Sixties-style tip-on sleeve. 

Released digitally back in April, Movement was the second EP from Ciel, dealing in sonic compound spilling across the boundaries of dream-pop, shoegaze and electro-pop. Now bolstered by two bonus tracks recorded under lockdown, it now gets a physical release with this lavish 7” single vinyl package, arriving in one of six sleeves with *deep breath* a letter from the label BBR, Ciel postcard, a sticker set, personalised confetti, a signed A5 poster, numbered fake polaroid of the band and download code. 

Italian experimental artist Maurizio Bianchi gets together with British sound designer Justin Wiggan for the first of a new series of collaborative albums. Released on a painfully limited run of just 20 cassette copies, THEMENISHI (Volume One) combines soundscapes of electronic drone with dissonant elements of melody and texture. 

First-time repress of this pair of in-demand 1979 roots anthems from the undisputed Dark Prince of reggae - Mister Keith Hudson. 'Nuh Skin Up' and flipside'Felt We Felt The Strain' would both make sound systems quake - especially that of the mighty Jah Shaka who would regularly have them on heavy rotation. Fire!

Supernature was the third album from London electronic music duo Goldfrapp. It carried on from 2003's Black Cherry in introducing glam rock and pulsating electronics into their previously folk-based sound palette. It was led by the single Ooh La La which went straight to number 4 in the hit parade introducing the band to an even wider audience. This new edition comes on transparent green vinyl in gatefold sleeve and with an exclusive art print of the original artwork. 

The first ever compilation to bring together classics and deep cuts from the critically lauded Black Fire label over its 18-year history from 1975 to 1993, Soul Love Now tells the story of one of the most characterful black independent labels in American history, and features ten dazzling tracks from the likes of Oneness of Juju, Wayne Davis and Experience Unlimited. 

Released via the newly renamed One Little Independent, HOW? is a re-working of Allen Ginsberg’s legendary 1954 poem ‘Howl’ from activist, writer and Crass co-founder Penny Rimbaud. He’s performed it semi-regularly since 2003, but this CD+DVD package captures a live performance at London’s Abney Park Chapel in the summer of 2017. 

To record her third long player, Oakland, California-based singer / songwriter Madeline Kenney enlisted the help of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, better known as Baltimore duo, Wye Oak. Judging by the lead single, Sucker, the results of their efforts have produced some quite beautiful sun-dappled indie-folk.

A splinter project from Cloud Nothings - of whom Dylan Baldi and Jayson Gerycz are both members - Blessed Repair is an expression of experimentalism freed from the pressure of expectations. With Baldi playing the saxophone and Gerycz on percussion, it’s the sound of two close friends and creators exploring different territory together. 

A conceptual album exploring fragility and heartbreak, Hearts Full of Sorrow is a collaboration between musicians Craig Tattersall and Emmanuel Witzthum - going under the moniker e & i. It arrives in a beautiful package themed around a vintage book, containing polaroid prints, hand-stamped nautical explorers’ maps and book-marks. 

Kill The moonlight is the fourth album by Texan indie rock outfit Spoon. It was originally released in 2002 to critical acclaim - some people regarded it as their greatest work. The inclusion of the single The Way We Get By on TV shows such as The O.C. saw the band’s music reaching new ears. On Matador.

Auckland-born singer / songwriter Reb Fountain’s eponymous album is her first for the legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun. It was recorded at Roundhead Studios, the studio owned by Neil Finn.It features guest performances from Finn Andrews and Ben Woolley of The Yarra Benders, Elroy Finn and Logan Compain. 

An assemblage of alternative country icon Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie “Prince” Billy) with the trio of Scottish artists Alasdair Roberts (of Appendix Out), Jill O' Sullivan (a.k.a. Jill Lorean) and Alex Neilson (of Trembling Bells) collectively known as Three Queens In Mourning, the superb Hello Sorrow Hello Joy consists largely of immaculate Oldham covers but a small handful of original material as well. 

Following a number of acclaimed, limited edition cassette releases on top of exceptional live performances, Tendrils is the first proper album from London-based musician Malvern Brume. Inspired by his rural upbringing and his inner-city life at the moment, it’s a beautiful and ruminative collection. 

That Dog were one of those ‘90s bands who never quite hit the big time despite support slots with the likes of Weezer, Counting Crows and Blur. It’s certainly not down to lack of talent or good songs, either. They were led by Anna Waronker and featured two of the very talented Hayden Triplets in their ranks at various times. Retreat From The Sun was their third album, originally released in ‘97 and features guest spots from Waronker’s husband, Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, Charlotte Caffey from The Go-Go’s and Tanya Hayden - the other Hayden triplet.

That Dog were a ‘90s alternative rock band fronted by Anna Waronker and featured Petra and Rachel Hayden - two thirds of The Hayden Triplets. Totally Crushed Out! was their second album, originally released in 1995. It’s a concept album about young love. Features the single He’s Kissing Christian and their uncharacteristic 7 minute epic, Rockstar.

Articulation is the fourth full length album from Ryan Lee West's Rival Consoles project. His previous albums have stamped him as one of the prime movers and shakers in today's dizzying world of electronica and for his next trick he has approached a new way of working. West used sketches and drawings, working away from the confines of a computer to map out the structure of the record resulting in a sonic journey taking in beatless ambience, brooding techno and pulsating synth work.

The fact that the press release opens with 'produced by the mysterious Django the Bastard' suggests possibly that Django the Bastard is a pen name of someone of some importance. We're not sure. What we can tell you is that Dorothys Fortress play electro disco and lo-fi sleaze that has been championed in their sets by the Chemical Brothers and we think this is their first release for ten years or so.

Recent tour support for the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Parquet Courts and The Raincoats, black feminist punks Big Joanie unveil their first release for Third Man, a 7” single boasting a cover version of Solange’s modern classic ‘Cranes In The Sky’ and an original piece, ‘It’s You’. 

To mark the 10th anniversary of its original release, Rostrum gives us the first-ever release on vinyl for K.I.D.S., the fourth mixtape by the late rap superstar Mac Miller. Referencing the 1995 cult movie ‘Kids’ and standing for ‘Kickin’ Incredibly Dope Shit’, the release helped put Miller on the road to the mainstream. 

The name Daniel Rosenfeld may not mean much to most people, but under the alias C418 he is responsible for the soundtrack to ‘Minecraft’, the single biggest selling video game of all time. Minecraft Volume Beta, a 140-minute collection of beguiling dreamscapes, now gets a release on CD and vinyl via Ghostly International. 

The Dark Knight Rises was the third and final film in Christopher Nolan’s highly rated Dark Knight Trilogy. The score was composed by Hans Zimmer, who is rather a dab hand at this sort of thing. Here we have a limited edition of the score pressed on silver & black marbled vinyl. It comes with a poster and a fridge magnet too!

You may remember Seu Jorge from his David Bowie covers which soundtracked the Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic. Night Dreamer Direct-To-Disc Sessions sees the Brazillian guitarist and singer record with lifelong collaborator Rogê for the first time. The album went from idea to LP in just four days. The music is influenced by Brazillian masters such as Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben.

Rock/electronica duo Death in Vegas made perhaps their most high profile record with The Contino Sessions where they invited a host of guests (Iggy Pop, Jim Reid, Bobby Gillespie) to sing over their blend of dub, industrial and electronica and at the same time made their studio look like something out of a sunglasses convention.

Released as their fourth album back in 1997, Population Four saw British dream-pop act Cranes undergo a significant change in personnel. The departure of bassist Matt Cope saw most of the rest of the band switch instruments. The result was arguably the most conventional Cranes record up to that point, but no less beguiling. Now available for the first time on wax, pressed up in blue-and-white swirled vinyls. 

Re-issued on orange wax via Music On Vinyl, Cloak & Dagger is a 1973 album from the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry, masquerading under the name Scratch The Upsetter. One of the key recordings to influence the evolution of dub, it saw Perry using studio effects and techniques such as reverb and tape delays, as well as the physical recording of instruments. 

Off the back of a recent, highly acclaimed tribute to Prince, Lisbon’s Serpente (at one point known as Ondness) moves to Ecstatic Recordings. Their debut for the label, Fé / Vazio, straddles the disparate worlds of Sixties-era jazz and modern dance music sub-genres like IDM and broken beat. 

This lovely 7” single heralds a new project titled Blue Note Re:imagined, a coming together of Decca Records and Blue Note in which jazz classics from Blue Note’s catalogue are covered by artists of today. On the first side is BRIT Award winner Jorja Smith reimagining Saint Germain’s ‘Rose Rouge’, while on the reverse is Ezra Collective’s take on Wayne Shorter’s ‘Footsteps’. 

Stephanie Sokolinski, or Soko, to her fans is an L.A.-based French singer / songwriter and actor. Feel Feelings is her third album. The production has a little more meat on the bones compared to her earlier work, although it is still resolutely mid-fi, in the vein of Connan Mockasin or Ariel Pink’s work circa 2010 and onwards. Coincidentally, she has collaborated with Mr. Pink in the past. On Because Music.

Martin Solis was born in Texas in 1929. He made conjunto music - a Tex-Mex, or tejano, hybrid of sounds made up from accordion and the Mexican 12-string bass known as bajo sexto. He holds the prestige of being inducted into the tejano music hall of fame but he never released any recordings in his lifetime. Los Primos were the band he formed in the late ‘50s with his Saxophonist cousin Willy Huron. Martin Solis & Los Primos is the first ever LP of his music, and we have Third Man Records to thank for bringing it to us.

Los Angeles-based hip-hop producer and DJ The Gaslamp Killer returns with Heart Math. It’s an album of brooding and stormy instrumental pieces. He poured his heart into this as it was his only outlet amid an extremely difficult time in his personal life which tested him to the limit.  On Cuss Records.

Hyakki Yagyo is the new album by Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and frequent Jim O’Rourke collaborator, Eiko Ishibashi. It follows her highly acclaimed 2018 album The Dreams My Bones Dream. The album features two side-long parts. Jim O’Rourke plays double bass and also mixed and mastered the album whilst another frequent collaborator, Joe Talia, plays percussion.

Young Jesus are an indie / art rock band from Los Angeles. Their music mixes psychedelia and rocking grooves, the dynamic expanse of Radiohead and the emotional heft of Bon Iver - it would be misleading to say that they actually sound like either band, though as they kinda do their own thing - it rocks quite hard in places too. Welcome To The Conceptual Beach is their 5th album.

For years, Oscar Jerome has been a key figure in London’s burgeoning jazz scene alongside the likes of Shabaka Hutchings. However, it’s only now that a debut solo album is getting released. Breathe Deep includes guest spots from Ezra Collective and Lianne La Havas, and paints a broad picture of Jerome’s influences and passions. 

A heavy compilation for one of the heaviest bands: 4 full LPs worth of classic Black Sabbath material, spanning all the hits and some of the deeper cuts too. The packaging folds out into a crucifix shape, lovingly decorated by vintage 70’s snaps of our heroes. Compiled from the Andy Pearce re-mastered Black Sabbath albums.

The ongoing Blue Note Re:Imagined series of 7” vinyl releases, seeing current artists interpreting canonical works from the legendary jazz label, features Steam Down and Yazmin Lacy. The former covers Wayne Shorter’s ‘Etcetera’, while Lacy and Afronaut Zu take on ‘I’ll Never Stop Loving You’ by Dodo Greene. 

American guitarist and composer Bill Frisell unveils his latest trio, alongside bassist Thomas Morgan and percussionist Rudy Royston. For Valentine, their debut, the band cover some old and new Frisell compositions as well as jazz standards and traditionals, spearheaded by a wonderful take on ‘We Shall Overcome’. 

Having impressed with yet another EP, the recently released Under Exit Lights, British indie newcomers Sea Girls finally reveal details of their debut full-length album. Taking cues from mid-Noughties titans like The Killers and Arctic Monkeys, Open Up Your Head is produced by former Hundred Reasons’ guitarist Larry Hibbitt. 

Deutsche Grammophon re-issues Max Richter’s critically adored soundtrack to Waltz With Bashir, the 2008 Israeli-animated war documentary drama directed by Ari Folman. Winning Richter the 2008 European Film Award for Best Composer, the tension and scope of his score undeniably helped sear the images of war trauma into audience’s minds. 

The perhaps prosaic name, Trio, hides the identities of three far more exciting musicians, in what is probably seen as an unlikely collaboration. Former Gogol Bordello guitarist Oran Kaplan, Killing Joke bassist turned legendary producer Youth and Andalusian legend, flamenco guitarist David Heredia. They teamed up to play an improvised set that lasted four hours and traversed psychedelia and flamenco. Trio was formed and more gigs were played. Now we have their first album, Vertigo.

Hiro Ama is the solo pseudonym of Hiro Amamiya, drummer of English band Teleman. Recorded during a brief hiatus between relentless touring and creativity enforced by the COVID-19 crisis, his debut EP Uncertainty was completed in the space of a month, and reflects its circumstances of isolation and confusion, as well as having a tonal debt to his Japanese homeland. 

Ambient brothers Brian and Roger Eno released the album Mixing Colours for Deutsche Grammophon in 2020. It will be getting an expanded release featuring 7 new tracks. Those seven new tracks are also available here as the 12” EP Luminous.  For continuity’s sake, the artwork is by Dom Theobold who also created the artwork for the LP. Well, continuity and the fact he’s good at his job.

Black Marble's Chris Stewart entertained himself on recent tours by throwing in the odd cover song amidst his lively electronic compositions and (guess what?) they went down perhaps better than his recorded material. So he decided to do versions of the songs he'd been playing and here it is. From the titles it looks like we're getting Robert Palmer, the Field Mice, Wire (?) maybe TV On The Radio. Who knows but it's bound to be fun. 

British producer Sam Shackleton continues his evolution from dubstep intricacy to electronica and jazz with Primal Forms, a collaboration with Polish clarinetist Wacław Zimpel. The musicians’ backgrounds could hardly be more different, but the result is an album of three tracks of wonderful, trance-like instrumentals. 

Emma Tricca’s first LP since 2014’s Relic is another record of delicate, dreamy folk-rock. Devendra Banhart and Jane Weaver spring to mind on tracks like the gorgeous, feathery ‘Julian’s Wings’. St. Peter also features a pretty star-studded credit reel - members of Sonic Youth, The Dream Syndicate and Paper Dollhouse all make appearances.

Following up last year’s critically adored Open Sea, Dutch underground maestro Lars Meijer returns with his fourth Hunter Complex album. Born from the same creative burst as its predecessor, Dead Calm And Zero Degrees functions as a prequel of sorts - the closing notes are the same as those of Open Sea’s opener ‘Night City’. 

Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz presents his fourth studio album as Fantastic Negrito. Following on from his Grammy win for 2018’s exceptional Please Don’t Be Dead, Xavier explores themes of maintaining mental health amid the insanities of modern society and politics on Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?. 

Denver-based doom metal outfit Primitive Man unleash their third studio album. Immersion is an unflinching look at the state of the world around us and an examination of personal failure, delivered with the uncompromising and ferocious character we’ve come to expect from Ethan Lee McCarthy and co. 

A re-issue of Bird, Lake, Objects, a 2010 collaboration in minimalist electronica between percussionist Masayoshi Fujita and producer Jan Jelinek. The music seems to take the form of a conversation, Fujita and Jelinek dovetailing beautifully in creative terms but neither stealing the limelight from the other. 

14 years after his debut solo effort The Great Western, Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield makes a typically understated and gorgeous return. Inspired loosely by the life of Chilean poet, singer and activist Victor Jara and with lyrics from his Manics bandmate Nicky Wire’s brother Patrick Jones, Even In Exile features some of the most beautiful music that JDB has ever composed. 

Released in 1987 and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paul Michael Glaser’s The Running Man was a box-office hit, depicting a dystopian America where prisoners can bid to earn their freedom by escaping death at the hands of professional killers on a TV show. Its soundtrack was composed by Harold Faltermeyer, and it gets an expanded re-issue with 18 extra tracks (consisting of alternate cues and additional tracks) and extensive liner notes. 

Taras Bulba, the duo that Fred Laird and Jon Blacow forged after their previous incarnation as Earthling Society, had to complete their second album together, Soul Weaver, under lockdown. Nevertheless, they achieve a more dream-like sound than on their debut One, more song-based than the drifting instrumental jams last time out. 

Since their 2019 single ‘Patent Leather’ began slaying dancefloors, hype has been growing around Too Much, a duo formed of American producer and remixer Rich Morel and former The Make Up and Escape-ism member Ian Svenonius. In the same vein as that dancefloor monster, a full-length album titled Club Emotion follows, a versatile and straightforward collection. 

London-based, Candian-born Serbian singer / songwriter Dana Gavanski had a tour and a bunch of festival slots booked to promote her debut album Yesterday Is Gone when the pandemic hit which meant tomorrow was on hold. To fill her time she decided to record an EP of covers on which all the songs are themed around wind called Wind Songs. Features her version of King Crimson’s I Talk To The Wind.

Ugly American by Mark Eitzel is an album of songs by Eitzel’s band American Music Club, played by Eitzel and a band of traditional Greek musicians. It was initially only supposed to be an EP but a trip to the Greek capital, Athens, and a meeting with Greek composer Monolis Famellos convinced Eitzel to make a full album. It was released on CD in 2003. This is the first ever vinyl pressing and there’s only 500 of them, so be quick!

Scottish alternative rock gods Biffy Clyro aim to make it three UK no.1 albums in a row with new effort A Celebration of Endings, their eighth record overall. Working with producer Rich Costey once again, the trio embrace all of the elements that have made them so acclaimed and popular throughout their two-decade career, from the jagged rock of their early years to the lighters-in-the-air stadium indie that propelled them to the top of the charts. 

Necessary Greensleeves repress of this much sought after gem from 1981. With OG used copies fetching high prices - this repress is gonna be most welcome and destined to nice up the session once again. On this pair of roots anthems, Wayne Wade was backed by Roots Radics bringing their legendary, original drum and bass sound. Produced by Linval Thompson and mixed by Scientist at King Tubby's. 

Originally released in 1998 on Elektra as their second studio album, Matador are re-issuing A Series Of Sneaks by veteran indie-rockers Spoon. Newly re-cut from the original master tapes, it’s a part of the label’s Slay On Cue series that’ll see them make available the band’s first eight releases on vinyl and CD, some of them for the first time. 

Girls Can Tell by Spoon was the Texan indie rock band’s third album. It was originally released in 2001 when it  was hailed as a triumph by Rolling Stone magazine. It includes the songs Fitted Shirt and Me and The Bean. The latter of which was originally by fellow Texan band The Sidehackers who featured future Spoon bassist John Clayton.

Gift of Sacrifice is a new ‘acoustic’ album from The Melvins’ lead singer Buzz Osborne, under his King Buzzo alias, recording with bass player Trevor Dunn, erstwhile member of Mr. Bungle and Fantômas as well as a touring player with the Melvins themselves. Here, their respective instruments clash interestingly with modular synths. 

Blu and Exile are a hip-hop duo from the USA. It’s been a long eight years since they last released an album so this time out they’re really going for it with a double album called Miles: From An Interlude Called Life, or as they prefer, Miles. It features childhood friends of the duo Aloe Blacc and Miguel along with Fashawn, The Last, Artful Dodger and Imam Omori. There may not be an eight year wait for the next LP as Exile referred to songs that didn’t make this one as beautiful flowers.

Providence, the third full-length album from international trio All We Are, is the group’s most infectious, accessible and uplifting thing they’ve recorded to date. Working with former Depeche Mode producer Dave McCracken, drummer Richard O’Flynn, bassist Guro Gikling and guitarist Luis Santos, the upbeat tone radiates through the droning guitars and dark production. 

Half doom, half jazz: they're doomjazz. This reissue charts the rise of The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, such as they are known when they're making the free, more improvised alternative to their work as The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. This record is slower and more contemplative than their other works but no less crushing, a record of jazz transposed to pure atmosphere. Heartily recommended to fans of slowburning evil.

Recorded in the Netherlands after he moved there from his long-time home of New York, Nick Klein records his third record for the Alter label titled No Shortage of Rope. It’s an album of raw, rhythmic electronic music conceived of from the ground up as a full-length experience, rather than a club-orientated one. 

An off-shoot of London-based experimental outfit Mosquitoes, Komare sees two-thirds of that band (Dominic Goodman and Peter Blundell) take a more electronic, no-wave-influenced exploration of the same kind of territory on The Sense of Hearing. Following a self-titled cassette-only release and a 7” single over the last couple of years, it’s a heady and lysergic listening experience. 

Following the release of their second Whitney album last year, Forever Turned Around, Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich went to ground to record a collection of cover versions, showcasing their shared formative influences. Candid contains revealing takes on songs by Kelela, Damien Jurado, David Byrne and John Denver’s immortal ‘Country Roads’ with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield. 

Look at that terrifying house. It depicts the upcoming horror film Girl on the Third Floor made by director Travis Stevens. To create a suitably creepy soundtrack he recruited Steve Albini to put together a collective and he in turn drafted in Tim Midyett (Mint Mile, Silkworm) and Alison Chesley (Helen Money). A truly fascinating sounding concept. 

77 minutes is a very long time but perhaps it is more enjoyable if it is spent in the company of British electronic duo ISAN. The project is part of Where It's At Is Where You Are's ongoing project to get acts to create 77 minute long pieces to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières. ISAN's tone poems and electronic lullabies are perfect for such a project but if 77 minutes is too long for you they've also provided a 7 minute edit as well as a 77 second super edit for those really pushed for time. 

San Diego Sessions by the Ellis/Munk Ensemble sees Danish musician Jonas Munk (of Causa Sui) and the Californian city’s own Brian Ellis, whose work is steeped in jazz and psychedelia, recording together. Over seven loose-limbed tracks, the duo recall the high-points of psychedelic rock and jazz fusion from years gone by. 

Iannis Xenakis! Yeah! This genuinely important reissue from Editions Mego offshoot Recollections GRM collects the cream of Xenakis’ electronic output from the famous French studio. Includes ‘Concret PH’, one of the more alien shards of sound you are likely to hear, and the side-long monster ‘Bohor’. The man was a genius, you need this.

British-based noise-rock outfit Sly & The Family Drone release their latest studio album. Walk It Dry was actually recorded before their last album, Gentle Persuaders, following a year-long hiatus brought on by a post-car-crash recovery, and is characterised more by shorter, more immediate tracks. 

An uncanny presaging of how we’re all having to live and work now, Telematic Concert, a live performance recorded in October 2009 of American electronic musician Pauline Oliveros and Argentinian artist Alan Courtis, was an improvised live collaboration rendered possible through remote technology. It’s the first ever release of the recordings, and the first in the Spleencoffin label’s new Vault Series. 

Australian guitarist and composer Julian Curwin has harnessed projects by The Tango Saloon, Munkle and Cannibal Spiders over the last 20 years. His latest solo album, Midnight Lullaby, takes its inspiration from a number of musical sources, from jazz to film soundtracks, and distils them into something coherent and highly personal. 

Texan post-rock band This Will Destroy You, or TWDY to their pals, were asked to compose a score for Jordan Kahn’s two-Michelin star restaurant in Culver City, California. Since 2017, that was the only place you could hear Vespertine, where it played constantly. It is now being released into the world, so you can cook a fancy meal at home and enjoy it’s expansive ambience while you eat. Note: it can also be enjoyed without food.

Coloured Balls are Australian rock ‘n’ roll legends. They were formed by Lobby Loyde who had some success with The Purple Hearts, The Aztecs and Wild Cherries but it was Coloured Balls who changed the face of Aussie Rock. The First Supper Last Or Scenes We Didn't Get To See was the first album they recorded, but it wasn’t released until 1976, some four years after they’d formed and three years after they released their classic album Ball Power.

The Italian violinist Silvia Tarozzi was long known for her work in the fields of improvisation and experimentalism but for Mi specchio e rifletto she was inspired to play a more song-based music. The result is a beautifully baroque series of folk and progressive musings with a poetic bent that could draw comparisons perhaps to Penguin Cafe Orchestra. 

Recorded under lockdown as a relatively quick follow-up to her last album Lover 11 months ago, Taylor Swift’s folklore dropped without fanfare at the end of July. Featuring production assistance from Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner, it’s been hailed as the most lyrically vivid and sonically diverse album of Swift’s career, and it now gets a physical release on CD and vinyl. 

The latest Wye Oak EP, No Horizon, shows Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack in a state of transition. Originally composed over a year ago and then performed as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York, the five tracks here stand apart from any of their five studio albums, yet are still recognisably Wye Oak. Released on opaque hot pink vinyl. 

In the spirit of striking while the iron’s hot, Dublin post-punk act Fontaines D.C. deliver their second studio album A Hero’s Death barely a year after their debut Dogrel won such universal acclaim. Stoic and energetic, it seeks to address the grander themes in life, but hasn’t succumbed to a dose of ‘The Big Music’, fortunately!

69 year old jazz auteur Idris Ackamoor returns with his influential band The Pyramids on Shaman!, a stunning return to his strongest form since their 1970s heyday. While the current line-up features a number of the group’s founding members, it feels like a fresh, new formulation, the tracks taking on a poignant urgency in the context of the coronavirus crisis. 

They look like fun and indeed Skegss are an Australian trio who peddle a particular brand of surf and punk that has already got then to number 2 in the Australian charts and won them an ARIA award. The album hasn't actually been out on vinyl outside of their home market so now is the time to find out what all the fuss is about. 

This third roster compilation from Polytechnic Youth arrives partly out of necessity, as a way of clearing the backlog of release that had piled up during the COVID-19 lockdown. Some Neon Reason contains two tracks from Swedish artist VIB that had been intended for a stand-alone 12”, Rikinari Hata’s S.A.P.T. project, Parisian trio Recidive Noire and a track from the late Cyril Bihan’s Phil Wave project. 

You may not know Roger O'Donnell by name but if I told you he played in the Cure then you might have seen him twiddling his keys in some enormodrome or other. When Bob is on one of his hiatuses, Roger has spent time working on various solo and collaborative work. Two Ravens is in collaboration with vocalist and lyricist Jennifer Pague and is inspired by the starkness of rural England.  

Words and Music was the 2012 album by long running dance pop collective Saint Etienne. Like a lot of their latter day albums it features a concept which this time is based around how music affects your life and can help you in bad times. Therefore the album has a very nostalgic and melancholic feel informed by the band's deep knowledge of classic pop. 

Luar Domatrix is one half of Portuguese duo Yong Yong and here strikes out alone on a work which in heavily influenced by '90s R&B and pop culture. The idea is to make an album which is both lavish, polished but also mysterious and shapeshifting  - the result Domatrix says should sound something like pop music playing in some kind of futuristic sci-fi place. 

After releasing records via Gated Recordings, La Beauté Du Négatif and Brokntoys, Newcastle producer The Jaffa Kid AKA Daniel Pringle drops Tone Poetry on Deeptrax. It’s a blend of jungle, IDM, ambient, bleeps and mechanical drums underpinned by psychedelic pads for post-rave sunset watching.

The Shaggs - a band comprising four sisters from New Hampshire who absolutely could not play their instruments or sing in tune - were largely misunderstood when they arrived on the scene in the late ‘60s.  However, their ‘outsider music’ was loved by the likes of Frank Zappa, NRBQ and later Kurt Cobain. The Shaggs Own Thing was their second album which saw their sound develop and mature somewhat from their ramshackle, yet beautiful beginnings. Here, they try their hand at covering The Carpenters’ Yesterday Once More and re-record their classic, My Pal Foot Foot. 

Twitter cult leader Tim Burgess teamed up with Peter Gordon for a psychedelic collaboration back in 2016 but it's hard to keep Tim out of the news for long and so here is a 12" release of reworks of tracks taken from the album by Foom label head Benjamin Freeney adding new percussive elements two aimed at the dancefloor, one a more ambient offering. 

Recorded close to the end of his tragically cut-short life in 1975, during sessions for the Flying Dutchman label, Skull Session sees American jazz saxophonist Oliver Nelson in some of the finest form of his stellar career, building synthetic elements into his sound in league with a magnificent backing band including names such as Jerome Richardson and Bill Perkins. It now gets a deluxe re-issue on vinyl, featuring sleeve notes from musician Nat Hentoff. 

Two ultra-rare deep cuts from Philadelphia funk band Breakwater, which both haven’t been available since being released as 12”-only promo versions in 1978, are re-released by Be With Records. ‘No Limit’ is as smooth and radio-friendly as funk comes, while ‘Do It Till The Fluid Gets Hot’ is much more of a party jam. 

Viralata is the big classic for explorers of Brazilian progressive jazz-funk, standing tall above the rest with its fabulous grooves. Antonio Adolfo and his band really nailed it here, earning the album a surprise afterlife as a favourite in seminal London dubstep club Plastic People… Needless to say original copies of this are supremely rare, but this first-time vinyl reissue is here to save the day! On Far Out Recordings.

Inspired by his move from America to London over a decade ago, Eight Gates was recorded by indie-rock singer-songwriter Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.) shortly before his passing some seven years ago. By its nature, it’s an intriguing and compelling mix of song sketches and more fully-realised ideas.