Back catalogue: All genres

Review: With 2021's Infinite Granite taking a sharp left turn into the realms of hazy, luscious dream-pop, eyes have been pointedly fixed on San Francisco blackgaze heroes Deafheaven ever since, with many of their fanbase pondering where to next? The answer is their highly anticipated sixth full-length, Lonely People With Power, which finally showcases the band freed from all creative restraint and audience expectation, marrying their equal and effortless understanding of black metal malevolence and shoegaze ethereality, even allowing frontman George Clarke to make full use of his recently discovered vocal range. Howling shrieks and delicate crooning weave around one another on the euphoric heft of 'Heathen', whereas 'Magnolia' offers up one of their most succinctly black metal cuts to date, radiating with the caustic aura of Emperor's more proggy latter-day output. Forgoing their usual post-rock penchant for a small number of tracks all clocking in at approximately ten minutes, the numerous cuts (12 in all, marking the most of any Deafheaven album to date) prioritise instantaneous delivery on their most sprawling and musically diverse collection yet, fusing their harshest and most accessible sonics into one monumental victory lap touching upon everything from black metal to shoegaze, dream-pop, thrash, post-rock, emo, screamo and post-punk.

Review: Based out of Melbourne, Australia, Takiaya Reed (better known as Divide & Dissolve) is a one-woman monolithic force of industrial-tinged, neo-classical leaning instrumental doom metal. Originally a duo, 2023's fourth full-length Systemic marked the first effort from the project following the departure of percussionist Sylvie Nehill (of M?ori and White-Australian heritage), with guitarist/saxophonist Reed (of Tsalagi and African-American heritage) embarking on a solo venture from there on out. Her second singular display of overtly political, droning sonic dread comes in the form of Insatiable, which coalesces mercurial beauty with bombastic abrasion, almost as if sonically illustrating the warring of mindsets active in our collective conscious. From drawing ire back in 2018 for their controversial music video for 'Resistance' which featured spitting and spraying urine-coloured water on monuments of colonial figures such as Captain James Cook and John Batman, Reed has made it clear ever since that their punishing instrumentals are designed with the artful intention of "decolonising, decentralising, disestablishing, and destroying white supremacy", which she makes overwhelming ends to accomplish without a single word uttered.

Review: Dr. Robert of British 80s pop hitmakers The Blow Monkeys and British folk icon Matt Deighton (Mother Earth, Bill Fay, Paul Weller) have formed a new duo and release their album on the not-for-profit Last Night From Glasgow label. Their respective histories - writing really accomplished pop songs and performing in bands with some of the best artists in the history of rock n' roll - raise expectations, but they absolutely smash them. The title-track is a beautiful marriage of pastoral psych folk and glam rock, where there's melodies to spare and affecting, deeply soulful timbres at every turn.

Review: If you're unfamiliar with Dr Robert, we recommend checking out The Blow Monkeys. Robert Howard, as he's credited, formed the iconic new wave and 'sophisti-pop' group in 1981 and his piano keys, bass notes, guitar melodies, vocals and words define the band's sizeable back catalogue. Matt Deighton, meanwhile, might mean Mother Earth, Bill Fay, or Paul Weller to some listeners. He's been involved with them all. Here, the esteemed UK musicians run into one another on Last Night From Glasgow, a treasure of a patron-funded, not-for-profit label out of Scotland's biggest city. It couldn't be a more credible and thoughtful combination. Musically, the result packs crazy levels of musicality, taking a lead from pop, soft, folk and psyche rock to produce a sound which moves between soaring to understated grandeur to deceptively complex and overtly intimate.