Back catalogue: All genres

Review: K's Choice released their ten-year retrospective compilation back in 2003. It drew together all their finest moments from the proceeding decade but gets the full reissue treatment here with limited numbered gatefold 180 gram and coloured wax. The Belgian rock band hail from Antwerp and in their heyday mixed up alt-rock, post-grunge and folk rock on a series of albums that went gold and platinum in various countries around the world. This collection has all the big, stadium-sized tunes as well as the more quiet moments of introspective calm. It's a great reminder of a band that had a big impact at the turn of the millennium.

Review: While they are those who moved on from Kaiser Chiefs the mere moment the hype dissipated around their iconic 2005 debut Employment; the committed faithful have stuck by through six more eclectic full-lengths, now ultimately leading to the aptly titled Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album. Produced by Amir Amor (formerly of Rudimental), and boasting co-writing credits from Chic's own disco legend Nile Rodgers on 'Feeling Alright', the material here feels less pre-occupied with where the Chiefs currently reside within the zeitgeist of modern indie-rock, and instead prioritises hooks, wit and instantaneous composition to deliver some of their tightest earworm bangers to date. Ten cuts of joyous, life-affirming, whimsical mayhem, with the horn-centric throwback 'The Job Centre Shuffle' casting attentive ears back to a time where landfill indie wasn't a death knell or even a coined term.

Review: Karlowy Vary are rather legendary amongst alternative and new wave fans. They formed in Zagreb, Croatia and played widely across the former Yugoslavia throughout the 80s. They had a rather rotating line-up of musicians and one replacement frontman Milan Manojlovi?-Mance was often prone to inventing all new lyrics live on stage. This reissue is of their best album, La Femme, which is a potent and fresh now almost half a decade on as it was back in the 80s. It comes on sky blue 180 gram vinyl and fact fans will note the band's name is taken from the Kubrick film 'A Clockwork Orange.'

Review: The past two years have been tumultuous for every band on the planet - the old you-know-what rendering all except the biggest streaming stars and those still holding up on the sales front commercially unviable. Kasabian likely faired better in those stakes than many, but nevertheless the past 24 months or so have been northing short of challenging, with leading figure Tom Meighan's 2020 departure swiftly followed by a conviction for assaulting his partner.

Enter the new and improved incarnation of an outfit that has always straddled a line many falter on - one foot in lad rock for the Stella crew, another dipping its toes into higher concept, more daring and experimental waters. Main man Serge Pizzorno, largely responsible for the more out there moments in the back catalogue, no longer has to compromise with Meighan and it shows. The Alchemist's Euphoria is packed with plenty of ideas, from Latin-ish opener to the grand overdue of 'Scriptvure'.

Review: Despite their obvious love of Japanese culture, Kero Kero Bonito were formed in Bromley, South London, although vocalist Sarah Midori Perry is pretty adept at switching from English to Japanese with her half rapping, half sung style. Intro Bonito was first released in 2013 in mixtape form and introduced the trio - Perry plus multi-instrumentalists Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled - to the world. Influenced by JPop and 8bit computer game theme music as well as hip-hop and electronica, theirs is a rich and wonderful aesthetic with a challenging, Marmite effect, but whether you like it or loathe it, the songwriting is so strong and original you'll almost certainly find yourself singing it sometime next week.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The remix album is probably pretty hard to crack in terms of putting it together. On the one hand, you want a broad selection of producers to take the work and make it new again. But there's also a very real risk of winding up with a bunch of random tracks with no real coherent thread to ensure the LP is actually going to get enough people buying to warrant engineering, mastering, and pressing costs.

Khruangbin have certainly cracked it with these takes on tracks from their most recent and perhaps most lush long form outing to date. We have sophisticated micro house, percussive slo-mo disco, slick-to-the-touch downbeat grooves and surrealist pop, all of which work both individually and together, the result being a record that not only knows its own mind, it can easily convince others, too.

Review: Khruangbin might be the most logical and fitting choice for a Late Night Tales compilation in recent memory. The Texan psychedelic chill artists have always had a sense of the exploratory and unknown running through their blissful grooves, and the fundamental idea behind this series was always about opening up doors to new musical discoveries for listeners.

In many ways, the Houston trio have gone above and beyond. Melding a breadth of sounds that have emerged from an equally diverse set of cultures, we visit Hindi-disco, South Korean rock, African bass, Belarusian folk. Capped off with an exclusive version of Kool & The Gang's 'Summer Madness' conceived by the compilers themselves, it's a case of 15 gateway tracks all of which belong to artists and genres that are crying out for you to dive in.

Review: The Killers have long-since divided opinion. Yes, tracks like 'Mr Brightside' will still fill dancefloors slick with WKD each and every Saturday night, beer boys and party girls and lost freaks and first-timers all joining together in one of the most memorable choruses of the century so far. But then their penchant for OTT pomp and pageantry has always been something of a stumbling block for many 'proper rock fans'. With that in mind, Pressure Machine could do wonders for breaking down barriers.

We're not in Kansas anymore, that's for sure, but instead Utah, and the small town of Nephi, where lead singer Bradley Flowers grew up. The album effectively takes us on a tour of what was and what probably still is, by way of a more salt of the Earth, somewhat intimate and narratively-driven collection of rock 'n' roll tracks that invoke a timeless sense of American guitar storytelling, albeit with some theatrics still intact.

Review: The Kills' classic album No Wow is now 15 years old and so gets a reissue treatment courtesy of Domino. It comes on rather fancy gold wax with a four page booklet that looks back to the record that established the band's aesthetic ahead of a long career. Eventually they took it as far as they could and then beyond. This album showcases their unique and definite blues and post-punk influences. This version has all the original tunes included and all have had a fresh new mix by the multiple Grammy Award-winning Tchad Blake.

Review: Few could argue with Liverpool's claims as a city in possessions of one of Europe's most enduring musical legacies, but sometimes this can work against a town once the smoke clears and hysteria subsides. Suffice to say, many of Merseyside's biggest and best loved names have either long since hung up their instruments or faded into heritage territory, but every once in a while you're reminded how fertile the place is right now.

King Hannah have been a long time coming. Founding members Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle long dreamt of forming a proper band, both having musical stories to tell long before opting to work together. We're very glad they did, with the results this dark, brooding, sexy, sophisticated, gritty interpretation of rock. Hypnotic, groovy, delicate in all the right places but with enough bite to take your head clean off without a second thought. As this double package containing debut EP and album proves.

Review: It's hard to believe Archy Marshall, the 'real' name behind King Krule, is only 28. Not only does his back catalogue smack of wisdom and experience, a goldmine of resonant and reflective twisted punk jazz, dark wave, pop and trip hop, it often feels as though he's always been here, inviting us to share in disillusionment, anger, melancholy and honest reflections on being human. Since arriving into the musical conscious as a very young looking teenager, initially using the pseudonym Zoo Kid, there has always been this startling juxtaposition between fresh faced adolescent we see and the wizened master of observation we hear. Things have waned in terms of intensity, with Space Heavy a fine example - fragile and vulnerable in so many moments - yet the overwhelming power has actually increased.

Review: Kyle Thomas is the name of the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff. During the pandemic lockdowns he had something of a realisation about who he was and what he wanted to be and then "set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him," namely Brattleboro, Vermont. This is that love letter and it is an album of musical magic with uplifting and spiritual joy found in every hook and verse. There are gorgeous orchestral tones, tender moments of violin and cello and plenty of thoughtful sax lines on a gem of a record.

Review: It's hard to believe it has been 20 years since The Knife first put out their game changing debut album Deep Cuts. It first came on Sweden's Rabid Records on CD only before getting a North America and UK release once the world had cottoned on to its brilliance. It is much brighter and more melodic that the dark and witchy sound they gravitated towards on later albums but still sounds way ahead of its time. There are effervescent, Eurodisco-tinged pop tunes like 'One For You' to get you singing along, then hardcore euro rave bombs like 'Listen Now' and the odd occult head masher like 'The Cop.'

Review: Kula Shaker is back! And with their brand new album Natural Magick they continue to enchant listeners with their distinctive fusion of psychedelic rock, Indian classical influences and Britpop. The album unfolds as a signature sonic journey with Kula Shaker's famous melange of mystical lyrics and intricate instrumentals, spiritual sounds and experimental vibes. It still has a certain essence of the 90s alternative scene but with their most potent songs yet, all of which are blazing psychedelic sermons and raga-tinged raves with "pop pearls and mood-enhancing mantras" also included.