Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Quade's second album is steeped in the isolation and raw beauty of its birthplace: a crumbling Welsh barn surrounded by moors. The Bristol four-piece i Barney Matthews, Leo Fini, Matt Griffiths and Tom Connolly i channel this wild setting into a sound that's both fragile and immense, blurring ambient-dub textures with ghostly folk melodies and the drifting crescendos of post-rock. The Foel Tower feels like it was pulled from misty hillsides and long, firelit nights, an album of quiet intensity: tender one moment, potent the next, yet always emotionally direct. Tracks unfold patiently, as if shaped by the slow grind of weather over stone. There's a strong undercurrent of personal grief and resilience here too. The band's longtime friendship and collective hardships add a tangible intimacy, turning these atmospheric compositions into acts of quiet survival. The Foel Tower transcends as it is stark, gorgeous and deeply human. This is music for the in-between moments: dusk turning to night, silence folding into sound.

Review: The first Quiet Places album, 2020's simply titled Volume 1, had its roots in a late-night, whisky-fuelled 'laptop jam' by three experienced British producers, progressive house legend Charlie May (most famously a member of Spooky in the 90s) and Dennis White and Dave Gardner of Bedrock-signed outfit Knives Out. We're not sure whether whisky was involved in the production of this similarly immersive sequel, but it certainly shares its predecessor's alluring blend of field recordings, outer-space electronics, pastoral instrumentation, undulating melodies and abstract sounds. This time round, they've taken us on four lengthy trips, each stretched across a side of wax, which bob, weave, rise and fall like the greatest early 90s ambient mixtape (or, if you're more academic, sound collage) that you've ever heard.

Review: Although experimental in nature - most of his music is made from crackling, ultra-atmospheric tape loops - Gareth Quinn Redmond's music is breathlessly beautiful and universally beguiling. He's already proved that on his previous LPs - not least 2019's Satoshi Ashikawa-inspired 'Laistigh Den Ghleo' - but once again confirms it on 'Ar Ais Aris'. He describes the eight-track set as "daydreaming environmental music full of accidental miracles and soothing backdrops", and that's an apt description. Ghostly melodies and enveloping chords, sometimes manipulated for extra wooziness, emerge from dense forests of tape hiss and static, creating becalmed ambient soundscapes that tend towards the poignant and picturesque. There aren't many copies around, so we'd recommend pre-ordering to secure a copy.