Back catalogue: All genres

Review: These archival recordings of two extraordinary live performances takes you back to when New York City was a bohemian magnet, with low rent and spaces where artists could thrive. Recorded in Downtown in December 1985 and June 1984, the late, great Arthur Russell is captured performing at an intimate loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation, which was run by Phil Niblock. Since the recordings are unedited, it does a really great job of simulating the experience and so if you close your eyes, it's easy to imagine Russell in the room right there in front of you. Of the numbers played, Russell's gifted avant-garde approach to cello is brilliantly done on 'Too Early To Tell'. And the spine-tingling, raw and deeply emotional 'That's The Very Reason' is arthouse folk at its finest. It epitomises the raw, spell-binding talent that Russell had to captivate a room. Hats off to those who have immortalized these very special shows.

Review: Following years of notable collaborations with some of jazz's leading voices, saxophonist and band leader Walter Smith III finally broke through in 2023 via a first headlining album for Blue Note. On his return to the label, Three of Us Are From Houston and Reuben is Not, Smith pays tribute to the Texan city of his birth in the company of Jason Moran (piano), Eric Harland (drums) and Reuben Smith (bass). It's a pleasingly breezy, positive and expertly crafted affair, with the quartet running through a series of ear-catching Smith compositions and a radical (and rather good) interpretation of an old Sam Rivers number. A wholehearted tribute to the rarely discussed cultural richness and diversity of Smith's home city.

Review: Spanish dub maestro Roberto Sanchez first met Channel One artist and all right reggae legend Linval Thompson 15 years ago. In the time since, the pair have collaborated on numerous projects, though nothing as ambitious as this. It sees Sanchez provide an authentically dusty, deep and rhythm-focused dub translation of Thompson's 1978 album I Love Marijuana - a set that, despite King Tubby handling production duties - had never been fully re-worked in. Largely working with the original master tapes, Sanchez has delivered a dub re-imagining that sounds like a long-lost King Tubby or Lee 'Scratch' Perry production - all weighty low-end 'riddims', effects aplenty and echoing organ, guitars and vocals.