14 days

Review: Suzanne Ciani's first official releases came out in the 1980s, but the producer was already making music by the time she was seven. In fact, this collection of live performances dates back to a gig in 1975, where a young Ciani was already experimenting with complex Buchla synthesizers. This is terrific material, and if you're looking for looking for deep, treacherous noise experimentations, you don't need to go for something contemporary. Ciari's sounds are still cutting-edge in 2016, and we can imagine just how foreign this music must have sounded to an audience back in 1975. Big applause to Sir Votel and Sir Shipton of Finders Keepers for this one.

Review: You'd be forgiven for being unfamiliar with the work of short-lived San Francisco band Dub Oven. After all, they only released one 12" single way back in 1983, and that was a self-released, private-press affair. Happily, the dusty-fingered diggers behind Music From Memory are big fans and here offer up a re-mastered reissue. Amazingly, each of the three tracks explores different sonic territory. Contrast, for example, the Tom Tom Club-goes-synth-funk eccentricity of lead cut "Skin 'n' Bones" and "Dub Oven", a thrillingly spaced-out chunk of no-wave/electro fusion that sounds like it could have been beamed down from another universe. Then there's closer "Millions of Sensations", which sits somewhere between Japanese new wave ambience and the post-punk funk of Bristolian outfits The Pop Group and Maximum Joy.

Review: By now, we should all know the story of Tony Wilson's ultimately doomed Factory Records imprint; the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of the design-conscious Manchester imprint, excesses and all, has been written many times over. Strut's initial FAC. DANCE compilation, curated with love by walking dance music encyclopedia Bill Brewster and released last year, also documented the label's attempts to court the dancefloor. The first FAC DANCE collection told its story well, focusing not only the hits, but also the underground records that became anthems at the Hacienda and beyond. For every "Love Tempo", "Dirty Disco", "Love On A Hilltop" or "Reach For Love", there was something a little odd, usually from either the Durutti Column or Biting Tongues. It was hardly exhaustive, but then condensing a decade of influential and inspired releases onto two discs is nigh on impossible. It's for this reason - and, we assume, the commercial success of that first volume - that Strut have decided to put together a second volume of Factory dance classics and rarities, FAC DANCE 02. This time, the script is altogether different. With many of the more familiar post-punk and straight-up Factory dance releases previously featured in the first collection, FAC Dance 02 needed to dig deeper. To do that, Strut have recruited former Factory Benelux boss James Nice, a man who knows more about the ins and outs of the Factory back catalogue than most. Over the last few years, his LTM label has lovingly reissued a number of classic, long-forgotten Factory albums from the likes of Quando Quango and A Certain Ratio. FAC Dance 02 might be lacking in stone cold hits or accessible hooks but those seeking these should already have invested in the label's inaugural retrospective or perhaps stick to "Blue Monday". It does however contain some thrilling and genuinely historic music, presented in consummate fashion by an expert on the subject. For that reason alone, it should be essential listening.