Review: The new Bauhaus BBC Sessions release hears British goth pioneers Bauhaus at their most vital, documenting the three-year period that they swept the airwaves like vampire bats with a hearse's worth of recordings made for UK radio. Spanning early post-punk urgencies to the relatively more textured darkness of their later work, these sessions were recorded for shows hosted by John Peel and David Jensen, flapping through alternate takes of 'Double Dare', 'In the Flat Field', and 'Third Uncle'. Together with a recent vinyl reissue of a 1983 performance at the Old Vic in London, which snapped a shot of Bauhaus at the peak of their dramaturgic snarks, both releases provide a compelling, rough-edged, bouffant counterpart to their studio albums, before goth went bird's nest: Bauhaus live and direct, with all the mood, menace and momentum fully intact.
Review: In honour of Record Store Day 2025, Canadian-American alt-rockers Big Wreck have decided to reissue one of their most popular albums, 2012's The Albatross. Available in limited numbers (only 1,000 of this CD version was pressed), it not only includes the freshly remastered original album in full, but also three alternate versions, rare bonus cut 'Fade Away', and a raucous live recording of title track 'Albatross'. The original album remains a timeless alt-rock classic where raw guitar riffs, bluesy solos and Ian Thurnley's distinctive lead vocals wrap around thickset bass and punchy drums. For proof, check standouts 'Wolves', 'Glass Room' and the rowdy 'The Rest of the World'.
Review: Over the past three years, Bo Rande and Tobias Wilner of Blue Foundation have shaped Close to the Knife into a mesmerising blend of dream pop, shoegaze and experimental electronics. The album deepens their signature atmospheric style with haunting vocals from Wilner and Nina Larsen plus guest appearances by Scarlet Rae, Helena Gao and Sonya Kitchell. Lush and melancholic in the extreme, the music evokes an introspective mood reminiscent of greats like The Fall. Contributions from Wang Wen's Xie Yugang and drummer Federico Ughi add richness to this deeply emotional and intricately produced journey through sound and feeling.
Review: After 2015, Bon Iver began to fuse ambient glitch with folk, a style which now reaches a head on his latest LP. It expands on 2024's taster EP 'SABLE' in the form of an 11-track sonic parable: waxing introspective on difficult themes such as memory and identity, 'THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS' and 'S P E Y S I D E' indulge typographic play and fragmental lyrics, the latter especially paradigm-shifting in lyrical perspective. 'Awards Season', also, deals in the problematics of recognition, peeking behind and thus part-dissolving the veil of success in public life. With signature passion yet quarrelsomeness, Justin Vernon has crafted yet another glistening, glitching folk odyssey for us to enjoy.
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