Back catalogue: Indie/Alternative

Review: Popular Hull-based shoegaze quartet bdrmm are building up to their latest tour with the release of single 'Standard Tuning, arriving hot on the heels of their critically acclaimed second album, 'I Don't Know'. Written and recorded during those same sessions and very much similarly flavoured, it continues a fine vein of form right now, with high praise coming in from the likes of Rolling Stone and Consequence. This special 10" also comes with a remix of the live favourite 'Alps' by Ninja Tune/Cambria Instruments electronica specialist Nathan Fake.

Review: Entering his fourth decade of service it's probably fair to call Andy Bell - guitarist with Ride, Oasis bassist and an increasingly renowned solo artist - an indie icon and round legend. After an EP of covers of tunes that inspired his last album this month, 'The Grounding Process' features four stripped down versions of tracks from 'Flicker'. Bell says 'World of Echo' was written at the height of an obesession with Scouse indie/skifflers The La's, while 'She Calls The Tune' was penned on tour wioth Oasis in 1999, particularly dear to Bell as it ended a long period of writer's block.

Review: Ride guitarist and songwriter Andy Bell drops this blue-splattered 10" with covers and acoustic versions of tunes that are said to have inspired his last album Flicker, which was released on Sonic Cathedral to great acclaim back in February. It is one of three such EPs and this one features an opening track written by Yoko Ono, a second cut by Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Danny Thompson, Terry Cox and Jacqui McShee, one by Raymond Douglas Davies and a closer by the late, great Arthur Russell. He brings his unique alternative and indie perspective to the originals and they serve as a great backstory and accompanying listen to the aforementioned album.

Review: Andy Bell, guitarist with Ride, onetime bassist of Oasis lead singer and now established solo act, presents 'I Am A Strange Loop', an EP of four remixes of tracks from his last album 'Flicker'. As if enlistig the skills of PiL/Orb bassist Jah Wobble wasn't enough, the remix roll call includes David Holmes, James Chapman (Maps), bdrmm and Richard Norris, all getting to work on the post-punky philosophising on Bell's own state of being.

Review: Effective communication relies on being succinct. Boygenius clearly know this given their track record for naming things. 2023 saw the trio - Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus - drop their debut album, The Record, and now, a few months down the line, we have The Rest: an EP made up of the other bits that didn't quite make said LP.

If you're completely new to the band, then let's start by saying these offcuts that didn't fit would put many a group to shame, which tells you just how good the full record is. Here, though, we have the lo-fi, dream-indie-pop crackle and fuzz of 'Black Hole', a track of huge emotional resonance, heartfelt, heartbroken yet hopeful semi-folk on 'Afraid of Heights', and the delicate, tender, and incredibly personal letting go balladry of 'Voyager', just for starters. Sublime confirmation Boygenius are your new favourite thing.

Review: The 60s Liverpudlian rock quartet are famed for their song '6 Day War', which has been sampled from the likes of DJ Shadow in Tokyo Drift and Pusha T on his album released earlier this year. This track is undoubtedly a classic, written in the aftermath of the ongoing Arab-Israeli war of 1967, '6 Day War' is one of the best anti-war tracks of all time. The slow jam-rock ballad comes from the band's album 'Oh What a Lovely War!' released in 1973 which has not been released in Britain until now, making this a landmark pressing. The record is a psychedelic soft-progressive rock LP with emphasis on heavy guitars like in 'Lay it Down' and even pulls from folk rock in 'Dirty Delilha Blues'. Colonel Bagshot were almost criminally overlooked, though their music seems to consistently stand the test of time and it's easy to hear why. The sound is quintessential Liverpool rock, even down to the naming conventions being evocative of The Beatles.