Back in stock: Indie/Alternative

Review: Is there a more hard-working pair of party-starters than the Allergies' Rackabeat and DJ Moneyshot? The Bristol-based duo have been prolific over the last few years, yet the quality of their work seemingly hasn't suffered. Promised Land, their fifth album, is another invigorating, thrill-a-minute ride through hip-hop/funk/soul/rock/breakbeat fusion, where almost every cut is ripe for dancefloor plays. Highlights include the bluesy breakbeat bustle of 'Working On Me', the scratch-happy, Fatboy Slim-esque fun of 'Jumping Off', growling Dynamite MC hook-up 'Lean On You' (which reminded us a little of Plantlife), soul stomper 'Love Somebody' and 'Are You Ready', where Ugly Duckling's Andy Cooper and singer Marietta Smith both make their mark.

Review: Long-time indie darlings and American dream pop duo Beach House barely ever put a foot wrong, and you won't find a misstep on this, their fifth album, either. Depression Cherry was co-produced by the band with Chris Coady and first came back in 2015. It was written over two years before that and saw the band return to a more simplistic sound with fewer instruments, tunes constructed around a main melody and live drums featuring less than in the past. This was in response to having enlarged their sound as the venues they played grew ever bigger, but dialing it back in was a good move if you ask us.

Review: The first definitive British punk album, Damned Damned Damned, would serve as the arrival of a new form of audible angst, that over four decades later has still managed to maintain its bite and snarl. Originally released on Stiff Records in 1977, National Album Day 2022 has insisted on bringing this highly influential classic to life in a new pressing; teeming with energy, wit and enough proto-genre bending to remind all why The Damned are still an integral aspect of any discussion regarding UK punk and alternative music nearly a half century on.

Review: A work that surely needs little to no introduction, 'Repeater', was the seminal debut full-length from post-hardcore visionaries, Fugazi. From the demise of emo pioneers, Rites Of Spring, and hardcore punk godfathers, Minor Threat, came the enigmatic pairing of Guy Picciotto and Ian MacKaye, with the latter's burgeoning artistry left fully untethered to conjure a work transcendent of post-hardcore or alternative rock. Mapping out the blueprint for punk and alternative music throughout the nineties, even predating the likes of Nirvana's 'Nevermind', or Pearl Jam's 'Ten'; few projects have stood the test of time or been cited as such an integral influence by a dynamic range of artists from Rage Against The Machine to The Dillinger Escape Plan to American Football. Aggressive, expansive and highly critical of issues still plaguing our world today, from drug abuse to greed and privatisation, the ethos of, 'Repeater', (quietly referencing The Beatles' 'Revolver') has only swollen with time.

Review:  Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, Butch Vig and Shirley Manson formed Garbage in 1993 and went on to sell more than 17 million records around the world. Their second album came in 1998 and was a marked progression from their debut. It sold more than four million copies and was described at the time as "gloomy and sexual yet lively and introspective." It now gets a proper reissue on 2 x 12" double gatefold and is the first time the newly remastered record has been made available via BMG. Fans of the band who are close to 30 years deep in their career will no doubt be happy to hear this one as they also enjoy their new record on Infectious Records.

Review: We've been treated to reissues of everything else from PJ Harvey's spectacular catalogue, so it's only right we get a chance to savour the deeper cuts that shape out the persona of the high priestess of alternative rock. Gathering together an exhaustive 59 B sides, demos and previously unreleased tracks, this six-LP box set takes us into the heart of Polly Jean's writing process, showing the raw power in the songwriting when it's just her voice and an overdriven guitar, and showing us the broader possibilities of songs which didn't make the cut for the studio albums. This is a true treasure of music getting the authoritative release she deserves.

Review: Jay Wobble is the former bassist with Public Image Ltd of course, but is also a visionary in his own right. This new album finds him revisiting some old ground: it takes him back to influential PiL 1979 album Metal Box, which he wholly reinvents with a load of new and sophisticated dub takes with all new and mind expanding production. Alongside the original tunes are two bonus cuts which are new versions of originals from the first ever PiL album. It adds up to a timelsss fusion of new and old indie and dub from this masterful guitarist.

Review: When Jesus & Mary Chain reunited in 2007 there were tons of questions about what this would mean for their music, music in general, and the planet. Well, OK, maybe more their music. The notorious 1998 on-stage implosion between brothers William and Jim Reid was a culmination of tension between the siblings that afforded the band their inimitable conflict of sound, but also seemed to call definite time. It would be another decade before they attempted to work together again, with a show at Coachella, then another ten years passed while they figured out where from there. In the end, Damage & Joy was the answer, 2017's album, co-produced by Youth in a bid to bring in a potential mediator should things go sour. They didn't, and the record was well received - somewhere between old JAMC and a new era. Now we have Glasgow Eyes, an extension of that. Rather than born of conflict, tracks feel united in a common goal, synths rising to the fore above guitars, combative tones receding in favour of comfortable juxtapositions and contrasts.

Review: Almost two full decades into their curious career, slacker-psych experimentalists The Pheromoans have never been ones to shy away from the esoteric or mundane. Led by the droll, deadpan delivery and unique world view of primary songwriter Russell Walker, LP number 13 sees the collective lean ever further into topical malaise whilst honing their fuzzed out, post-college-rock jangles into their most digestible and direct form yet. With the title Wyrd Psearch, Walker takes direct aim "at the ubiquity of people claiming things are eerie or weird/wyrd in the present cultural milieu", while the word-search artwork is intended to highlight our cultures' obsessive search for meaning in an increasingly illogical world. Twinkling no wave riffs, glistening synth lines and muted requests to loved ones requesting their presence on a trip to town to reup on prescription meds.

Review: Released in 1994 on the ever-incredible Creation Records, Ride's Carnival of Light was the band's third full length, and didn't so much mark a shift but a progression in the journey of the critically acclaimed outfit, who still retain the shoegaze and noise pop elements we all fell head over heels for, but look to draw on more traditional British sounds, too. The result is something that might be described as a laddish, plugged-in take on folk, at times at least. Sadly, this wasn't quite what critics said about it, and after successive slamming in the press the band began to look unfavourably at the release, too, with frontman and guitarist Andy Bell even going so far as to describe it as "carnival of shite". More recently, he managed to make peace with it, and revisiting the songs now reveals myriad classics waiting to be rediscovered and appreciated out of the context and weight of expectations they were born into at the time.

Review: The first in a series of three compilations aiming to take a look at the post-punk movement that sprung out of the punk and DIY revolution almost immediately after it happened. No obvious names here though - this is an array of tracks from bands from both sides of the Atlantic that in most cases didn't even make it beyond producing singles, making for a fascinating snapshot of a turbulent but ultra-productive and creative time in music.