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Review: The world lost one of the all-time great indie songwriters when The Chills leader Martin Phillipps passed away in 2024. The New Zealand jangle-pop pioneers started out in the 80s, writing memorable melodies and beautiful harmonies and went on to have a career lasting more than 40 years. They helped coin the 'Dunedin sound' - a catch-all name given to the indie scene in the university city of Dunedin in the remote east coast of the South Island of New Zealand - a place that punched way above its weight in terms of cultural relevance and great indie music for its size. This release comes as a reminder of their greatness and includes a whopping 20 songs (it's a double LP and on gold(!)) from the band's early years revisited. As is often the case with tireless creatives, there's a vault of unfinished work that often never gets completed. Philipps dedicated moments at the end part of his life to fleshing out these song ideas, resulting in their completion nearly 40 years after they were written. 'If This World Was Made For Me' is the first song to be unearthed from this collection and is as beautiful as indie psychedelia gets with Philipps' vocal harmonies transcendent in their splendour.

Review: Jangle pop pioneers The Chills came out of the Dunedin scene in the 80s, which grew to become one of the most important movements in indie rock history, largely thanks to the output on the Flying Nun label, which The Chills were apart of when they first started out. The Chills had their own Brian Wilson in Martin Phillipps: a prolific songwriter with an ear for melody and harmony up there with the best that's ever been. Sadly, he passed away in 2024, but this album is released as a reminder of just how good he was and it's a timely balm for the grief felt within the indie rock community. The songs here come from work Phillipps did shortly before he died, where he opened his vault of unfinished songs that he started early in the Chills' career and fleshed them out to finally release them all these years later. We can assure you; it's been well worth the wait. Sublime stuff.

Review: Are you a dreamer? Swedish band Death & Vanilla ask across eight contemporary takes on German Krautrock, French Ye-ye pop and 60s psychedelic. Vocals are breezy, their moog synths fat, with guitars drenched in reverb and delay. At times the band's sound aligns with other kindred groups like Goldfrapp, Portishead or even Bjork (with "Vespertine") through their subtle take on downbeat, alternative '90s pop and this is heard most in "Let's Never Leave Here". "Are You A Dreamer?" delivers the Malmo trio a fifth studio LP following last year's conceptual soundtrack for stage and screen entitled "A Score For Roman Polanski's The Tenant", and this time around, our highlights include the spacey western riffs of "Eye Bath" and the ever-so dreamy "The Hum". Esoteric modern pop for sure.

Review: Swedish trio Death And Vanilla continue to carve out their atmospheric niche, blending elements of post-ambient electronica and spectral folk to craft something distinctly unsettling. Their latest foray into live scoring breathes new life into the eerie, folkloric narrative of a 1968 ghost story. As they shift seamlessly between stuttering tape loops, minimalist drum machines, and haunting choral effects, they create a tension that pulls the listener deeper into the supernatural. Tracks like 'Supernatural Breakfast' are pulsing with an old-school, Carpenter-esque vibe, while others, like 'Nightmares', evoke a sense of unease with their swirling winds and spectral sounds. The band's ability to inhabit these otherworldly spaces is a nod to their growing mastery of atmosphere, a skill that's increasingly becoming their signature. Even as they explore the boundary between the familiar and the uncanny, Death And Vanilla remind us that their sound can be as inviting as it is unnervingly strange.

Review: Earth's live performance at KOKO in 2016 captures the Olympia-formed experimental drone crew's evolving sound in its most immersive form. The trioiDylan Carlson, Jodie Cox and Adrienne Davisioffers a slow-burn journey through layers of doom, drone and minimalist textures that feel as weighty as they do precise. The set begins with a familiar depth, the reverberating basslines and crushing guitar tones building a space of deliberate tension. Tracks like 'Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull' unfurl with a vast and spatial quality, while 'Even Hell Has Its Heroes' crawls along in thick, oppressive layers. What's striking is the restraint: Earth never rushes; each note, each pause, is deliberate, serving as a meditation on the slow, heavy force of sound. The minimalist approach feels almost tactile in its quiet moments, as if the silence itself is as profound as the noise. This live offering underlines their mastery of creating music that moves beyond noise, into a deeper exploration of space, sound, and feeling.

Review: This special The 35th-anniversary reissue of Come Away with ESG celebrates the groundbreaking debut album by the Bronx sisters. It's a proper genre-defying classic that shaped hip-hop, house, and post-punk with its signature minimalist funk. ESG's stripped-down sound is built on raw drumbeats and hypnotic bass lines and defies traditional labels with a more groove-driven, horn and organ-free alternative to funk. Their influence spans decades and has inspires artists across several genres which is why Come Away remains a classic and one that proves that true rhythm lies in the spaces between the beats.

Review: To celebrate the 35th anniversary of this iconic album, it has been reissued on vinyl in various colours including this organ neon sizzler. Come Away with ESG was the groundbreaking debut from the Bronx-based sister group and is recognised as a genre-defying classic that played a pivotal role in shaping hip-hop, house and post-punk. ESG's minimalist funk, stripped of horns and heavy organ, offered a fresh take on the genre. Decades later, their impact is undeniable, influencing artists across multiple styles. This album is a testament to the power of rhythm-not just in the beats, but in the spaces between them.

Review: To mark the 35th birthday of this album it has been reissued on vinyl in different colours, so take your pick. As any funk lovers will know, Come Away with ESG is the Bronx sisters' pioneering debut album and a genre-blurring masterpiece that is accepted to have very much helped shape hip-hop, house, and post-punk with its signature minimalist funk. ESG's raw, stripped-down approach offered a fresh alternative to traditional funk in that it was free of horns and heavy organ. Decades later, their influence remains undeniable and has inspired countless artists across multiple genres. This record is all the proof you need that the magic of rhythm isn't just in the beats-it thrives in the spaces between them.

Review: The Groundhogs' second album, Blues Obituary, released in 1969, marks a significant evolution in their sound, showing the band's ambition to transcend traditional blues. Tony McPhee and his band delve into a fusion of electric British blues and progressive psychedelic rock, resulting in a wonderful sonic journey. The opening track, 'B.D.D.', demonstrates their shift away from conventional blues structures with its refined guitar work and smoother melodies. Tracks like 'Daze of the Weak' highlight McPhee's extraordinary guitar work, propelling the music beyond mere blues variations. The album also features a diverse range of influences, from swamp rock in 'Mistreated' to the haunting 'Natchez Burning', reminiscent of classic southern rock bands. The experimental closing track, 'Light Was the Day' evokes their innovative spirit with freeform guitar and improvisational drumming. Blues Obituary is an essential listen that signals the Groundhogs' potential for greatness, as they chart their course into new musical territories. Highly recommended for those seeking a blend of blues and psychedelia.

Review: The Groundhogs' debut album, Scratching The Surface, stands as a milestone in the British blues movement of the late 1960s. Released in 1968, this record captures the raw energy of the era, blending blues authenticity with a distinctive edge. Unlike their later works, such as Thank Christ for the Bomb and Split, this album sticks closely to the classic blues format, heavily influenced by the sounds of early Fleetwood Mac and Savoy Brown. Featuring the original lineupiTony McPhee, Peter Cruickshank, Ken Pustelnik, and harmonica player Steve Ryeithe album has both McPhee's original compositions and Rye's blistering contributions. Rye's 'Early in the Morning' and 'You Don't Love Me' are standout tracks, while the reworking of Muddy Waters' 'Still A Fool' is fierce and memorable. Newly remastered, this vinyl reissue restores the album's rootsy, moody blues sound with remarkable clarity.

Review: Evand Dando and co broke through to the mainstream with the sublime, sunny songwriting of 1992's It's A Shame About Ray, then managed to sustain their time at the top the following year with the Slade-referencing Come On Feel The Lemonheads. It's an altogether bigger and superfically impressive prospect, with guests like Rick James and Belinda Carlisle making the contributors' list and a production job from The Robb Brothers which elevates it beyond the slacker rock tag they'd had until the is point. It also spawned their biggest ever single - 'Into Your Arms' - and a host of other chart successes, including the excellent anthem 'Big Gay Heart', which saw them neatly distancing themselves from the jock rock category that other contemporaries like Nirvana quickly found themeslves slipping into.

Review: The Lemonheads' Come On Feel The Lemonheads is 30 years old and to mark the birthday it is getting reissued in various formats and across different coloured vinyl, although this is a straight black version of the album - their sixth, from 1993. Led by Evan Dando, The Lemonheads have been making catchy, easygoing, melodicentric hits since the late 80s. 'Into Your Arms', 'It's About Time' and 'Big Gay Heart' all feature, not to mention guest appearances by Belinda Carlisle and Rick James - it's a stew that contributed readily to its stonking commercial success. This reissue comes with a download code - something unimaginable at the time it was first released.

Review: Beginning life in the late 70s as a Leeds based art collective, The Mekons have gone on to become one of the longest-running, most prolific and sonically diverse acts to be considered part of the first wave of British punk. Spanning numerous decades, projects and literal continents, the sprawling array of visionary contributors return with the succinctly titled Horror; a work written towards the end of 2022 that showcases their expansive yet solely unique approach, drawing on elements of dub, country, harsh noise, rock & roll, electronica, punk, music hall, polka and even waltz. Myriad vocalists lead differing sonic journeys such as the Jon Langford-led 'Mudcrawlers' telling the story of the Irish famine and subsequent refugees traversing to Wales, whereas Rico Bell leads the charge on the harrowing folk-horror climate change breakdown 'Fallen Leaves', with swelling violins painting an aural tapestry akin to Rolling Thunder era Dylan sitting on a dimly lit rolling green hill accompanied by The Pogues. Ranking somewhere between the collective's 23rd to 25th album (depending on which member of the fanbase or artists themselves you ask), Horror marks their first work for Fire Records.

Review: Los Angeles-based Monde UFO - a shadowy collective helmed by multi-instrumentalist and producer Ray Monde - has a well-earned reputation for being one of music's more hard-to-pigeonhole acts, with their two previous albums variously mixing and matching elements of improvisational jazz, dream pop, Latin rhythms, space rock and lo-fi experimentalism. They're on a similarly breezy, blurred-at-the-edges tip on third album Flamingo Tower, attractively sashaying between jazz-flecked, string-laden dream pop ('Samba 9'), richly percussive post-punk jazz ('119', with its subtle nods to Tony Allen and Ginger Baker's infamous drum battle in support of Fela Kuti), cinematic noir-jazz (the effects-laden excellence of 'Solitaire') and much more besides.

Review: Released in 1992, Untitled marked Royal Trux's third album and solidified their status as pioneers of the lo-fi genre. This album transitioned the duo, Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema, into a constantly evolving collective of musicians. As part of Fire Records' remastered series, Untitled comes pressed on white vinyl with updated monochrome and silver artwork. Stepping away from the dense layering of their previous work, Twin Infinitives, Royal Trux embraced a raw rock 'n' roll aesthetic filled with the deformed grandeur of their influences. Drawing from their experiences and subconscious "radio stations," the eight-song collection weaves together twisted melodies and memories. Hagerty's gritty blues roots complement Herrema's seductive yet snarling vocals, capturing a sense of intimacy akin to a night at the Chelsea Hotel, where the characters of the 90s swagger through their lyrics. Tracks like 'Junkie Nurse' delve into themes of addiction and redemption, reflecting a hope that even the most broken individuals can help each other. While some noise elements persist, Untitled showcases a clear shift toward songwriting, revealing Royal Trux as a stunning indie rock band that continues to resonate with a transgressive generation and influences future duos like The White Stripes and The Kills.

Review: Perhaps the most abstract, clangorous and genre-defying entry in the formidable Royal Trux catalogue, 1990s Twin Infinitives is a sprawling, tactile odyssey punctuated by Neil Hagerty's acerbic guitar stabs and Jennifer Herrema's sleazy vocal free association. Through the thick squalling gauze witch Hagerty and Herrema superimpose on each track, ghosts of A/B song form emerge and disintegrate, with blues licks and disarmingly gentle croons offset by rumbling mechanical loops and sonic shrapnel. It really feels like the ground zero, the most amoebic and uncompromising launchpad for what would become the Royal Trux sound. Highlights include the Henry Flynt-esque 'Ice Cream', the cavernous flute peals of 'Osiris' and the rollicking, fuzz-damaged 'Glitterbust'. One of the best from one of the best!

Review: Sometimes, Record Store Day releases really do come through, and this is one of them as it unearths extremely rare 1988 demo recordings from alt-rock trailblazers Royal Trux, previously only circulated on a handful of cassettes in 1998. Now available for the first time on wax, the collection captures the raw, unfiltered energy that preceded their breakthrough Twin Infinitives and features early versions of 'Walkin' Machine,' 'Cut You Loose,' 'Gold Dust' and a cover of Neil Young's 'Time Fades Away,' These demos really give you a window into the band's formative chaos and brilliance and highlight the uncompromising vision that made Royal Trux such favourites.

Review: Countless bands sing about mind-altering substances, but none capture the experience quite like Spacemen 3. By combining the Suicide ethic of one-chord blues with maximalism, they simulate the infinite layers of a trip with a sound that is often imitated but never replicated. The reissued A Perfect Prescription exemplifies this, showcasing the beautiful stages of a high - from energetic and hazy highs to downbeat and drone-y lows. The album kicks off with the energetic 'Take Me to the Other Side,' representing the initial rush of a high. It seamlessly transitions to 'Walkin' with Jesus,' evoking endless ecstasy and then each track acts as a plateau of the phase it represents, with the album oscillating between jittery excitement and warm drone. Songs like 'Feel So Good' and 'Things'll Never Be the Same' contrast minimalism with maximalism, creating a layered, immersive experience. Spacemen 3's genius lies in their ability to craft a drug story like no other, blending minimal chord changes with a sheer amount of sound. A timeless, sonically amazing achievement when it dropped in 1987 - things were never the same after this.

Review: Alternative rock pioneers Throwing Muses are one of the earliest allies of Pixies, touring together as some of 4AD's few American bands. They were outperformed by Pixies commercially, but that's not what Throwing Muses are about: they continue to be much loved and continue to provide us with earnest, deeply artful songs. This new album, out on the brilliant Fire Records, was largely written by the band's Kristin Hersch on Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, California - hence the title. The songs were then taken to Steve Rizzo's Stable Sound Studio in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where beautiful cello parts from Pete Harvey were fused in with acoustic guitars. Hersh might call Harvey the star of the show, but the haunting melodies of her voice, particularly on 'Summer of Love', are achingly beautiful. Throwing Muses remain a beacon of light.

Review: Formed in 2015 by Cathy Lucas, Vanishing Twin is a fantastic band for those who love music that floats between real and imagined worlds. They have a fearless sound that take sin aspects of Afro, world, jazz, soul, funk and psych as well as lashing of dubby rhythms. This album came late last year and finally makes its way on to wax - in the meantime the band also dropped a cassette only album Pensiero Magico. This one is a more MPB and experimental take on rock and Latin with breezy grooves next to darker atmospheric tracks.

Review: The Vanishing Twins first surfaced in 2016 with their Choose Your Own Adventure LP before taking some years away to magically re-appear like ghosts can do with The Age Of Immunology. The album brings together space pop with African spoken word and poetry, odd-ball percussion and strangely inspired UK synth pop made to fit a world of other exotic musical styles. There's no denying the unique sound that the band have conjured and it's something for those Broadcast, Pram and Stereolab fans out there in need of new, inspired material. At 10 tracks long it's a magical carpet ride for the ears and you'll never know what part of the world you'll end up.

Review: "Herd immunity" was certainly a phrase banded about during the pandemic, and we all know what it means, but what about if / when the phrase is taken figuratively? Cathy Lucas, Susumu Mukai, Elliott Arndt, Phil MFU and Valentina Magaletti make up the quintet that is Vanishing Twin, whose latest album The Age Of Immunology metaphorically attempts to answer this question. Today's tribulations, often of humanity's own doing, nonetheless require of us that we adapt, regardless of any long-term psychic damage this causes; whether one finds any sense of poetry in the literal reflection of this in the doling out of vaccines en masse remains to be decided by you, the listener. Psychopolitical ramblings aside, The Age Of Immunology follows up the band's yetmost experimental album Magic And Machines, and hears them emerge from the other side through dreamy post-punk cinematics ('KRK'), wahhing, whirling instrumental disco-kraut ('Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life'), and boinging, 'Ashes To Ashes' style summer psych balladry ('Magician's Success'). All ironically work as temporary salves for the soul, reflecting a surreal fantasy space that almost certianly works to simultaneously reflect and deflect the era we find ourselves in now.

Review: 11 years after it first appeared in stores, sometime Kill Laura amd Misty Dixon member Jane Weaver's sixth solo album Silver Globe has been given the reissue treatment. This is undoubtedly a good thing, as it remains one of Weaver's most magical and consistent full length excursions - an inspired blend of neo-psych-folk, Elizabeth Fraser style vocals, kosmiche-influenced "motorik" grooves and cosmic effects. Lightly conceptual, it's packed with highlights, not least the driving and spaced-out 'Argent', the twisted cosmic pop meets jangly indie-pop of 'The Electric Mountain', the dubbed-out and densely layered 'Arrows', the glassy-eyed lo-fi dream pop of 'Mission Desire' and the effects-laden pastoral dreaminess of 'Your Time In This Life is Just Temporary'.

Review: 
Jane Weaver's Love In Constant Spectacle stands as a pivotal moment as it presents the artist's most heartfelt, direct, and personal collection yet. Bursting with vivid imagery, the album captures the very essence of the artist, pushing her distinct sound and poetic vision to unprecedented heights. While evoking the nostalgia of her early work, it boldly explores new realms, weaving intricate tales with vibrant hues, shapes, and languages. Teaming up with acclaimed producer John Parish, renowned for collaborations with PJ Harvey and Aldous Harding, the album strikes a delicate balance between familiarity and innovation. It's a surreal odyssey through the human experience that showcases the artist's ceaseless evolution.

Review: Following on from her latest Fenella project The Metallic Index, genreless folktronica oddity Jane Weaver, returns from the land of muted synth lines and hypnagogic instrumentals to deliver the first full-length baring her name since 2021's exceptional Flock. Her 12th album overall, Love In Constant Spectacle offers up Weaver's most succinct, direct and straightforward compositions in well over a decade, with the the beauty of these cuts lying in their simplicity. Motorik synth patterns, fuzzed out neo-psychedelic guitar lines and lush bubbles of digital fizz bounce around Weaver's melancholic musings on the trials and tribulations, big and small, of everyday life and love.