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Review: Hull shoegazers bdrmm scintillating second album I Don't Know is another great showcase of their controlled yet chaotic sound. The four-piece from East Yorkshire had plenty of plaudits following their debut record and so quickly rode a wave to notoriety back in 2020. But then the classic difficult second album fever struck them and so did lots of conversations with labels. Finally, they got to work on this record and it is a thrilling divergence, a new mix of new influences with lyrics rooted in social consciousness and themes including addiction and mental health struggles. A huge tour is to follow, as will many more new fans and plaudits.

Review: Kathryn Jospeh has been on a super run of album form that started with her Scottish Album of the Year award winning debut in 2014 and carried on through 2018 follow up From When I Wake The Want Is. She now completes the hattrick with For You Who Are Wronged. It is a record about fighting to keep hold of love and was recorded at The Lengths Studio in Fort William with producer Lomond Campbell. Anyone who enjoys Lana Del Ray, Kate Bush or Erland Cooper is sure to lap this one up, not least for its fantastically long and evocative track titles.

Review: Breaking from their exceptional soundtrack work of late, the infallible Scottish post-rock behemoth Mogwai have returned to the studio for their ninth full-length. 'Every Country's Sun' is a whirlwind album whose sheer impact hinges on its powerful use of contrast, most likely evident of their recent film and television score work. Passages of atmospheric calm give way to loud cascading floods of aggression without sounding trite, forced or clumsy, and a more polished use of electronics further accentuates the band's tonal variety. From the spatial futuristic opener 'Coolverine' to the album's grinding and mechanical climax, 'Every Country's Sun' feels like a score for a film not yet made, following all the highs, lows, twists and turns of narrative told by a band continuing to showcase their deft and controlled writing.

Review: Whilst Mogwai's scores for Zidane and Les Revenants were diverting enough pieces of work, it's some testimony to the frontier-striding attitude and emotional heft of 'Atomic' - which marks a soundtrack to the movie made by Mark Cousins and shown on BBC4 last year, dealing with the atomic age - that is stands amongst their very best work, Expanding the band's palette to include Kraftwerk-esque electronica and emotive orchestration alongside their trademark six-string melancholy. these powerful and resonant pieces pack a mighty punch, summoning awe and fear in equal, elegiac and singularly appropriate measure.

Review: Straight outta shoegaze central, Oxford UK, since 1989, Swervedriver have been providing us with smoothly distorted guitars, vocals of refreshing reverberation and just those hints of angst and melancholia to get you through the decade. Future Ruins, like a lot of post and alt-rock to hit the shelves these days has touches of nihilism abound, although it's no secret Swervedriver have been offering this atmosphere for aeons longer than most. For fans of bands like Dinosaur Jr. yes, Swervedriver's latest effort remains firmly within the grungey and pastel confines of shoegaze, and with the genre's hey day missed so much but so many, it's never a pain to revisit the glory days of motion picture soundtracks.