XL レコード& CD

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Once again, XL Recordings resupply our vitals with Basement Jaxx's life-giving audio elixir 'Remedy', their joyous debut album from 1999. Renowned for its sensuous themes, international palette of influences and, of course, its basis in bangerized house music, tracks like 'Red Alert' and 'Jump n' Shout' paved the way for much big beat, electro and pop house to come.

Review: XL have been steadily building up momentum with CASISDEAD over the past few years, while the cult rapper had been leaving a breadcrumb trail of music to an ever-growing fanbase for some time before. Now, the wait is over as he finally unveils his debut album, and Famous Last Words is delivered with a sense of ceremony which more than matches the anticipation. When your guests include Neil Tennant, Connie Constance and Desire, you know you're pulling out all the stops. The album runs like cinematic narrative guided by CAS' distinctive flows, backed by a sleek synth-pop production style fuelled by collaborators including Kyle Dixon and Johnny Jewel.

Review: God bless XL Recordings. The UK label has been at the forefront of boundary pushing music since its inception, and almost 35 years remains a seal of quality. A constant source of inspiring surprises and new sonic experiences. The kind of organisation that will take a punt on British polymath Jai Paul's demo album, which, by all accounts, is pretty hard to describe, let alone define. More so, the type of team that would, eight years earlier, support and release one of the artist's earliest songs, 'BTSTU'. Coming full circle, that tune closes this collection of stuff produced around the same time, all of which was going to form the debut album, Bait Ones. One low-quality CD-R of the work stolen and then leaked online later, and the artist stepped away from music until the end of the last decade, when this "perfectly imperfect" LP was finally allowed to see the light of day. A lo fi, glitchy, trippy, granular, sexy sound that owes as much to hip hop, pop and r&b as experimental noise, ambient dub, and electronic soul.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Without original outer box, product has light surface marks but otherwise in perfect working condition.***


Twenty years ago it sounded like an oddly poignant evocation of pre-millennial tension. Two decades later it stands as an eerily prescient glimpe into the technological alienation and dislocation of of a new era. Yet more importantly, OK Computer is no more or less than a sparkling, dramatic and moving collection of songs that haven't lost any of their impact in the interim. The sound of a band stubbornly refusing to follow up the stadium-strafing stylings of its predecessor The Bends - and instead bursting headlong into experimentation and wild creativity -is portrayed in still more vivid colours by the alarmingly strong collection of out-takes and B-sides collected herein, Yet there's no getting away from the chill and spark that marked out OK Computer from everything surrounding it in the post-Britpop malaise, and continues to do so in the pre-Brexit counterpart.

Review: Recorded between Oxford and Abbey Road, The Smile (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, and Tom Skinner of Sons Of Kemet) is the second full-length LP by the fantasy troupe, following up 2022's A Light For Attracting Attention. On first announcement, speculation abounded that it was tangentially related to Radiohead's 2011 album The King Of Limbs, since the phrase "wall of eyes" appeared in its promo material - though this album is decidedly different in sound and centres in on themes such as the isolation of fame and Kaufman-esque surrealisms.

Review: The Smile's new album Wall Of Eyes, set to be released on on XL Recordings and the alternative moniker of Radiohead members Jonny Greenwood, Thom Yorke and drummer Tom Skinnner. It was recorded between Oxford and Abbey Road Studios, and is produced and mixed Sam Petts-Davies. It features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Wall Of Eyes is the follow up their 2022 debut LP A Light For Attracting Attention.