Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: In December 2001, at Maida Vale Studios, Bill Callahan's Smog delivered a raw, haunting session for the BBC. Alongside bandmates Jessica Billey, Mike Saenz and Jim White, Callahan's performance embodied a Lynchian mood of U.S. darkness in the wake of 9/11, covering Stevie Nicks, Lou Reed, and Smog tracks with a sombre, tour-worn edge. Callahan reflects, "It's all live, no overdubs. The session felt encapsulatedisomething foreign, yet intimate." The band's reimagining of 'Beautiful Child' in a minor key, the fiery rendition of 'Cold Discovery', and the moving take on 'Jesus' highlight the raw, unfiltered essence of this live recording.

Review: Melt Away, the forthcoming double LP compilation, offers rare tracks and outtakes from Bardo Pond's peak creative period in the late 90s. A gem from this collection, 'The Trail', initially featured on the 1997 compilation What's Up Matador, encapsulates the essence of fleeting momentsiits six-minute journey is ethereal and immersive, urging listeners to linger. Bardo Pond, the American psychedelic rock ensemble formed in 1991, continues to captivate with their immersive soundscapes. Their music blends elements of space rock, acid rock, and shoegazing, often drawing comparisons to Pink Floyd, Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine. Their work is characterised by droning guitars, heavy distortion and enveloping feedback and rooting in ecstatic jazz and avant-garde influences, creating a dreamlike experience that transcends conventional understanding. If that sounds like your thing, dive in.

Review: Matador has released the long awaited reissue of Bardo Pond's iconic 1999 album Set and Setting, remastered and pressed on striking purple vinyl. Known for their expansive and immersive sound, Bardo Pond's Set and Setting remains a standout in their discography, featuring the epic eleven-minute opener 'Walking Stick Man' and the intense single 'This Time (So Fucked)'. This album captures the band at a peak moment, blending heavy psychedelia with sprawling sonic landscapes. Set and Setting might not be Bardo Pond's heaviest record, but it's certainly among their fuzziest. With the fuzz dialed up to eleven, the album teeters on the edge of sonic overload, creating a swirling, sludgy atmosphere that's a dream for those who love their rock dense and gritty. Bardo Pond's music can be challenging to categorise, with their discography swinging from focused psych-rock to sprawling, loose jams. In the 90s, they didn't capture the mainstream attention of bands like Sonic Youth or Mudhoney, but they carved out a unique niche, blending shoegaze, desert rock and Krautrock influences into a potent, heady mix. Set and Setting, though perhaps not the easiest entry point into their catalog, encapsulates the band's distinct approach. While it might lack traditional hooks or radio-friendly tracks, it's rich in the droning, psychedelic explorations that define their work. For those who crave unfiltered, immersive jams, Set and Setting stands as a prime example of Bardo Pond's enduring appeal.

Review: Miami-born contemporary guitarist Bill Orcutt is known for his infatuating blend of blues, punk, trance and noise. With the release of Four Guitars Live on CD, he could've easily convinced us of this being a rare and long-forgotten artefact, of a proto-drone artist from the Deltaic 1960s. In reality, this was first incarnated in 2022 under the recorded name Music For Four Guitars, and Orcutt's establishing brand of doom-blues-trance-minimalism could invite artistic comparisons as far-fetched as Steve Reich or Rachika Nayar. But his sound is more nostalgic, seeming to predict emo and pysch both "before" and after the fact of the genre's establishment. Fittingly Reichean, Orcutt forms one part of a quartet here, performing the record in its entirety live at Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, 2023.

Review: BC, NR are now onto their third album. The Ninja Tune-signees gained attention for not posing as if they're in a band, but looking like an ordinary group of students, or twentysomethings house-sharing. Their bold look, where they're smiling in the press pics, as opposed to donning a moody pout, has thankfully been backed up with some terrific music. Their debut, For The First Time, earned them favourable comparisons to post-rock trailblazers Slint and their second album Ants From Up There is the Gen-z equivalent of Arcade Fire's Funeral, thanks to its grandiose anthemics. Famously, singer and lyricist Isaac Wood left the band on the even of the release of their second album, which sparked outcry and paranoia from their ever-growing army of fans about what that might mean for their future. But the band have kept at it and the remaining six members have chosen to share frontperson duties, thus relieving the added pressure that comes with being a designated frontperson. This third album - and first post Isaac Wood - is proving to be a striking new chapter, with the lead single, 'Besties', an immediately likeable way of introducing it to the world. Georgia Ellery, also of Jockstrap, takes lead vocals here and offers an unforgettable off-kilter indie pop cut reminiscent of Aldous Harding. Zutons-y sax stabs scattered in make for a beautiful touch and leave us feeling that this is the album that's going to send BC, NR onto a stratospheric level, where they're spoken about in the same breath as Radiohead as one of Britain's finest bands.

Review: James Ford is one of the most important unsung heroes of contemporary pop and rock. As a studio producer, he's helped craft and hone incredible work from Fontaines DC, Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Blur and more. As an artist in his own right, he's perhaps more incredible. So, his impact on the latest and long-awaited new addition to Black Country New Road's catalogue should not be underestimated. Nor should the result of splitting the songwriting and vocal duties between members Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery and May Kershaw. "It's definitely very different" said one of the trio about how this compares to preceding long form outings. We'd say it's definitely very different to most music you'll hear this week. It's folk, soft rock, experimental garage something, and none of the above, with tracks that almost seem at odds with themselves, chopping and changing, evolving and progressing, until you hear them as a whole.

Review: Every once in a while, you get a band emerge from the vibrant London music scene that you notice aren't like all the other bands. You sense they have something a bit special. BC, NR are like that - they offer something so rich musically that it appears immune to any potential threat that could come from changing trends. This third studio album of theirs comes under what looked like difficult circumstances from the outside. Their lead singer and songwriter Isaac Wood left the band shortly before the release of their second album. But they've withstood the pressure incredibly and are on top form here. There's more emphasis than ever on sharing the role of frontperson so the album is like a smorgasbord where you sample different voices and songwriting styles that exist within the group. Lead single 'Besties' is violinist Georgia Ellery's. It thrives off of its dynamism with explosive Phil Spector-esque wall of sound moments set in alongside elegant indie folk. A truly massive chapter awaits.

Review: South London rapper Confucius MC returns to Native Rebel Recordings for a new project alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Bastien Keb. Dedicated to the "lost travellers" of the world, this is an album of pop-filterless texture and raw admission, filled to the brim with political messaging and wisdom in the face of oppressive social machinery. Toeing lines of fairytale realism and soul-feeder contrition, Keb and Confucius muse on dilemmas of eternal life, striving, perseverance and recompense, crafting a near drumless hip-hop album for veteran ears.

Review: Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet has been reshaping the boundaries between classical and contemporary music. The group consists of pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque, both renowned for their versatility across genres, along with Grammy-winning guitarist Bryce Dessner of The National and composer-producer David Chalmin on guitar. Their repertoire spans radical commissions and essential works from the past 50 years. After releasing their self-titled digital EP in 2023, the quartet now unveils their latest project, Sonic Wires, coinciding with a November 2024 tour. The album features pieces by Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Bryce Dessner, Sufjan Stevens and Anna Thorvaldsdottir.