Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

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: The long-awaited ninth full-length from legendary Japanese noise-rock duo Melt-Banana comes over a full decade on from 2013's exceptionally bizarre Fetch, marking their longest gap between albums yet. Known for combining the yelping, yapping, unhinged yet endearing vocals of Yasuko Onuki and the cybergrind guitar manipulations of the virtuosic Ichiro Agata, the pair expertly craft a schizoid car crash of genres, styles and sounds that would simply refuse to coalesce in lesser artists hands. Sugary bubblegum pop-punk is dropkicked by grindcore powerviolence, while industrial harsh noise engulfs hyperpop hooks before suffocating the debris in death metal malevolence. If this sounds horrible, impossible and bewildering, it only means two things: 1. You are sane. 2. You need to get some Melt-Banana into you. What better way to make sense of the chaos than by starting with the highly anticipated 3+5, then working backwards?

Review: French-British singer-songwriter and performance artist Lucy Sissy Miller opens Pre Country with noises that don't feel remotely close to country - more Imogen Heap than Patsy Cline. But as the record finds its gear, reference are changed through a moody and mysterious veil of latter-day Patti Smith and the oeuvre of Laurie Anderson. A meditation on Americana which recognises its folk roots but isn't afraid to embrace the high tech of today, either. Pieced together using journal notes, poems, voice memos, found and collected, manipulated and obscured sounds, it's a reflective and quiet, tender kind of place to find yourself - a record that asks for patience and rewards you with increasing immersion. "It'a an album about memories and how we stitch up these moments, making them movie-like to make sense of these experiences," says Miller. We'll leave it at that.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It has been 25 years since Mogwai first started their meteoric rise to alt rock deity status by wrapping listeners and audiences up in a deep, immersive, contemplative, euphoric post rock soundscape. During that time the outfit have only increased their following, and consistently proven themselves capable of developing genuinely unique, fresh ideas, while still staying true to that original sonic palette.

Those roots are now celebrated and re-released on this exclusive triple-vinyl package, which takes its lead from the already released E.P. +6. In fact, this new version has exactly the same contents - the first three Mogwai EPs from between 1997 and 1999 - but this time they are coming out on wax. Historically, these are among the most significant in their back catalogue, helping establish and then define a sound. In terms of rarity, you'll struggle to find 4 Satin, No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) and E.P. on black plastic through any means other than this boxset.

Review: Revered psyche rock man Dave Fridmann, produced this one from Scottish guitar heroes Mogwai, just as he did their previous albums Come On Die Young and Rock Action. As always it is a structured soundscape built from the bottom up with an array of contrasting sounds, drones, textures, timbres and moods. The 56 minute record manages to be grateful and impactful with its hymnal tracks, trance-rock overtones and subtle but ever rising sense of euphoria always keeping you locked in. This is an album that will keep old fans happy and likely win over plenty of new ones.

Review: Ask yourselves not whether Mogwai are just the tonic we all need in the middle of a particularly psychologically damaging pandemic. Instead, ask yourselves if there are any situations in which we don't need a new record from the Scottish space rock, post-rock, math-prog masters. Needless to say, then, As The Love Continues couldn't have arrived soon enough.

Marking the triumphant tenth LP, in many ways it's typical stuff from the band - commanding, epic, crashing, wooshing, flying, falling, loving, losing, dreamy guitar music that seems to open as many eyes as it does render listeners blind through sheer hypnosis. Packing some delightfully droll track titles to boot - for example 'F**k Off Money' - given most of us spent a good deal of time after the announcement last year wishing this would get here sooner it's our pleasure to confirm it's every bit worth the wait.

Review: Argentine singer, songwriter, actress and psychedelic neo-folk high priestess Juana Molina may not be a familiar name to many in the West. But she's been putting out consistently fantastic records since the mid-1990s, debuting with Rara (not including the original score to the movie Juana y sus hermanas back in 1991) and is the sort of artist you don't forget once you discover. Allow Exhalo to open the door on this South American titan of folktronica, casting spells with a combination of lo-fi indie electronic, curveball pop, and progressive folk, with some influences also stemming from her upbringing as the daughter of tango legend Horacio Molina and actor Chunchuna VillafaNe. A deep and captivating listen that seduces you from the word go, this is one not to be missed if you can help it.

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: Deerhunter co-founder and drummer Moses Archuleta works solo under the Moon Diagrams alias and here he impresses once more with a second album, Cemetery Classics. This 12-track release is a collaboration between Sonic Cathedral and Angus Andrew's new label No Gold adn it has been mixed by Simian Mobile Disco man James Ford. Guests like Anastasia Coope, Patrick Flegel and Josh Diamond from Gang Gang Dance all feature on what is Archuleta's first new music since 2019's Trappy Bats mini-album. The album spans several genres, as you would expect, from Basinski-esque degradation on 'Neptune' to industrial noise on 'Listen To Me,' with postmodern pop, trip-hop, shoegaze, and more. The man himself calls it a "graveyard disc" of songs for the afterlife.

Review: Five tracks of madness and mayhem from one of Norway's most critically acclaimed and domestic-Grammy (Spellemannprisen) award-nominated bands, with several wins too. Which should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Motorpsycho have always defied expectations, not least by offering up sounds that are contrary their name - less metal, more progressive and psyche rock with shades of jazz, post-rock, country and pop.

Ancient Astronauts represents their latest sonic incarnation, which is destined to keep the devout satisfied. Opening with a combination of grit and opera descending into a cool cat, wavy day-tripper of a swagger tune, 'The Ladder', 'The Flower of Awareness' then offers contrast by introducing huge power riffs, solos and crescendos, with even more intense guitar-made atmospheres offered on the closing two tracks.

Review: It's not hard to understand why John Peel called Movietone in for a recording, or rather three. Firstly, the results are far-reaching stuff to say the least, informed by folk, electronic, grunge, jazz, and some otherworldly oddness, a sonic tapestry that feels very much like a journey. A layered adventure packing the spectrum of emotions. Secondly, Kate Wright and Rachel Brook are hidden gems, beloved by those who know, and strangers to everyone else. The perfect act for tastemakers to really get behind.

These recordings were originally made over three individual visits to the BBC's legendary Maida Vale studio, in 1994, 1996, and 1997, and it's a case of being sucked into a beguiling universe very quickly indeed. There's so much mood and atmosphere here, suggestions of seduction, moments of calm, and deeply textured sections in which you can't remember where the front door is, or whether the door is actually a window. Talent defined.

Review: Formed in Rome way back in 1966, Musica Elettronica Viva are something of an enigma: an avant-garde collective whose exact line-up is shrouded in mystery (it changed over the years by all accounts but confirming who founded the group has proved difficult) and whose released works tend towards the experimental and undeniably out-there. The Sound Pool was recorded in 1979 and surfaced on vinyl a year later. It's an undeniably odd but defiantly impressive four-part work that blends tape loops, avant-garde noise, distant drumming, discording free-jazz horns and pots-and-pans percussion. It sounds like it was recorded live, in a gigantic, reverb-heavy room, and is as experimental and avant-garde as they come. An under-celebrated classic of its type.

Review: Deep Valley is a new collaborative work by Australian artists Seaworthy aka Cameron Webb and Matt Rosner and they came together for it during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum in New South Wales. The property which was gifted to the Australian public by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in the 1990s offers a unique landscape along the Shoalhaven River and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs and diverse wildlife. Drawing inspiration from Boyd's belief that "you can't own a landscape," Deep Valley combines the inspiration of that setting with environmental recordings, guitars, piano, and electronic processing all of which aim to highlight the transient nature of ecosystems and encourage you to reconnect with the sounds of nature.