Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: Few conversations or analyses surrounding doom metal can begin without mentioning the integral Sleep and their genre-defining opus Dopesmoker. That same analytical discussion cannot be rounded up without OM coming into the fray, as the duo of bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Haikus originally worked together as Sleep's rhythm section. The hypnotic 'Gebel Barkal' single would serve as the final recording from the pair following the 2007 full-length Pilgrimage, before 2009's God Is Good would welcome the arrival of current drummer Emil Amos and signal the group's continued expansion into an eventual three-piece.

Review: Tara Jane O'Neil's latest album, The Cool Cloud of Okayness, is a poignant reflection on transformation amidst adversity. Recorded in the aftermath of the devastating Thomas Fire, the album embodies resilience and renewal. O'Neil's ethereal vocals and spectral guitar work are complemented by a talented ensemble, including drummer Sheridan Riley and multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements. Together, they craft a sonic landscape that blurs boundaries between genres, challenging easy categorization. The album's themes of grief and hope are palpable, underscored by deft production and rock-solid bass lines. Each track feels like a journey, offering both solace and introspection. The Cool Cloud of Okayness is a powerful album of music used to heal and inspire, reminding listeners that even in the darkest moments, there is light and possibility.

Review: Daniel O Sullivan, known as a producer for the likes of Tim Burgess and for his astounding art pop band Grumbling Fur, makes his first foray into classically informed chamber music. With some sort of superhuman genius mind, the unassuming Mancunian wrote these arrangements for a 14-piece ensemble and nailed it. 'Golden Verses' is stately, pastoral, yet menacing. Another highlight, 'Painting Rose' is some of the most psychedelic classical music you'll ever hear. So, if you're looking for chamber music that spans eras, genres and takes you on a transcendent journey, then look no further.

Review: Led by the incomparable Sami Albert "Witchfinder" Hynninen (Reverend Bizarre, The Puritan, The Candles Burning Blue), Opium Warlords are the lo-fi, sultry, genre-less playground where all of the sonic auteurs most insightful and bizarre predilections come to life. Described as an audible melting pot of "pussy techno, sludge, industrial pop, hardcore punk, drone, shamanistic pulse, noise, heavy metal, old school gothic rock and march music", Strength is the sixth full-length from the mysterious project which essentially guarantees from the outset that you're entering into an utter mess of ideas, yet reliably reigned into one cohesive vision. While compared to the oppressive gloom of 2020's Nembutal, the material here benefits from brighter synths and glossier production yet underpinned with a macabre and alienating dissection of Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophies of strength and elitism. That's when the lyrics aren't directly pulled from the back of shampoo bottles. Confused? Good, that's the only requirement for entry

Review: Harry Pussy co-founder Bill Orcutt has since moved on from those riotous noise rock years to explore other modes of expression with his guitar. Across an accomplished and many-sided career he's laid down a powerful statement against the idea everything's been done on six strings, and this album is another fine case in point. If the title sounds formal, don't be fooled - there's a raucous energy to Music For Four Guitars. It sounds free and raw, even as it deals in minimal motions between clashing axes played by Orcutt in conversation with himself.

Review: Bill Orcutt's approach to the guitar feels less like playing and more like detonating: a flurry of stabbing phrases, mangled blues motifs and broken time signatures that teeter constantly on the edge of collapse. It's a sound he's refined over decades, from his early days in Miami's punk and noise scenes to his present-day experiments in live-coded digital abstraction. This new album, which features two versions of 'Anxiety of Symmetry', finds him at his most feral and funny in years i a twisted tribute to the clunky MIDI guitar presets of the 90s, rendered via his cracked-software experiments with two fifteen-minute compositions built from a single concept: six sung numbers, each mapped precisely to pitches in a major scale. These micro-phrases ('1-2', '1-2-3', and so on) repeat and multiply, creating swirling polymetric harmonies that flicker between gentle hypnosis and algorithmic overload. Female voices loop in cycles of uneven length, forming structures reminiscent of Glass's Einstein on the Beach, but without its theatricalityithis is music of obsession, not spectacle. The emotional register is unusually soft for Orcutt, but behind the surface calm lies a meticulous compulsion. In an essay of the same name, he aligns this method with "Just Right" OCD, proposing a feedback loop between mental fixation and machine logic. What emerges isn't ambient in any passive sense, but a kind of orderly unravelingicomposition as therapeutic ritual, echoing the recursive spirals of Hanne Darboven or the trance-state potential of counting itself.

Review: Life Go's On's reissue of Organisation's Tone Float sheds light on a pivotal moment in music history. Known as the precursor to Kraftwerk, Organisation's debut album offers a blend of avant-garde experimentation and early German prog. Featuring Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider, and Klaus Dinger among others, the album combines acoustic instruments with bold electronic elements, creating a cerebral yet immersive sonic experience. Tracks like 'Vor Dem Blauen Bock' showcase the band's innovative approach, bridging natural and synthetic textures with ethereal flutes, majestic organ and varied percussions. Tone Float remains a gem of musical innovation, capturing a moment when boundaries between genres blurred, setting the stage for Kraftwerk's iconic future.

Review: Offering a gentler approach than his previous releases on R.I.O. and brokntoys, Philipp Otterbach comes to Music From Memory with an album of inward ambient reflections in which the guitar takes centre stage for the first time. Otterbach's sound is broad and inquisitive, folding field recordings and snatches of speech in amongst dexterous synth lines and expressive guitar, creating a thoroughly satisfying, mellow trip through beatless pastures. The predominant mood is a hopeful, upbeat one, although shot through with a playful surrealism which keeps things interesting rather than one-dimensionally pleasant. It's as rich a listening experience as you'd expect from a Music From Memory release.Alexis 'Lex' Blackmore.

Review: San-Fran experimental rockers Oxbow dedicated their eighth album Love's Holiday to familial renewals, marking the point at which guitarist Niko Wenner's two children were born shortly after his father's death. Despite the immediate inspirations, the album also cycles through many of the more all-encompassing kinds of live humans may encounter, from romantic to tragic. We hear the band segue through gargantuan plains of looping guitar and reverb-drenched vocals from lead vocalist Dan Adams; ostensibly, it sounds closer to an exploration of grief than commonly received ideas of "love", although relatively few pop-cultural ideas of love keep it real enough to reflect the strife that comes with it.

Review: There are debut albums, and then there are debut albums that stop you dead, force you to take note, and proceed to unfold in the most startling directions. Welcome to the world of OXN, an Irish folk band, of sorts, featuring two members of Lankum and an awful lot of fresh ideas. Operatic, theatrical, cinematic, experimental trad, anyone? If that sounds even remotely intriguing the best news is yet to come - we've barely managed to hit the hammer even close to the nail's head with our description. It's weird, it's unsettling, born from pure emotion and just a few sprinkles of the same magic that has blessed the Emerald Isle with so many evocative and highly original musicians.