Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: A Certain Ratio's core trio of drummer Donald Johnson, bassist/vocalist Jez Kerr, and multi-instrumentalist Martin Moscrop make ACR Loco a perfectly fluid and funk album. In fact, on this, their first album in more than ten years, the Manchester post-punk outfit are as funky as they have ever been. Their tried and tested sound gets nicely updated with modern beat driven sounds and plenty of redefines to today's political strife in the lyrics. There are plenty of smooth and cool synth led grooves like 'Get A Grip' and messages of unity on 'Family' that we can all relate to.

Review: Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist Aroof Aftab presents her third studio album, and a record that has the power to transport listeners pretty much anywhere. While steeped in traditions stereotypically associated with her homeland, ears more attuned will quickly pick up on just how divergent this is. Whether you'd consider it a classical album is down to how you gauge that genre term, we'd say it has grown broad enough over the past century to definitely include this, but ultimately even that seems reductive.

Elements of poetry, ambient trance, jazz, minimalism, and new age, it's a spiritual and musical experience based around themes of discovery, loss, memory, and intimate connections with the Earth. Sonically, that translates as something that's at once sublime and yet also surprising, combining a multitude of influences from aeons of songwriting to create something that could not have existed in any previous era.

Review: Pulsar saw Gianluca Salvadori and Leonardo Ceccanti return to Claremont 56 with a second LP of sanguine and psychedelic dub disco under the Almunia name. Arriving roughly two years after Salvadori and Ceccanti served up the sublime Almunia debut long player New Moon, this new album sees the pair of tracks released as singles (the excellent title track and 'The Magician') complemented by six all new productions. From the heavenly acoustic strumming of opening track 'The Awakening' Almunia remain locked in a mood where refined instrumentation is balanced perfectly with a chugging soft edged disco sensibility with the buoyant 'Views From A Blue Train' a particular highlight.

Review: Is it really 10 years since Alt-J burst into the open with the barnstorming success of their debut album An Awesome Wave? The band set out their stall as something a little different from the get-go, but the vital essence of the band is in their ability to bridge the gap between widely appealing indie songwriting hooks and unusual touches which make everything sound new, even a decade later. It's fair to say they inspired a fair few artists in their wake, especially with the likes of 'Something Good', but none of these imitators match up to the sheer inventiveness spilling out of this incredible debut album. In the wake of their latest album The Dream, it's a treat to be able to go back to the beginning of their remarkable journey.

Review: Given his passion for the melodramatic, it's little surprise to find Antony Hegarty pairing up with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra for his latest full-length - a live recording of what was no doubt an unforgettable concert. Interspersed with Antony's musings to the audience on sexuality and feminism (amongst other things), Cut The World sees some of his best songs given a dramatic new lease of life. With his distinctive, haunting vocals (yes, it's impossible to review one of his releases without mentioning them) to the fore, the songs veer from achingly intimate to deliciously grandiose. If you're a fan, it should be an essential purchase.

Review: Icelandic classical, experimental and soundtrack composer Olafur Arnalds steps away from the loops and Broadchurch OSTs to conjure yet another sublime LNT saga. Carefully balancing between contemporary odysseys ("Jomsvikingarimur"), dense futuristic electronic weaves ("Last Remnants"), fuzzy 22nd century pop ("A Noise") sludgy cosmic funk ("Jasmine") and introspective soul ("Our Love Comes Back"), Olafur blows wave after woozy wave of soft sonic conjurations in a way that's broad, detailed and cleverly considered. Good night.

Review: Arte Moderno was a short-lived outfit from the Canary Islands who scored an underground dancefloor hit in 1982 with the spaced-out punk-funk/new wave/dub disco grooves of "Ninette En New York" before all but disappearing. Here, we finally get a chance to hear what else they were up to, as Musica Cabeza - the debut album they recorded but then shelved in 1982, finally gets a release. It's a quietly impressive set, all told, offering up tracks that doff a cap to the likes of Talking Heads, Woo, Konk and Bauhaus, while also offering a fresh take on electric/electronic post-punk fusion. Had it been released when it was recorded there's no doubt it would have become an underground classic; now that it's finally seen the light of day, we can confirm it's every bit as good as we'd hoped for.

Review: It's been three whole years since we last encountered a new album from the man like Richard Ashcroft. The guy who once told us how the drugs no longer worked, only to then explain how lucky he was. In many ways, Acoustic Hymns Vol.1 is an extension of all that, a record that has come along at a time when he's clearly ready to reflect on the heady days of the Britpop and UK indie explosion detonated in the 1990s.

Whether you'd call this album a covers collection or original, new work is definitely down to opinion. Ashcroft has opted to turn his hand back to tracks released with his seminal band The Verve, and a few of his own solo bits, only reimagined and reappropriated. The latter word is the most accurate, though. Here genuinely new life is breathed back into the likes of 'Bittersweet Symphony', which, considering the scale of that particular hit, is no mean feat.