Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Originally released in 2008, Phantom On The Horizon is the grandiose, progressive rock worshipping high concept EP from Washington based math-rock indebted post-hardcore heroes The Fall Of Troy. Initially abandoned following the leak of early versions in 2004 on what has since been dubbed The Ghostship Demos EP, the band would finally get over this setback and bang out the entire project in secret over October of 2008 before dropping it the very next month. Renowned for its epic, lengthy pieces segmented into chapters like all good prog concept records, the work stands as solely unique from the majority of the trio's remaining output, bridged in the gap year between 2007's instantaneous Manipulator and the more melodic alt rock of 2009's In The Unlikely Event. Utilising an array of guest musicians adding elements of keyboards, violin, cello and glockenspiel for that extra proggy flair, while featuring guest vocal appearances from the likes of Fear Before's Dave Marion as well as both Ryann Donnelly and Jonah Bergman of Schoolyard Heroes, the mini-epic 5 tracks clock in at a 37-minute runtime detailing story of a Spanish galleon meeting with a ghost ship from another dimension. A true outlier gem conjuring a Venn Diagram intersection between early noughties sassy post-hardcore and timeless 70s indebted prog absurdity.

Review: Originally released in 2014 and now celebrating its ten year anniversary, The Flesh Prevails would serve as the sophomore full-length from San Francisco based progressive death metal entity Fallujah. Heralded by many of the core fanbase to be both the band's finest work as well as the strongest of their initial three-album run with original vocalist Alex Hofmann before his departure following the release of 2016's Dreamless, there's a mercurial and poignant maturity to how the band approach their complex compositions. Coalescing aquatic, lysergic hues of buoyant prog soundscapes with dexterous, virtuosic levels of hyper technical death metal, their sonic maelstrom falls somewhere between the density of The Faceless, the brutality of Dying Fetus, and the expansive scope of Between The Buried & Me, resulting in a cosmic hybrid as transportive as it is oppressive.

Review: Originally released in 2005, the fourth (and subsequently final) album from avant-garde metal absurdist supergroup Fantomas (made up of Faith No More vocalist extraordinaire Mike Patton, Melvin's Buzz Osborne, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, and Mr. Bungle/Tomahawk/reliable Patton bassist Trevor Dunn), furthered their "dada-metal" sonic experimentations to literal cartoon levels of bizzarro wonder. Pulling from plunderphonics to craft a 30-track audible calendar of obscure holidays throughout the month of April, the pieces warp and meander like a grindcore band playing lounge music for anime soundtracks. If that sounds ludicrous and alienating, don't worry, as that only indicates you're sane. Considered almost too challenging for even the most devout of Patton's faithful followers, can you handle the unhinged mayhem of Suspended Animation? The record also comes complete with an accompanying mini-calendar to track the hallucinogenic journey.

Review: Formed in 1989 in Orange County, California, the melodic punk band Farside enjoyed an influential eleven-year run before disbanding in 2000. Over their career, they released three albums, two EPs, and a split with Sense Field. Their 1994 sophomore album Rigged was released through Revelation Records and became a fan favourite across punk, hardcore, emo, and alternative rock genres. back then the band was made up of vocalist and guitarist Michael "Popeye" Vogelsang, bassist Bryan Chu and drummer Bob Beshear and this all was their first with Kevin Murphy who shared guitar, vocal and songwriting duties with Vogelsang. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Farside and the original label are issuing this special mint green eco-vinyl pressing of Rigged complete with a 16-page booklet.

Review: A lot has been said about The Monroe Doctrine over the years. What's remarkable is how little of that people seem to remember, or recall in conversations. In a 2006 issue of iconic culture bible Alternative Press, the head of Revelation Records said this was in the top five albums the label had ever released. And several critics have listed it among the greatest and most under-appreciated records of the 1990s. Taking its name from a 1823 message delivered to Congress by US President James Monroe, which would evolve into an understanding that any act of meddling in American affairs by a foreign country was a potential hostile act, the record takes a similar stance. Calling on melodic punk, hardcore, indie rock, post punk and more, it's a statement of intent - don't get in the way of us doing our things, we're too powerful.

Review: Originally released in 1992, Rochambeau was the debut full-length from Orange County, California hardcore punk outfit Farside, following on from their Keep My Soul Awake EP. Signed to the iconic Revelation Records throughout their tenure (who have opted to reissue all three of the band's LPs), they never seemed to find their place as their sonic makeup pulled from numerous subsets of punk, from the blatant 80's melodious post-hardcore of Descendents and Dag Nasty to the 90's alternative metal wave spearheaded by the likes of Quicksand and Helmet, yet all syncopated with a power pop ear for melody evoking Elvis Costello and The Beatles (no, seriously). With the band exclusively working with producer Jim Monroe to help thicken and intensify their sound from second LP Rigged onwards, Rochambeau is often relegated to being their most accessible and pop-punk-centric work, which is quite the backwards tradition compared to the path taken by the majority of hardcore acts.

Review: Fresh Squeeze is a brand new full-length from Miami-based soul jazz trio Fat Produce, an outfit that is comprised of guitarist Addison Rifkind from The Soul Vaccinators, drummer Michael Duffy and world-renowned bass player Rene Camacho. All 14 of these cuts are soul-drenched and jazz instrumentals steeped in funk and hip-hop traditions and they were all made live and in the moment with no overdubs after the event. That lends the record a lived-in and authentic energy as it veers into Afro-tinged sounds like 'Affrentic,' straight-ahead soul-jazz cuts like 'Sticky Beets' and the compelling 'Slick.'

Review: Here we go then. Listening to the first two track on Soft Power, Ezra Feinberg's intoxicating third album is quite simply exhilarating. We begin with the gentle and playful, inquisitive electronic balladry of 'Future Sound', which seems to be the very noise of stargazing itself, captured through keyboards and synths set to 'weird'. The title number is equally beguiling, strange and otherworldly. So by the time we're at 'Pose Beams', the track's more solid structure feels like we've finally grounded ourselves, ready for blast-off. That comes with the appropriately-titled 'Flutter Intensity' - which gathers its rhythm like rocket fuel before launching into the stratosphere once again. And it's here we stay, floating on planetary rings and gravity-free air, for the remainder. A record that lead you feeling very fuzzy inside.

Review: The debut album from The Ferguson Rogers Process dropped late last year and finally makes its way to vinyl via Impressed Recordings. Following their debut single 'Live Together' and an early Melbourne show, Tim Rogers and Lance Ferguson's Substance And Or Style is a smart take on hip-hop with tunes like 'Dirty-Clean', which leans further into their disco influences and captures the glitter-in-the-gutter mindset behind the project. With Rogers urging listeners to dive in and embrace the mess, he reminds us that 'the sink is your shrink', encouraging a no-holds-barred approach to getting things done.

Review: Field Music unveils 'Binding Time' for this year's Record Store Day and it is a poignant suite of songs inspired by the Durham Miners' Association's formation, all performed alongside members of the NASUWT Riverside band. The album was first commissioned for the Durham Brass Festival and slated for Redhills' DMA performance in July 2021, but sadly Covid restrictions postponed the event until its debut at Durham's Gala Theatre in 2022. Peter and David, the duo behind Field Music, meticulously researched the region's mining history and weave in personal narratives with historical facts. The album delves into miners' struggles, blacklisting, and societal impacts, completing a trilogy of socio-historical albums following 2015's Music for Drifters and 2021's Making a New World.

Review: In the late 1960s, Fleetwood Mac was formed by Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, John McVie and Jeremy Spencer and they went on to become one of the most legendary acts in rock. The Best of Fleetwood Mac (1969-1974) compiles highlights from their early years with Reprise Records and features tracks from seven albums-Then Play On (1969), Kiln House (1970), Future Games (1971), Bare Trees (1972), Penguin (1973), Mystery to Me (1973), and Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974. This collection includes hits like 'Oh Well - Pt. 1' and 'The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)' and so reflects the band's evolving lineup and showcases contributions from nearly every member of the era with extra info from James McNair's liner notes.

Review: Flunk's third album, 'Personal Stereo,' released in 2007, has never been available on vinyl before now. It continued their signature blend of Anja's ethereal vocals, Ulf's electronica, and Jo's intricate guitar work while maintaining their trademark uplifting melancholy. The album explores darker themes compared to its predecessors, For Sleepyheads Only (2002) and Morning Star (2004) and revisits their debut's eclectic approach, sampling from decades of popular music as evidenced in tracks like 'Personal Stereo' and 'Change My Ways.' Cult favourite Daniel Johnston features on 'Haldi' adding a unique touch to an album recorded entirely in Oslo apartments. In all, this is a perfect example of Flunk's distinctive "budget pop" style.

Review: Richmond Fontaine's Post to Wire celebrates its 20th anniversary with a deluxe 2LP edition, featuring a bonus live disc on Curacao transparent color vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve. Recognised by Uncut Magazine as one of the top ten albums of the year, this release is adorned with a hype sticker. Described as a blend between Gram Parsons' slide guitar majesty and Lou Reed's narrated New York, Post to Wire offers a collection of narrated snapshots of life, crafted by frontman Willy Vlautin. Vlautin's songwriting delves into the depths of human desperation and resilience, weaving tales of downtrodden characters with incisive lyricism reminiscent of Raymond Carver. The album's epic centerpiece, 'Broken Hearts,' stands out as a testament to Vlautin's storytelling prowess, binding together characters in a shared journey of struggle and hope. With tunes that evoke familiarity and characters that feel like neighbors, Post to Wire emerges as a great addition to the canon of passionate, literary rock 'n' roll.

Review: "A revelatory blast of soul, R&B and off-the-rails piano jams". Rolling Stone magazine could not have been much clearer in its recommendation of Plain Sight. Neal Francis' second album, released in 2021, nodded to everyone from George Clinton to Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield to Prince. It was pop songwriting in the truest sense - free and experimental yet somehow universally enjoyable and captivating. The third, Francis Comes Alive, offered, not more of the same, but equally generous helpings of funk-infused, r&b topped soul-groove with a lashings of overbite. Now Return To Zero proves those were no flukes. That familiarly unpredictable yet soothing Francis sound is more refined and elegant than ever, but still seems to want to take you towards the hazy neon glow of a backstreet dancefloor long after dark.

Review: InFine has always been an enigmatic label. It started life when co-founder Alexandre Cazac attended a Francesco Tristano concert in Paris, during which the legendary pianist covered Derrick May's Detroit techno track 'Strings Of Life', compelling the attendee to team up with Yannick Matray and Agoria to create a platform for electronic-classical noodling. And, even if the latter French electronic tour de force has since left the team, the imprint has continued to push these kinds of boundaries since. Francois & the Atlas Mountains have some big shoes to fill with their debut for the label, then. And they do this with aplomb, albeit the kind of aplomb that's softly spoken, and sounds like you're gazing out across an endless view which is at once unknown and comforting. Electronic folk, chill-disco, whispered downtempo synth pop and patient plugged-in symphonies.

Review: "I think we all have fears within us and fears that we confront in our life at different times ... and how we react to those fears is how we earn who we really are," Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos told Apple Music's Hanuman Welch in an interview about The Humans of Fear, its catalysts and sources of inspiration. Sonically, this is typically bombastic and almost relentlessly upbeat, following in the footsteps of the Glasgow group's established sound. Which has, of course, changed over the years. So while we once had a thoroughbred indie rock band named after a racehorse and Archduke Ferdinand, over the last decade or two they have evolved into a far more electronic and synth-heavy outfit. On The Humans, Ferdinand seem to have measured the distance betwixt the two with more accuracy than ever, sticking their flag in the surface of a perfectly realised middle ground.

Review: Like a cross between Jimothy Lacoste, Lily Allen, Mac De Marco and The Breeders, Freak Slug is a fine addition to the esteemed Future Classic record label. Freak Slug appears to gravitate towards food-themed song titles and on single 'Piece of Cake' she makes her craft seem effortless with witty wordplay and melodies flowing out of her. 'Liquorice' is a bigger sounding tune, with a bit of Weezer kick, while 'Ya Ready' leans into a post-grunge territory with more serious, affecting somber tones and 'Sexy Lemon' has shades of Superorganism. A solid effort from a fast-rising star.

Review: The long-awaited new album of psychedelia-tinged country from US singer-songwriter Edith Frost. It's her first album from the Texas native since 2005 and continues her long-standing partnership with the esteemed Drag City label, who she started her solo career with in 1996, after brief stints in bands The Holler Sisters and The Marfa Lights. Despite her lengthy absence, sonically she sounds on the form of her life: 'Nothing Comes Around' is as cool as anything Cate Le Bon or Aldous Harding have released recently. And 'Hold On' reflects Frost's taste for atypical vocal arrangements, which adds a striking touch to the otherwise more orthodox Americana feel.

Review: Canadian post-hardcore art-punk collective, Fucked Up, have been releasing projects at a ludicrously prolific rate ever since their 2001 inception, yet even by their own standards, they've gone majorly overboard in the past few years. Following on from 2021's epic Year Of The Horse EP and the 2022 follow up Oberon EP; named after the king of fairies from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2023 saw the release of their sixth full-length One Day (with all member's individual parts recorded under a strict 24-hour time limit) while 2024 birthed two sequels in the form of Another Day and Someday (both recorded with the same mantra). Their eighth album overall, with a promise to take a much-deserved hiatus following release, from the opening squall of 'City Boy', the band's reliable concoction of proggy, art-rock inspired chaotic hardcore is unleashed with allusions to Greek tragedy and even a chorus-like back and forth between the vocals and lyrics, conjuring the type of poetic, epic, theatrical spectacle not traditionally standard for the punk scene. In Fucked Up terms however, it makes perfect sense.

Review: Originally released in 2001, The Argument would serve as the sixth and final full-length from Washington D.C. post-hardcore visionaries Fugazi (led by Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Guy Picciotto of Rites Of Spring). Released in tandem with their Furniture EP, the project continued the band's further experimentation and internal dissection of a subgenre and style they were creating, curating and bastardising in real time. Making extensive use of cello and piano, while weaving in more unhinged spoken word diatribes, the project falls in line with the latter-day art punk of Red Medicine and End Hits, while providing a bookended finale of incomparable intensity, equally disgusted and concerned with the war-torn world at large and man's constant inability to find better means of facilitating change. Often cited as not only the band's best work but a monolithic cornerstone of the scene at large, this repress naturally lands courtesy of MacKaye's own Dischord Records and arrives on artwork complimenting blue marbled vinyl.

Review: The Fun Years is a group formed by multi-instrumentalists Ben Recht and Isaac Sparks and they have crafted a fine blend of ambient, drone, post-rock and turntablism since the early 2000s. Baby It's Cold Inside was originally released in 2008 and still stands as their pinnacle with evocative turntable loops creating textures that bring to mind Philip Jeck and Jan Jelinek while baritone guitar drones and subtle processing add depth. Tracks like 'My Lowville' offer slow post-rock motifs while 'Auto Show of the Dead' explores piano and guitar intricacies. This reissue has been remastered by LUPO and is right up there with any 2000s ambient masterpiece.

Review: Oakland, California. Present Day. Although you might not believe it when you hear it. Justin Pinkerton, or Futuropaco, certainly knows how to drop a red herring, conjuring a cacophony of psychedelic funk-jazz-rock stuff that feels like it has always been here but is brand new, and implies it took a full entourage locked in sweaty jam to realise what is really a one-man-band triumph. Hone in squarely on the rhythmic aspect to understand the core strength. Those drums, and those drum solos, seem to invoke percussive legends without demanding you listen for 20 minutes to their patter and thud. The guitars lunge and drive and chug with the intent of early metal or slo mo druggy electronic dance. And the melodic elements veer from disorientating crescendo to the best of the Spaghetti Western scores.

Review: Mercy is a collaborative work between the late great Lee "Scratch" Perry (during his post-Black Ark Studios era), Peter Harris and Fritz Catlin, the drummer from the industrial funk dub act 23 Skidoo. What they cook up is unashamedly experimental outsider works that collide mad mixing desk trickery, Perry's trademark vocal mutterings and plenty of occult sound designs. Melodies are smeared and smudged, rhythms are drunk and off balance and moods range from balmy to bonkers, often within the same damn track. A maverick collage, for sure.