Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Richard Barratt aka Parrot aka Crooked Man is one of those artists with an indelible sonic fingerprint yet a diverse array of sounds in his arsenal. Here he offers up a pair of different remixes of the same tune, namely Jim v Crooked Man's 'Phoenix' on Vicious Charm Recordings. His Goth Edit is the one for us - a haunting tune with eerie guitar strings slowly unfolding over swirling electronics and smudged vocal sounds. It's perfect for this time of year when Halloween is just around the corner and is another master stroke from the Sheffield wizard.

Review: More scorching hot soul sounds here from Original Gravity who look to Jodie and Floyd James and the GTs for their latest dose of 7" goodness. Jodie is in powerful form on the a-side as she delivers an empowering vocal over fast paced and chested-puffed drums that will steamroller all in their wake. This soul anthem has class and depth with some slick guitar solos and big horn energy. Floyd James & The GTs step up on the flip side with 'Johnnie's Blues' which is full of Hammond organ chords and 60s guitar riffs.

Review: The upcoming collaborative studio album between Liam Gallagher and guitarist John Squire is set to shine a refreshed light on the current state of Britpop. Consisting almost entirely of round-bellied rock, leading the charge is the arresting 'Just Another Rainbow' - here the pair are heard in neat unison, painting a picture of unfazed Gallagher-esque nonchalance in the face of a promised utopia - and 'Mars To Liverpool' - concerning the experience of realising a relationship is over before it's too late. Squire and Gallagher make for an exciting pairing, their synergy fleshed out by the album's stellar, full-bodied mix.

Review: Critically acclaimed artist The Japanese House has finally dropped a long-awaited second album, In the End It Always Does. Fans will already know it for lead single 'Boyhood', and might know that the record is all about contradictions - beginnings and endings, falling in and out of love, the mundane and the obsessive. It is four years since the hugely venerated debut and finds Bain not only one in more on her signature sound but also heading into more of a pop realm away from the indie and rock she emerged playing. This exclusive version comes on limited yellow vinyl.

Review: Jim (James Baron) is a UK producer making his brand of Balearic, folk and rock music. Generally, pushing the boundaries of Balearic, this double pack compilation houses remixes of tracks from his most debut album 'Love Makes Magic'. The lineup of producers lending their talents to this double pack is quite impressive. Uk house music legends X-press and Chris Coco just to mention two. This release encompasses a wide array of styles including downtempo, dub as well as house music all keeping the folk and Balearic soul of the originals. A true remix packet that brings these originals to different heights.

Review: There's multi-talented, and then multi-talented. John Foxx is credited as singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer, first making a name for himself up front of the new wave pioneers Ultravox (eventually handing the reigns over to Midge Ure), he presided over a period in the band's history that was less commercially successful, but incredibly forward thinking musically. This desire to keep pushing boundaries has rung true across Foxx's entire - and extensive - oeuvre, as Annexe, one of his solo efforts, goes to show. A pervading sense of darkness carries many of the tracks 'Dance With Me' being just one example, which contrasts the polished, highly synthesised productions, veering from the complex percussive patterns of 'Wings & A Wind' to the sparse, ghostly, near-spoken word operatics of 'A Woman On A Stairway'. Coldwave, some might call it, others would just say John Foxx.

Review: Among that coterie of visionary artists who left their bands to fly solo on the cusp of abundant riches and fame, John Foxx flew from Ultravox in 1980 to pursue his own creative vision. He quickly cemented his own style with albums like Metamatic and The Garden, but arguably delivered the fullest iteration of his sound on this 1983 album. The Golden Section straddles synth-pop and pop rock with ease, and it stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest of the era. From his former band to Duran Duran and even moire niche concerns like Freur, this is the sound of the new dawn for pop music in the UK as the vast possibilities of synthesis were finally being understood.

Review: Normally found recording with his band The Indications, on this new record for Dead Oceans Durand Jones goes solo to explore a more idiosyncratic dimension to his Southern soul. Wait Til I Get Over is a highly personal record which finds Jones digging deep into his roots growing up in Louisiana, reflecting on his ancestry and delivering a potent black music which draws on gospel, rock n' roll and soul and pushes those fundamentals into exciting new places. It's a record to feel with every fibre of your body, with Jones' grit-edged but oh-so-sweet voice at the centre.

Review: When members of mega-bands work with relatively obscurer artists, we're always intrigued. But a potential trapping factor is in thinking Jarak Qaribak, for example, is more of a Jonny Greenwood album than a Dudu Tassa one, when in fact the exact opposite is the case. Tassa, an Israeli singer-guitarist who fuses Middle Eastern stylings with contemporary rock, lends a challenging structural terrain to the Radiohead member's electric guitar licks, with the former's Arabic and Hebrew lyrics moving atmospherically against them. A star cast of fellow Israeli artists accompany the pair, as serene vocal beat-driven movements plod and swell away in an appealingly nu-proggy fashion.