Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: While many solely know Rush as the iconic Canadian prog-trio to end all prog-rock acts, they didn't arrive right out of the womb with complex time signatures, Moogs synths and drumming god Neil Peart. All of these retrospectively essential identifiers of the band came organically over time, and by the stage they performed their legendary set at 1979's Pinkpop festival, all wheels were finally in motion. While 1976's 2112 is often heralded as the true arrival of Rush, it was the next two year's full-lengths, A Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres, respectively, that charted their course full on into the realms of conceptual songwriting and challenging artistry. This collection captures an earshot of their set at the renowned Dutch festival, unveiling several of their virtuosic, astral compositions for unfamiliar enthusiasts who just wanted to rock, not think, and now you can get in on the immortalised bewilderment.

Review: In 1993, Rush leaned into a heavier, guitar-driven sound, stripping back the synths of their earlier work. Tracks like 'Animate' open with robust riffs and tight rhythms, setting a confident tone, while 'Stick It Out' adds a grunge-inspired rawness that reflects the shifting rock landscape of the 90s. Geddy Lee's basslines are as commanding as ever, threading through Alex Lifeson's crunching guitar work and Neil Peart's signature, intricate drumming. The production captures a raw energy, showcasing a band comfortable in reinvention without losing their edge.

Review: These archival recordings of two extraordinary live performances takes you back to when New York City was a bohemian magnet, with low rent and spaces where artists could thrive. Recorded in Downtown in December 1985 and June 1984, the late, great Arthur Russell is captured performing at an intimate loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation, which was run by Phil Niblock. Since the recordings are unedited, it does a really great job of simulating the experience and so if you close your eyes, it's easy to imagine Russell in the room right there in front of you. Of the numbers played, Russell's gifted avant-garde approach to cello is brilliantly done on 'Too Early To Tell'. And the spine-tingling, raw and deeply emotional 'That's The Very Reason' is arthouse folk at its finest. It epitomises the raw, spell-binding talent that Russell had to captivate a room. Hats off to those who have immortalized these very special shows.

Review: A posthumous release that furthers Arthur Russell's now legendary status. Recorded in Downtown New York City on December 20, 1985, it's an intimate, unedited solo live performance recorded at Phill Niblock's loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation. The takes are very raw and unpolished that it makes you feel like one of the very few in attendance. 'That's the Very Reason' is a beautiful, tender experimental folk piece showing he needed very few materials in order to send listeners on a journey of transcendence. 'Too Early To Tell' is highly idiosyncratic and produces a sound not normally associated with cello. And 'Sunlit Water' has an oriental feel and provides beautiful resolve to a resplendent set.

Review: Where do you start with this epic collection? Arthur Russell should be no stranger to any music boffin, having been a tour de force on the New York underground during the 1970s and 80s. A maestro of disco, formative-era dance music, anything remotely avant-garde, despite having worked on some of the most iconic releases of the day, he only produced three albums before passing before time. "Iowa Dream" is what was left behind, or at least to some extent. Archived and - for years - never earmarked for release, thanks to the tireless efforts of composer Peter Broderick, this collection of demos, home recordings, and lost songs has been restored, edited and mixed, then carefully placed on this lovingly-conceived compilation. The result is a must-buy for fans and newcomers alike and will only serve to cement Russell's place in the pantheons.

Review: Surprisingly, Arthur Russell's first posthumous collection of music, 1993's Another Thought, has never before been released on vinyl. With this gatefold double-album, Be With Records has finally set the record straight. It's well worth picking up, not least because the set, which was initially put together after raiding the legendary cellist-turned-producer's archive of unreleased recordings, is little less than superb. Full of hard-to-pigeonhole songs in Russell's unique style - effects-laden blends of cello, acoustic guitar, emotive vocals, twangy double bass and so on - Another Thought contains some of Russell's most refined and emotional recordings, including such classics as 'How We Walk on the Moon' and 'In The Light of a Miracle'.

Review: Those with an intricate knowledge of the sadly cut-short career of the late, great New York experimentalist and leftfield disco specialist Arthur Russell will happily tell you that his most celebrated solo album, World of Echo, was not only developed over several years, but also utilised edited and chopped-up recordings of shows he performed in his home city in 1984 and '85. This release presents both of those performances in full, with Russell - performing songs to his own effects-laden cello motifs and little else - delivering sparse (but effortlessly emotive) early versions and 'sketches'. These are a mix of lesser-known songs and familiar favourites, including a haunting take on 'Let's Go Swimming', a medley of 'Hiding Your Present From You/School Bell', and the inspired 'Sunlit Water'.

Review: Over the past 15 years of releasing records it's been a rare sighting to see Paul Webb's music as Rustin Man not up and alongside his partner in sound, Portishead singer Beth Gibbons. With a rich history of putting out music as the bass player in Talk Talk, Drift Code for Domino presents Webb with a fully loaded debut solo album. There's plenty of blues and jazzed laced throughout the LP to be appreciated alongside country western motifs that make you want to fashion yourself an underbite and chew on a some wheat grass. Slightly gospel, wavering croons and storytelling are to be heard amidst the charming clunky-clink of a salon's piano keys rattled in a room of smokey vocals. Something to be savoured.

Notes: In the early '90s, aspiring filmmaker (and General Hospital co-star) Ryan Sexton lugged a giant camcorder into some of the seediest clubs and the filthiest apartments in Hollywood. There he filmed hour upon hour of VHS footage of the jaw-droppingly offensive Shock Rock band The Mentors, focusing on their infamous lead singer, 'El Duce.' 30 years later, the team behind The Nightmare and Room 237 and the editor of Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist uncover this dusty stockpile of long forgotten - and unseen - footage. They begin to piece together a picture of the man under the black executioner's hood and what his willfully offensive act and controversial views might tell us about 21st century America. An Incendiary, tragicomic documentary (midway between The Decline of Western Civilization and Crumb) which has been hailed as 'Essential Viewing' by CineVue and called 'Dark and Irresistible"' by director John Carpenter, The El Duce Tapes will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you floored.

Notes: As The Rolling Stones were preparing to play two nights at Wembley Stadium in June 1999, their first London shows in four years, they announced a surprise show at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire for June 8, 1999. An intimate crowd of 1,800 lucky fans were treated to a number of rarely heard gems over the course of 96 minutes. As Mick Jagger stated from the stage that night, "If you want to see the hits go to the big place down the road." And as promised, the deep cuts were deep - "Melody" performed for the first time since 1977, while "Moon Is Up" was brought to the stage for the only time in the band's live career. Sheryl Crow, who opened the show, joins the band during "Honky Tonk Women."

Region code: A/B/C

Notes: Todd Rundgren performs live at the City Winery in NYC in 2012.

Available on Blu Ray for the first time ever, The Unpredictable Todd Rundgren (filmed Live at the City Winery NYC in 2012) showcased Todd's latest musical vision of a contemporary fusion of styles - rock, soul and electronica - that continued the tradition of boundary-breaking works from this visionary genius. Bonus interviews with Todd, Karim Sulton and Jesse Gress included as a treat for fans!

Region code: universal

Notes: The heartfelt memoir of Ray Raghunath Cappo, a legendary hardcore-punk musician-turned-monk, told with warmth, candor, and humour. Ray was a hardcore-punk singer and pioneer of the straight-edge movement living on the Lower East Side of New York City in the '80s, where his band Youth Of Today and Shelter played to packed clubs and touched thousands of people across the globe. As his unusual adventure unfolded, he encountered extraordinary characters, witnessed deep acts of devotion, and experienced profound moments of divine connection, leading to a radical transformation that was ego-crushing and blissful all at once.

Notes: Finally, after a decade of work, countless interviews and immersing himself into the culture, John Robb's definitive book is a journey far into The Art Of Darkness. The first in-depth book on Goth is a deep dive into the enduring culture and the social, historical and political backdrop that created the space for The Art Of Darkness to thrive.

680 pages with interviews with the likes of Andrew Eldritch, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, The Cult, The Banshees, The Damned, Einsturzende Neubauten, Danielle Dax, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, Adam Ant, Laibach, The Cure, Nick Cave and many others, this is a deepdive and walk on the dark side and into the very heartland of Goth.

Every generation has got to deal with the blues - embrace the melancholy. Find a beauty in the darkness, a poetry in sex and death...Whether it's the Roman love of ghost stories, European macabre folk tales of the Middle Ages, Romantic poets, or the original Gothic tribes sacking the Eternal City, a walk on the dark side has always had its attractions. In the post-punk period, Generation Xerox saw music, clothes and culture come together to create one of the most enduring pop cultures of them all that still resonates to this day... Goth.

It may have been a retrospective term for a scene that was already thriving, but its back story goes back millennia. The book starts with the fall of Rome and ends with Instagram and Tik Tok influencers, taking diversions through Lord Byron, European folk tales, Indian sadhus, Gothic architecture, Romantic poets, philosophers and idealists before coalescing through the dark end of the Sixties' youthquake, and then blooming like Baudelaire's Les Fleurs Du Mal in the post-punk period.

Defying the broken heartland of the post-industrial cities, the semi-forgotten satellite towns and the grim real politic of the Thatcher years, this was a post-punk culture full of dark dance and a death disco. The music soundtracked the style and a Stygian obsidian soundtrack fused the many fragments of culture that had been flirted with in the post-war pop narrative; a darker culture that began to coalesce around the holy trinity of the Doors, the Velvets and the Stooges in the late Sixties before flirting with glam rock, being amplified by punk, exploding as Goth, and then splintering into electronic dance music, industrial, psychobilly and new Goth, before finally filtering through dystopian Hollywood blockbusters, modern literature and throughout the modern world.

In the late Seventies, Goth culture emerged around a clutch of bands who found a new form of beauty in the apocalyptic foreboding, as a new youth tribe took glam rock from the catwalk to the cobbles and onto their own dance floors, creating their own art of darkness.