Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: The Residents deliver a live performance that's as eccentric as their decades-long career. Recorded in Fribourg, this show blends their surreal storytelling with experimental soundscapes, creating an atmosphere that's both haunting and playful. The arrangements, reworked for the live setting, highlight their ability to transform unconventional ideas into captivating experiences. This is a snapshot of their raw, theatrical energy, offering long-time fans a reminder of their innovative spirit.

Review: The self-described "world's most famous unknown anonymous art-concept multimedia pop group" return with one of their most expansive, daring, absurd and bad taste visions to date. Doctor Dark is a project over two years in the making while the concept has been in inception for decades with its overarching theatrical narrative inspired by the real life case of James Vance, the young man from Reno, Nevada who tried to commit suicide with a shotgun in 1985 after listening to Judas Priest and the subsequent unsuccessful, infamous 1990 court case that followed. Combining this with the life of the real "Doctor Death" - Jack Kevorkian; the Armenian-American pathologist and proponent of physician-assisted euthanasia, said to have assisted in the deaths of 130 terminally ill people between 1990 and 1998, you get the culmination of an orchestra-backed punk-opera written in collaboration with co-producer/conductor Edwin Outwater and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Detailed as "a journey into the greasy world of euthanasia, drug abuse and an unhealthy obsession with heavy metal", revolving around "a couple of heavy metal kids (Maggot and Mark) and an insomniac Russian physician (Dr. Anastasia Dark)", the three-act modern theatre piece offers a head-melting sonic concoction of abrasive art-punk stylings emboldened by complex brass and horn work, with a deft balancing act of chaotic yet controlled punk and classical arrangements. With both CD and vinyl versions including a "read-along libretto", with listeners encouraged to read as they listen to the album, as well as a stage adaptation apparently in the works to follow upcoming live tour dates, this just might be The Residents' piece de resistance of avant-garde art-punk multimedia absurdity.

Review: Finish dub techno powerhouse Joachim Spieth welcomes UK artist Rhubiqs to his well-regarded Affin label for a debut appearance that sinks you into a widescreen world of ambient lushness. His Aegis of Silence album takes cues from divergent sounds like post-rock and soft ambient as well as drone and even modern classical. It's an ever-shifting soundscape with smeared pads and nostalgia dreams, half-remembered thoughts and a sense of mood that ranges from escapist and blissed out to more ominous and paranoid.

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: 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'.