Punch Brothers
All Ashore [ Nonesuch / CD - released 31/Aug/2018 ] Of all the varieties of country, folk, blues and genre-twisting hybrids gathered under the catch-all of Americana, Punch Brothers are surely among the strangest. The five-piece owe their existence to the decision of mandolin player Chris Thile to... |
Real Estate
The Main Thing [ Universal Music / CD - released 28/Feb/2020 ] Over the last decade, Real Estate have crafted warm yet meticulous pop-minded music, specializing in soaring melodies that are sentimentally evocative and unmistakably their own. The new album dives even further into the musical dichotomies they're... |
The Reduction Agents
The Dance Reduction Agents LP [ Lil Chief Records / LP - released 12/Aug/2016 ] In 2006 Lil Chief Records released The Reduction Agents' first and only album 'The Dance Reduction Agents'. It was special for many reasons, but mostly it was James Milne's (aka Lawrence Arabia's) first venture as a singer songwriter. The band were... |
The Renderers
In The Sodium Light [ Ba Da Bing / CD - released 26/Feb/2016 ] The seismic rumbling of The Renderers goes beyond the fiendish pastoralia of their music. Long-time Christchurch residents, Brian and Maryrose Crook witnessed the earthquakes crumble the city. That, and Maryrose's developing career as a painter (she... |
The Renderers
In The Sodium Light (LP) [ Ba Da Bing / LP - released 26/Feb/2016 ] The seismic rumbling of The Renderers goes beyond the fiendish pastoralia of their music. Long-time Christchurch residents, Brian and Maryrose Crook witnessed the earthquakes crumble the city. That, and Maryrose's developing career as a painter (she... |
Richard Swift
The Hex (LP) [ Secretly Canadian / LP - released 7/Dec/2018 ] Richard Swift believed in and sought real beauty. And so, even at its most caustic and sardonic, his masterpiece swan song The Hex is beautiful. Conceived in pieces over the last several years and completed just the month before his passing, The Hex... |
Robert Plant
Carry Fire (Double Gatefold LP) [ Nonesuch / Warner Music / 2 LP - released 13/Oct/2017 ] Carry Fire, Robert Plant's eleventh solo album and first full-length release since 2014's acclaimed Lullaby and...The Ceaseless Roar, was produced by Plant in the west of England and Wales, at Top Cat studio in Box, Wiltshire with additional... |
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Hope Downs [ Ivy League / CD - released 22/Jun/2018 ] It's rare that a band's debut album sounds as confident and self-assured as Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's Hope Downs. To say that the first full-length from the Melbourne quintet improves on their buzz-building EPs from the last few years would... |
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Hope Downs (LP) [ Sub Pop / Ivy League / LP - released 22/Jun/2018 ] It's rare that a band's debut album sounds as confident and self-assured as Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's Hope Downs. To say that the first full-length from the Melbourne quintet improves on their buzz-building EPs from the last few years would... |
Romare
Projections [ Ninja Tune / CD - released 6/Mar/2015 ] "Great dance music albums - albums that sound as good on headphones and home speakers as they do on club soundsystems - aren't easily made. In a form whose primary aims have been to move dancefloors and to move on, full lengths that thrill the head,... |
Ruby Rushton
Trudi's Songbook Vol 1 [ 22A / CD - released 26/May/2017 ] The second studio album from Ruby Rushton, the forward-thinking jazz group led by 22a label owner Tenderlonious. Their 2015 release 'Two For Joy' blew up as one of the year's hottest releases, with 'Trudi's Songbook' set to follow suit. Essential for... |
Run The Jewels
RTJ4 [ BMG / ADA / CD - released 18/Sep/2020 ] What started off as a one off project that quickly evolved into a Grammy-nominated hip-hop super duo, Run The Jewels features the talents of Brooklyn rapper/producer El-P and Atlanta emcee Killer Mike. Atop hard-hitting beats and ominous production,... |
Sampha
Process [ Young Turks / CD - released 3/Feb/2017 ] Since the release of his debut 'Sundanza' EP in 2010 and 2013's 'Dual' EP, Sampha has quietly but assuredly become one of the UK's most enigmatic and respected artists. Still just twenty seven years old, he has lent his vocal, production and... |
Seasick Steve
Love & Peace (LP) [ Universal Music / LP - released 24/Jul/2020 ] 'Love & Peace' sees Steve mixing up all of his much-loved ingredients to deliver a fresh new record that offers the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live. Full of hope for the future, it's a great mix of boogie, blues, rock,... |
Shafiq Husayn
Presents The Loop (Double Gatefold LP) [ Eglo Records / 2 LP - released 29/Mar/2019 ] 'The Loop' is the new LP by Los Angeles based polymath Shafiq Husayn, an epic project which saw its inception in 2012 through a series of studio sessions at Shafiq's home, including collaborations with the likes of Thundercat, Erykah Badu, Flying... |
Shannon Lay
August (Deluxe LP) [ Sub Pop / LP - released 23/Aug/2019 ] There is an entire sub-genre of poetry devoted to rivers and their persistent, meditative flow. Emily Dickinson's "My River Runs to Thee" compares them to the cycle of life, while Alfred Tennyson's "The Brook" deems them eternal and Kathleen Raine's... |
Shannon Lay
August (LP) [ Sub Pop / LP - released 23/Aug/2019 ] There is an entire sub-genre of poetry devoted to rivers and their persistent, meditative flow. Emily Dickinson's "My River Runs to Thee" compares them to the cycle of life, while Alfred Tennyson's "The Brook" deems them eternal and Kathleen Raine's... |
Simian Mobile Disco
Murmurations [ Inertia / CD - released 11/May/2018 ] A thrilling 9-song set, Murmurations is as perfectly pitched for headphones as it is for clubs, named after giant cloud formations of starlings and themed around the stunning emergent behaviors that appear within them. To mirror these movements in... |
Sir Was
Digging A Tunnel (LP) [ City Slang LP / LP - released 17/Mar/2017 ] "Blending Tame Impala-reminiscent vocals like a beam of light with playful yet melancholy electronic production" - Stereogum Sir Was' debut full length, Digging A Tunnel, is an album that constantly bucks trends and confounds expectations.... |
Smith & Mighty
Ashley Road Sessions 88-94 (LP) [ Punch Drunk Records / 2 LP - released 30/Nov/2018 ] Double LP version. Celebrating 30 years since their first release, foundation-laying forefathers Smith & Mighty release Ashley Road Sessions. This one-off double label partnership between Pinch's Tectonic and Peverelist's Punch Drunk is an... |