Review: Let's face facts, the trilogy of releases that ACR:EPR completes have helped win over a new generation of fans for the band while reassuring established followers that A Certain Ratio can still do the business. They've been heartfelt and honest, truly innovative and - when all is said and done, at some point in the near future - destined to be considered collector's items.
The final chapter is certainly winding things up triumphantly. '$ouls In The City' seems to go straight for the mind's eye, an enrapturing track that chugs its way through layers of funk groove, with acid details just about audible on top. 'Night People' is a far more sticky, treacly affair, while 'Big Boy Pants' ushers in a kind of nocturnal seduction, brass and rolling breakbeats setting the scene perfectly for the ska-infused melodies of 'Downtime Vibes' that follow.
Review: Popular Hull-based shoegaze quartet bdrmm are building up to their latest tour with the release of single 'Standard Tuning, arriving hot on the heels of their critically acclaimed second album, 'I Don't Know'. Written and recorded during those same sessions and very much similarly flavoured, it continues a fine vein of form right now, with high praise coming in from the likes of Rolling Stone and Consequence. This special 10" also comes with a remix of the live favourite 'Alps' by Ninja Tune/Cambria Instruments electronica specialist Nathan Fake.
Review: Hull and Leeds-based band bdrmm finally follow up their acclaimed debut album Bedroom - which was instantly passed as a modern day shoegaze classic - with a new EP. It features the recent single 'Port' as well as fresh remixes by the ever more essential Daniel Avery, plus Working Men's Club, A Place To Bury Strangers and others. That single, 'Port,' took the band in a new direction with a darker sound fun of distorted drones and beats, with howls of anguish and manic guitar frenzies. That is carried over into the rest of the EP next to some radical reworks.
Review: Indie darling Beck has been 'Thinking About You' on what is his first new music in some time since he dropped his GRAMMY-winning Hyperspace album. This single gets pressed up to a limited edition golden-brown 7" to mark the much-loved artist's birthday and it is a sublime bit of prime and emotional Beck as his heart-tugging best. The ballad has some sombre harmonica, acoustic guitar lushness and was recorded in the same room as his classic 'Sea Change'. On the flip side is his GRAMMY-nominated cover of Neil Young's 'Old Man' which is a wistful sound with rich tones.
Review: Billy Nomates is coming off the back of a hugely acclaimed album in 2002. That was the self titled work on Invada Records and now she follows it up with a new EP that has already had heavy plays on BBC 6Music. Billy even stepped in for Iggy Pop on his show and impressed with her selections. Here the artist develops her unique sound and unflinching lyrics and says of the music that it is "predominantly about communication breakdowns; personally, mentally, physically. A strange thing to happen while communication has never had so many channels. Perhaps we need a direct line."
Review: ?Boys Wonder's 'Be Reasonable' is a lovely and limited edition new 10" etched vinyl released exclusively for Record Store Day 2025. Serving as a companion to their long-awaited debut LP Question Everything, this limited-edition single features two previously unreleased tracks exclusive to wax. The band's distinctive blend of glam-rock energy, sharp wit and infectious pop hooks brings both of these to life and are part of the reason they have been endorsed by Vic Reeves as the greatest band that never was and hailed by Jonathan Ross as one of my all-time favourite bands.
Review: The 60s Liverpudlian rock quartet are famed for their song '6 Day War', which has been sampled from the likes of DJ Shadow in Tokyo Drift and Pusha T on his album released earlier this year. This track is undoubtedly a classic, written in the aftermath of the ongoing Arab-Israeli war of 1967, '6 Day War' is one of the best anti-war tracks of all time. The slow jam-rock ballad comes from the band's album 'Oh What a Lovely War!' released in 1973 which has not been released in Britain until now, making this a landmark pressing. The record is a psychedelic soft-progressive rock LP with emphasis on heavy guitars like in 'Lay it Down' and even pulls from folk rock in 'Dirty Delilha Blues'. Colonel Bagshot were almost criminally overlooked, though their music seems to consistently stand the test of time and it's easy to hear why. The sound is quintessential Liverpool rock, even down to the naming conventions being evocative of The Beatles.
We Are The Beautiful (Spooky Extravaganja dub mix) (8:27)
Frost (4:00)
Age (3:38)
Review: In all honesty, moving straight from the rousing, slightly grinding wall of sound with which 'We Are The Beautiful' signs off, into the lunging bass of a stomping Spooky dub edit of the same track, is both unexpected and a bit jarring. The noisy end of shoegaze-leaning indie into pared back prog-hued tech house from one of the all-time masters, anyone? But then that's kind of the point we want to celebrate.
Chapterhouse may only just be getting the reappraisal they deserve now, over a decade after their last and rather brief reunion tour (with She's A Vision also hitting our shelves early-2023), but their influence on heads and artists alike was significant. Debut album Whirlpool, for example, remains for many a high point of the entire shoegaze movement. Here are three more tracks to prove that point, and one belting - if sonically isolated - remix.
Review: A five-track EP of rarities by Alex Chilton, the American singer and songwriter best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star, but whose later efforts led to an extended ambassadorship of the US avant-garde underground. The bulk of the tracks on ‘My Rival’ originate from Chilton’s earliest days, circa. 1975; at this critical juncture, Big Star was no more, and Chilton was teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Saved by his former bandmate, but still confidant, Chris Bell, they soon found themselves re-roused by the power of music, holing up together in Chilton’s bedroom and recording this short but wild set of bluesy experiments. Easily mistaken as the early murmurations of a Big Star reunion, this project should be taken as an eccentricity unto its own, and wholly deserves its 12” debut after an initial RSD run.
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