New releases last four weeks: All genres

Review: Cologne-based Belfast boy Dominick Martin has been delivering deliciously good albums as Calibre for the best part of a quarter of a century, frequently departing from his trademark drum & bass sound to showcase his love of other sub-heavy and mind-bending sounds such as dub techno, ambient and dubstep. On Little Foot, his first album in two years and 22nd in total, he leans into this considered eclecticism. For proof, compare and contrast the tactile and dreamy 4/4 dub of 'Blame Dub', the dub-wise junglist bruk-up of 'Special', the mutant two-step delight of 'Ukrained', the angularm, sub-heavy UK techno of 'Threadvare' and the Mark Ernestus style spaced-out dub techno of 'Choosing Beggar'. And that's just CD1. A genuine triumphant from one of bass culture's most distinctive musical voices.

Review: While not the band's final album, there's a solid argument to be made that 1995's Worry Bomb was Carter USM's last hurrah - a top-ten set that marked the beginning of the end for the distinctive South London duo. This expanded 30th anniversary edition pairs a remastered version of the original album -which boasts typically gritty, soaring and powerful classics such as 'Young Offenders Mum', the punky 'Airplane Food/Airplane Fast Food' medley, the riotous 'Me & Mr Jones' and the introspective 'My Defeatist Attitude' - with a disc of B-sides and rarities and, most excitingly, a previously unreleased live album of their performance at the 1994 Pheonix Festival. Throw in a DVD featuring videos, Top of the Pops appearances and freshly recorded interviews, and you have an essential item for Carter fans.

Review: Brooklyn record distributor Atypical-dopeness offer the next edition in Joaquin Joe Claussell's Unofficial Edits & Overdubs series. Following a four-tracker of largely unnamed tracks released in 2020, Iboga continues the series, this time with an iterative avatar to top up Claussell's ever-moving house continuum. Claussell's output has lately taken on an ancestral turn, influenced by the hallucinations caused by chewing the roots of an iboga plant, a chemico-spiritual fixture of initiation ceremonies found across Central Africa (whether Claussell actually did take ibogaine isn't clear). What we do know is that, in dialogue with his heritage, Claussell found himself inspired by these initiatory rituals and so set about producing this eleven-track heart-rouser, fusing the overdubbed recorded sounds of Gabon, Cameroon and Congo with his own summative, spiritual, salubrious house sound.

Review: Deaf Center's debut LP gets a 20-year anniversary reissue on CD, pairing the original 2005 album with 20 minutes of unreleased material from the same sessions. Originally out on Type, Pale Ravine marked the first full-length by Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland, who've since carved solo paths via Sonic Pieces. Drifting between chamber composition, shadowy electronics and the hiss of old tape, the record draws on their Norwegian roots and personal family histories. Grainy textures, ghostly pianos and wind-blown field recordings conjure a mood somewhere between forgotten reels of silent film and weather-worn Nordic folklore.

Review: After rising through the ranks of the local punk scene in Palto Alto, California, during the late 1990s, all-female outfit The Donnas were whisked to national (and international) superstardom via a deal with major label Atlantic Records. This retrospective looks back on that period of the now-dormant band's career, combing their two albums from the imprint (2002's Spend The Night and 2004's Gold Metal) with a disc of singles, B-sides, rarities and live takes. That means heaps of heavy riffs, vocals espousing suburban teenage angst and hooky choruses on discs one and two, with the third disc delivering an attractive mixture of raucous pop-punk, nods to metal (one of their major infuences, fact fans) and becalmed and cheery acoustic versions.

Review: Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe join forces on a dual release infusing two distinct musical visions rooted in shared environmental concern. Their new joint release unfolds across two sides, with Luminal offering a vocal-led collection leaning into alt-pop ambiances and timbres, before Lateral rears itself in counterpart as a seamless ambient composition, making up a study in contrast and connection. Recorded in London, the project reflects Eno's lifelong exploration of mood and atmosphere, alongside Wolfe's ongoing push to blur the lines of digital innovation and tactile experience. The project builds the activist art works of Wolfe, a British-American concept artist based in Los Angeles, named by WIRED as one of "22 people changing the world," and tracks the expression of music beyond language or form.

Review: Brian Eno's career has always been about explorationiof sound, technology and the emotional power of music. After pioneering ambient music, Eno has consistently sought out new ways to blend different genres and voices and his latest collaboration with Beatie Wolfe continues this tradition. Wolfe, a British-American artist with an innovative approach to music and activism, complements Eno's atmospheric world with her emotive, alternative vocals. Their work, recorded in London, moves seamlessly from the meditative to the experimental, with tracks like 'Big Empty Country' offering stark contrasts between the brightness of the day and the shadows of the night. This release is not only a nod to Eno's sonic experimentation but also a testament to his lasting influence as an artist who always seeks to connect art with broader societal issues, especially the environment.

Review: By the time Load landed in 1996, Metallica were unrecognisable from the denim-and-leather thrash band of the early 80s. Coming off the back of the colossal success of The Black Album (1991), they had gone supernova: stadium tours, chart dominance, and a sudden place in the mainstream they once seemed sworn to resist. Now their mid-90s pivot hears a squeakier-fresh round of polish through this UMR reissue, as Reuben Cohen handles remastering duties under the eye of longtime collaborator Greg Fidelman. Then and now: at the time, Bob Rock returned on production, as he had fo The Black Album, and again drew out a widescreen sound framing 'Until It Sleeps', 'Hero Of The Day' and 'King Nothing' for mainstream impact. This ed also finally restores the full-length version of 'The Outlaw Torn', which was shaved from the 1996 release due to CD length restrictions (the only time a Metallica album track was edited for format).

Review: Throughout his lengthy career, Richard Norris has always leaned into his psychedelic influences, seemingly finding a multitude of ways to meld minds via unusual fusions, trippy sounds and - as a DJ - an encyclopaedic knowledge of "psych music" in its many forms. On this superb three-disc compilation, he leans into the latter aspect, gathering 42 cuts, most pleasingly obscure, made at different points between the 1960s and today. There's naturally tons to set the pulse racing throughout, from the heavyweight psych-blues of Wool's 'Love, Love, Love', the elongated guitar solos of 'Trip' by Emma De Angelis and the Middle Eastern exotica of Koy Kardesler's 'Shuruk', to the quirky French electronica of Juantrip's 'Shadows', spacey synth-scapes of Ugo Bosoni's 'Rullio' and the pots-and-pans-percussion of 'Time Signals' by Klaus Weiss.

Review: If you're like us you've probably listened to Seattle grunge legends Pearl Jam's Vitalogy repeatedly and love the songs but think what could take this experience to the next level and reinstill that adrenaline that you had when you played it the first half dozen times. Well, this special audio blu-ray version makes it more realistic and immersive - and give you closer listening experience than you'd probably get even at a gig. With tracks such as 'Corduroy' and 'Better Man' easily in their top ten tracks, Vitalogy is Pearl Jam on top form and offers a sweet alternative to the more frequently championed Vs and Ten, whilst being arguably just as strong.

Review: After an extended hiatus of 15 years, Britain's foremost purveyors of Motorik-influenced avant-pop are back with a surprise new album. With leading members (and songwriters) Tim Gane and Laetitia Saddler at the helm and a vast array of former bandmembers and guest performers swinging by the studio to make their presence felt, Instant Holograms on Metal Films - here presented in Japanese edition form complete with obi-strip and an instrumental bonus cut - sounds and feels like classic Stereolab. For proof, wrap your ears around the nostalgic, jaunty and analogue-rich opener 'Mystical Pleasures', the warming shuffle of 'Melodie is a Wound', the slipped Gainsbourg flex of 'Le Coeur Et la Force', the jazzy joy of 'Transmuted Matter' and the heady nostalgia of 'Colour Television'.

Review: Captured over two nights in August 1970, Sun Ra's landmark sets at Fondation Maeght mark his first performances outside North America and document one of the Arkestra's most potent live iterations. Set in a modern art gallery in southern France, the concerts land Ra, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen and co. amid a cross-disciplinary festival alongside Albert Ayler and LaMonte Young, and show the Arkestra in full visionary flight. 'Love In Outer Space' and 'Shadow World' blend ritual chant, sci-fi groove and volcanic improvisation, while 'Cosmic Explorer' and 'Spontaneous Simplicity' show the group folding modal jazz into galactic swing and freeform abstraction. Organ blasts, interstellar percussion, surreal monologues and projections of Egyptian gods and rockets made this a total work. Caux's recollections of stunned audiences match the recordings' scale: volatile yet tightly bound, cosmic but rooted in Black American avant-garde traditions. This new Strut edition spans four CDs and adds extensive liner notes and restored photos by Philippe Gras, pulling the Maeght nights from myth into focus. It's not a mere live document - more like a transmission, decoded decades later. If Ra was right that "space is the place," this is one of its clearest signals.

Review: This 2024 edition of Lament by Ultravox is a comprehensive, end-all-others 7CD + DVD deluxe edition expander including a (you won't believe) 72 tracks, with a newly remastered version of the album alongside a fresh 1980s-style extended remix. The seventh studio album by British new wave pioneers, Lament marked the final appearance of original drummer Warren Cann until the band's reunion in 2012 with Brilliant. But despite the name and the grievous context, the album was hardly lachrymose in sound, and it achieved much commercial success, owing to a prosperous prior experience with producers Conny Plank and George Martin, who drove its lush Chrysalis synthpop sound. Aforementioned remixes include contributions from Moby, Steve Wilson, Blank & Jones, and Midge Ure, while a newly mixed full concert recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in 1984 comes stapled in at the end. Mastered and cut by Phil Kinrade and Barry Grint at Air Mastering, London.

Review: Armin van Buuren is one of the most enduring trance overlords in the scene. He was there at the birth for the genre, and stayed with it through tough times right up to now, when it is very much back en vogue. Here ushers in a new era with the latest in his indefatigable A State of Trance series. The 2025 edition is a triple mix journey showcasing a full emotional and sonic range with 43 tracks across three themed segments, which move from the warm, melodic vibes of On The Beach-with cuts from Claptone x Chicane, AVIRA and OTTAGON-to the high-octane energy of In The Club, including bangers by Ferry Corsten, Andrew Bayer and Gabry Ponte. The final mix, Who's Afraid of 138?!, explodes with peak-hour intensity and is headlined by Armin's collaboration with Rob Swire. This is trance at its most euphoric.

Review: After almost three decades, Kompakt Records is set to deliver its' 500th release - a ridiculously impressive landmark that few electronic labels have previously achieved. To mark the occasion, the Cologne-based imprint has decided to deliver an anniversary compilation featuring (mostly edited) versions of some of its most iconic club hits, underground gems and early obscurities. It does a terrific job in explaining, via music, the label's contribution to European electronic music culture - think 'maximalist' minimal, off-kilter tech-house, ambient pop, synth-heavy hypnotism and twisted, off-kilter nu-disco. Naturally, all of the label's most significant contributors are present (Superpitcher, Justus Kohncke, Robag Wruhme, Gas, The Orb, Jurgen Paape etc), alongside artists you probably didn't realise had released on the label.