Review: Pioneering Japanese psychedelic rock Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (AMT) were formed in 1995. Their relentless output has spawned various offshoots over the years, such as Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno and Acid Mothers Temple SWR, synthesising and alien cosmo-grammar in sound, one that perhaps only the most acid-casualtied tongues can interpret or speak. Now present through Rolling Heads comes their latest album for 2025: Holy Black Mountain Side comprises three psychedelic pieces, reticulating a series of recording sessions held down between 2021 and 2023, at one point reinterpreting a traditional folk song, and throughout enlisting guest bass from Taigen Kawabe of Bo Ningen. Each record comes wrapped in unique artwork by lead improvisor Kashiwagi Ten, adding an extra layer of veiled mystery to each: no two records are visually alike.
Review: Having celebrated his 50th birthday late last year, Ryan Adams has naturally been in an introspective mood. It makes sense, then, that the long-serving rock/country fusionist should offer up an album made up entirely of covers of songs by other artists that have in some way inspired him over the years. Generally gentle, with string-laden, largely acoustic arrangements, Changes features some genuinely brilliant interpretations - as well as some surprise ones. For proof, check his piano-and-strings wander through 'Panic' by the Smiths, a wonderfully heartfelt rendition of 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' by Simple Minds, a country-folk take on the Rolling Stones 'Sympathy For The Devil' and a lilting, poignant Prince cover ('When Doves Cry', which comes complete with extended harmonica solos and some genuinely lilting strings).
Review: Aesop Rock has long thrived on twisting the ordinary into the uncanny, and his latest full-length after 2023's irony-packed Integrated Tech Solutions hears him deepen that fascination. Examining the unseen mechanisms that guide daily life - dream logic, half-formed memories, fleeting emotions - he now blurs the lines between perception and reality with densely packed verses and meticulous self-produced beats. A brooding, cinephilic album recalling the atmospheric street wiles of filmmakers like Wong Kar Wai, the playful 'Send Help', contemplative 'Movie Night' and dusky 'Black Plums' chart strange emotional terrain, brought to life through warped sonic forensic architectures and sharp lyrical precision. Joined by Lupe Fiasco, Armand Hammer, Hanni El Khatib, Open Mike Eagle and Homeboy Sandman, the album pivots constantly, driven by intuition but grounded in detail Speaking on the record's emphasis on public bareness, Rock remarks on 'Checkers', a song "about the neighborhood outside your home being the great leveller. You can't show up feeling one way because the world will show you otherwise."
Review: This beautifully presented box set gathers all five albums from Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoti's V.I.R.U.S series, a collaborative project spanning five albums originally released between 2002 and 2011. Disc one (Vrioon) sets the tone, with Sakamoto's beautiful (and frequently effects-laden) piano motifs rising above glitchy minimalist rhythms and experimental ambient soundscapes. The albums that follow offer subtle shifts in their collaborative sound whilst retaining the same core artistic approach, with the pair frequently alternating between poignant, slow-burn minimalism and emotive, mood-enhancing ambient maximalism. Throughout, the pair beautifully balance hard-wired electronic experimentalism with classical musicality.
They Took Control Of You (CD 1: Atomic Rooster - Released In 1980)
She's My Woman
He Did It Again
Where's The Show?
In The Shadows
Do You Know Who's Looking For You
Don't Lose Your Mind
Watch Out!
I Can't Stand It
Lost In Space
Throw Your Life Away (bonus tracks - B Side Of single 1980)
Browken Windows (Recorded In 1980)
Do You Know Who's Looking For You (demo 1980)
Don't Lose Your Mind (demo 1980)
He Did It Again (demo 1980)
Lost In Soace (demo 1980)
End Of The Day (demo 1981)
Hold It Through The Night (demo 1981)
No Change By Me (demo 1981)
Play It Again (demo 1981)
Moonrise (Last Recording 1981)
They Took Control Of You (CD 2: live At The Marquee club 1980)
Death Walks Behind You
Watch Out!
Tomorrow Night
Seven Streets
Gershatser
I Can't Take No More
In The Shadows
Devil's Answer
Do You Know Who's Looking For You?
Review: After a five-year split, Atomic Rooster returned with renewed force on their sixth studio album, Atomic Rooster, pushing into heavier territory sligning au naturel with the emerging new wave of British heavy metal. Released in 1980, the album marked a sharp turn from their earlier, more progressive leanings, favouring a nude, aggressor rock sound. Guitarist and vocalist John Du Cann reworked two tracks, 'She's My Woman' and 'Where's the Show?', from his unreleased 1977 solo work The World's Not Big Enough, breathing into them second life within the Rooster framework. Though the 2005 CD reissue stirred interest with rare demos and extensive sleevenotes, it remains an "unofficial" release due to copyright issues with EMI. 'Do You Know Who's Looking for You?' later found new life via a Finnish-language cover by rock band YUP.
Review: Mansfield's B-Movie were among a clutch of bands in the early 80s whose members had abandoned their formative thrashy guitar punk influences, and embraced broader, arty, keyboard-laden electronic post-punk. They had a light and catchy, yet brooding Cure-esque hit titled 'Remembrance Day', which shot them up the ranks on the UK gig scene and landed them a record deal. Most of the material they recorded once they got signed was, however, confined to Universal's vaults until very recently because B-Movie had line-up issues that hindered their ability to release an album. Now out of the clutches of contractual obligations, the band have unearthed the album that never was and titled it - quite aptly - Hidden Treasures. Ultimately, they are one of the great 'lost' bands of the early 80s and upon tuning in you can hear that they had in abundance the individuality, style and excellence to have shot them up the charts and made them a household name, had this material been their debut album. Thankfully, they have righted the wrongs of history and they can hold their heads up high forever for having made such brilliant music in their first era.
Review: Matt Berninger, voice and wordsmith behind The National, returns with his sophomore solo effort Get Sunk: for his sharp enough to cut adamantium and melodies that linger like motion ghosts, Berninger digs deep into the questions of identity: who we once were, what happiness really means, and the search that never ends. The album doesn't spell out autobiography but channels a narrator exploring selfhood amid possibilities and pitfalls, balancing on the edge of joy and despair. Collaborating with Hand Habits on 'Breaking Into Acting', and from the reefing 'Inland Ocean' to the reflective 'Times of Difficulty,' Get Sunk is a true personal snorkel dive, tracing both bound ties and yet unwondered roads.
Review: With a title inspired by the utterances of The Oracle of Delphi, a cult of female priestesses who reportedly "changed the course of civilisation" by inhaling volcanic vapours, it's clear that Lee Burtucci and Olivia Block's first collaborative album is rooted in paganistic visions and experimental mysticism. It's comprised of two lengthy tracks, each accompanied by edited 'excerpts', and combines Burtucci's experimental synth sounds and tape loops with Block's processed vocalisations and hazy field recordings. Dark and suspenseful, with each extended composition delivering a mixture of mind-mangling electronics, creepy ambience and musical elements doused in trippy effects, it sits somewhere between the charred "illbient" of DJ Spooky and the deep space soundscapes of the late Pete Namlook.
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