VARIOUS 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: A UK club culture icon for all the right reasons, Luke Unabomber has put in a helluva shift over the years bringing the best tunes to the best parties for decades upon decades. He might be just as visible these days as a social media raconteur-comedian, but his depth of knowledge is unfathomable and a compilation like this is the perfect vessel to realise just a little of what he possesses in his fabled record shelves. Away from direct dancefloor firecrackers, this is a chance for Una to show off some jaw-dropping mellow cuts spanning soul, jazz funk, spaced-out electro and scores more obscurities besides. It's a collection like no other, featuring fully fledged songs that will burrow into the soundtrack of your own life without even a shred of resistance.

Review: With some of the best DJs and selectors, there is a certain mysterious sound or underlying feeling which unites the music they play, regardless of genre, year or tempo. British DJ, producer and music maestro Luke Una is a master of telling a story through music and this compilation is a perfect example of his musical alchemy in action. The second volume in his E Soul Cultura series, Una's intriguingly woven pattern of new, old, rare and under-discovered music from around the world became the soundtrack to rejuvenated positivity and won him favour with record outlets.
The compilation isn't just peacocking his crate diving ability, but it's a sonical narrative that engages the ebbs and flows of salsa, nu-disco, psych rock and Balearic. It's a grab bag of sounds, and each one is as intriguing and groovy as the last. Here's to a hopeful trilogy.

Review: Revisionist history is just as important for music as it is for geopolitics or economics, so we're more than happy to recognise this 'Alternative Vision Of Argentinian Music' throughout one of the most important decades in popular music history. Whereas popular thought tended towards Argentina being a hotbed for 'rock nacional' (national rock) music made in the post-dictatorship return to democracy, here Soundway focus on the more extreme ends of the experimental music fringes that cropped, thanks to the newfound freedoms allowed by neoliberal policies. Arthur Russell-esque disco, downtempo battle breaks, avant-garde obscurities - it's all there.

Review: Spacetalk Records returns from a period of hibernation with something special: a new collection of ultra-rare, little-known nuggets from label co-founder Danny McLewin AKA Skyrager. Unlike his previous compilations as part of Psychemagik, there's no killer concept behind Traces of Illusion, just a desire to share some of the dusty obscurities he's found during years of determined crate digging. Musically, it's a mixture of psychedelic folk, leftfield synth-pop oddities, blue-eyed soul, acid-fried blue-eyed soul, Balearic boogie, Americana, ambient jazz, AOR, late 80s dancehall-soul and even a spot of grizzled progressive rock. In other words, it's as educational as it is entertaining, and packed to the rafters with private press treats and impossible-to-find curiosities.

Review: Gomma played a vital role in the popularisation of the indie-dance explosion that happened some 20 years ago now. Best known for being spearheaded by US indie outfit LDC Sound system, it combined dance, disco, wave, post-punk and more into a party-ready sound that found favour with both ravers and guitar heads. This second collection from the German label highlights the best of music they put out back then with names like In Flagranti, label co-founder Munk, Nancy Whang & Bonar Bradberry and many more all present and correct.

Review: Elsewhere Jr 1 is aims to bring "something a little different, something a little out there" to the listener, and indeed it does. This double LP compilation brings together both new and old compositions from a wide range of countries, with the unique twist that they were all made for young'uns; kids; children; tykes; little ones. 2.5 years in the making, this international project heard its makers thoroughly scour the archives for every strange children's music curio, from Belgium to Denmark, extracting a surprising amount of cosmic weirdness from the works.

Review: When DFA Records first released 'Compilation #2' back in 2004, the label was arguably at the peak of its powers, consistently delivering killer cuts that blurred the boundaries between post-punk, early '80s NYC no wave, and more traditional forms of U.S dance music. It remains a brilliant snapshot of James Murphy's label (and, to a lesser degree, NYC's alternative punk-dance scene of the period), as this surprise first vinyl edition proves. Slimmed down to 18 tracks, all of which are presented in full length form (the original CD edition was mixed), and stretched across four weighty slabs of wax, it contains countless highlights from LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean, Black Dice and the Rapture, as well as a handful of classic DFA remixes and a banger from original punk-funk heroes Liquid Liquid.