Heavenly 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Aaron Fletcher and Tim Parkin are 77:78 and they dropped their debut album back in 2018 during a heatwave. It was perfect timing for a record that is scorched and red hot throughout with its throwback 60s beat pop sounds all rich in big hooks and English psychedelia. There are an array of deep and beautiful harmonies throughout the record, elements of tumble down dub and plenty of fragile vocal sounds. Standout include the likes of 'Papers' and the most metro of the lot, 'Love Said (Let's Go).'

Review: Sadly this 12" from f former 2 Bears man and rising star Raf Rundell (he of Raf Daddy fame) does not contain the original version of 'Monsterpiece', a deliciously cheery and kaleidoscopic affair that sounds like Prince after necking a couple of pills at Amnesia in Ibiza, but the included remixes are very good. Old pal, and regular Rundell collaborator Joe Goddard leads the way, re-configuring the cut as a woozy slab of vintage deep house/rubbery dub disco goodness. Speaking of dub disco, his 'Dub' mix is particularly inspired to our ears. Turn the record over and you get two more kaleidoscopic and synth-heavy takes from Harvey Sutherland. His vocal version, a Balearic boogie classic in the making, is seriously summery.

Review: At different times in his life, Baxter Dury has railed against, and embraced, the long shadow cast by his iconic father, Ian. 2021's Chaise Longue book, in which he recounted his - as he puts it - "unfortunately fortunate" childhood - indicated a level of acceptance that had previously eluded him. I Thought I Was Better Than You is, in Dury's words, a musical extension of that. Produced by Paul White and featuring a variety of guests, its blends of laid-back funk, subtle nods to dub, post-punk sensibilities, Chaz Janckel-esque audio imagination and spoken word vocals that - yes - recall his dad at his best, it's a confident, entertaining and lyrically revealing outing of the sort that his old man used to knock out in his sleep.

Review: Having devoted volumes three and four of the ongoing 'Heavenly Remixes' series to reworks by the late, great Andrew Weatherall, this double-disc follow-up offers a more eclectic selection of reworks drawn four almost four decades of Heavenly Recordings releases. As with its predecessors, it's a fantastic collection packed to the rafters with highlights, from the shuffling synth pop-goes-dubby nu-disco flex of Ewan Pearson's dub of Out Cold's 'All I Want' and the squelchy, acid-fired indie-dance excitement of Confidence Man's rework of The Parrots' 'Let's Go To Bed', to the psychedelic big beat brilliance of the Chemical Brothers 1996 take on St Etienne's 'Like a Motorway', the 80s new wave-goes-industrial funk excellence of Trevor Jackson remixing Raf Rundell, and the creepy late night techno hypnotism of Daniel Avery's inspired revision of David Holmes.

Review: French dream pop breakthrough Halo Maud follows up her debut record Je Suis Une Ile (I Am An Island) with her second ever LP, Celebrate, which lives up to its name in fantastic fashion. Evidently less introspective than her last, the sonic palette throughout this dozen sunbursts suggests Maud has found her inner John Donne; indeed, opener 'Terres Infinies' is a massive crasher of a three-pronged shoegaze, synthwave and art pop sensibility, and both sonically and titularly suggests a new, deterritorial antithesis to the first album's sense of introspection. Organic, well-rounded instrumentation hears Maud traverse infinite terrains of bright tambourines and detuned synths thereafter.

Review: Australian multi-instrumentalist four-piece Mildlife is all set to unleash its new album Automatic any time soon. Before that though they keep us happy with a new single that comes backed with some pretty big remixes. Adam Halliwell's flute on 'Vapour' is the standout feature on a lush broken beat tune that also makes great use of a vocoder. The first to add their own spin is Scottish legend and one half of Optimo, JD Twitch. Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy aka Cosmodelica is the second remixer and the Worldwide FM host and assured music aficionado comes correct with two versions, one of which is a nice instrumental.