Matador 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Even if you've no idea who Boygenius are the subtitle of this reissue alone should warrant investigation. Originally released in 2018, five years on the American indie group are looking to revisit and relive their wildly successful debut EP, which at the time of its initial release had critics fawning over the quality of its content. NME, for example, awarded it a perfect score, while the normalised rating on Metacritic, which aggregates all reviews and works out the average, gives it 84 out of 100. So what was so good about the record? Well, for one thing, each of the artists involved brings their own personality to the equation, resulting in a wonderful stylistic marriage that sounds like minimalistic and melancholic rock and poetic folk pop. And thematically, this is emotionally very highly charged stuff, destined to grab you by the heartstrings and never let go.

Review: Originally released in 1984 by Touch & Go Records, Psychic was the startling debut album by a then largely unknown Butthole Surfers. And it laid out their stall pretty convincingly, with elements that nodded to the psychedelia implied in the title, but the record largely rooted in more 'traditional' punk sounds, the emerging surf-skate scene, and, to a lesser extent, country rock. Listening back now, and the collection has lost little of its original impact. From the moment you hit play, you know this is going to be an uncompromising and unstoppable assault on the senses, throwing weird effects, cunning tape edits, samples of Spanish radio stations, spit and (probably) blood into the mix. A reminder of a much more visceral and unleashed time in the history of music, to revisit is both joy and lamentation.

Review: Canadian experimental hardcore collective Fucked Up have grown into underground heroes throughout the years, thanks in no small part to their prolific slew of challenging, conceptual EPs and stellar full-lengths. Originally released in 2008, and described by their label as "an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living)", the band's sophomore LP The Chemistry Of Common Life has gone onto become one of the most adored post-hardcore works of the 21st century. Angular and angst-riddled yet exuding nuanced melodies and astute lyrical ponderings, this timeless album is still heralded by many as one of the all time essential "thinking man's" punk projects, and celebrates its 15 year anniversary with a vital reissue.

Review: Legendary musician, multi-disciplinary artist and former Sonic Youth fixture Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, The Collective. The Collective follows Gordon's 2019 full-length debut No Home Record, and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen, with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. An full-length exploration and lament, of today's paranoid climate of binge logic, anaesthetic short-term pleasure-seeking and post-truth thinking, The Collective is Gordon's self-described attempt at disruption; a following of the unknown, perhaps even with a view to fail. Whatever failure means to her, Gordon's sonic examination of topics such as masculinity and chaotic world orders is certainly disruptive, pairing wild rock and trap fusions with ironic analyses of the stereotypes surrounding both.

Review: Matador Records top up their ongoing catalogue series Revisionist History - a series of reissues of the label's most esteemed albums, which "people tend to presume is our cheeky way of re-writing Matador's storied past to make it even more (ahem) storied" - with a new version of The New Romance by Pretty Girls Make Graves. Formed in Seattle in 2001, PGMG came together in the fallout of the breakup of a dozen other Seattle scene bands, and amounted to an intelligent and distinctively electric take on the post-punk they knew and loved. The second LP to their debut Good Health, The New Romance was anthemic in comparison to their debut's relative rawness, working in crossrhythmic guitar and synth arpeggios touching on minimalism, which formed a neat counterpart to the ostensibly screamy punk statement heard throughout.

Review: Two years on from her much-loved album Valentine in 2012, Snail Mai makes a welcome return with this lovely new EP, Valentine Demons. All four of these tracks are intimate affairs with closely mixed, often whispered vocals. Every single finger movement on the strings can be heard which brings each one to life. Aside from one never before heard tick 'Easy Thing' these are demo recordings made in the lead-up to that last album using just a minilogue synth, interface, mic, and guitar in her parents' house in Maryland. Their rawness and immediacy makes them at least as good as the final products on the album, if not better.