Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: Deep Valley is a new collaborative work by Australian artists Seaworthy aka Cameron Webb and Matt Rosner and they came together for it during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum in New South Wales. The property which was gifted to the Australian public by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in the 1990s offers a unique landscape along the Shoalhaven River and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs and diverse wildlife. Drawing inspiration from Boyd's belief that "you can't own a landscape," Deep Valley combines the inspiration of that setting with environmental recordings, guitars, piano, and electronic processing all of which aim to highlight the transient nature of ecosystems and encourage you to reconnect with the sounds of nature.

Review: Seefeel's new album Everything Squared marks their first release since 2011, on which the "first ever shoegaze-electronica band" flex a positively retroactive take on the sound they sired. From the opening 'Sky Hooks' - a track which weaves an oxbow shape through small bankside groves of nymphlike-vocals in the peaks, and determined plods through ambient dub subterrains in the troughs - to the penultimate 'Hooked Paw', a similarly dubby but comparatively gnosis - a sophistic dream-blear for vocals and detuned atmoss at 140bpm, recalling the surreal ambient fort-das of HTRK or Clouds - this is not a record to be listened to lightly, despite its comeback status.

Review: Shellac's sixth studio album, To All Trains, is a demonstration to the band's distinctive sound. Recorded over several years and mastered by Bob & Steve at Chicago Mastering Service, the album features Shellac's trademark minimalist sound, characterised by asymmetric time signatures, repetitive rhythms, and angular guitar sound. Albini's and Weston's surreal, bitingly sarcastic lyrics add to the album's unique atmosphere. With its complex and unconventional approach to music, To All Trains showcases Shellac's mastery of their craft and their unwavering commitment to their distinctive sonic vision.

Review: SML is the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann. Together they present their debut album Small Medium Large, a collection of long-form improvisations recorded during two separate two-night stands at the beloved Los Angeles venue ETA. Forming the perfect locale in which to boost their initial rise, ETA is perhaps no longer a fitting name - with SML, we're no longer pondering this band's estimated time of arrival. Small Medium Large is a sublime assemblage of circulatory grooves and textural anomalies, at different moments recalling the synth-laced improvisations of Herbie Hancock's Sextant, the jagged dance punk of Essential Logic, the rhythmic revelry of Fela Kuti, the low-end elasticity of Parliament/Funkadelic, or the glitchy dub techno of Pole.

Review: There are many ways to deal with upheaval and crises but sometimes the best approach is to answer harsh realities with an antidote. Speaking on their new album, tree-loving masked electro-punks Snapped Ankles say: "We can still hold the line of beauty, form, and beat. No small accomplishment in a world as challenging as this one... hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof." And to their credit the album lives up to the manifesto: 'Raoul' is exactly what you'd want to hear at 3am in Glastonbury festival; whilst 'Pay The Rent' sounds like a homage to big beat, spiced with krautrock. Snapped Ankles clearly have the tools and the talent to send people's minds to space. A noble entry deserving of glory.

Review: There's no 'difficult second album' syndrome evidence on Squid's sophomore full-length. While it lacks the forthright, math rock and post-punk-inspired immediacy of the Brighton band's acclaimed full-length debut, the density, inventiveness and experimentation that marks out O Monolith more than makes up for it. For proof, check recent single 'Swing (In a Dream)', a wall of sound affair that builds through approaching waves of instrumentation (first picturesque 16-bit synths and acoustic guitars, then grooves, trumpet solos and finally grizzled guitars), the laidback post-punk-funk of low-slung treat 'Undergrowth', and the skittish, jazz-flecked, layered soundscape that is 'The Blades', where squally horn solos and dense alt-rock guitars catch the ear.

Review: Still House Plants' If I Don't Make It, I Love U is a standout production into fractured soundscapes and emotional vulnerability. The London post-rock trio, comprised of vocalist Jess Hickie-Kallenbach, guitarist Finlay Clark, and drummer David Kennedy, eschews conventional song structures in favor of a collective flickering that feels both contained and alive. The album is the band's telepathic interplay, with each track serving as a vessel for abandon and experimentation. Through elongated silences and exquisitely incongruous angles, Still House Plants shine here with their free-spirited approach to punk and free improvisation. Tracks like 'More Boy' and 'M M M' reveal a bold and vivid iteration of their music, blending elements of Midwest emo, 90s slowcore, and no wave minimalism. Hickie-Kallenbach's soulful vocals add depth and intimacy, while Clark's guitar work synthesizes a diverse range of influences. With a mix of mystery and disclosure in the lyrics, If I Don't Make It, I Love is an emotional prism where vulnerability and intimacy intersect. Still House Plants' fractured aesthetic mirrors our fractured selves, offering a contemporary take on post-punk experimentation.

Review: Epic alert! New York industrial gods Swans' latest single is a 19-minute behemoth that unfurls like an overwhelming emotional landscape. Gira's gravelly voice takes centre stage, enveloped by the steady churn of droning guitars and atmospheric textures that build to a blistering intensity. 'The Healers' and 'I Am A Tower' highlight the band's mastery of long-form tension, each section holding, stretching, and twisting in a way that feels like a momentary release, only to be swallowed by the next wave. It's a slow, deliberate unfolding of sound that's both hypnotic and punishing. This isn't music for the passive listener; it's exhausting yet utterly immersive, teasing out tension and reflection in equal measure. If you didn't know already, consider yoursefl warned.

Review: There have been few experimental rock bands who've enjoyed (or perhaps endured) as tumultuous career as Swans. Since forming in 1982, they've broken up, reunited and changed personnel umpteen times, though bandleader Michael Gira has remained the creative force throughput. The Beggar, the band's latest album, is similarly turbulent in tone and approach, with Gira and company offering up sonically detailed, foreboding and off-kilter explorations that offer a more expansive and measured take on their trademark heady and often hallucinatory trademark sound. This is particularly evident on disc two opener 'The Beggar Lover (Three)', a shapeshifting, 45-minute instrumental meditation peppered with found sounds and recycled samples from their Soundtracks For The Blind album.