Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Baxter Dury has been making superbly loose and laidback sounds for more than 20 years now. Here, Mr Maserati collects some of his famously idiosyncratic sounds from across that long career with plenty of comedown disco sounds and deep, rumbling basslines. There is plenty of wry humour and musical sweetness within the material which is taken from Baxter's six long players. Says the artist, "It's a kind of provincial nod to the music I got into during lockdown because my son was playing it - Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator and Kendrick Lamar."

Review: David Holmes' first solo album since 2008's The Holy Pictures, Blind On A Galloping Horse now comes to Heavenly Recordings. A politically-charged LP full of sonic interrogations of political disaster and turmoil, Holmes here joins the cast of artists using their art to provide solace to music fans suffering at the hands of the Uncertainocene. With updated versions of the previously released singles 'Hope Is The Last Thing To Die' and 'It's Over If We Run Out Of Love', as well as a recording of an unreleased song by Holmes' late friend Andrew Weatherall, we're reminded of conflict, migration and othering, as all manner of voices combine to form a diverse but unified whole against a backdrop of leftfield post-punk - be they the spoken word accounts from Afghan and Ukrainian refugees now welcomed as residents in Belfast, or the French and Irish observers of the UK's turmoil of recent years.

Review: Where would you be without Mark Lanegan? Where would any of us be without Mark Lanegan? Scratch and don't answer that - responses probably depend on personal experiences. Nevertheless, the man once most commonly known as the guy from Screaming Trees is nothing short of vital - incredible songwriter and top drawer musician, with his second album in under six months more than enough evidence to back those claims. In many ways 'Straight Songs Of Sorrow' is an amalgamation of all the artist has done and been before solo, which is saying something given this is studio LP number 12. Lyrically a testament to some of his darkest hours gone by, elements of early, rawer outings are more than audible, with lashings of the synth stuff that has typified later material acting as a counterbalance. Delicate acoustic and string workouts, shades of DNTEL, twisted organ cries and soul searching, dark, alternative rock moods.

Review: Atina 'Mattiel' Brown is a 60s psyche-pop inspiration from Atlanta, Georgia, giving the ears of a modern age a new way to appreciate a lo-fi, garage rock style of storytelling. Satis Factory presents the band with its second album since debuting in 2017 with a self-titled LP, and Brown's voice for Mattiel still reigns supreme in its bluesy, telephone filtered manner. Co-produced by Randy Michael and Jonah Swilley and recorded in their native Atlanta, the vintage touches applied to the band's music sees an authentic blend of deadpan vocals, jangly guitars meet with a touch of spaghetti western, subtle touches of folk and rockabilly, with that perfect smattering of dusty sundown blues.

Review: Saint Etienne's cult classic Good Humor marks its quarter-of-a-century anniversary with this special splatter vinyl reissue edition. It comes with the original artwork and inner sleeve that was used back in 1998 when it first dropped and it has aged fantastically well. The title is an intentional US spelling to kick back against the 'quintessentially English' tag the band often got given. It also found them leaving behind indie dance and serving up some extra acoustic and orchestral elements with plenty of synth-pop hooks and dance grooves.

Review: Working Men's Club have already gone on a wild ride despite only forming in mid-2018. They were already on Melodic with their debut single one year later, soon snapped up by Heavenly who released their self-titled debut in 2020. As they've grown fast, their sound has raced towards a compelling kind of synth pop clearly indebted to the likes of Cabaret Voltaire and The Human League, but certainly not constrained by those monolithic influences. On their second album, lead single 'Widow' points to a powerful, subtly noirish sound. It's a little more bombastic compared to the angular funk of earlier single 'John Cooper Clarke', but not less refined and clear in its intentions.