Review: This is a very special gold vinyl version of the soundtrack for the tokusatsu science fiction superhero television series Spectreman. It ran in the early 70s and had three seasons in all with a cult following who will go nuts to finally have these sounds on wax all these many decades later. It has one Japanese side and one American side and is the work of Ricardo Cruz and Kunio Miyauchi. Instrumentals and the theme song all feature to make this a real retro classic.
Review: If you're unfamiliar with Dr Robert, we recommend checking out The Blow Monkeys. Robert Howard, as he's credited, formed the iconic new wave and 'sophisti-pop' group in 1981 and his piano keys, bass notes, guitar melodies, vocals and words define the band's sizeable back catalogue. Matt Deighton, meanwhile, might mean Mother Earth, Bill Fay, or Paul Weller to some listeners. He's been involved with them all. Here, the esteemed UK musicians run into one another on Last Night From Glasgow, a treasure of a patron-funded, not-for-profit label out of Scotland's biggest city. It couldn't be a more credible and thoughtful combination. Musically, the result packs crazy levels of musicality, taking a lead from pop, soft, folk and psyche rock to produce a sound which moves between soaring to understated grandeur to deceptively complex and overtly intimate.
Review: Dr. Robert of British 80s pop hitmakers The Blow Monkeys and British folk icon Matt Deighton (Mother Earth, Bill Fay, Paul Weller) have formed a new duo and release their album on the not-for-profit Last Night From Glasgow label. Their respective histories - writing really accomplished pop songs and performing in bands with some of the best artists in the history of rock n' roll - raise expectations, but they absolutely smash them. The title-track is a beautiful marriage of pastoral psych folk and glam rock, where there's melodies to spare and affecting, deeply soulful timbres at every turn.
Review: Genre-defying trio Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto - their bassist Lewis Wharton is the third one, if you're wondering - have created an album brimming with explosive energy and diverse influences fusing rock 'n roll, deep funk, jazz, and fuzzy atmospherics. Barrie Cadogan (guitar/vocals) has played with everyone from The The to Primal Scream, but this LP moves well away from indie templates, employing a freeform approach, experimenting with tempos, volumes and textures. Tracks like 'Spektator' and 'Sick 8' showcase their ability to build subtle momentum and then let it slip back, allowing space for intricate instrumentation and lots of vivid expression.
Open The Morning Window, The Sunshine Comes In, The Hope Of Today Is Small Bird Singing (Dog Side) (3:04)
Ruding Piano (4:01)
Shukuyakushi Nenbutsu Kanehari (5:33)
American Village (5:32)
Look Up The Sky (6:15)
Review: Makoto Kurita aka. Magical Power Mako was a veteran underground avant-garde rock musician from Japan. His self-titled record, now reissued here - it saliently forewent any unique album cover save for the stock Polydor sleeve - raised all kinds of arcane hell, and went on to furtively pave the way for a yet more exploratory avant-garde renaissance in Japan thereon. Beginning with a faux-newscast about the collapse of the social contract amid gridlocked international politics (Kurita waxes British-accented with his introduction, "throughout the city today, there is chaos... hospitals have no ambulances, fire brigades have no fire engines... the country is paralysed"), as China, Russia and America escalate mutually assured tensions to a bitter triangular chess game. A deeply puzzling concept record ensues, fusing songwriterly charm, balladry and psychic rock, of purposeful provocation, and with no obvious resolution in earshot.
Review: The Magick Brother & Mystic Sister are in fact not a brother-sister duo, but rather a quartet made up of musicians Eva Muntada, Marc Tena, Maya Fernandez and Xavi Sandoval. Active since 2020 and their debut self-titled EP, this light occultic outfit have since built a rep for weaving flying-carpeted tapestries of narration, sonic reverie, and mysticism in album form; their latest record Tarot II is no exception this rule, coming as the second to name itself after the card-reading divination practice common to the Western esoteric world and beyond. Out from an opening, what sounds to be hammered dulcimered prog progression ('Strength') and moving through to a further ten tracks each named after tarot cards (save for the 'Unnamed Arcane', an apocryphal confabulation of the band - have they drawn a hand we haven't?), this is a record of supreme mystique, and one for the witches and warlocks in our ranks.
Review: The debut album from hotly-tipped London/Oxford self-dubbed 'Flowerkraut' collective Mandrake Handshake comes eagerly-awaited as they've built up a strong following from playing live. As the album cover suggests, the overarching feel of this album is quite blissed out and psychedelic. The Stereolab-esque 'Hypersonic Super-Asterid' is a case in point as it combines a motorik beat with lead singer Trinity Oksana's Laetitia Sadier-esque vocals. 'Find The Tree and Dig (Deep)!' is their darkest number with overdriven guitars offering an ominous undercurrent to the lush dream pop vocals and resplendent flute flourish. It's an adventurous collection by a band that sound refreshingly removed from the zeitgeist and are operating in their own parallel universe.
Review: Carpet of Fallen Leaves serves as the luminous introduction to Eddie Marcon, a folk-pop project from Eddie Corman and Jules Marcon. The collection takes in more than two decades of intimate, self-released recordings that all bring fragile beauty and melodic grace from Japan's underground psych-folk scene. Gentle guitar, soft organ and deft bass interlace with pristine vibraphone, flute and pedal steel sounds to form sparse and spare yet intricate arrangements. Collaborators like Ikuro Takahashi and Shintaro Sakamoto add their own contributions, and so songs shimmer with a real emotional depth and Eastern charm. Highlights like 'Tora To Lion' and 'Shoujo' inspire quiet wonder while capturing fleeting moments of everyday life with a real tenderness and elegance.
Review: If you were indeed wondering why, well, Gary Marks doesn't claim to have the answers. Amid an honorary reissue campaign of this under-storied musician's early LPs by P-Vine (after he moved on to become a published fiction and non-fiction writer), Marks' third record from 1978 stands out among this folky jazz singer's best. After his debut record Gathering and then the sophomore Upon Aonda's Wing, this ponderous yet sprightly record follows Marks' relocation to the West Coast of the USA in 1976, after which he began working with Art Rande and Oregon member Paul McCandles. Considered his masterpiece by many, this hidden avant-garde folk jazz diamond contains stirring narratives, cathartic piano ballads, and hum-along heart-pinchers, weaving twin threads of personal disclosure and mystery Americana.
Review: The exquisite 1974 debut album by American pianist, guitarist, producer and songwriter Gary Marks hears a deserving reissue through Lantern Heights. Now a published fiction and non-fiction author, Marks' early musical career ended all to shortly, and was Marked sonically by sweetened contemporary jazz and folk arrangements, heard best on this homeward but still subtly cosmic opening statement of an LP. The open-ended, pathetic-fallacious 'Sherry's Song' is our twinging piece de resistance, with Marks serenading a young flame as the object of his gushing folksy affections, while the immediate follower 'Gathering' indulges a completely "other" set of progged-out emotions. 'We Free' unites the two through a bossa nova downturn, and 'A Gina Theme' isolates the vibraphone in a kind of giant sonic glasshouse, serving as one of several interludes that steadfastly beautify the record.
Review: Known as much for their outlandish costumes as their constant musical evolution, Martin Circus were one of France's most intriguing bands of the 1970s and 80s. Originally formed in 1969 as a psychedelics-inspired progressive rock combo, they later successfully turned their hand to wonderfully camp, over-the-top disco and synth-sporting new wave. Evolution Francaise 1969-1985 does a brilliant job of charting that remarkable musical evolution, dashing between tail end of the 60s prog sounds ('Tout Tremblant De Fievre', 'Facon de Parler'), early Black Sabbath-esque heavy rock ('Annie, Christine ou Partricia'), gritty, Rolling Stones style rhythm and blues ('A Bas Tous Le Privileges'), psychedelic disco-rock ('Les Indiens Du Demier Matin'), Cerrone-ish throb-jobs ('Mon Premier Hold Up', Francois K re-editing 'Disco Circus') and synth-pop ('J'tai Vu Dans Le Canoe?').
The Edge Of The Switchblade (feat Wiliam Duvall & Slash) (4:16)
Black Boots (feat Tim McIlrath) (2:47)
I Am The Fun (The Phoney) (3:38)
Twenty-Five Miles (3:56)
Because Of Your Car (3:01)
Boys Who Play With Matches (3:00)
Blind Eye (feat Dennis Thompson) (3:17)
Can't Be Found (feat Vernon Reid & Dennis Thompson) (3:40)
Blessed Release (3:03)
Hit It Hard (feat Joe Berry) (2:41)
Review: For many, MC5 were the world's first punk band. A Detroit crew that managed to set fire to the rock & roll rule book during the late-1960s and early-70s - a period of time observers will often argue was defined by a lack of rules - they disappeared into the ether almost as quickly as they blew it up. Almost fading into forgotten music memories, thankfully at least one of the original lineup kept the lights on, with three founding members now sadly dead. This leaves guitarist Wayne Kramer to take a lead on Heavy Lifting, the first MC5 album since High Time in 1971. And it almost recaptures the magic of that era, bringing both grit and funk in equal measure, ensuring that hard rock grooves all night, or at least for the duration of this record. A fierce, welcome return that feels fresh, rather than pastiche.
The Edge Of The Switchblade (feat Wiliam Duvall & Slash) (4:16)
Black Boots (feat Tim McIlrath) (2:47)
I Am The Fun (The Phoney) (3:38)
Twenty-Five Miles (3:56)
Because Of Your Car (3:01)
Boys Who Play With Matches (3:00)
Blind Eye (feat Dennis Thompson) (3:17)
Can't Be Found (feat Vernon Reid & Dennis Thompson) (3:40)
Blessed Release (3:03)
Hit It Hard (feat Joe Berry) (2:41)
Review: Detroit's MC5 were a truly world changing band, inspiring metal, garage and punk rock bands alike - as well as the support of John Lennon, for example. The idea of the band - three of whose original members have now passed - following up 1971's swansong High Times with a new album in 2024 is a weird one, but once you put the music on, it makes a lot more sense. With guitarist Wayne Kramer at the helm, they've put together an album which reflects their roots and doesn't show much mellowing with time, although it would be hard not to make something a little less raw their than their formative recordings, by dint of technoloigcal advances alone. 'Boys Who Play With Matches' is a suitable raucous highlight - it's always nice to hear men in their 70s boasting about being late for school - and 'Barbarians At The Gate', penned about the post Trump-defeat invasion of Congress, shows they're still in touch with the real world.
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