Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Back in 2011, Nicolas Jaar joined forces with fellow Clown & Sunset contributor Dave Harrington for the Darkside EP, an impressive trio of untitled tracks that pitted the formers scratchy, near-paranoid production style against the latter's penchant for lo-fi indie-rock inspired fuzziness. Here, the duo dusts down the Darkside alias once more for a first collaborative album. Predictably, it's an impressive set, offering a collection of downtempo tracks that shuffle between crackly, out-there atmospherics ("Sitra", reminiscent of much of Jaar's Space is Only Noise album), echo-laden alt-rock experimentalism ("Heart") and heart-aching fragility (the James Blake-ish "Greek Light").

Review: Futreu cult classic alert: Wilurarrakutu is the captivating debut album from Papunya-based young Aboriginal Australian artist Keanu Nelson in which he blends intimate storytelling with minimalist, DIY electronic soundscapes. Sung in both Papunya Luritja and English, the eight tracks draw from Nelson's personal notebooks and feature Casio keyboards, drum machines, and subtle synths all with a made--on-the-kitchen-table vine. Created in collaboration with Sydney producer Yuta Matsumura, who Nelson met during a chance visit, the album reflects influences from Papunya's gospel traditions and reggae beats shared in the remote community. Nelson's lyrics touch on family, heritage, and culture, balancing joy and melancholy meaning that Wilurarrakutu offers a tender sonic reflection of home and identity.

Review: Keanu Nelson is a young Aboriginal Australian artist from the remote community of Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs. He paints in the Western Desert movement style and, on this album, sings poems from his notebook over minimalist Casio beats programmed by Yuta Matsumura. His debut album, which came on the Altered States label, now gets re-issued on a larger scale. Inspired by local gospel and reggae beats, Keanu's songs explore family, home, and loss and he sings in a blend of both Papunya Luritja and English. The result is a haunting, original sound that is part Francis Bebey, part Suicide, and one that feels both familiar and groundbreaking.

Review: Legendary kraut and prog rock duo NEU! aka Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger make the 50th anniversary of their self titled debut album with a special reissue all formats. This limited edition picture disc format is one for the collectors for sure. The music still sounds fresh with its mix of heady ambient and lazy grooves, driving motor kicks and psyched out sounds all making for perfectly immersive listening. Weird and wonderful and unbelievably avant garde for 1972, it remains one of the most impressive debut albums of the era.

Review: It has been 26 years since people had their first taste of New Found Glory. Emerging from Coral Springs, Florida, in the height of the pop punk second wave (Stateside at least), back then they were hailed by many as pioneers of a re-energised sound, offering rowdy, speedy, unrelenting and immediately sing-along-worthy anthems by the bucketload, referencing alternative rock and hardcore without putting off anyone eyeing them up for chart targeting marketing campaigns.

Make the Most of It certainly clarifies that praise was not simply the dew-eyed ramblings of people caught in a moment. Having created the blueprint for their sub-genre, here they strip all that away without damaging the emotional quality, offering a rousing and - it has to be said - evocative acoustic record that lays bare their lyrical and instrumental talent.

Review: It's hard to miss the forward motion running through New Pagans' work. The Belfast group have this way of crafting sometimes jagged, sometimes rolling, but always direct and propellant riffs that cut a fine line between a kind of Neo-punk and classic indie rock. Their tracks can simultaneously sound DIY and soaring, big room but intimate, which is no mean feat at all.

Making A Circle of Our Own is a fantastic case in point - packed with energy and ideas, it hits hard. But movement runs through much more than instrumentation and arrangements. As an outfit, they're as concerned with starting conversations about some pretty big issues, for example equality and the perversion or distortion of history, alongside smaller, more personal themes. Relationships, self-identity, and belief. Quite the package, then.

Review: Most people will remember the New Radicals from their international hit single (well, certainly UK and US hit single) 'You Get What You Give' - a Waterboys-esque slice of emotionally charged indie with rousing message about how putting in is the only real means of receiving anything good. Releasing just one album - this one, from which that song was taken - diving into the full record now, 24 years on, is intriguing.

While that statement track might have convinced many otherwise, newcomers will find that Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is actually a pretty wild ride through psychedelic-leaning poppy rock. Or rocky pop, it's hard to know which order to punt for. Fundamentally, though, this is a way more complex and fascinating outing than That Big Anthem would have you expecting, nodding to early-Aerosmith, INXS and more.

Review: This reissue of Janitor of Lunacy recaptures Nico in a stark, spellbinding 1983 live performance at Manchester's Library Theatre during a period when she called the city home. Spread across 20 tracks on double vinyl, the album distils her haunting presence and singular voice into raw, intimate recordings that draw from four of her solo records as well as Velvet Underground classics like 'Femme Fatale' and 'All Tomorrow's Parties.' The set also includes a brooding take on Bowie's 'Heroes' which is, like the rest of the pieces, minimalist and emotionally charged. This was Nico stripped down to her essence, namely bleak, beautiful and moving.

Review: According to Venn, The Nightmares' Fire In Heaven is not only the band's followup to 2023's acclaimed debut album, Seance. It's also a record that "delves into the idea of love lost and the enormity of the universe at large... themes range from mythical siren songs to extraterrestrial life via the complexities of true love and an overarching question of your own existence." Hardly small themes, but certainly ones that resonate universally. A meditation, or perhaps more accurately main stage indie rock out, on the strange juxtaposition between the difficulties and problems that come with being a human forced to live on this giant rock, and the enormity of the unknown beyond its stratosphere. Far reaching and unarguably grand in sound, apart from moments such as the gentle piano sonata of 'Winterlude'.

Review: Nirvana's legacy is one of the most compelling of any 20th Century rock band. The voice(s) of a disillusioned generation weaned to sickness on processed culture, ending in tragedy, the ferociously powerful combination of music and message has understandably been long-lasting and still influences people today, but the albums-proper, and sad conclusion, usually dominate conversations about the group's work. Incesticide is proof of how much we're forgetting. Comprising demos, outtakes, cover versions, radio broadcasts, the 1990 non-album single, 'Silver', among other things, much of what's here was circulating among fans in low quality formats prior to the compilation's formal release in 1992, and goes some way to showing off the breadth and scope Nirvana were capable of. An education for the committed and unconvinced alike, grab it while you can.

Review: Captured at the Hollywood Rock Festival on January 23rd 1993 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this performance has gone down in infamy as one of the Seattle grunge legends' worst yet most insightful. Rumours swirl that the chaotic nature stemmed from a myriad of factors such as Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's relationship hitting their worst low yet, whilst many have stated cocaine was used as a replacement or combatant for the frontman's severe heroin dependency at this point. It's also commonly believed that the band sought to self-sabotage their largest shows yet, playing for over 100,000 in attendance due to a cigarette brand named "Hollywood" sponsoring the festival, seemingly at odds with Nirvana's entire ethos. Whether a declarative punk statement, genuine artistic implosion, rejection of their uncomfortable success, or a cocktail timebomb of all of the above, this raw, unhinged and purposefully haggard performance is sadly emblematic of who and where the band were at this point in time. Pressed on a lush picture disc, this set eschews the majority of their biggest hits, opting rather for fan favourite deep cuts such as 'Sliver', 'Been A Son', 'On A Plain' and 'Lounge Act'.

Review: A fascinating glance into the prototype stages of one of the most famous albums of all time. Nirvana were far from massive stars when they came to record their second studio - they reputedly had to play a live gig to raise the petrol money to drive to Los Angeles where it was recorded - and this colection of demos and outtakes have a real air of casual brilliance about them, clearly showing little regard for success and maximum attention to artistic expression. Fans will love the scratchy cover of Velvet Underground's 'Here She Comes Now' and the never completely finished but often perforned 'Token Eastern Song', neither of which never made the album, as well as rough diamond but dynamite versions of classic like 'Polly' and 'In Bloom'.

Review: Since debuting as Grouper back in 2005, Liz Harris has delivered a swathe of experimentalist albums that explore almost every aspect of ambient and drone music. Here she launches a new project, Nivhek, via an expansive double-album of sparse, atmospheric compositions that tend towards the epic. Really, it's two albums in one. The first slab of wax is entitled "After Its Own Death" and boasts a two-part, non-stop suite of tracks built around echoing choral vocals, dark electronics and blissful bells. It's alternately melancholic, blissful and grippingly intense. In contrast, "Walking In A Spiral Towards The House", the piece stretched across both sides of the second record, is breathtakingly beautiful - a meandering, soft focus trip through chiming, reverb-laden motifs and gentle music box melodies.

Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds project is already ten years old, somehow. To mark the milestone, the cocksure Manc looks back on the decade with this double album of greatest hits. To be fair, he has managed to continue to serve up big, festival-sized rock tunes that have kept Oasis fans more than happy. He has selected each and every tune here with tracks from three of his number one records and two previously unreleased works including the brand new single 'We're On Our Way Now'. You know what you will get with these.

Review: Northside courted controversy in more ways than one. Emerging from North Manchester in 1989, cynics were quick to point out their glaring sonic similarities to other Manchester groups, not least The Stone Roses, while the BBC, among others, moved even faster to ban lead single 'Shall We Take A Trip' due to its copious drug references, especially LSD. Nevertheless, the music itself was of a high standard, if led by others, and that quality meant the lead track broke into the Top 50 singles chart despite its lack of radio play. Produced by Ian Broudie, the album would produce one more track that made a chart impact - 'My Rising Star', which reached 32 and stayed in the league table for seven weeks - while as an LP the package peaked at number 19. Victims of circumstances, a follow up record was planned but the collapse of Factory Records in 1992 put an end to that, with the group disbanding shortly after.

Review: In 1984, Gary Numan launched Numa Records and started a new phase in his career with the release of Berserker. This album introduced a harder-edged digital sound into his canon while maintaining the analogue textures of his earlier work. It's a testament to the fact that Numan's creative evolution never stopped and blends both personal and fictional narratives into haunting tracks like 'My Dying Machine,' 'This Is New Love' and 'Berserker.' The remastered double vinyl edition includes the original album with bonus tracks that add extra perspective to this pivotal period in his career.

Review: What you see before you ranks among the most mythologised live albums (n)ever released. Like the title suggests, it was originally recorded in 1972 at Parisian rock institution Le Bataclan, a legendary venue which would later gain notoriety after a group of armed gunmen opened fire on a crowd in 2015, killing 90 people. But that grisly recent history belies its status as one of the most respected concert halls in the French capital, and this not-quite-Velvet Underground show has contributed to that legacy. Showcasing the stop-you-dead qualities of Nico's staggering (and unique) vocal timbre, the surreal, immersive qualities of the Cale and Reed's legendary art-rock tones, this time capsule had been bootlegged and bootlegged until 2004, when it finally got an official release. Now it's back.