Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Straight from the heart of Italy in 1991, Q-Base's Atmosphere EP remains a deep house masterpiece, and a prototype for modern day coinage "downtempo" at that. Made by Andrea Gemolotto and Claudio Zennaro, 'Atmospheres' provides not just atmospheres but geospheres, lithospheres, exospheres, and stratospheres of sound, arresting the full potential of the frequency spectrum between its languorous and unhurried beats. The pioneering DFC label saw to its claim in deep house history, and now it's back in a newly repackaged edition, featuring the three timeless tracks from the original 1991 release alongside a powerful bonus: the Idjut Boys' electrifying 1999 remix.

Review: Stop us if you've heard this one before. Lee "Scratch" Perry walks into a Quasi Dub Development recording session somewhere in New York. He begins to freestyle in that surrealist, escapist, hallucinogenic kind of way we still love him for, and the results eventually make their way onto 2014's record, Little Twister. The rest, as they say, is history. Or maybe not quite. Four years after the world lost Perry's enigmatic poetry and pioneering contributions to dub, Pingipung, the label that carried that aforementioned LP, unearths the tape of one track from the collection the bosses clearly feel deserves more attention. 'Let's Communicate' is as intoxicating now as it was back then. Then contemporary UK dub don Elijah Minnelli steps up to deliver an alternative version that stands up on its own. No mean feat.

Review: Next up for the Irie Ites label, which is a real favourite for reggae heads, is this dynamic collaboration featuring Queen Omega, Chezidek and U Brown with production by Irie Ites. This original A-side track 'Three The Hard Way' brings together powerful reggae and dancehall vibes while blending each artist's unique style into a compelling anthem. Queen Omega's soulful voice, Chezidek's conscious lyrics, and U Brown's classic dancehall delivery create great synergy and the production means the track pulses with heavy rhythms. The flipside is Lone Ark's dubbed-out and nicely horizontal 'Inity Riddim.'

Review: Burnski's Constant Sound is back with more badman garage madness and this time it is Dennis Quinn in charge. 'Good Stuff' opens up with mad raw beats and menacing low ends, then 'Damage' picks up the pace with a mix of sleazy vocal samples and metallic hits. 'Sweatshop is a bumpy house cut with long-legged drums and swirling pads that bring the feel good vibes and 'Major Minority' shuts down with a more late-night sound, intriguing melodies and thudding kicks that you will not be able to ignore.

Review: Carrying the legacy of their late uncle, who was the cult and crate digger's favourite qawwali legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali return with a profoundly moving collection of songs on At the Feet of the Beloved. The album pulses with the intense emotions of love's anxious passion and the dreamlike devotion it inspires. The vocals and arrangements are masterfully refined throughout so sit in harmony with the work of the ensemble to create a transcendent musical experience that takes you way beyond your own world and into new realms.

Review: Quade's second album is steeped in the isolation and raw beauty of its birthplace: a crumbling Welsh barn surrounded by moors. The Bristol four-piece i Barney Matthews, Leo Fini, Matt Griffiths and Tom Connolly i channel this wild setting into a sound that's both fragile and immense, blurring ambient-dub textures with ghostly folk melodies and the drifting crescendos of post-rock. The Foel Tower feels like it was pulled from misty hillsides and long, firelit nights, an album of quiet intensity: tender one moment, potent the next, yet always emotionally direct. Tracks unfold patiently, as if shaped by the slow grind of weather over stone. There's a strong undercurrent of personal grief and resilience here too. The band's longtime friendship and collective hardships add a tangible intimacy, turning these atmospheric compositions into acts of quiet survival. The Foel Tower transcends as it is stark, gorgeous and deeply human. This is music for the in-between moments: dusk turning to night, silence folding into sound.

Review: Half a century young, the third album from America's genuinely iconic leather-clad glam queen Suzi Quatro was a bit of sidewinder, seeing her switch from the brash rock pop fusion of her first two LPs to take in a funk influence, still working under the winning production duo of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. Check the title track and its echoes of Sly & The Family Stone or Steve Wonder, wonderfully twinned with Quatro's sassy vocal attitude, for evidence of the stylistic refresh, her distinctive and groove-heavy bass playing pushed further into the centre of the sound. 'Can't Trust Love', meanwhile, is a headnodding, blunted delight, too, while the futuristic synths of 'Strip Me' are closer to Herbie Hancock's Headhunters than The Sweet in vibe. Well ahead of its time, this is timeless stuff.

Review: Given how much they became part of the rock establishment furniture in their later years, it's easy to forget what a radical and even threatening - using gay slang was a very different and altogether more dangerous prospect for a start - band Queen were in the early 70s. They cut a unique musical corner for themselves, not quite glam, not quite metal, but definitely leaning towards both, with Freddie Mercury's gusting voice and Brian May's raw guitar sound both thrusting away with plenty of feisty vigour. Anyone who's heard and loved thair legendary Live At The Rainbow 74 album - one that even avowed Queen haters have been known to admit has a certain charm - will appreciate the thrills on display just six or so miles up the North London road a mere year earlier. As ever, the heavier work works even better in the bearpit live atmosphere. Their rendition of 'Liar' approaches top marks on the 'one to Motorhead' rock scale, but the early rock 'n' roll medley and 'Carry On'-style larks of 'Hey Big Spender' are equally fascinating glimpses of these rock legends enjoying their formative years. A lot.

Review: Portland, Oregon's Graham Jonson urges our hurries once more with Heard That Noise, an anemological study in ascendant post-rock and psych. Jonson crafts intimate, zigzagging and west windy songs, ploughing the grey, sludgy boundaries of folk, pop, and noise. Following a subtle tangent from SoundCloud renown to 2021's The Long and Short Of It, he now follows that record up through a desultory reflection on breakups, memory, and creative rediscovery; Phil Elverum, Dijon and Nick Drake glance through the sonic cloud cover as ancestral muses, while the record blends warmth and discordance, where sweet ballads unravel into distortion; serene moments jolted by sonic "jump scares."