Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Los Angeles MC T.F has a bona-fide South Central gangster mindset but he also has all the technical mic skills of a classic New York MC. He first made waves back in 2016 with a feature on 'Tookie Knows II' by ScHoolboy Q and has since drop some classic West Coast sounds but here he works with Lord Mobb producer Mephux as well as the legendary Roc Marciano for a fresh new record that dives deep into his own hood. It tells stories of how and what shaped him with real narrative. It tells the tale of a man proud to have come through the violence and poverty of it all and now be making moves on the world stage.

Review: Sax player Prince Lincoln Thompson and his Royal Rasses - Keith Perkins (aka Cap) and Clinton Hall (aka Johnny Kool) - joined forces for this one in 1979. It's a definitive roots and reggae album with perfectly horizontal sound and deep cut grooves into which you can sink over and over again. The lyrics touch on standard reggae fair - love, jah, pain - and are effortlessly smooth and seductive over the organic, jumbled rhythms, The reissue has extensive sleeve notes and comes on yellow vinyl with engineering and mixing at Harry J. Studio.

Review: .Rian Treanor emerged from the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, seemingly in a blanket of otherworldly noises, flashing consoles and staunchly futurist musical ideas. The world didn't really know what had hit it, and in many ways a decade later it's still unprepared for what he brings to the space station. A true representative of his region's era and world-defining electronic music legacy, Action Potential speaks to this and his refusal to recreate rather than push forward. It also compiles the results of his workshops with an organisation that offers creative practice for adults with visual impairment. A simple concept - allow pension-age participants to get thoroughly stuck in with all manner of kit and explore the possibilities of deconstructed avant garde club music. It's hard to imagine how the results could be any more fascinating and commanding.

Review: Raison d'etre is Peter Andersson and Troum is Stefan Knappe and Martin Gitschel and between them they take a deep dive into subterranean worlds on this collection of amenity works that was recorded between 2011 and 2014. This is the first time they have been pressed to wax and we're delighted about it - the grainy pads and crystalline synths that cut through the foggy mire sound so much better on wax. Each of these pieces is an ever shifting tapestry of icy noise, luminous drones and guitar-driven melodies with a ghostly quality. It's a devastatingly impactful work from these dark ambient maestros.

Review: Tresor dig deep into the vaults for a reissue of one of Robert Hood's many seminal releases. This one comes under his The Vision alias and is an impressive 30 years old in 2023. It came originally in the year he left his Detroit hometown and the safety of the Underground Resistance label and head to New York with Jeff Mills. The music is fast and furious and funky as you would expect, with funky techno drum foundations and mind melting details up top. It set a ridiculously high standard and hasn't aged one single bit. All hail Hood.

Review: Featuring a stellar lineup of guest artists including Boldy James, Kool Keith, Grip, Blu, Fatboi Sharif and more, here's an album that truly showcases a seamless synergy between Real Bad Man's atmospheric production and YUNGMORPHEUS's captivating lyricism. From the stony and atmospheric ambiance to the funky undertones, each track on the album offers a unique sonic experience that pushes the boundaries of traditional hip-hop. Real Bad Man's meticulous attention to detail in tailoring the beats to complement YUNGMORPHEUS' flow is evident throughout the project, resulting in a cohesive and engaging product. YUNGMORPHEUS's introspective lyrics delve into themes of dichotomies and self-reflection, adding depth and substance to the album's narrative. Tracks like 'Tripleback Tuck,' 'Just The Three of Us,' and 'Flick of The Wrist' showcase his lyrical prowess and ability to effortlessly navigate complex subject matter. With The Chalice & The Blade, Real Bad Man and YUNGMORPHEUS have crafted an album that transcends genre conventions, delivering a thought-provoking and sonically rich experience that is sure to resonate with fans of innovative hip-hop.

Notes: In the early '90s, aspiring filmmaker (and General Hospital co-star) Ryan Sexton lugged a giant camcorder into some of the seediest clubs and the filthiest apartments in Hollywood. There he filmed hour upon hour of VHS footage of the jaw-droppingly offensive Shock Rock band The Mentors, focusing on their infamous lead singer, 'El Duce.' 30 years later, the team behind The Nightmare and Room 237 and the editor of Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist uncover this dusty stockpile of long forgotten - and unseen - footage. They begin to piece together a picture of the man under the black executioner's hood and what his willfully offensive act and controversial views might tell us about 21st century America. An Incendiary, tragicomic documentary (midway between The Decline of Western Civilization and Crumb) which has been hailed as 'Essential Viewing' by CineVue and called 'Dark and Irresistible"' by director John Carpenter, The El Duce Tapes will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you floored.

Notes: As The Rolling Stones were preparing to play two nights at Wembley Stadium in June 1999, their first London shows in four years, they announced a surprise show at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire for June 8, 1999. An intimate crowd of 1,800 lucky fans were treated to a number of rarely heard gems over the course of 96 minutes. As Mick Jagger stated from the stage that night, "If you want to see the hits go to the big place down the road." And as promised, the deep cuts were deep - "Melody" performed for the first time since 1977, while "Moon Is Up" was brought to the stage for the only time in the band's live career. Sheryl Crow, who opened the show, joins the band during "Honky Tonk Women."

Region code: A/B/C

Notes: Todd Rundgren performs live at the City Winery in NYC in 2012.

Available on Blu Ray for the first time ever, The Unpredictable Todd Rundgren (filmed Live at the City Winery NYC in 2012) showcased Todd's latest musical vision of a contemporary fusion of styles - rock, soul and electronica - that continued the tradition of boundary-breaking works from this visionary genius. Bonus interviews with Todd, Karim Sulton and Jesse Gress included as a treat for fans!

Region code: universal

Notes: The heartfelt memoir of Ray Raghunath Cappo, a legendary hardcore-punk musician-turned-monk, told with warmth, candor, and humour. Ray was a hardcore-punk singer and pioneer of the straight-edge movement living on the Lower East Side of New York City in the '80s, where his band Youth Of Today and Shelter played to packed clubs and touched thousands of people across the globe. As his unusual adventure unfolded, he encountered extraordinary characters, witnessed deep acts of devotion, and experienced profound moments of divine connection, leading to a radical transformation that was ego-crushing and blissful all at once.

Notes: Finally, after a decade of work, countless interviews and immersing himself into the culture, John Robb's definitive book is a journey far into The Art Of Darkness. The first in-depth book on Goth is a deep dive into the enduring culture and the social, historical and political backdrop that created the space for The Art Of Darkness to thrive.

680 pages with interviews with the likes of Andrew Eldritch, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, The Cult, The Banshees, The Damned, Einsturzende Neubauten, Danielle Dax, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, Adam Ant, Laibach, The Cure, Nick Cave and many others, this is a deepdive and walk on the dark side and into the very heartland of Goth.

Every generation has got to deal with the blues - embrace the melancholy. Find a beauty in the darkness, a poetry in sex and death...Whether it's the Roman love of ghost stories, European macabre folk tales of the Middle Ages, Romantic poets, or the original Gothic tribes sacking the Eternal City, a walk on the dark side has always had its attractions. In the post-punk period, Generation Xerox saw music, clothes and culture come together to create one of the most enduring pop cultures of them all that still resonates to this day... Goth.

It may have been a retrospective term for a scene that was already thriving, but its back story goes back millennia. The book starts with the fall of Rome and ends with Instagram and Tik Tok influencers, taking diversions through Lord Byron, European folk tales, Indian sadhus, Gothic architecture, Romantic poets, philosophers and idealists before coalescing through the dark end of the Sixties' youthquake, and then blooming like Baudelaire's Les Fleurs Du Mal in the post-punk period.

Defying the broken heartland of the post-industrial cities, the semi-forgotten satellite towns and the grim real politic of the Thatcher years, this was a post-punk culture full of dark dance and a death disco. The music soundtracked the style and a Stygian obsidian soundtrack fused the many fragments of culture that had been flirted with in the post-war pop narrative; a darker culture that began to coalesce around the holy trinity of the Doors, the Velvets and the Stooges in the late Sixties before flirting with glam rock, being amplified by punk, exploding as Goth, and then splintering into electronic dance music, industrial, psychobilly and new Goth, before finally filtering through dystopian Hollywood blockbusters, modern literature and throughout the modern world.

In the late Seventies, Goth culture emerged around a clutch of bands who found a new form of beauty in the apocalyptic foreboding, as a new youth tribe took glam rock from the catwalk to the cobbles and onto their own dance floors, creating their own art of darkness.