Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Following on from 2020's exceptional return to form Alphabetland, which saw the first full-length from Los Angeles punk pioneers X in 27 years (35 years with the OG line up), the incomparable four-piece of Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, John Doe and DJ Bonebrake finally get to go out on their own terms with the self-proclaimed swan song LP Smoke & Fiction. Between line up changes, differing visions, commercial flops and radio-baiting sonic shifts, the band's tumultuous 90's era would cause many a hiatus and add further blemishes to their early iconic catalogue, ultimately leading to an unsatisfactory conclusion to their life's work that they've managed to reclaim in a manner not many seasoned veterans ever get the chance. Ten bangers infused with their quintessential rockabilly-punk charm and elevated by Cervenka's still ludicrously intense cadence, with a coinciding farewell tour to come, this is the finale for X the band and we dear listeners have always deserved.

Review: The year 2020 saw the audacious revival of LA punk legends X, complete with their first album of new material in 27 years yet marking 35 years since the original line up of Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake had come together on record. Following on from the warm welcome offered to Alphabetland, the band have opted to rewrite their own history and finally go out on their own terms with their self-professed swan song Smoke & Fiction. While their unstable 90s era saw personnel changes, record flops and internal debates as to which creative direction to pursue, ultimately leading to an underwhelming implosion of decades of work, these final 10 cuts restore the OG quartet's signature punkabilly flippancy, delivered with seasoned veteran chops while Cervenka's presence is as looming and gnarly as ever. Set to coincide with one final farewell tour, X have managed to achieve the type of legacy punk act bookend many of their peers were sadly never fortunate enough to see materialise.

Review: Say the words 'pre-teen pop' to most people and they'll make for the hills faster than you can say "be afraid, be very afraid". In the case of X-Cetera, though, the presumption of garbage is inaccurate, albeit the underlying feeling of something being off i perhaps even unsettling i remains. Self-recorded in a very different time and a very different world, on the cusp of a new millennium and all its promises (lol), Jessica Hall, Ayden Mayeri, and sisters Janet and Mary Washburn give a wonderful example of how talented kids can be on Summer 2000. It's also a strange and weirdly i accidentally i trippy ride from beginning to end. Marrying elements of trip hop, r&b, indie, sugarcane pop and acoustic, the sickly sweet and naturally childish lyrics and delivery leave a macabre air lingering. Like the nursery rhyme in a horror movie, sort of. Once filed under chart hopeful, now avant garde.

Review: One fateful night on September 6, 2008, London's Camden Roundhouse played host to the iconic punk rock/new wave legends X Ray Spex in all of their frenetic glory. Celebrating the 30-year anniversary of their singular classic album Germfree Adolescents, the sold-out show amassed an immensely fortunate 3000 souls in attendance including The Slits bassist Tessa Pollitt, Chrissy Boy of Madness and Eater drummer Dee Generate. With the untimely, tragic passing of punk pioneer frontwoman Poly Styrene in 2011, the show has gone on to become the stuff of London punk mythology, as history proports her beret-sporting swagger was on top form across the evening. Sleeve notes included by Celeste Bell, Pole Styrene's daughter, who also features on the encore of 'Oh Bondage Up Yours!', adding further weight and insight to an already iconic piece of musical history.

Review: Radiation Reissues has put plenty of effort into this welcome reissue of X-Ray Spex's seminal gig Live At The Roxy Club. It comes with remastered audio, updated artwork, and exclusive sleeve notes from original saxophonist Lora Logic almost fifty years after it was first recorded on April 2, 1977, at the legendary London venue. It was an early performance by the new wave punk icons ahead of the arrival of their debut single 'Oh Bondage Up Yours!' and their genre-defining Germfree Adolescents album. The setlist includes tunes that went on to become future hits such as 'Let's Submerge,' and 'I Live Off You,' which were both performed months before their official release. As such this record offers a rare glimpse into the band's vital formative days.

Review: With a heart too sensitive to accept humanity's darker side, yet also unable to flinch from it, Xiu Xiu is a way of 'owning your own shadow'.
Jamie Stewart has a novelist's eye for juicy details, and a poet's ability to wring impossible emotions out of the English language, finding
black humour where there is usually horror, finding horror where there is usually apathy, and Stewart's history-spanning visions of birth and
death have never come across more clearly.
The performances, led by Stewart's one-of-a-kind voice, are intense, virtuosic and painted in a spectrum of acoustic and electronic colours
that one would be hard pressed to find equalled on any album. Many of the songs feature what is now officially the live line-up of the group,
with Stewart and Caralee McElroy joined by Ches Smith on drums and Devin Hoff on bass. 'Women As Lovers' marries the ancient with the
futuristic, each in all their beauty and terror. Traditional gongs collide with a rats' nest of computerized layering. The album also features a duet
with Michael Gira of Swans and Angels Of Light. The Album is out now on Kill Rock Stars.

Review: English band XTC served up White Music, their debut album, in 1978 having already impressed three months earlier with their debut EP. The album had modest chart success, making number 38 i the charts, and spaced the infamous single 'Statue of Liberty' which the BBC promptly banned on account of the line 'In my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt. It sure seems tame by modern standards but it helped gain the band more notoriety for their hyperactive post-punk sounds. While one reviewer at the time said the album was "aimed at bored Yes fans" it was a fine and hard to define debut that set the band in good stead.

Review: Talk about being ahead of their time. Not only did XTC get the jump on everyone else (inadvertently) by predicting the letters XTC would change the course of Western European youth culture from the mid-1980s onwards, they also offered a very early stylistic premonition of the sounds that would, temporarily, usurp rave and associated genres as the pre-eminent adolescence, teen hood, and early adulthood music.
Formed in 1972, XTC are one of those examples of why we shouldn't really listen to what the hype men and women are saying. Struggling to break ground during their formative years - arguably their most fertile creatively - nevertheless the cult followers could see what was there. Most of the rest of us waited for another decade or so, at least, before realising this combination of elaborate pop, punk and art rock was actually prepping us for post punk, power pop and Britpop. Go 2 makes that very clear indeed.

Review: Here it is: the long awaited second album from Mercury award winning, waif-like London trio The xx. The band have enjoyed a huge amount of success since their eponymous debut album dropped in 2009, and Coexist sees them subtly tweak their sound rather than wholly reinvent it, with their booming drums traded in for something less grandiose. There are some stunning moments on the LP (opener "Angels", "Reunion" and "Swept Away" all linger long in the memory) that will ensure it swats any "difficult second album" talk to one side; this is the sound of a band comfortable in their own skin. Caps doffed to Young Turks who present the LP on sumptuous heavyweight vinyl with included CD and booklet.

Review: Here it is: the long awaited second album from Mercury award winning, waif-like London trio The xx. The band have enjoyed a huge amount of success since their eponymous debut album dropped in 2009, and Coexist sees them subtly tweak their sound rather than wholly reinvent it, with their booming drums traded in for something less grandiose. There are some stunning moments on the LP (opener "Angels", "Reunion" and "Swept Away" all linger long in the memory) that will ensure it swats any "difficult second album" talk to one side; this is the sound of a band comfortable in their own skin. Caps doffed to Young Turks who present the LP on sumptuous heavyweight vinyl with included CD and booklet.