Back catalogue: Balearic/Downtempo

Review: Second time around for the Bees' terrific debut album, Sunshine Hit Me, which wowed critics and buyers alike on its initial release way back in 2001. The epitome of a surprise hit with admirably DIY roots - the duo behind it, Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher, famously recorded it in a limited home studio built in the back garden of a residential house on the Isle of Wight - the album has lost none of its allure all these years on. Woozy, summery and lo-fi, with hazy horns and glassy-eyed vocals rising above backing tracks that variously doff a cap to soul, rocksteady, ska, 1960s dream pop, psychedelia and a wealth of subtle global musical influences, Sunshine Hit Me is a warming, smile-inducing treat. This edition also boasts a sextet of bonus cuts, which seem to be a mixture of B-sides and tracks plucked from the pair's archives.

Review: Belgian jazz singer Melanie Di Biasio first came to light around 2007 on Igloo, but she's since fostered a steady relationship with indie giants [PIAS] which has resulted in two subsequent albums, No Deal and Lilies. After a six-year gap, she returns with a new set which finds her edging into intriguing new territory. Il Viaggio is framed as 'a quest for musical, physical, and spiritual renewal, born from an emotional memory awakened'. Make of that what you will, but the music contained within finds her voice framed by a broad spectrum of sonics as she leads us through two distinct halves across two discs - Lay Your Ear To The Rail and The Chaos Azure.

Review: Meat Beat Manifesto have released more than a few classic albums in their time, but their fourth album Satyricon is surely one of the finest. Originally released on Mute in 1992, it saw Jack Dangers push his voice even further to the forefront as he tackled a wide spectrum of social issues, while the production continued to find them keyed into the developments in rave and hip-hop as they were unfolding. The breakbeat structures are absolutely in keeping with the pace of the emergent hardcore sound, but of course Meat Beat Manifesto reached beyond purist dance music to take in industrial elements which made a hugely influential brew of its own.

Review: Meat Beat Manifesto's sprawling 1996 opus 'Subliminal Sandwich' is finally reissued by the good people at PIAS. Compared to much of their oeuvre, this one is a touch rougher round the edges, with serrated guitar licks layered over achingly resonant bell loops and typically crunchy percussion. Though most of the tracks on the LP are characterised by lax tempo and an ominously warped soundworld, the unique cocktail of styles and influences which MBM draw on shine forth one by one: dub, new jack swing, jazz, noise, punk, breakbeat. Percies include the smoked out dub nausea of 'Assasinator', and the bleary chug of 'Addiction', which sounds somewhat like if Christophe Goze ate one too many tabs and decided to compose a Buddha Bar single for the tweakers. While it isn't MBM's most accessible work by any means, it is an essential entry in the Jack Dangers catalogue and a must for anyone seeking a more charred, freaky body of work which doubtless went on to inspire some of breakbeat and trip hop's key players.