Legere Recordings Germany Vinilo y CD

Review: Diane Birch returns with that spellbinding voice - a transportive powerhouse packing a timeless quality that resonates through her music. The American recording world doing what it has always done so well, creating huge, heartbreaking, hopeful, and captivating mini operas disguised as pop. Or, if you want to get technical here: soft rock, country, folk, r&b and soul. OK, so there are elements of funk and jazz, too, and the result is a heady brew that's pretty inescapable. Harking back to the balladry heydays, with shades of Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and Carly Simon, to name but a few - in delivery and performance, if not necessarily tone - no matter where you're listening from it's going to be hard to forget this one.

Review: Hailing from Tel Aviv, Men of North Country continue their musical journey following their late 2023 digital single, a cover of Keith Richards' 'Hate It When You Leave,' with a spirited vinyl rendition of Carl Carlton's Northern Soul hit 'I Can Feel It.' This 7-" release is accompanied by an exclusive, previously unreleased version of the MONC favourite 'Ravens,' promising to captivate listeners with an ever distinctive sound.

Review: On his new single 'Pacifico Waves', Joel Sarakula takes the scenic route down a pacific coastline, searching for peace, enlightenment and the perfect sunset. Travelling and searching is nothing new to Sarakula: it's almost his default way of being. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia before swapping oceans to live in the UK and more recently onwards to Gran Canaria: "I've been busy making my islands smaller" he jokes. But the music on 'Pacifico Waves' sounds like none of these places: with its easy drum shuffle, soulful guitar hooks and smooth vocal harmonies it distinctly evokes Southern California. It's such a potent portrait of the West Coast that if not for the contemporary lyrics and some modern production techniques, it could be a long lost hit from an early 80s LA studio band.

Review: Such is the authenticity of Super DB's sound that you'd be forgiven for thinking that this album was not in fact brand-new, but rather a long-lost European LP from 1984. Their sound is synth-heavy, colourful and analogue-rich, with vocals reminiscent of Steely Dan rising above a musical bed full of nods to 80s synth-pop, Italo-disco, NYC boogie and sax-sporting AM radio soft rock of the period. Super DB are not American (they're English and based somewhere on the South Coast) but you'd never know - it's like you're listening to something on Californian AM radio 40 years ago. That's not a criticism though, because Downtown is a genuinely entertaining and expertly executed album.