Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: In October 1977, Australian rock titans AC/DC were set to enjoy a night off in London following two successful shows at the Hammersmith Odeon, before they were tapped by The BBC at the last minute to replace The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who had cancelled their scheduled appearance on the Sight & Sound In Concert show at the Hippodrome in North London's Golders Green. While the likes of Queen, Jethro Tull, The Kinks and Roxy Music would perform at the 3,000-capacity venue over the years, no band or set has ever rocked the Hippodrome like Bon Scott and the boys did on this fateful evening. Ripping through a truncated, all bangers setlist of seven tracks in just 40 minutes, including 'Problem Child', 'Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be', 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and 'T.N.T.', while Angus Young would run rampant whilst shredding through the balcony section, this performance has gone down as one of most iconic from this early definitive era of the band.

Review: Viva La Revolution indeed. The Adicts tore out of England's east coast, and specifically Ipswich, and immediately made an impact. Asked to change their name by Sire Records in a bid to appease the charts and TV bookers - although, oddly, one of the options was apparently The Fun Adicts, which raises more quandaries - Rockers In Orbit captures their huge sound in all its glory. Recorded live at Alabama Halle, Munich, Germany, depending on which way you're listening first impressions invoke breakneck punk, motoring metal, and even the romance and commanding power of The Cure at their loudest and most dominating. Ultimately, though, these guys just sound like The Adicts. A questionable reference point we can only assure you is meant as a total complement. Not a band people will forget in a hurry.

Review: Originally forming in 1982, Agnostic Front were one of the pioneers of New York City hardcore punk and they've left an indelible mark on the scene and movement ever since. Inspired by their dilapidated surroundings of Lower East Side Manhattan, then blighted by poverty, drugs, violence, and high levels of urban decay, the ugliness around them would help to chart a venomous new course for the sonic potential of hardcore as an urgent, abrasive form of catharsis. This incendiary compilation offers up recordings which date back to the very start of their career, including demos of cuts that would eventually appear on their 1983 debut United Blood 7", while also featuring other recordings from the period that were left unissued at the time; some of the material would later be included on 1995's Raw & Unleased CD, though several of these tracks are making their wax debut. If you're eager for more homeschooling, the band were featured as part of Showtime's The Godfathers of Hardcore documentary in 2017, while frontman Roger Miret's autobiography offers insightful and frightening lore to an already clearly tumultuous yet integral time in punk history.

Review: Formed in 1982, New York City hardcore pioneers Agnostic Front left a defining impact on the burgeoning scene with their unmatched ferocity and sonic abrasion as well as their intimidating attitude and skinhead aesthetic, which would lead to them incorrectly being perceived by some as racists or neo-Nazis. Coming up in the rundown streets of Lower East Side Manhattan, surrounded by urban decay in an area battling severe poverty, drugs, and violence, they channelled their anger into a new breed of punk that would serve as both a rallying cry for the less fortunate as well as an urgent, abrasive form of catharsis. This blistering compilation contains recordings dating back to the very beginning of their career, featuring demos of tracks that would eventually appear on their 1983 debut United Blood 7", while also offering other recordings from this period originally left unissued at the time; some of these would later be included on the 1995 Raw & Unleased CD, though several of these cuts have never been made available on wax until now. The band would later be featured as part of Showtime's The Godfathers of Hardcore documentary from 2017, while frontman Roger Miret's autobiography provides a deeply insightful yet frightening firsthand account of an already clearly tumultuous yet integral time in punk history.

Review: Originally released in 2012, Daybreaker would serve as the fifth full-length from Brighton progressive metalcore heavyweights Architects, following an identity crisis after 2011's more streamlined post-hardcore effort The Here & Now. While in the decade since, the band have gone on to become one of Britain's most successful heavy music exports, finally managing to balance their heftier proclivities with mainstream appeal, the material here strikes a curious retrospective balance between their mathcore origins, the increasingly vast melodious experimentations, as well as their first forays into embracing elements of nuanced electronica. Conceptually marking their arrival to politically driven messaging, with the now even more timely and oppressively hefty 'These Colours Don't Run' tackling US political division while 'Devil's Island' lambasts the London riots of 2011, the album is also noted for its guest features including Drew York of Stray From The Path on 'Outsider Heart', and Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon on the standout 'Even If You Win, You're Still A Rat'.

Review: Stockholm-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Art Longo impresses here with Echowah Island, a new album sure to wind its way into your affections. It was crafted over years in his home studio and is "psychotropical pop" drawing deep inspiration from late 80s music and dub. The album's lush soundscape evokes orange sunsets and ocean breezes and is layered with spring reverb, space echo and wah-wah effects that smooth out the edges as the steady pulse of vintage drum machines moves things on down low. A standout feature is Claudio Jonas, whose ethereal vocals recall classic French femme fatale singers of the 60s. Her poetic, kaleidoscopic lyrics add to a nostalgic dream world that gently bends reality and makes his both escapist and thought-provoking.

Review: Willow Avalon fashions after her Georgia upbringing a sharp, incisive debut LP. The splash debut artist’s lyrical lexicon is a fierce one, and that’s not to mention her rich backing instrumental palette of classic country and Americana. From whip-smart lines in ‘Homewrecker’ and ‘Yodelayheewho’ to moments of regret in ‘The Actor’ and ‘Baby Blue’, her storytelling never slips into cliché; “she gets at least as much of her musical talent from her mom's side,” says her father Jim White, as her Southern roots and filial retrospections permeate each song.

Review: Some 37 haiku poems are given an avant-garde, 64-minute musical backing with translations from poet Harry Gilonis, on this unique project by composer and multi-instrumentalist Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow) and vocalist Atsuko Kamura. We hear a vignetting lingual interplay, with lines in English by Hodgkinson sung in Japanese by Kamura, as a wide instrumental span covers percussions, violin, viola, harp, clarinets, guitars and electronics result. Recorded between Tokyo and London, the album offers a startlingly satisfying sonic renga (a Japanese poetic form encompassing a succession of haikus), lending the brevity of classic haiku an expansive, stretched-out prosthesis. From the 17th through to the 20th-century, this is a subduing but still irregular experience, as it formally demonstrates the laconic and aphoristic essence of the haiku.