Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: Taken from the album Black Gold, this 7" single comes on limited edition white vinyl and offers up the superb 'What's Happenin'' featuring Method Man and Busta Rhymes on the A-side. It's a beat-driven workout with funk in the drums. The B-side offers an exclusive and rather more stripped-back mix of 'Back in the Game' with Ron Isley, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, GZA, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah all seamlessly blended with the instrumental of 'House of Flying Daggers.' It's not often you get so many iconic collaborations all on one record which is why it is such a big hitter.

Review: You can probably work out what's going on here from the title: a superb collection of reworked Hall & Oates classics inna reggae style. They are the fine work of Black Market Dub who likes to reimagine classic sounds through a 70s Jamaican lens. The techniques used throughout are superbly authentic with hissing hi-hats, lazy tumbling beats and snaking baselines. The vocals remain in their original, often polished, falsetto style and extra horns are added for a lush sunny impact. Great fun, but also great quality.

Review: First released in 2009, Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison delivers a punchy career retrospective focuses not on his biggest hits (though naturally many are present), but rather what are considered his greatest songs. Naturally his three most celebrated Beatles-era songs are present - 'Something', 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and 'Here Comes The Sun' - albeit in the form of atmospheric live recording, but the bulk of the material comes from his prolific, post 1970 solo career. It is, then, a fine snapshot of a brilliant songwriter, with highlights including the sublime 'All Things Must Pass', the nostalgic 'All Those Years Ago', the string laden 'Isn't It a Pity', and the instrumental 'Marwa Blues'.

Review: Swedish garage-tinged hard rock heroes The Hellacopters, made the mother of all comebacks with 2022's sonic refusal to stagnate on Eyes Of Oblivion, which served as their first full-length since 2008's original "farewell" covers project Head Off. Following a return to the stage in 2016, it appears that wasn't enough to satiate the creative appetite of mastermind Nicke Andersson, a pioneering force who started out as the drummer for legendary death metal outfit Entombed before allowing his side-project to engulf all of his prowess and energy. Being one of the band's primary songwriters and then subsequently freed from their aggressive constraints allowed Andersson to explore his own designs, now with the arrival of Overdriver, we hear a seasoned veteran refusing to be boxed in again by his own earlier psychedelic output by boldly embracing the vintage classic rock of his youth. Bombastic riffs, earworm hooks and the antithesis of shying away from melody culminate in a latter day work boasting anthems such as 'Soldier On' which genuinely sound like if Elton John in his peak years traded his piano for a fuzzed out axe of a guitar.

Review: While Swedish garage-tinged hard rock heroes The Hellacopters made their bombastic return with 2022's excellent Eyes Of Oblivion; their 2008 predecessor Head Off was originally envisioned as the band's swansong project. With that creative headspace in mind, the group opted to (try and) go out on a tributary whim with an album consisting entirely of covers of personal favourite cuts from acts they felt were deserving of far more praise, adoration and discovery. Boasting an eclectic mix of renditions from garage-punk outfits from their home of Sweden such as Demons, to seminal American fuzzed out troubadours like New Bomb Turks, Dead Moon, and The Bellrays, to name just a small portion, the LP serves as a celebration of all things garage, punk, fuzz and rock, often in the same sonic breath, from a band who at the time of recording felt they had nothing more creative to say. As time has shown just how wrong they were, what better time to revisit this farewell-turned-covers LP which receives a lush new repress from their recently found label-home Nuclear Blast.

Review: .After Swedish psychedelia worshipping, garage-tinged hard rock heroes The Hellacopters returned to the stage for an apparent one-off performance in 2016, they simply couldn't put the project back to bed. Releasing their follow up to 2008's at the time farewell covers album Head Off in 2022; Eyes Of Oblivion was a groove-laden return to form, restoring the band's knack for earworm hooks delivered with authentically retro riffage. What many might forget is that mastermind Nicke Andersson cut his teeth as the drummer and primary songwriter for death metal pioneers Entombed before ultimately departing, looking to the melodies of his youth in search of creative fulfilment. Now with Overdriver, the second LP of The Hellacopters reunion era, Andersson pushes further back beyond the local and global psychedelic acts of his previous primary inspiration (many of whom were covered on the aforementioned Head Off) and looks to the blueprints of T. Rex and early Elton John to help craft a collection of vintage-seeming hard rock anthems, as playful as they are poignant and respectful. One listen to 'Soldier On' and you'll be convinced you heard your dad blaring it in the car when you were but a young'en.