Search results: Beautiful Spring

Review: In the bleakest of midwinters M. Ward's re-reading of Billie Halliday's 1958 album, Lady In Satin, wears poignancy on its sleeve, teaching us things can be beautiful again, even if they seem broken. By the time she made the record, Halliday had damaged her voice through alcohol and drug abuse, but her efforts were still mesmerising (albeit somewhat divisive). Now, more than 50 years on, a man with a larynx at the softer end of the spectrum takes on that playlist, reordering and rethinking in the process.

Save for 'The End of a Love Affair' all the parts of Halliday's masterpiece are here, but they sound resolutely different. Not least far quieter. Passion runs throughout, indicative of Ward's deep love for the source material and the emotional quality that pervades all his work. Instrumentally, it's no less committed, throwing all manner of unusual chord progressions and riffs our way via irregular tuning techniques. A stunning record that's testament to coverer and covered alike.

Review: Under The Bridge was a compilation of work by artists who had, at some point or another, recorded on the cult imprint Sarah Records. It should already be on your radar. If not, we recommend digging for it. Now here's part two, a 2024 update which takes that idea much further, presenting a more expansive track list and platforming some brand new projects to boot. Timeless stuff comes thick and, quite often, pretty fast, with plenty of driving garage rock to feel propelled by. Old favourites are here, for example Even As We Speak and Secret Shine, Action Painting! and The Hit Parade. And there are also new groups, such as Michael Hiscock of The Field Mice leading an act called Gentle Spring, and a collaboration between Mark Tranmer and James Hackett, both usually of The Orchids (who also appear on here), but recording as Vetchinsky Settings. A feast, basically.

Review: Skep Wax's first Under The Bridge compilation, released in 2022, reunited the bands, songwriters and producers who populated cult early '90s indie label Sarah Records. This hotly anticipated follow-up repeats the trick, presenting 20 recently recorded cuts from the Bristol-based imprint's original roster of artists. It too, is a hugely successful - and understandably nostalgic - exercise, with hi9ghlights including the bright-and-breezy indie jangliness of Action Painting's 'Just Who Are The Cockleshell Heroes', the shoegaze-influenced dream pop haziness of Soundwire's 'Everything Is Real', the near Balearic soft focus shuffle of 'Double Nine' by GNAC, and the saucer-eyed excellence of The Orchids' 'A Final Love Song'.

Review: In honour of the 25th birthday of painter-turned-DIY musician Tor Lundvall's hard-to-find debut album, 'Passing Through Alone', Dais has joined forces with the New York-based creative polymath to produce a career-spanning, five-disc box set. Naturally, it begins with that 1997 debut - on which he laid down his now familiar "signature palette of synth, sequencers, guitar, drum machines, and hushed spectral voice" (as the label puts it) - before delivering an expanded edition of his 2010 odds-and-ends collection 'Ghost Years'. What follows is inaugural CD editions of three of Lundvall's most recent albums: 'A Strangeness In Motion' (a collection of lo-fi pop tracks recorded across the 90s), 'A Dark Place' and 'Beautiful Illusions'. A fitting celebration of a genuinely unique artist.

Review: 26 years on from the release of the very first Techno Club mix CD, the popular series has reached its 70th instalment. There's a celebratory feel about it, too, with series founder (and Teutonic trance behemoth) Talla 2LXC being joined by rising star Jes (who handles disc two) and the CDs coming packaged with stickers and a light-up wristband (ideal for creating that 'rave at home' vibe). Musically, it's tons of fun, with Talla 2LXC using his mix to surge between uplifting, hands-aloft cuts by John O'Callaghan, Cold Blue, John Askew and Ronski Speed & Sigma, as well as loads of his productions and collaborations. Jes takes a similar approach on her mix (CD2), flitting between her own tracks, remixes and collaborations and fine cuts by the likes of BT, Matt Fax, Sunbeam and Solarstone.