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Review: Wilco's first studio album in three years, "Sky Blue Sky" has been perhaps the most ardently awaited release of 2007. Eager fans had taken to shouting out pleas for information to bandleader Jeff Tweedy during his recent solo acoustic tour, and the web chatter has been virtually deafening. On "Sky Blue Sky" Tweedy's lyrics deal forthrightly with romantic separation and reconciliation, their bittersweet quality giving way, as the album progresses, to a more uplifting, redemptive mood. Tweedy quite literally banishes the darkness on the penultimate track, the inspiring, gospel-tinged "What Light".

Review: "NINE INCH NAILS' GROUNDBREAKING DEBUT ALBUM
REMASTERED AND RE-RELEASED

Fans can now revisit the conception of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor's Null Corporation has teamed with UMe/The Bicycle Music Company to release Pretty Hate Machine: 2010 Remaster on November 22, 2010. After completing the score for David Fincher's The Social Network, Reznor oversaw the digital remastering of Pretty Hate Machine from the newly unearthed original tapes with engineer Tom Baker (whose NIN credits include The Downward Spiral, Broken, The Fragile, With Teeth and Ghosts). This remastered version includes an eleventh track, a cover of Queen's ''Get Down Make Love,'' originally the B-side to the ''Sin'' single and produced by Al Jourgensen. Rob Sheridan, NIN's longtime art director, has also re-imagined the packaging of Pretty Hate Machine under Reznor's supervision.

As a young musician in Cleveland, Ohio, Reznor took a job at a local recording studio and employed unused studio time to develop his own material. The nascent album was later recorded with his favorite producers including Flood/Mark Ellis (U2, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey), John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil), Adrian Sherwood (Ministry, Cabaret Voltaire) and Keith LeBlanc (Tackhead). The result was the first Nine Inch Nails album, 1989's Pretty Hate Machine. All songs were written, arranged, programmed and performed by Reznor. The album featured the breakthrough singles ''Sin,'' ''Down In It'' and ''Head Like A Hole,'' and ultimately sold over 3 million copies, reaching Triple Platinum sales status. In the wake of the album's initial underground success, NIN soon developed a reputation as one of the best live acts in rock and joined the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in 1991. NIN have since sold more than 18 million albums, collected Grammy® Awards and headlined arenas, amphitheaters and festivals worldwide.

The Bicycle Music Company acquired the rights to Pretty Hate Machine from a division of Prudential Securities in the spring of 2010. It was Bicycle's intention from the onset to enable Reznor to regain some control of this lost piece of NIN's legacy, resulting in this artist approved 2010 reissue of one of music's most groundbreaking and influential albums.

Reznor is currently working on new music as a member of the group How To Destroy Angels, continuing his Nine Inch Nails efforts and composing for future film score projects.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Head Like A Hole
2. Terrible Lie
3. Down In It
4. Sanctified
5. Something I Can Never Have
6. Kinda I Want To
7. Sin
8. That's What I Get
9. The Only Time
10. Ringfinger
11. Get Down Make Love"

Review: "Anthology" serves as a celebration of The Clean, a band whose influence extends so far beyond their New Zealand home that even if you have never heard of The Clean before, you have surely heard of some of the bands (Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Superchunk, to name a few) who have been influenced by their unique blend of homemade garage rock, hook-filled melodies and psychedelic experimentalism.

The album is a compilation from across The Clean's legendary career, which began in 1981 and continues today. Merge originally released the two CD "Anthology" in 2003, but now this collection is available on quadruple LP. "Anthology" kicks off with The Clean's call-to-arms debut "Tally Ho!"; the story of the infectious track's $60 recording bill is now legendary. It continues with the early EPs "Boodle Boodle Boodle" and "Great Sounds Great" in their entirety. The hits "Billy Two", "Anything Could Happen", "Beatnik" and "Getting Older", live favorites like "Point That Thing Somewhere Else" and instrumentals "Fish" and "At the Bottom" all serve up memories of the joyous noise that characterized The Clean of that time. These recordings, mostly made by the band with Chris Knox and Doug Hood at the helm of the 4-track, capture the bright, raw sound of a classic garage band.

After a brief breakup, the band recorded "Vehicle" in 1989, made in three days and engineered by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, My Bloody Valentine). The sounds of "Vehicle" and the two albums that followed it, "Modern Rock" (1994) and "Unknown Country" (1996), make up the bulk of discs 3 and 4 of the vinyl "Anthology". In addition to selections from these full-length recordings, "Anthology" includes two songs released only on a US 7 inch and two that appeared on a bonus flexidisc with the "Modern Rock" LP.

Review: A musical polymath like no other, the late Arthur Russell turned his hand to a bewildering variety of different musical styles, from avant-garde torch songs to pounding disco, yet all imbued with his otherworldly songwriting skill and richly emotional voice. This posthumous compilation, however, collects together the more oddly accessible material that he created, in largely acoustic and country styles. The cowboy hat on the sleeve may be strangely appropriate here, but more than this, the blend of plaintive melancholy and freewheeling charm can only leave the listener wondering how Arthur Russell managed to avoid mainstream success in his all-too-brief career. A strange and beguiling transmission from a unique talent.

Review: Pioneering and mercurial DJ Erol Alkan and former Grid man Richard Norris have been spinning discs together for well over a decade, and remixing other outfits for almost as long, after bonding on a love of '60s psychedelia and classic acid house - yet this marks their bona fide debut as recording artists, and it's a glorious collision of both these passions - fuelled by crate-digging acumen and exemplary taste, and reflective of a magpie spirit that renders these third-eye-massaging gems more than mere psychedelic pastiche, rather a bold and joyful reinvention of lysergic glories of yore for a new aeon.

Review: The Microcosm: Visionary Music Of Continental Europe, 1970-1986 presents works from 'cosmically-taped' artists; legends like Vangelis, Ash Ra Tempel, and Popol Vuh through to more obscure names in the form of Bernard Xolotl, Robert Julian Horky and Enno Velthuys. According to Washington State label Light In The Attic, the compilation aspires to present these these works of "ambient, new age, neuzeit, prog, krautrock, cosmic, holistic stuff, whatever one calls it - as a pulsating movement unto itself", and they've done a fine job of that when you hear how well curated this album really is. From major label recordings through to limited obscure cassette editions, it unearths some truly captivating and oddly inspiring gems from beatless electronic music's recent past.

Review: On the back of Kompakt's expansive retrospective of his work under the Gas alias, the essential Box, Wolfgang Voigt has decided to deliver a new album - his first for 17 years. Predictably, Narkopop is as cinematic, widescreen and densely layered as anything the German ambient producer has done to date. Over 11 spellbinding tracks, Voigt blends field recordings and droning electronics with sweeping, almost orchestral movements, swirling melodic cycles, and occasional forays into rhythmic hypnotism. The result is a collection of "wall of sound" ambient compositions that does a terrific job tiptoeing the fine lines between both grandiosity and intimacy, and joy and pain. In a word: essential.

Review: We've had more Neil Young compilations thrown our way over the years than many of us care to remember, but only one really sticks in the mind, and it's this one. Originally released in 1977 and chronicling the period in which Young went from being a simple member of Buffalo Springfield to one of the most heralded North American songwriters of the late century, and comprising work from that band alongside Crosby Stills Nash and Young, it's studded with delights aplenty. From the extended guitar sprawl of 'Down By The Ocean' and 'Cortez The Killer' to poignant balladry like 'After The Goldrush' and 'Helpless', no-one captured the dreams and hopes of the hippie generation in quite the way Young did, and this collection is a magnificent testimony to his most fertile and heartwarming era.

Review: Omar S presents this remastered reissue of the 1979 album by this Singaporean disco band led by Ardo Guerzo and Jeremiah Star on his revered FXHE imprint. The name of the band is an acronym of their first names respectively. They mixed disco and salsa in their hit "Classical Salsa". They covered the Ohio Players' classic hit "Sweet Sticky Thing" and they named their 1976 released album after it. Star was also in the short lived Funkgus outfit which is worth checking out, if you can find it! A true diggers delight for those that knew it seems, but now brought to a wider audience, thankfully. Originally on Baal, a UK label founded in the mid '70s by Jay Shotam of October Cherries. The original Baal label was founded in Singapore by his band in the late '60s until it became defunct in 1980.

Review: An integral figure on the Motor City scene for the best part of two decades, Specter has always been a particularly prolific producer. Built To Last - appearing on Theo Parrish's significant Sound Signature label - is his first album-length excursion. It offers an expansive summary of his inspirations and influences - many will notice subtle nods towards local deep house, techno and electro heroes, as well as more experimental synthesizer music, off-kilter electronic jazz-funk, deep space dub and eyeliner-clad early '80s synth-wave - while also showcasing a trademark sound that's every bit as dusty, warm, loose and lo-fi as his lauded Detroit peers.

Review: Ionnalee's 2018 debut album "Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten" was superb, so hopes are high for the artist's similarly minded sequel. "Remember The Future" is a little bolder, shinier and more upbeat than its predecessor, though stylistically it still sounds like a 21st century update of Kate Bush's distinctive early '80s sound circa "The Dreaming" and "Hounds of Love". It's a dreamy, ethereal and otherworldly take on electronic pop that's always alluring and often memorable. The album's plentiful highlights include "Some Body", the superb Zola Jesus collaboration "Matters" - a deep, bubbly and intoxicating affair - and "Mysteries Of Love", an echoing, Royksopp-produced cover of a song from David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti's "Blue Velvet" movie soundtrack.

Review: Those who've been paying close attention will know that Alex 'Omar' Smith has been mixing things up musically of late, veering away from the deep Detroit house he's famed for in order to explore a wider range of influences. New album "You Want" doesn't exactly reverse this trend, but it is far more rooted in his particular brand of seductive, off-kilter deepness and techno-tinged hypnotism than recent singles. That's undeniably a good thing, because nobody does crunchy, machine driven club jams better than the Motor City producer. There are nods towards Italian style piano house, disco, broken beat, jazz funk, Masters at Work and - more surprisingly - industrial techno (see the filthy closing cut) - but the resultant cuts don't sound like anything other than tried-and-tested Omar-S club jams.

Review: You may not be familiar with avant-garde composer Valentina Goncharova, but this incredible collection of rare home recordings is enough to answer any questions you might have as to how mind-blowing her work is. The sort of artist who needs to flee the Leningrad Conservatoire in order to have the space and freedom to fully explore ideas. Combining elements of musique concrete, drone, ambient and a kind of lo-fi classical, this is an expression of place - sanctuary of the home - and its ability to offer protection from creative oppressors. Using vocal mantras, curious refrains, amplified and distorted strings (cello in particular), you really get a sense of not only the where but the how behind these arrangements. Hushed but dense, they draw the listener in with surprising speed, so before you know it you're right there in that domestic studio watching a genius at work.

Review: Jackie Mclean recorded the 'It's Time' long player back in one session in 1964. It finds post-bop and free jazz fused together with young trumpet sensation Charles Tolliver, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Roy Haynes, who all played original compositions by Mclean. The spirited sound was utterly new and fresh at the time and still makes a big impact all these years later, with real detail observed in the jacket graphics, printing quality and superior LP mastering quality. At times tender and reserved, at others exultant, this is a prized piece of jazz history.

Review: The mysterious Sault troupe is back with a call to action and revolutionary soul soundtrack that really bangs the box. "Ain't nothing gunna keep us silent" the lead singer yelps on 'Stop Der', which is an immediate banger after the soothing ambience and closely mic-ed whispers of the opener, which muse on what it means to be black. The rest of the record is a hard hitting mix of crisp drums and empowering vocals, with elements of classic soul as well as contemporary jazz colouring the grooves. This is powerful music with an even more powerful message.

Review: It's either the most timely re-issue of 2020 or the most inappropriate. Cast your mind back to when everyone's (or at least most people's) favourite Icelandic woodland sprite power-chill-pop oddities released Takk... Back in 2005 it was a symphony of celebratory, life-affirming walls of sound, the ideal score to an Attenborough documentary. Now it feels a little a painfully poignant and emotionally charged sonic memory of a lost world. Fear not, though, like this album, the good days will return again.

In the meantime kick back and remind yourself how good this record is. Not quite on a par with the preceding LP, ( ), which took this unique troupe from obscurity to global stardom by way of soft yet subtly gargantuan harmonious arrangements, here the songwriting and craft is more traditional, and certainly better suited to platforms like radio. Nevertheless, the tracks are no less beguiling, bewitching or intoxicating.

Review: Canadian singer The Weeknd has just been announced as the half time act for this year's Super Bowl, which is another crowning glory for an artist who has made a remarkable rise to the top. One of his early standout achievements was his Beauty Behind The Madness album, which is re-released here on its fifth anniversary. It was his sophomore long player and feature big guest like Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Ray which helped it debut at number one in several countries around the world. Filled with some harder truths than previous music yet with plenty of catchy hooks and singalong choruses, it prove The Weeknd was more versatile than people thought.

Review: The Smashing Pumpkins' transformation from melodic alt-rock deities to synth-driven electronic boppers is complete. Well, almost. The titular single certainly fits that easy narrative, laser beam chords and string refrains bursting from behind a track that bounces with a light disco punk energy. In truth, of course, there has always been far more to Bill Corgan et al than the alternative rock tag often implies, and even right back to their formative years the crew were toying with expectations.

2018's Rick Rubin-produced Shine And Oh So Bright... album may have emphasised their rock roots, but now we're given their creative juices in full flow on their poppiest outing yet, partly inspired by the roster of seminal Chicago label Wax Trax!, the US home to Underworld and The KLF among others. Needless to say, though, the Pumpkins make it sound like they've lived here all along; testament to their unwavering dedication to trying new ideas and knack at pulling them off.

Review: Donald Byrd was joined by tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, alto sax wizard Jackie McLean, Duke Pearson on piano, bassists Doug Watkins and Reggie Workman and drummer Lex Humphries on this stunning session from 1960. It's a record packed with highlights, not least a powerful ballad on 'Little Girl Blue', or the hard bop swing of 'My Girl Shirl' and 'Lex', the last of those two in particular features a soulful solo from Mobley that really stays with you. This is part fo the Tone Poet series which places particular focusses on exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters.

Review: RECOMMENDED
If 2020, and the coronavirus pandemic, did anything good for music it was forcing a long overdue reevaluation of the role technology plays. Video games had a bumper year, and it didn't take long for the historic relationship between computer entertainment and contemporary musical compositions to start finding favour with content-starved editorial teams.

They say there's no turning back, ever, and as such the smart money is on albums like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice not just becoming more commonplace, but taken more seriously going forward. Soundtrack to Activision's critically acclaimed video game of the same name, in which players take on the role of a shinobi in feudal Japan, as you'd expect it's a deeply atmospheric collection that invokes misty mountaintops, shadows dancing off bamboo and patient heroics. An OST equal to any major movie.

Review: There are an awful lot of great records in the J Dilla's catalogue, but few can match the consistent quality and coherent construction of Welcome 2 Detroit, his 2001 breakthrough album. Designed as a love letter to his home city with a sample palette and blend of styles to match, it saw the late producer and a string of then largely unknown local MCs showcase their vocal talents over some of his best ever beats. This lusciously expansive 20th anniversary box set does a brilliant job in expanding on the original album, with the 12 included "45s" pairing vocal mixes with instrumentals, unreleased cuts and occasional remixes. The included hardback book is brilliant, too, and packed with first-hand accounts of the creation of a now iconic LP.

Review: RECOMMENDED
How can heavy metal-ers not get excited about this one? While sporting a pretty serious price tag, this Super Deluxe edition of Black Sabbath's seminal fourth album is certainly one for the collectors, who will delight in the 11 additional studio recordings featured in the huge amount of bonus material here, which include snippets of studio dialogue, false starts and more rough around the edges nuances that bring the work to life.

As for the LP itself, it was something of a landmark moment in the band's journey - shifting the intensity and ferocity up at least three gears and then sticking a brick on the throttle to hold it in place. Perhaps Mojo's take on things puts it best; ""If booze and dope had helped fuel Sabbath's earlier albums, Vol. 4 is their cocaine ... Despite their spiraling addictions, musically Vol. 4 is another ambitious outing". Enough said.

Review: Seattle label Light In The Attic Records is proud to present a reissue of material from Nancy Sinatra's most prolific period between 1965-1976, with 23 tracks including her revered collaborations with Lee Hazlewood. Sinatra's performance of 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin'' became her signature tune. The pair began a three year run of successful recordings, with 'Sugar Town,' 'Some Velvet Morning,', 'Summer Wine' as well as the James Bond theme 'You Only Live Twice' being just a few. She also worked with songwriter Mac Davis, producer Lenny Waronker and arranger/producer Billy Strange on the album.

Review: Soul Slabs Vol. 2 is a second collection of 7" a-sides from Loveland Ohio's essential Colemine Records. The label has long dealt in heavy soul, funk, and r&b that is always perfectly authentic, with old school production values and timeless songs that translate across the ages. Lots of ground is covered here in fine style, from the raw and direct opener from The Gripsweats on through superb drum-funk from Jungle Fire and more tender and soft-hearted moments of soul bliss such as Jr Thomas & The Volcanos's 'What A Shame.' Highlights about on this one which comes in its own slipcase.

Review: Iconic jazz label Blue Note continues with is carefully considered reissue program under the Tone Poet banner, which places lots of focus on audiophile quality pressings. This one focusses on Andrew Hill, who was often said to be one of the most distinctive pianists and composing talents in the game. This session was first recorded in 1963 yet for some reason remained unrelated until 2003, when it finally made it to CD. Now presented on vinyl it features a fine ensemble including Woody Shaw and Dizzy Reece on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Joe Farrell on saxes, and more on bass, horns, drums and tuba. The results are hugely moving.

Review: The fourth album from Colombian-Spanish singer Kali Uchis translates as Without Fear (of Love and Other Demons)). It is her first record sung primarily in Spanish which does nothing at all to detract from the beauty of her delivery. Guests such as PartyNextDoor, Nasty and Cortez add their own flavours but the overriding vibe of this one is bright, melodic bedroom pop, r&b and reggaeton with funky breaks and trippy jazz stylings. Love is often in the air throughout the record which often soars to blue skies and brings the rays direct to your face.

Review: As recently as this year with his Floating Points collaboration, Pharoah Sanders has proven to be in excellent form. Which is all the more remarkable given the length of his career. Oe of the early highlights was the 1981 classic, Rejoice, which explored a more mellow sound than previous works. The record is rife with superb improvs a la late 50s John Coltrane as well as fine turns from top players including pianists Joe Bonner and John Hicks, bassist Art Davis and drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Higgins. Bobby Hutcherson adds some start vibes work and that helps the album to hold your attention closely throughout.

Review: A deluxe reissue now available of the acclaimed 2001 album by Australian hip hop fusion act The Avalanche' Since I Left You featuring the hit single of the same name. This four disc version features several modern reworks of tracks from the LP, with notable appearances from Leon Vynehall and the late MF DOOM on the remix of 'Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life' and 'A Different Feeling' receiving the Carl Craig Paperclip People remix among many others.

Review: When it was first released a quarter of a century ago, the Buena Vista Social Club album - a conceptual album produced by Ry Cooder and Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, featuring veteran Cuban musicians recreating music that had been popular on the island nation in the 1940s and '50s - had a huge cultural impact. Not only did it sell like hot cakes around the World, leading to a US tour and documentary film, but it also raised interest in Cuban music, something that has sustained to this day. This 25th Anniversary edition, then, is fully justified. It boasts fully remastered vinyl and CD versions of the original album, each with bonus tracks, as well as partner discs entirely made up of previously unheard songs and alternate takes.

Review: This bumper collection of 12" singles features nine replicas of the singles from the original campaign around the Screamadelica album. It is now 30 years old and stands proud as one of the finest moments in the emergent acid hose scene, not in small part thanks to the late great and legendary producer Andrew Weatherall. The box set comes with prints by the album original cover artist Paul Cannell and some previous unheard mixes (and accompanying instrumental) of 'Shine Like Stars' by the aforementioned Lord Sabre as well as plenty of other great versions by fellow Boy's Own man Terry Farley and others.

Review: German powerhouse label Ostgut Ton turns 16 with another of its big and mighty compilations. Ostgut Ton Funfzehn Plus 1 spans 20 tracks and features a number of top draw collabs from artists who work closely with the label. Some come together for the first time such as Martyn and Duval Timothy, or Len Faki and Honey Dijon, and all were due for release last year originally. They say "the music focuses on the interwoven nature of the label and the club in its multitude of different spaces and musical facets." We say, get it bought.

Review: The Matrix film remains a cult classic many years after it was first released to great acclaimed. To tie in with the release of the surprise fourth move in the series - The Matrix: Resurrection - Real Gone Music is now reissuing the original soundtrack on vinyl four years after they first put it out. This limited edition gatefold version features stills from the film and all the original tracks are pressed on swirled blue and white vinyl. There are high-speed thrillers like Propellerheads' 'Spybreak! (Short One)' next to gothic rock anthems from Marilyn Manson twisted cyborg techno bangers from Rob Zombie.

Review: Fresh off the acclaimed reissue of his Feuerfalter LP in both parts on Harthouse last year, the legendary Frankfurt label presents another reissue of a classic LP by hi-tech minimalism engineer Boris Brejcha. Die Maschinen Kontrollieren Uns ("The Machines Are Controlling Us"). was the Frankenthal native's second album released in 2007, where the masked crusader presented a whopping sixteen tracks. A true zeitgeist of a golden era in minimal techno, tracks like 'Brainstopper' with its atonal assortment of blips and bleeps underpinned by clipped rhythms will really take you back to the old says, as will the glitchy micro-funk of "Die Maschinen sind Gestrandet" (Second Edition) or the deep tech house of "Wellenreiter (2.0)" could have been played aboard a Sunday boat party along the River Main circa 2008.

Review: With a history dating back to 1912, at various points being used for different purposes including an ice rink and ballroom, San Francisco's The Fillmore - which began hosting bands properly as far back as the mid-1950s - is the kind of venue any act would love (or kill?) to play. Skip forward almost 50 years and My Morning Jacket understandably made the decision to record not just this album, but also a film, while performing two nights at the address in question. Okonokos is the end result, a powerhouse LP that really showcases the inherent strength of the Louisville, Kentucky outfit. Never straying too far from a kind of stadium take on country rock, but also refusing not to recognise the subtly psychedelic nature of those genres.

Review: Anyone looking to bolster the freakier end of their techno collection could do worse than checking out this bumper compilation from Advance Public Listening. It is a mighty four vinyl box set with tens of tracks across eight sides of heavyweight vinyl (that makes the whole thing weigh in at not that for off a kilo of wax.) It takes in plenty of experimental sounds, ambient laced tracks for 5am dreaming and mind melting cuts for the after party. There are also wonky peak time workouts and plenty in between from a classy selection of artist from all over the world.

Review: Matador is something of a forgotten masterpiece that gets a deserving deluxe treatment here with an all-analogue reissue on nice and heavy 180 gram vinyl. Released back in 1963 by passionate jazz players, trumpeter Kenny Dorham and alto talent Jackie McLean, the energetic album also features spirited performances from Bobby Timmons on piano, and the locked-in rhythm section of Teddy Smith on bass and J.C. Moses on drums. There is frenetic interplay between all, with loose and swinging keys and real spontaneity resulting in hugely expressive and energetic sounds. Remarkably, the whole album was recorded in just one day in 1962 and brims with rawness and realness.