Almost entirely instrumental apart from the occasional detour into Floyd-like orbits, this is yet another bold statement from this ever-changing and challenging group. [Mar 2016, p.96]

Culturally rich, and instantly identifiable as excellent, this one's an extra-hot essential. [Mar 2016, p.97]

A rich score of chamber melancholy and electronic disquiet. [Mar 2016, p.97]

The result is a thematically complex neo-romantic narrative of wit, tension and sweep. [Mar 2016, p.97]

Enlightened and challenging... an incredible String Band for a brave new world. [Mar 2016, p.99]

Experimental pop that feels for the warm electronic pulse of '80s futurism. [Mar 2016, p.100]

Pulsing, hypnotic 13-minute opener Tardis Cymbals is a tough act to follow, with its primitive drum machines and rippling bassline, yet they trump it with voyages into scything death disco, bright Floydian vistas and even '60s vocal pop on Liquid Gate. [Mar 2016, p.95]

Concise, understated alt rock with cryptic, literate lyrics. [Mar 2016, p.100]

This is diaphanous pop music--perhaps overly flimsy on occasion--but full of sparkle and more variegated than before. [Mar 2016, p.97]

[The album] has no one style, no favoured musical template. [Mar 2016, p.92]

Like a turbo industrial Tears For Fears. [Mar 2016, p.98]

Collaboratively, spiritually and musically... it works superbly. [Mar 2016, p.99]

Recent world events demand some kind of visceral response, and sonically, musically and emotionally, Hidden City's primal, from-the-heart worldview represents just that, unwittingly or not. [Mar 2016, p.90]

The delightful, multi-mood Commontime is just shy of an hour, opens things out and is more personal [than 2012's Plumb]. This might be the sound of maturing. [Mar 2016, p.96]

She delivers intelligence and sensuality like she never saw a line between them. [Mar 2016, p.98]

There's no happy ever after, of course, but at least this excellent record has come out of the darkness. [Mar 2016, p.92]

If you love pop, you really have to hear it. [Mar 2015, p.92]

Of the 12 heat-seeking tunes, Daughters sounds the best bets. [Mar 2016, p.100]

Alluring, if more cold brewed latte than electric kool aid. [Mar 2016, p.100]

Wabi-Sabi is as becalmed and warm as it's wracked and haunted. [Feb 2016, p.94]

There's a warmth and careless spirit to 96, Rome and myriad others that hasn't always been there down the years, and they've seldom bettered Save You. It really is heart-warming to have them back on point. [Feb 2016, p.90]

Further evolution is needed to forge an identity from the shadows of their contemporaries. [Feb 2016, p.98]

There's a '60s simplicity that's instantly engaging. [Feb 2016, p.93]

On The Move sounds like music made with drinks in hand and wide smiles on faces. [Feb 2016, p.95]

The exceptional songs of Martin Henry are served by the trio's undemonstrative guitar, bass and drums being augmented by keyboards, glockenspiel and harp. [Feb 2016, p.91]

The trio's approach naturally invokes comparison to their forebears, but pleasingly, Night Beats are distilling a strong vintage of their own. [Feb 2016, p.92]

It is the most raw and intimate long-player in the 15-year career of this fine Nashville-via-New England singer-songwriter. [Feb 2016, p.93]

On a basic, gut-punching level they deliver with inarguable aplomb. [Feb 2016, p.92]

If Watneys Red Barrel-flavoured stompers like Roll The Balls, Watch Your Step and Bonehead Waltz are something you'd dig, this is definitely for you. [Feb 2016, p.98]

Delightfully chewy collaboration. [Feb 2016, p.90]

In The Magic Hour is, in turn, both exhilarating and exploratory. [Feb 2016, p.97]

If the alcoholic's lament Death Came teeters close to parody, then the bare-boned country pop of Place In My Heart and Bitter Memory offer some much needed respite. [Feb 2016, p.90]

It's pleasingly dizzying, yet curiously coherent. [Feb 2016, p.98]

An album whose gentle charms fades a little before the final curtain falls. [Feb 2016, p.93]

This Family album goes toward capturing the band's undeniable genius, in music that lingers like the most terrifying dream. [Feb 2016, p.91]

Afrucaine 808 have perfected a highly effective remedy to standing still. [Feb 2016, p.94]

The first seven tracks are wonderfully lush and mellow, but loses its way on the closing two-song suite, War/Peace. [Feb 2016, p.96]

Jet Plane And Oxbow pulls together crisp, motorik grooves, dirty great guitar riffs and arms-aloft choruses. [Feb 2016, p.90]

As was the case on 2013's Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO, seem poised equidistant between the mellifluousness of '70s Beach Boys and prog rock opacity. [Feb 2016, p.93]

A debilitating thrash/death doom speedball. [Jan 2016, p.98]

The deliciously daft Litter Love, all skronky synth and cavernous twang guitar, Stoltz comes on like The Wombles' nemesis--and dishes enough pop suss to brighten Mike Batt's eyes. Fans of Kelley's wonky back-pages gem You're Out Of This World will also lap-up Wobbly. [Dec 2015, p.89]

The set includes seven songs left off This Note's, many now sturdier than versions previously issued. [Feb 2016, p.104]

Sessions and collaborations abound, finally collected here. [Feb 2016, p. 104]

Although Gibbs's lyrics rarely veer beyond their survivalist comfort zones, his innate ability to switch up styles allows him to scale the gaping chasm between Forever And A Day's moody confessions and the unreconstructed boasts of Cold Ass Nigga with ease. [Feb 2016, p.94]

Though arriving with less of cacophonous attack, their crush of distortion and Elena Tonra's swooning vocals is rooted in the same psychedelic heartland. [Feb 2016, p.91]

A touch of feyness lingers. Not much, though. [Feb 2016, p.95]

These "little" songs have the feel of home-studio genesis, thanks to pitter-pattering drum machines, the unflashy layering of instruments, and the author's intimate lyrical reflections. [Feb 2016, p.94]

Never just black and white, nor blatantly "cinematic," it operates in subtle shades of grey and sepia, flushing with urgent instrumental colour when the internal simmering becomes too much. [Feb 2016, p.94]

It's not that Tortoise have got their groove back--they've never lacked compelling rhythm--rather, they've rediscovered their alchemical ability to conjure the atmospherically and melodically sublime from premium grade popular and art music precedents. [Jan 2016, p.89]

Less direct than its 2012 predecessor The Shadow Of Heaven, Suicide Songs collects richly arranged reflections which climax with A Cocaine Christmas And An Alcoholic's New Year. [Feb 2016, p.96]

The upshot shocks with unexpected new ground. [Feb 2015, p.93]

New View furthers Friedberger's quest to declutter, finding great pop and occasional profundity in getting to the point and letting her tunes ring clear. [Feb 2016, p.92]

Nutty as Emotional Mugger is, it's a joyful trip. [Feb 2016, p.91]

This album pop-pops with pleasure, sunshine and subversion. [Feb 2016, p.96]

Night Thoughts is the work of a band very much at home in the here and now, all the while looking forward. Still something else, still something wonderful. [Feb 2016, p.88]

A debut packed with infectious fun. [Feb 2016, p.94]

Hymns resembles a settling breath. [Feb 2016, p.94]

It proves to be an oblique, sometimes outre, but always artistic reinvestigation rather than an indulgent lap of honour around erstwhile glories. [Feb 2016, p.94]

Almost inevitably, Adore Life overcompensates, but in a good way. This is Savages' love album. [Feb 2016, p.91]

Theatrical swishes of piano, mellotron, guitars and percussion back her powerful, red velvet voice. [Feb 2016, p.98]

The wiry Dubliner is stealthily building a similarly indelible songbook. [Feb 2016, p.92]

She's assembled an intriguing set of duets. [Nov 2015, p.91]

This collection suffers slightly from inconsistency--possibly because it's cut from several different shows. [Jan 2016, p.90]

[A] heartfelt, reflective LP. [Nov 2015, p.91]

It's an album of soothing '80s-style motorik synth-pop given just enough bite from contemporary dance music to avoid becoming pastiche. [Mar 2015, p.97]

She may not over-emote, but Elsewhere still has burn marks around its emotional edges. [May 2015, p.97]

Black Rivers is an excellent surprise. [Mar 2015, p.94]

More sharp work from these urban outfitters. [May 2015, p.91]

Echoes of Aphex Twin, Nils Frahm, Arvo Part and Biosphere swirl around a deeply personal but sonically seductive piece of work. [Jan 2016, p.94]

Crackling with radio-primed hooks, whipsnap breakbeats and Boucher’s helium-pitched vocals, Grimes’ third album makes a convincing strike for playlist ubiquity, with a healthy dollop of the oddball chucked in.

A wonderful album. [Jan 2016, p.93]

While none of these 19 tracks reach four minutes, the music has an epic, quasi-devotional quality. [Jan 2016, p.94]

If the pace and mood start to become a tad predictable, Satomi "Deerhoof" Matsuzaki's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is more of a spectral journey into a far stranger world. [Jan 2016, p.96]

While the album's nine, wordless pieces for mournfully beautiful cello and shifting ambient atmospheres may not always conjure seismic volatility, there is certainly an underlying tension close to the surface of swooning opener Hellebore. [Jan 2016, p.96]

Strange and lovely. [Jan 2016, p.98]

Chorus probes that the light from Lush's star still shines brighter and stronger than anyone might have suspected. [Jan 2016, p.105]

It's hard to imagine even hardcore fans listening to this twice, as it sounds too much like an empty barrel being scraped. [Jan 2016, p.106]

If you can get past the redundancy--and what a redundancy it is. [Jan 2016, p.106]

These 41 short, snappy but entirely involving instrumentals generously reaffirm Dilla's inimitable way around chopped-up vocal samples, waspish, distempered synth lines and spacey unquantised drums. [Jan 2016, p.104]

The box set joy is the archive additions, their whiff of ancient wasted sweat. [Jan 2016, p.102]

A rich seam of molten psychedelic heaviness pitched between Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer. [Jan 2016, p.96]

A filmic atmosphere is constant. [Jan 2016, p.96]

Diverse yet cohesive. [Jan 2016, p.96]

Heartbreaking, heartwarming, Eric's still very much a contender. [Jan 2016, p.92]

Eighth LP settles into a classic rock groove. [Jan 2016, p.98]

Live In Paris is a pure window into the troubled soul of the mid-2010s Tuareg. [Jan 2016, p.92]

An album of great beauty and quiet power. [Jan 2016, p.91]

An exotic, often rapturous reading of Tzur's Sufi-meets-Hebrew song forms. [Jan 2016, p.91]

If the phosphorus-hot psychedelia of their first Hexadic record was too much for some ears, this subtly chance-infused union of magick and method should prove more inviting. [Jan 2016, p.90]

He also works hard to bring variety within the gargantuan two-and-a-half-hour running time with an all-star guest list. [Jan 2016, p.89]

This new album is as quixotic and wilfully idiosyncratic as his previous oeuvre. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Jones actually one-ups the Ventures with a frenetic version of White Christmas you can do the swim to. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Beach House's second album in three months underlines just how precision-stylised their frosty, often glacially-slow dream-pop has become. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Johns and his Black Dogs shine throughout. [Jan 2016, p.90]

Any suggestion of sameness is speedily erased by Alexandra Eastburn's arsenal of skewed electronic embellishments and the breathless exuberance the group bring to the party. [Jan 2016, p.88]

Icelandic duo reflect their homeland's long winter nights. [Jan 2016, p.98]

Persuasive R&B with strident lyrics and sharp sonics. [Jan 2016, p.98]

Redolent of soundtrack ace Danny Elfman, if Kubrick is a pitch for work in cinema it's a sound move. [Jan 2016, p.94]