It's undoubtedly an acquired taste, and you can't imagine actually wanting to listen to it all that much, but there's definitely much to admire here.

They are truly captivating when they take the best of their talents and translate them as they feel and, frankly, it matters little whether the product bears sonic points of reference to others or not.

Recommended Record may flit between styles but it’s a cohesive and polished third effort from the band.

An engaging and rather captivating record.

His compositions are conceptual and carefully planned, but the resulting performances also have the strong sense of freedom and spontaneity that comes with the musicians’ experience in jazz.

Psychic 9-5 Club is a rare, gentle masterpiece, and to paraphrase Kurt Cobain, this album definitely won’t let you forget your ex-girlfriend.

Into Forever is not the first record to attempt to contemporize the generations-old kosmische sound, but it’s certainly amongst the finest in recent memory.=

Strange Friend is a tight, concise and incredibly satisfying listen with the right mixture of familiarity and progression. Read more at http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/phantom-band-strange-friend#XfgsSdbaV2H9zOTz.99

No Time is a huge step forward since the 2012 debut and yet another essential psych-heavy 2014 collection, this time from a more unexpected source.

Much of Nervous is a little heavy for what is, on the surface at least, a gentle, lilting folk inflected album. However, there are moments of utter joyfulness to be found.

Yes, it’s a mess but somehow a thoroughly glorious and jubilant mess. In other words, it’s a perfect encapsulation of everything that Man It Feels Like Space Again is.

Each song is so comforting, peaceful and downright beautiful that it’s like being lost in a wonderful auditory dream.

Jekyll Island is probably not going to be their breakthrough album to a wider public, but their forthcoming debut European tour is bound to bring them some new fans.

Contrepoint delights in its escape, and while it might be unhinged and unstructured at times, it is never anything less than intriguing.

Those who are justifiably fond of Tigerlily will find much to enjoy here. But it’s a shame Merchant didn’t take the opportunity to shake up the original album a bit more.

Although occasionally lacking focus (unsurprising, since large chunks were apparently improvised) it is a quietly mesmerising piece of work that breathes new life into Yorkston’s career.

It may not have the instant listenability of We Were Here, and there are parts where it gets slightly bogged down but, in the end, it is another worthy addition to their catalogue.

Wells is an immense talent, and for those willing to put the time in, there’s so much to enjoy in these dreamlike baroque-pop numbers.

Trick may well be his masterpiece, combining all the elements that have made him such an enduring and much-loved musician over the years to create a genre-bending classic.

There’s something monumental about it. Something of Swans in the way they harness the brutality of instruments played at the edge of breaking point. The same apocalyptic destination. There’s also a similar use of repetition, looping sections over and over with bulldozing impact.

Fifteen or so albums in, Bamboo Diner In The Rain is not much more, but crucially nothing less, than another reliably solid album from one of our most consistent acts. A resounding success, then.

There are so many ideas, grooves and interesting deviations on Pas Pire Pop that it is impossible not to be drawn in by it. Rather than being overwhelming, it’s a record that stuns with its hypnotic and jubilant rhythms.

Comfortably surpassing Poison Season, ken is hugely listenable throughout, and with so many ‘80s touchpoints in evidence, it often sounds like it could actually have been made at that time. Which, despite the uneducated blindly condemning the decade due to its considerable amount of cheese and big hair, is no bad thing.

Overall, A Humdrum Star is GoGo Penguin’s most cohesive, pleasing record to date.

Big Wows is highly polished and lacks the intimacy and fragility that made Into Their Diamond Sun such a compelling listen. The pay-off is a more distant but fascinating record that charts their evolution as a band.

One of his best albums and deserves better, confirming Damien Jurado to be an artist operating at the peak of his powers.

All this amounts to, in the nicest possible way, is an album that sounds sleek, professional and (say it quietly) a little safe.

It is a storming electropop record taking account of the times in which we live but fighting them with positive energy. His music is as strikingly relevant now as it was in the late 1970s, the creative fires burning brightly in the relative darkness.