Even on tracks where celestial melody and light shatter the swirling fug of riffs – making Barn Owl sound more like a whacked-out Dead Meadow – the mood within is h-e-a-v-y like a bewitching series of black metal incantations

What’s most pleasing about this ‘…Mirror’ is that it reflects the original’s dark, experimental essence. It’s heartening to hear that, more than 50 years on, ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ has similarly venturous and intrepid descendants who still nurture its spirit.

Flitting between ambient sequences and army-of-guitars maelstroms, this 71-minute magnum opus was recorded in Berlin and Iceland, but loaded with rampant Anglophilia, evident in a Joy Division homage and John Lennon interview clips.

Warp & Aphex’s age of electro may have passed, and some tricks here that were once jarring now seem familiar, but their prickly oeuvre of tantalising possibility still feeds the imagination.

Lone coats everything in the same Orbital-esque melodies that made 2012’s 'Galaxy Garden' such a winner, producing an album that is both intriguingly new and gorgeously listenable.

‘In This City They Call You Love’ doesn’t falter for its lack of invention; there is just a feeling that these sonic quirks can be pushed even further, made even bolder. But as the soulful, breathtaking inner-city vignette ‘People’ shows, he clearly remains focused on the next great song he hasn’t written yet.

An album awash with pretty ambiguities and difficult twists.

Shellac's Bob Weston throws disorientating tape-loop curveballs throughout, further disturbing Burma's thrilling clatter, which shames bands half their age.

Nielson probably didn't know what he was getting into when he started UMO and is probably still figuring it out now. If that means more sleepless nights for him, all the better for us.

Enough talk about reinventions, this is more of an evolution. On A Different Kind Of Fix, Bombay Bicycle Club have, quite simply, found themselves.

Genius. [18 Nov 2006, p.33]

This EP titillates before leaving you wanting more; just how it should be.

The 10 track Historian is far bigger, meatier beast than its predecessor. Recorded in Nashville, this is a rock’n’roll album with deep understanding of pop melody but layered up with bold lyrics which disarm you as much as they connect with you.

The Very Best still know how to party.

Crawlers reaffirm their place as one of the young guiding lights in British guitar music.

While Cox is no stranger to gut-spilling, it feels as poignant as ever on this record.

Bejar’s dismantled the old Destroyer sound, but he’s built something wonderfully disorientating in its stead.

At its core this is brilliantly slick, dapper rock-pop.

Thirty minutes of chugging and howling, you go from one killer riff to another with barely a millisecond to recover. [17 Jul 2004, p.46]

‘Jesus Is Born’ serves as a gateway into gospel and a fittingly festive listen for this time of year. Praise be.

The real achievement of 'A Weekend In The City' is its path to this conclusion, pulling hard-won moments of contentment from a maelstrom of anger and confusion.

Fishing For Fishies is their most accessible and immediate album to date.

The harmonies are still present, but where once they aimed for a weirdy Wicker Man feel, now they combine forces in stirring new ways.

Like the works of other great swooners from Cole Porter to The Divine Comedy, 'Poses' is held together by its maker's maniacal attention to detail and conceptual strength.

Though by no means a disaster, they needed to hit back, and Arabia Mountain doesn't disappoint.

They may be revisiting the fossilised concept of boredom, but they're bringing an original perspective.

The debut album from Liverpool girl-trio Stealing Sheep strips the style of all Wicker Man cheese and stuffs it full of modern relevance.

Back with less pressure, Champ packs that sweet sucker-punch we craved the first time around.