What a blessed relief, given all this, that Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker, collectively, still sound wholly and unapologetically like themselves. [Nov 2025, p.60]

Swagger can be infectious and the album works as a playful, blissed out hymn to the dancefloor. [Nov 2016, p.55]

As well as these old school paeans to rock's cosmic moments, there are tracks fascinating through a percussive complexity that nods to minimalism. [Sep 2013, p.63]

It is the slick heat of Gibbons’s liquid guitar groove, tempered by the equally blistering yet mysterious cool of his desert surroundings, that makes Hardware a deeper listening experience than initially expected. [Jun 2021, p.52]

This is the first music that feels genuinely post-referendum. [Jan 2015, p.68]

There’s a gracefulness to Patton’s rhythms that sets her apart from other footwork producers--something deeply contemplative. [Jun 2017, p.66]

Their words are not protest or polemic, but messages from the frontline of a war that’s being waged under our noses and hidden in plain sight. And also, crucially, it completely slaps. [Jun 2022, p.44]

His final, posthumous recording isn’t exactly Norman Rockwell, but it does take The Night Tripper back to his country roots. This kind of twilight recording, with carefully staged surprises – see Johnny Cash’s sepulchral take on Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” – has become something of an industry cliche, but Dr John’s lifelong love for the music here is too well attested to seem like some kind of last minute A&R wheeze. [Oct 2022, p.41]

It's delightfully ponderous. [May 2016, p.48]

Coomes and Weiss' compact set up maintans an awkward dynamic balancing natural elegance with barbed experiment to sustain the music's flux of design and accident. [#235, p.64]

This analogy of applying interdisciplinary approaches to uncover a certain reality carries through to several aspects of the album, where a folding over of electronic and acoustic space circles in on and augments a broader understanding of sound. [Aug 2018, p.67]

He's nowhere near as agile as he once was, but that slack is picked up on a handful of collaborations with sharp young rappers like Lil Herb and Vince Staples. [Sep 2014, p.65]

These pieces exude a jazz inflected cool that's immediately intriguing. ... Dramatic and cinematic in its conclusion. [Jun 2022, p.44]

The brasher moments of Afrique Victime are at least as worthwhile, Moctar having assembled a crack band. ... If this guy only really has two main modes – flamboyant electric blues and downhome, tricksy folk-rock – he can scorch in both, making complaints churlish. [Jun 2021, p.53]

“I don’t know why I’m up here”, Hval ponders amid ebullient synths on “A Ballad”. “Lay Down” envelops her voice in a fluttering of strings and muted pads as it sifts through painful memories: “By the bed in palliative care/You had bled through your jeans” . Elsewhere, “The Artist Is Absent” paraphrases Marina Abramović, transforming presence into absence while juxtaposing low key ontological devastation with banging beats. [Jun 2025, p.52]

Progress really doesn’t come into it. Rather, each track here, particularly the bumpin’ highlights “Cosoco” and “Cara De Espojo”, can be seen simultaneously as both a refinement and amplification of everything that has made Molina’s music such a rare delight over the past decade. [Jun 2017, p.67]

Paternoster locks in with bassist Mike Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty for 34 minutes of joyous thump with no filler in sight. A tough but open-hearted and ultimately life-affirming rock record. [Apr 2023, p.64]

Having already worked with the likes of William Basinski and Herndon, remixing for Björk and Max Richter, Jlin is taking the innovative spirit of a regional Chicago born style to the institutional stage of the creative establishment. Applying that to a project with a choreographer like McGregor is an experiment in combining the best of both worlds. [Oct 2018, p.55]

Heavy Pendulum sees the group return with one of the most accomplished releases in their decades-long career, while Scofield’s songwriting spirit is kept alive. [Jun 2022, p.46]

They stick to their strengths--menacing songs about breaking peoples noses and such. [Jan 2012, p.70]

An immensely satisfying album which repays multiple listens. [Jun 2025, p.53]

Keszler’s percussion underpins Coates’s soaring cello as Laurel Halo ensures the combination stays orderly. Its calm melancholy reflects the quoted text that ends: “Need little. Want less. Forget the rules. Be untroubled.” [Aug 2018, p.67]

Pop hooks and club-ready rhythms warp with bubblegum plasticity from track to track, never repeating but luxuriating in the excess of their own ideas. [Apr 2023, p.66]

Another Life captures the ecstacy and catharsis of bodies exchanging sweat and petrol, crushing each other in unison. [Oct 2018, p.48]

Throughout her third album The Hollow, Forsyth hardly needs to name her emotions, using her voice to communicate them purely in terms of depth, size and shade. [Dec 2024, p.46]

Cale is producing involving, forward-moving music that still capable of catching you unawares. [Oct 2012, p.58]

These recent realisations of Ono’s scores by that flexible collective sound remarkably current and fresh. [May 2025, p.53]

Chrystia Cabral follows up her 2021 prog meets chamber pop album The Turning Wheel with an unexpected but delightful mash-up of late 1990s radio sounds. [Jun 2025, p.60]

Crescent’s first album in a decade is certainly a memoir, and one as evocative and impressionistic as you might expect, where the fall of sunlight on a window or a late-night touring mishap--“I’m opening up the van/And the cymbals crash/All across the street/In the clear night” (“I’m Not Awake”)--stay lodged in the heart and mind far longer than any 12" release. [Jun 2017, p.69]

Kate NV’s sense of play works at a deep grammatical level, particularly in her witty inversions of scale. Small sounds, squeaks, blips and twinkles are inflated into starring roles; boices are shrunk to decorative background shimmers. As with The Pastels, Haruomi Hosono or Pierre Bastien, WOW reminds you that playtime deserves serious attention. [Apr 2023, p.67]

At least the fusion here doesn’t have the overly respectful politeness of similar multinational projects, with the guitar noise and roaring likembes providing aural grit. By the middle of the record, though, the shorter studio tracks shine with low-key brilliance. [May 2022, p.44]

Suffice to say that future, past and present are safe in the hands of 700 Bliss. [Jun 2022, p.47]

It has an ethereal, cosmic beauty that in less accomplished hands could be mawkish, but here feels almost miraculous. The whole album feels like an invitation to think alongside it about the end of life – and in these moments typically characterised by fear and isolation, to feel accompanied by anything at all is an unusual and precious thing. [May 2025, p.62]

The album progresses through tastefully understated melancholy and rage to a clutch of pop songs whose assured emo posturing melts into cries for salvation so exquisite they’re undeniable. [Jun 2021, p.64]

We Are King is a lush, dynamic, and expertly crafted album that constructs a unique soundworld. [May 2016, p.50]

Both Ishibashi and O'Rourke have spent lifetimes devoted to improvisation, and even if they only pick up a conventional instrument here and there on Pareidolia, the magic they weave on computers is no less spontaneous. [Oct 2024, p.54]

Digital Garbage is an honest and oddly selfless document of the time, impressively free from bravado. [Oct 2018, p.59]

The album’s 78 minutes include ample shimmering prettiness and strafing digital energy, with only minimal concessions to anyone who would prefer one or the other.

Guerilla builds upon constant percussive propulsions, creating a frenzy that doesn’t overbear with political weight and favours a sense of catharsis even through the darkest moments of Angola’s history. [May 2020, p.56]

One can’t help but be in awe of the production mastery on display and the confidence with which Matmos have turned a man’s creative remains into a freshly expressive musical instrument. [Jun 2022, p.51]

What emerges is a futuristic and dystopian vision, but it’s also something primal. There’s a human pulse, trapped in the heart of all the noise. You hold your breath and wait for it to collapse, and for the carbine rifles to come. [Sep 2018, p.57]

Her craft comes through more strongly on For My Crimes. It therefore takes a little longer to appreciate that the song structures are just as acutely developed as on her previous two albums. Despite its lyrical themes of romantic suffocation and nostalgia, and its allusions to domestic violence, For My Crimes is steady and unwavering. [Oct 2018, p.59]

Easily Hud-Mo's best work yet. [Aug 2011, p.67]

Yowzers is Gay’s most cohesive work to date, while losing none of its predecessors’ spirit of adventure. [Jul 2025, p.59]

Though it’s no concept album, eight of the 12 tracks address either social issues or spiritual solutions. There’s the odd Prince bit of obscure esoterica but mostly it’s direct and effective. ... Welcome 2 America is vital enough to render such matters moot. it’s the sound of Prince truly not giving a damn and that should be edge enough for anybody. [Sep 2021, p.70]

Don’t Look Away is an even tighter proposition, the majority of its songs being sparsely but sensitively arranged and melodically direct. [Sep 2018, p.62]

The power of Sumac’s work has always been in the intersection between power and precision, raw crunch driven and inch perfect percussive pummel. The same precision exists here, the same balance between onslaught and lull, the murky ambiguities surrounded by crystal clear volleys of sculpted noise. [Jul 2024, p.60]

A strong late career release. [Oct 2018, p.63]

It’s heavy but utterly lovely music, full of grave strings, piano stabs and deep synth reverberations. [Jul 2022, p.46]

You can practically hear Lindstrom reaching for his wizard hat and robes at times, but equally Six Hats is right on time, digging into similar disposable digitalisms to James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual, all without bursting that disco bubble. [Feb 2012, p.61]

He has the knack of E-40, of Slick Rick, of George Clinton, for whipping up ugly shit with infantile rhyme to make it taste like candyfloss. On “Outside!”, he turns “Who want to die” into a sprightly singalong. The cheer proves to be a cover for both an experimental edge more disruptive than that of Some Rap Songs and a hefty impact when Vince does finally start to crumble. [Feb 2019, p.56]

For their fifth album The Witness, Montreal group Suuns pick their way through new songs that on the surface sound sparse but are actually thickets of sonic invention. [Sep 2021, p.62]

This is Ambarchi at his most user-friendly, waxing nostalgic for a music that never was. [Aug 2019, p.50]

This set represents a powerful statement on multiculturalism without any need for proselytising. [Jun 2017, p.74]

Sum's bigger than the parts, though, and Double Demon delivers a whack of sound and a level of detail far in excess of anything on earlier ESO and Sound Is Delmarks. [Aug 2011, p.70]

This collaboration feels like his most companionable, as he flexes and grouses through many moods, always in the service of the song. [Mar 2015, p.47]

An unusual and unexpected triumph. [Jun 2011, p.44]

The songs are politically sharp and socially conscious, and Vieux sends out darkly nutating tendrils of blue over rolling, ravelling backing. [Jun 2022, p.61]

If there’s a criticism, the album is a bit samey: virtuoso drum intro, declamatory trumpet, modest group support. The formula becomes ever more predictable with each return, but Allen and Masekela are irresistibly listenable almost irrespective of what they are playing and Rejoice is a very special opportunity to hear two masters who’ve orbited at a distance coming together. [Apr 2020, p.48]

The production is so delicate and the arrangements so well crafted that you can't help being utterly seduced by this open-ended, non-narrative yet elegant and accessible pop music. [#227, p.71]

It's doubtful that the official soundtrack for Dredd will be anything as satisfying as this atmospheric homage to the mean streets of the future. [May 2012, p.56]

Their second album Vesper Sparrow explores the arrhythmic and atonal multilayered textures that underpin Ellis's soaring contemporary jazz saxophone. .... The closing "Evensong Part 4" is a celebration of disconnected, cycling, melodic instrumental chants, layered into a richly joyous texture, with a Sowetan jazz feel.

This recently unearth gem from Delmore is a fascinating insight into the creative mind of one of the brightest lights of the Greenwich Village breadbasket circuit, Karen Dalton. [Feb 2012, p.63]

Almond just made one of his best records, completely out of the blue. [Mar 2015, p.49]

Gat is a gnarly and thoroughly exciting guitarist, and somehow Universalists is aberrantly gorgeous and totally fried. [Aug 2018, p.68]

Consistently excellent, the album reaches its zenith with “My Shadow Life”, a simple love song from out of the gloom: “On my life I swear that I love you/My shadow life, I swear that I love/I love you”. [Sep 2018, p.55]

The large number of guest rappers (seven in all) makes the album sound like the voice of a rage-filled community rather than just one person’s desperate cries, magnifying its impact. [Feb 2023, p.44]

Andrew WK's lucid, luminous production delivers a sequence of music that seems to hover between states. This is a musical achievement. [Jun 2011, p.46]

This music never lacks for deep roots into Allen's background with Fela's Afrika 70, but it is also fresh in conception and execution. [Oct 2014, p.50]

This is the most introspective Wolves In The throne Room release to date. [Sep 2011, p59]

I Love You is rich enough with textural ambiguities and seething digital soups to easily warrant repeat visitations. [Feb 2012, p.65]

[Foxx's] legacy has come to be revered, with his influence on electronic music recognised by the likes of The Orb and LFO. Evidence, Foxx's third album in 3 years with The Maths, provides plenty of evidence why. The tracks and crafted and atmospheric. [Mar 2013, p.55]

In C Mali has a delightfully loose and relaxed feel. [Mar 2015, p.51]

Recognising that electronica isn't bound to depict the future any longer has given Pritchard the key to his most consistent and enjoyable work yet. [May 2016, p.54]

This meld of savoury-sweet singing, moreish melody, glistening texture, strange space and surprises galore makes I, Gemini the best pop-not-pop album since Micachu & The Shapes' Jewellery. [Jun 2016, p.47]

20 years of silence have created an even more authoritative tone to the declamatory rhymes here, the fury undimmed but increasingly replaced by a more simmering sense of foreboding and dread. [Aug 2018, p.69]

It collates her various sides and strengths into the most complete and resonant recording of her career. [Feb 2023, p.44]

A defining album that should lift her out of the 'sounds like' territory. [#248, p.65]

Tooth works brilliantly as a whole, each piece building up tension to breaking point and refusing to offer resolution. [Jun 2016, p.48]

The self-titled release is (indie) rock at its most exuberant, positive and loving. [Oct 2021, p.58]

While their tonal depths speak to undiscovered worlds, they’re grounded by the sound of Sakamoto’s breath, audible on every piano track. The palpable humanity is moving, and Sakamoto’s ease with melodic phrasing remains astonishing. ... Would these stark, simple pieces be as moving and filled with meaning for newcomers to his work? Perhaps not, but becoming an understanding receiver of work is one of the great privileges of longtime listening. [Feb 2023, p.45]

Kudos to both director and music supervisor for thinking outside the source music box. [Jun 2011, p.47]

After The Flood is a great spin, and should be revelatory to the many folks who’ve not been able to keep up with Kuepper’s Australian-only output. [May 2025, p.57]

From The Very Depths reinforces the group's reputation as well as showing they are still a force to be reckoned with. [Mar 2015, p.53]

Extended periods of concentration can create a flow state in which work feels effortless, even meditative, and it's this state that Eyes On The Lines evokes. [Jun 2016, p.50]

It reignites the traditions it draws upon and creates something utterly contemporary. If this record sounds familiar, it is because it is the music your soul has already worked out we need for the struggles to come. [Jul 2017, p.46]

No News Is Good News is a grown up rap album by a grown up rapper that still manages to be utterly thrilling. [Aug 2018, p.69]

As comebacks go the album has an almost blissful assurance. It positively levitates with calm, like someone back from a long trip who knows they have all the time in the world to tell you about their new guru. [Sep 2018, p.54]

Cale remakes Nico’s trademark harmonium sound using electronics, imagining a future or celestial version of her. The effect is both moving and ghostly – a highlight of this typically imaginative album. [Feb 2023, p.46]

A song cycle following the blossoming and sudden death of a relationship, the conceit frontloads Broken Heart Club with joyous dizzy pop in “Tie The Knot” and the aptly titled but most definitely not saccharine “Sweet”. When heartbreak comes she’s brilliantly poised, pleading on “Heartfelt Freestyle” then flipping a finger to regret on “Missing Out”. [Jun 2022, p.62]

A self-consciously serious, elaborate, capital R Romantic dramatic statement that pulls no punches, more Greek tragedy than break-up album. [Mar 2015, p.55]

This ambitious album deserves to be a crossover hit. [Jul 2017, p.46]

Raven is full of powerful earworms that mobilise every inch of soul and flesh. [Feb 2023, p.52]

'Bomboo Banga' is pure power monotony, her deadpan one-note voice mixed with car engines, samples of Bombay pop, Booty Bass and tribal rhythms, is a perfect soundtrack to a stroll down London's Banglatown. [Sep 2007, p.57]

Though they're written to sound simple on the surface, PG Six's songs reveal an unusually high level of artistry on closer inspection. [Sep 2011, p.62]

Unforced, almost conversational asides give the music an intensely focused off the cuff feel. [Dec 2014, p.46]

As empty experiences go, New album is one of the best. [Feb 2012, p.68]

The Fateful Symmetry is a fittingly freewheeling and bold final work from a singular artist and performer. As the songs swoop from industrial disco to piano balladry, Stewart is a steadfast, dramatic and charming grand dame – as commanding and provocative as he ever was as frontman of The Pop Group, and as sentimentally wounded as a torch singer. [Jul 2025, p.60]