One of the chief sources of the album's power is the value it assigns to the act of witnessing, of seeing and taking account of the most vulnerable. [Apr 2016, p.47]

This extended incubation period has paid dividends. [Nov 2010, p.65]

A series of hermetic, drifting analogue tracks sprawling over eight sides of vinyl. The occasional bizarre touches of the more conventional numbers show his techniques best. [May 2015, p.59]

A cheeky and addictive listen. [Oct 2025, p.64]

The album is a present, absorbing companion. Recorded in just three days, the album’s six tracks have that elusive quality of feeling both spontaneous and meticulous. [Aug 2025, p.46]

Mechanics Of Domination is careful, elegant and cerebral but it is also quietly stirring. [Nov 2017, p.56]

Just as there's something inescapably seductive about fast cars in a nocturnal metropolis, there's something innately pleasurable about this Emeralds release. [Nov 2012, p.58]

IDLSIDGO is monumental in its willingness to just be a great rap album. [May 2015, p.59]

Merging a sophisticated rhythm dynamism, often with an almost gamelan aspect (“Two Flames Burn”) with a Laibachian apocalyptic proclamatory element and 90s crossover rave-electronic-industrial urgency, Disturbance may not be entirely different from what Test Dept were doing a long time ago, but, then again, nor is the political context in which they’re doing it. [Mar 2019, p.60]

Complex puzzles for nimble feet to crack, custom-built for dancing. [Apr 2015, p.52]

Here we have songs about pet dogs, home invasions by molluscs, and boxing documentaries, threaded together by moments of humour and a command of language that few other rappers can match. [Oct 2025, p.64]

Hurley was simply ready to make a new record, which includes a cover of The Louvin Brothers’ gem “Alabama” and a remake of his gorgeous “Lush Green Trees”, and that’s what he did. It’s a gesture that shouldn’t be taken for granted. [Dec 2021, p.50]

The mainstreaming of yoga, mindfulness and other pursuits of spiritual enrichment in our digitally distracted, permanently anxious modern reality might have tipped the balance, as Laraaji pulls in listeners who aren’t necessarily collectors of forgotten, strange or otherwise outsider music. [Nov 2017, p.58]

This is von Hausswolff’s most open, personal and ultimately affirmative recording to date. [Mar 2018, p.48]

1988 is full of these striking juxtapositions, placing tales of hustling and gunplay in smoothed out, soulful musical beds. [Jun 2020, p.50]

Like O'Rouke, Ambarchi skips light-footed across vast terrain in under an hour, and comes out with something that resonates perfectly. [Mar 2012, p.50]

Unremittingly bleak but absolutely compelling. [#204, p.68]

With its warm timbres and cushioning delays, sonically Captain Of None is Colleen's most approachable record yet. [Apr 2015, p.52]

Hendrix’s collaboration with Stephen Stills on the Joni Mitchell penned anthem “Woodstock” is one of the album’s standouts, as they push the song further out than Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young could ever have imagined, while Johnny Winter on “The Things I Used To Do” sounds like the boy got moonshine on his fingers and pain in his heart. [Jun 2018, p.72]

Embracing several facets of Lafawndah’s incredible virtuosic vocal abilities, every track on The Fifth Season leaves you immediately wanting more. [Oct 2020, p.56]

Trees Outside The Academy is a relaxed, organic record that charms without really trying, and perhaps the closest Moore will ever come to the lost Moby Grape album. [Sep 2007, p.57]

Encore is Hall’s first record under the moniker since the 1981 single “Ghost Town”, and with guitarist Lynval Golding and bassist Horace Panter in the fold, it feels more like The Specials than anything has in a long time. [Mar 2019, p.59]

Where Spectrum was full of empty (head) space, All Things Being Equal is flooded with warm, luxuriant modular texture, across its bandwidth. [Jun 2020, p.56]

The five pieces do indeed feel like direct transmissions from Batoh's withered soul. [Mar 2012, p.50]

For the most part, however, throughout its undulating ride, Antiphonals transfixes and immerses, transporting the listener deep into their own psyche. [Sep 2021, p.52]

Eton Alive is but another visceral and impetuous take on a grim political reality. [Mar 2019, p.58]

The record works best however when Leandoer wears his heart unashamedly on his sleeve.

The recipe still works. [Mar 2012, p.52]