Everything here is balanced in a way known to collectivist jazz but unknown to egotist pop, and it makes for something refreshingly human, engagingly communal and ultimately convivial. [Oct 2023, p.56]

They were the first on the block with this particular subgenre and are still in front of a massive paxk following in their wake. [Dec 2008, p.72]

Droneflower is both the most persuasive release Nadler has put her name to since 2014’s July and one of Brodsky’s finest efforts outside of Cave In. It gestures at a beautiful future, should the duo choose to pursue it. [Jul 2019, p.52

A set of powerfully written and unfussily executed songs. [#248, p.50]

An unequivocally rocking set on which Chasny is backed by his former group Comets on Fire. [Aug 2012, p.56]

WWWINGS deliver an album that has the rumbling force of feet stomping in unison but which is finished with a hi-tech sheen. [Sep 2016, p.57]

It isn't always the role of political music to come up with solutions. But nothing could be more urgent than the questions SLeaford Mods pose. [Apr 2014, p.58]

A set of intelligently performed rock tunes distinguished by Karen O's smart and smarting lyrics. [#232, p.74]

We Have Dozens Of Titles is a view into a fascinating kind of processing, digesting and inventing. The results exist outside of even microgenre, flummoxing the desire to categorise at every turn. [Jun 2024, p.68]

Consists of a reasonable ten discrete songs that feature a manageable number of guest vocalists. ... His focus on hybridity and virality keeps his work fresh and intriguing. [Oct 2020, p.52]

Without bass or rhythmic anchor, the pair create a sense of immeasurable depth, as though listeners bob helplessly on the surface above an unfathomable abyss; a feeling heightened by how Gordon’s vocals often resemble abject cries into the void. [Dec 2016, p.55]

Compact but effective EP release. “Mandrill” buzzes with metallic heft and 8-bit zips; “Capuchin” breaks into a melody that practically bounces. Gore is obviously having fun here. [Mar 2021, p.63]

The quartet’s albums represent a live sound that applies the means of a beat combo to frankly ecstatic ends via tuning while their mixtapes offer a more diverse and fragmentary accounting of collective interests. The twain finally meet on The Common Task. [Apr 2020, p.56]

Keef [has] formidable talent for writing hooks (and tracks) that are both naggingly catchy and strangely joyless. [Feb 2013, p.61]

With unobtrusive, yet telling contributions from friends including Meg Baird, The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, she conjures up a bittersweet sense of location and changing times through six pieces that are subtly complementary, in their character and impact, meriting comparison to the finely nuanced ambient soundtracks of Angelo Badalamenti. [Jan/Feb 2024, p.96]

The utter rubbishness of Britain, its cruelty, inequality and blatant cultural crapness is once again perfectly captured by Sleaford Mods, a couple of middle aged blokes who are as grizzled and worn as the stuff Williamson shout-sings about. [Apr 2017, p.57]

Throughout the album there’s a palpable refusal to push forward a frontperson – the vocals are truly shared, so Coriky merge and blend around each other and it’s this intuitively generated mutual conciseness that’s so gorgeous to hear. [Aug 2020, p.53]

Just as Double Negative offered a catharsis of the confusion and despair that many felt in 2018, as a whole HEY WHAT promises hurt and healing in equal measure, its abrasive textures the companion to undeniable warmth, tenderness and optimism. [Sep 2021, p.57]

Ultimately, [“418 (Stairs In Storms)”] cannot avoid ending with a muscular crescendo, but those preceding moments of tranquillity provide the pinnacle of another excellent Mollestad record.

Glynnaestra feels like the project has moved beyond causal collaboration into something fully formed. [Jul 2013, p.56]

At times the tracks become as texturally rich and contradictory as those of Actress on 2014's Ghettoville. [Sep 2016, p.58]

No sound is extraneous, every lick is needed, a minimalist musicianship that focuses you on Jeff Tweedy’s heartbreaking words. Their best in ages. [Jan 2020, p.71]

What makes Lodestar a genuine progression from what has gone before--is the sinking and deepening of her voice. It is still neutral enough to act as the conduit it always has done, but the milkmaid’s lilt has been transformed into a maven’s burden. [Dec 2016, p.55]

The synthetic sounds are more liquid and alive, the rhythms more nonchalantly funky, the unfolding narratives more gripping than previous work. [Dec 2012, p.64]

MBV is a successful return. [Mar 2013, p.49]

She’s doing something unique and off-kilter on her debut album. She plays analogue synth and pedal harp, both essentially dreamy instruments, and her compositions are like gentle blends of spiritual jazz and ambient music, not that far from Alice Coltrane’s devotionals, if remixed by The Orb and minus the chanting. [Jan 2022, p.71]

Guero turns out to be much stronger than its provenance suggests. [#256, p.66]