Fair to say, you won't hear anything like it. [Nov 2012, p.79]

From the Top of Willamette Mountain sounds more confident than the UK debut he released earlier this year.

Desertshore is really only the jumping-off point (Beachy Head?) for an album of ultimately rather bleak electronic songs.... The strongest performances, in fact, come on the two tracks vocalled by Cosey herself.

The uninitiated will find it a good place to start. [Jan 2013, p.81]

Dirty Glow is packed with playful, occasionally disorienting tracks. [Jan 2013, p.80]

An in-joke gone horribly wrong. [Jan 2013, p.80]

Inspired, frustrating, wayward, indulgent, funny, heartfelt and eclectic, taken in one sitting it's far too much, like gorging on the most excessive turkey dinner with all the trimmings. [Jan 2013, p.97]

An album which is a little too anodyne, but redeemed by an engagingly human warmth and unforced sincerity. [Jan 2013, p.83]

Luxury Problems is distinguished by the piercing vocals of Stott's former piano teacher, Alison Skidmore; looped, layered and heavily reverbed, they coil elegantly around Stott's brutalist constructions. [Jan 2013, p.83]

The Voices are usually disembodied munchkin bables which flutter appealingly around the mix, but sometimes Stumbleine makes proper songs. [Jan 2013, p.82]

While the lack of any sound less than 30 years old does occasionally grate, Zeros ends up capturing a sinister cinematic vibe than John Carpenter would be proud of. [Jan 2013, p.82]

Into The Future is a heroic act of denial, nonetheless. The remaining Brains still burn with magnesium-strip intensity. [Jan 2013, p.82]

An album crammed with adhesive melodies. [Jan 2013, p.81]

A welcome return. [Jan 2013, p.81]

In places it has a feel of soundtrack work, strangely restrained for such club fiends, but their grasp of pensive, unsettling dynamics is firm. [Jan 2013, p.80]

The remixers' default mood is kind of middle-of-the-road electronica, neither daring nor danceable. [Jan 2013, p.79]

It's certainly cinematic, and there are nods to Morricone. [Jan 2013, p.79]

Mostly, he comes across as a one-man Arcade Fire. [Jan 2013, p.79]

The result is both pensive and romantic, a work filled with vividly poetic snapshots. [Jan 2013, p.79]

Life & Times is a winning showcase of their uptempo moods. [Jan 2013, p.77]

[A] stunningly well-designed and authoritative record. [Jan 2013, p.77]

The fourth album finds them touting a tougher sound with the addition of a second guitar, but the strident, passionate voice of Erika Wennerstrom remains their calling card. [Jan 2013, p.77]

Like Tragedy & Geometry, it's awash in vintage synthesised sounds with which fans of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel will be familiar, but remains considerably more concise than this (and its predecessor) suggests. [Jan 2013, p.77]

Post-Bush, post-9/11, post-financial crisis, they sound more like [a] documentary. [Jan 2013, p.77]

The entire album has a refreshingly spontaneous feel, the result of their cutting the dozen songs live, including Parker's vocals. [Jan 2013, p.75]

Well worth the wait. [Jan 2013, p.74]

Her technical brilliance remains stunning; it's now matched by her maturity and modernity. [Jan 2013, p.74]

[van Wissem's] solemn, minor-key lute lines become ensnared in Jarmusch's riptide of guitar feedback and fading chords. [Jan 2013, p.74]

Deer Creek Canyon is dappled with sad-slow shuffles and lovely ruminations on escape, the roll of the seasons and her roots in Colorado. [Jan 2013, p.73]

Bastards sounds like a new Bjork album rather than a cursory add-on. [Jan 2013, p.71]

This impressively diverse and full-bodied debut by 22-year-old Parisian producer Jeremy Guindo is a heartening advert for electronic dance music's blissful spirit of perpetual self-renewal. [Jan 2013, p.71]

As a reminder that music is fundamentally there for our pleasure, The Jazz Age is splendid. [Jan 2013, p.68]

In sentiment and execution, Feeling Mortal is more Hank than Dylan, yet there's a subtle poetry in the way the lyric flits between life and death, dreams and wakefulness.

The acid test of any recorded OST is its ability to stand independent of image and dialogue and on that count, Hill's latest as Umberto more than measures up. [Dec 2012, p.78]

Aside from the Ryan Adams-esque "Bonfires." on their second album the more scruffy, down home elements of Alberta Cross' 2009 debut have been buffed to a stadium sheen. [Sep 2012, p.71]+

Hampson has a discerning ear for when and how to place sounds to best offset each other. [Aug 2012, p.73]

Wonderful it is too, King's rich baritone and Dalgleish's emotive voice delivering a baker's dozen of duets that carry the sting of authentic Country Classics. [Jan 2012, p.94]

Mostly Kin is a deeply rewarding immersive experience. [Oct 2012, p.81]

It all sounds closer to 1990s David Bowie studio funk than the man who once went commando with the likes of Sabotage/Live and Music For A New Society. [Nov 2012, p.71]

It reads like a compendium of retro cool that leans on the cinematic, instrumental style of DJ shadow and Peanut Butter Wolf. [Dec 2012, p.67]

Thanks to her Valley Girl charisma and omnivorous sexual gaze she mostly succeeds. [Dec 2012, p.73]

It's a blend of the mostly throwaway and occasionally essential. [Dec 2012, p.71]

It certainly recalls the space-age jazzers whose careers ran parallel to them. [Dec 2012, p.75]

The new varnish appears to add little to an already sumptuous-sounding set.

It's a decidedly sparser backdrop for his erudite, torch-like confessionals. [Dec 2012, p.76]

There are plenty of enjoyable moments on Winterval, but this masks a slightly hollow core. [Dec 2012, p.79]

Throughout, there's evident delight in lexicographical obscurity that echoes James Joyce or Will Self: no bad thing in itself, though when allied to the sometimes impermeable, abstract constructions, the results can be frustratingly opaque. [Dec 2012, p.61]

The songwriting is impressive throughout. [Dec 2012, p.79]

Although its boundary-stretching ambition is cheering, Hidden ultimately struggles to engage. [Oct 2012, p.87]

Ultimately Bailiff sounds too much in thrall to her shoegazing peers. [Dec 2012, p.69]

American Soul is more rewarding than Phil Collins' recent album of Motown covers, but is ultimately defined by a similar sense of futility. [Dec 2012, p.72]

Lux works on a pragmatic and egalitarian level as more or less the ideal ambient record. [Dec 2012, p.66]

[The] rather slight songs raise the suspicion you would get more out of listening to Clinic's record collection than the band themselves. [Oct 2012, p.68]

Assbring has succumbed to the same fate as her country-woman Lykke Li, forsaking early charm for a vague sense of attitude that's largely devoid of presence. [Dec 2012, p.69]

His is a personal, emotive take, and it proves very effective. [Dec 2012, p.72]

It has an effortless momentum and addictive melodic pull that renders serious criticism redundant. [Dec 2012, p.73]

The emphaiss here is on standalone songs, with each bandmember apparently harking back to teenage memories. [Dec 2012, p.73]

The real ace up their sleeves is their exquisite harmonies. [Dec 2012, p.77]

Lonerism is more melodic and expansive then 2010 debut Innerspeaker, connecting the disparate dots with real elan. [Nov 2012, p.84]

As sublime as much of Instrumental Tourist is, it rarely fulfills that promise of improvisation, of a real sonic engagement or play, and struggles to exceed the sum of its parts.

Despite the silly title and gorilla sleeve, this 3CD compilation proves a respectable primer.

The first four tracks are surprisingly limp-leaved, pastel-shaded electro-synth in a decidedly retro vein. From then on, it gets better. [Dec 2012, p.71]

Sonnymoon offer a fresh and forward-thinking new voice in experimental electro-soul on this beautifully assured self-titled debut. [Nov 2012, p.83]

A bit Mariah Carey on paper, but startling in practice. [Dec 2012, p.77]

The backing is beautifully understated but it's Becky Stark's pure, unaffected folksy sigh that's a thoroughly comforting presence throughout. [Dec 2012, p.73]

The period pieces--string-laden ballads by Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Forrest and Jo Stafford-provide some light relief, as does the Art Ensemble Of Chicago-style junkyard jazz of Greenwood's "Able-Bodied Seaman." [Dec 2012, p.72]

While the LP is patchy, some of the miniature studies for circuitry, essayed by Flanagan and collaborator Dean Honer, are beguilingly eldritch, and the second half's run of pop songs are joyous and odd in equal measure. [Nov 2012, p.72]

There is a knowingness to Burning Daylight that sometimes verges on Pastiche, but Cowgill's Mordant deadpan means the mask never slips. [Nov 2012, p.77]

The new versions are, to all intents and purposes, exactly the same as the old versions, they're just more so, if that makes sense.

Honor found in Decay confirms that they are a metal band, yes--but one reminiscent of Silver Mount Zion or Swans as any more traditionally heavy-rocking concern. [Nov 2012, p.73]

It sees them caught between nostalgia and futurism, uncertain which way to move. [Dec 2912, p.71]

This follow-up is cleaner, from the grand arrangements to the lyrics about true love rather than tits and ass, but is never bland. [Nov 2012, p.71]

[This is] probably their best--a fine LP of crisp, clever chamber pop. [Oct 2012, p.79]

Yet for all its attributes, this fine debut stirs as much for its sense of what The Lumineers may yet become as for what they currently are. [Dec 2012, p.70]

No boundaries are broached, but everything works just fine. [Dec 2012, p.69]

This self-titled debut is a joy. [Dec 2012, p.64]

Certainly, there's a familiarity here, the thin guitar lines and washes of synth, topped off with Banks' despondent croon, though in lyrical terms, there is a more confessional tone. [Dec 2012, p.67]

In practice, it's suggestive of the luvved-up terrace thug moment of the late '80s, but with the ultraviolence retained. [Dec 2012, p.67]

A startling, inspirational comeback. [Dec 2012, p.68]

"Pluze" and "Branches" resemble Air in their languid electro-revisioning of jazz-funk and prog, while the title track pulls back sparkling synths for a noble and histrionic sax break. [Dec 2012, p.68]

2 deals in lugubrious late-night lyricism and equals Kurt Vile and Cass McCombs for warmly melodic meanderings that beguile rather than baffle. [Dec 2012, p.69]

"Ye Ye's" Chicago house snares and claps crop up throughout the record, turning the pretty "Lights" into a sweaty jack-fest and giving deranged effects of "Springs" a rigid framework. [Dec 2012, p.69]

His first solo outing has enabled Ben Gibbard to try on new stylistic contexts as if they were outfits. [Dec 2012, p.71]

When your attention drifts you barely notice it's there. But when you do, it evokes a warm and evocative pleasure. [Dec 2012, p.72]

First-time producer Justin Townes Earle has succeeded Jack White as guardian of the Wanda Jackson sound, guiding her through a fascinating mix of covers and originals. [Dec 2012, p.72]

Brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall plough a familiar semi-feral blues-punk furrow for the most part, with varying degrees of success, but are best when they depart from the template. [Dec 2012, p.72]

These stark, largely unadorned folk-country songs are given added edge by Irwin's faintly metallic voice, with delicate shadings from the like of producer and multi-instrumental wizz Tara Jane O'Neil and pedal steeler Marc Orleans. [Dec 2012, p.72]

"Heaven" is a decent stab at '80s synth pop; "Looking Hot" and "Push And Shove" mix bubblegum R&B with ragga-inspired middle eights; the rest is rather forgettable. [Dec 2012, p.75]

Newman's a decent songwriter whose songs never quite ignite--their seemingly light touch feels rather hard-won. [Dec 2012, p.75]

Orton remains a luminous presence among often monotone peers. [Dec 2012, p.75]

Prekop's lyrical ruminations on distance and direction never lag. [Dec 2012, p.76]

They have produced a cohesive work that marries gauzy dreampop with more robust indie-rock. [Dec 2012, p.77]

[The] second album painstakingly recreates the sounds and melodies of peak-era My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Joy Division with a slavish devotion that borders on the obsessive-compulsive. [Dec 2012, p.77]

Ultraista never quite shake off the sense of a session-muso studio supergroup dressing down in indie clothes. [Dec 2012, p.78]

Looser in feel and texture than their last couple of discs, with Dylan's husky vocals leading the way. [Dec 2012, p.78]

Stripped of the usual bells and whistles, and backed by unplugged instruments, it's left to his voice to do the work and, given the length of the thing, it soon starts to grate. [Dec 2012, p.79]

Earl has often been overshadowed by bands on the Woodsist label he runs, but here Woods are allowed to stand out from the trees. [Dec 2012, p.79]

La Futura sounds at times overly relaxed, but never less than a fun, frill-free ride. [Dec 2012, p.79]