Where Moor Mother's usual free jazz band Irreversible Entanglements give warm instrumental life to poem which are ultimately hopeful for change, Sumac offer grinding feedback symphonies. [May 2025, p.39]

Several tracks are up with their best. [Jul 2006, p.88]

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.

Putting perfectionism aside hasn't lessen his knack for melody and texture. [Apr 2021, p.27]

That it so compellingly rescues a cache of unforgettable songs and signals the unlikeliest of artistic revivals, must rank it among rock's most trascendent tales. [Jul 2010, p.109]

Despite its obvious debt to the ’80s and its (appreciated) nods to the trio’s own past, it’s their most modern, innovative record yet.

Cherry's still youthful voice and angsty lyrics feel somewhat disconnected from these dubby rumbles and dirges. [Mar 2014, p.73]

Any sense they're simply re-creating the sounds of the past is dispelled from the first notes of opener "Morning in America." ... The band set every song in the present, drawing as much from sampling and turntablism as from old-school soul. [Apr 2019, p.31]

It's a long and winding road that has brought him to the thrilling eclectic destination that is Absolute Zero. [Jul 2019, p.29]

A genuinely beautiful, expansive record. [Dec 2020, p.36]

The result is a quietly moving hymn to home and humanity. [Mar 2021, p.29]

Rae’s measured, river-clear voice is a thing to behold too, buoyed by piano, organ, pedal steel and unobtrusive guitar. It’s the kind of record that recalls the muted grandeur of Bobbie Gentry or Judee Sill.

The core sound is instrumental motorik rock with sweet licks. [Sep 2022, p.24]

Fastidiously complex, yes, but also capable of moments of disarming prettiness. [Oct 2022, p.23]

The London-based trio of Matt Parker, Chris Amlion and Ayu Okakita reinvent the [trip-hop] genre on their terrific debut, a futuristsic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronica and weapons-grade dubstep percussion. [Mar 2010, p.90]

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

An irresistible set. [Sep 2013, p.97]

This album feels like a new beginning. [Apr 2014, p.70]

It's perhaps the best introduction yet to the sometimes-confusing world of Sun Ra. [Feb 2016, p.94]

The droll self-awareness and blunt strum of their songs may have you thinking of The Go-Betweens, but it's more a general stylistic flourish that has The Goon Sax coming across as classic Brisbane pop. [May 2016, p.74]

The lonesome trumpet-flecked "Sand," an easy-swinging "Laugh" and "Cali," with its late summer-in-Laurel Canyon vibe, prove this is no one-note set. [May 2017, p.35]

Pearson’s clear knack for melodic songcraft is plentiful, across the breezy “Talk Over Town” or the sugary indie-pop of “Alligator”, resulting in an album that nails introspective songwriting just as seamlessly as it does infectious pop. [Aug 2022, p.31]

This push-pull between melody and twisting beats, veering back and forth between dark and joyous moments, is the crux of this excellent album, one that glides snappily between acid electro, synth-washed indie, crunchy pop and dance-floor rippers. [Aug 2022, p.36]

Over a barrage of different beats, Hutching creates abstract-expressionist drip paintings using a single colour, or striking day-glo illustrations using broad brush-strokes, or pointillistic portraits using hundreds of identical dots. [Nov 2022, p.24]

Throughout all nine songs, Glenn-Copeland's voice seems to exist on the eternal plane, powerful and vulnerable in equal measure, an elder sharing his knowledge in stirring sonic form. [Sep 2023, p.26]

An instantly engaging, 11-track set with zip, heart, sly humour and real staying power, which shucks off the often dry terseness of the genre without trashing its template. [Feb 2024, p.34]

It's four-square Manics Big Music, with James Dean Bradfield's guitar especially eloquent, echoing Keith Levene's sour whine on the title track and beautifully relaxed on "Being Baptised"'s Smith-like elegy. [Feb 2025, p.37]

Ten years ago this hand-stitched tapestry of astral-jazz harp, dusty acoustics, crackling breakbeats, music-box twinkles and twitchy "Intelligent Dance Music" might have seemed bravely genre-bending, but now it's as cosy a pair of favourite slippers. [Feb 2010, p.84]