Saicobab whip up a sonic maelstrom that's every bit as intense as the shock tactics of Boredoms' early noise recordings or the polyrhythmic psychedelia tat followed. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Discovering all this mellow gold now is akin to discovering Laurel Canyon was actually on the other side of the Pacific. [Dec 2017, p.47]

The songs are very much of their time, reflecting shifts in popular taste and featuring numerous covers. [Dec 2017, p.43]

Even if the production pores over old memories, when they fire on all cylinders the combination of their best MCs creates more than a nostalgia trip. [Dec 2017, p.33]

This is a meaty-sounding affair. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Russell was clearly fully committed to the project, with sincere lyrics and a strained, emotional vocal sustained by luscious strings. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Though the arrangements here are thinner and the longer pieces feel overstretches. [Dec 2017, p.30]

Lilies is a succinct affair, albeit one of often similarly unearthly pleasures. [Dec 2017, p.25]

The issue here is the sameness of his songs. [Dec 2017, p.25]

"Escape From New York" and "Halloween" can't top the cold desolation of the originals. ... Pretty much every one of the album's 13 tracks confirm Carpenter's skill for an eerie earworm. [Dec 2017, p.25]

Lights may be bleak, but that only makes the moments of catharsis all the more illuminating. [Dec 2017, p.22]

Fohr's extraordinarily expressive baritone--echoing Nina Simone, Nico and Scot Walker--is the centre of her songs which range far and wide compositionally. [Nov 2017, p.24]

The pair's dialogue on SpiderBeetleBee move fluidly between unison harmonics and point-counterpoint. [Nov 2017, p.32]

True, this may have benefited from the inclusion of, say, 2013's "Lucinda Byre," but the man's unerring ability to quietly lift the heart with melody as he foes in "Rumer" and "Josephine" is ultimately the more valuable sensation to hang on to. [Nov 2017, p.30]

For Mnestic Pressure, his first for Hyperdub, Gamble again draws on themes of memory and perception to inform his shapeshifting arrangements, which curdle and collapse with familiar irregularity but don't necessarily build on past achievements. [Oct 2017, p.28]

Not as generous with its outtakes as a leaked CD-R suggested Rhino's 20th-anniversary edition in 2006 would have been, the inevitable round-up of B-sides does at least--and this is a big plus--reuinite "Rubber Ring" and "Asleep" in an unbroken segue. ... The Mansfield gig is a worthwhile addition to the official catalogue, though collectors will notice six of the 19 songs played that night are not included. [Nov 2017, p.40]

An album of grungy, earnest rock that pivots from deluges of Hole-inspired chaos to more restrained, melodic fare. [Nov 2017, p.24]

The universal motifs of loss, redemption and freedom from bondage are brought home in moving, understated style. [Oct 2017, p.28]

All American Made marks both a hardening and a deepening of Price's sound. [Nov 2017, p.25]

John Lee Hooker was the most adaptable bluesmen. ... King Of The Boogie is a career-bridging overview that highlights these abundant qualities across five discs. [Nov 2017, p.50]

[The] 4CD set filleting his post-Auteurs solo works. ... Disc four features wreckage from his abandoned musical about demon landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten. [Nov 2017, p.48]

Bowie’s Berlin is more about a state of mind, a population and its thinking than an actual place. Brian Eno and his intellectual playfulness; Robert Fripp’s alien guitar; Tony Visconti’s embrace of meaningful technology. Between them they gave Bowie the materials to build a city larger and more magnificent than anywhere you could hope to find on a map. [Nov 2017, p.44]

While there are plenty of new lyrical Bejarisms to enjoy, the packaging feels a little stale. [Nov 2017, p.26]

The tasty guitar work is undercut by Wilson's heavy-handed lead vocals and the partners' cliche-ridden lyrics. [Nov 2017, p.26]

Much of this is rather pedestrian ska with blandly topical lyrics referencing populism, social media and hashtags. However, "Remember Me" winds and grinds appealingly. [Nov 2017, p.36]

There are enough familiar motifs to keep long-time fans happy. Lyrically, it's an endlessly pleasing melting pot. [Nov 2017, p.36]

The rootsy exuberance of Lullaby giving way to a mixture of romantic longing and social commentary. [Nov 2017, p.22]

Songs such as "Heels Over Head" and "Van Gogh's Ear"--like Ben Watt backed by John Martyn's fingerpicking guitar--are digitally mutilated with glitchy effects and field recordings, while Emma Smith provides elegant flourishes on Violin and clarinet. There are also a few witty lines. [Nov 2017, p.26]