Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s Recommendations April 2015

Review: The Canadian sonic soothsayers here deal out their shortest, and most immediate record since their 1997's debut, yet for all its 40-minute brevity, there's no shortage of the kind of monolithic intensity that the band have become renowned for. As orchestral and elegiac as it triumphantly amp-abusing, "Asunder..." is a masterclass in windswept atmospherics, powerful dynamics and apocalyptic grandeur, building to a climax with enough emotional heft to shake any listener's world on its axis. Existing more than ever outside of genre and comparison, Godspeed continue to inhabit an awe-inspiring sonic landscape that is theirs and theirs alone.

Review: Jane Weaver had already released five albums before "The Silver Globe" - largely in a more understated, folk-tinged style -yet this marks a point where this psychedelic chanteuse truly steps out into the cosmos. Her work with the Finders Keepers and Bird labels has marked Weaver out as a connoisseur of the strange and mercurial, and thus true to form this album - named after a visionary Polish sci-fi film from the mid-'70s, and informed by spacerock as well as library and soundtrack sonics - is possessed of an otherworldly lure to match its beguilingly catchy songs. Simultaneously retro-futurist and refreshingly immediate, 'The Silver Globe' is an audial embarrassment of riches.

Review: Always possessed of a maturity and poise somewhat beyond her years, Laura Marling has made five albums by the age of 25, and only seems to be further cementing her place as a classic artist with each; Slow Move arrives in the wake of a spell of living in LA, and although the Dylan-esque verses of 'Strange' betray a touch of Americanophilia, elsewhere this self-produced effort bears all the composure, confidence and intuitively insightful songwriting that are her hallmarks, with sparse instrumentation making a perfect backdrop for her raw meditations and compelling honesty. Another triumph for the indecently talented ingenue.

Review: This second album from White - the chap with the style of Lennon in 1970 and the orchestrated sonic stylings of a soul icon from the decade that followed - sees him expanding on the lush, meditative strains of his debut 'Big Inner', touching on universal themes whilst harking back to gospel and R&B, yet always maintaining an emotionally engaging approach that extends throughout both the rootsy, upbeat 'Rock & Roll Is Cold' and the beautifully arranged tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman that is 'Tranquility.' Proof positive that this heart-on-sleeve auteur is a force to be reckoned with.

Review: The Soft Moon have always traded in a collision course of shoegaze sonics and coldwave/EBM aesthetics, yet "Deeper" -the band's third - marks the point where Luis Vasquez's troupe transcend their influences, delivering a visceral experience enlivened by claustrophobic intensity and jetblack ambience. Whilst post-punk bleakness is regularly at hand here along with stark songcraft, 'Deeper' is no throwback to the '80s. Abrasive noise and electronic filigree build a chilly and compelling soundscape, whilst the shadows of Nine Inch Nails and The Cure are usurped by an incisive binary approach that locates 'Deeper' firmly in the dark heart of 2015.

Review: These Chilean psychonauts have already made a considerable name for themselves on the psych circuit, largely owing to their Dusseldorf-derived love for the three 'R's (repetition, repetition, repetition). On "III", however, they take a sharp left turn into a style that's arguably even more bewitching, and serves to set them apart from their contemporaries. The shortest song here is nine minutes long, and the mesmerising pulses of these extrapolations owe as much to the ruthless geometry of techno as they do krautrock motorik or desert ambience. One for fans of Nissenenmondai and Elektro Guzzi as well as Moon Duo or The Cosmic Dead, "III" is a frontier-walking mantric masterstroke.

Review: Bizarre though it may seem, Modest Mouse formed twenty-two years ago, and moreover it's been seven years since their last album. However, 'Strangers To Ourselves' is proof positive that this American indie institution has shown no signs of complacency in the interim. Possessed of all the restless spirit, edgy guitar interplay and highly-strung intensity that have become this band's trademarks, it's also notable for a heartfelt environmental theme. Elegantly eccentric widescreen anthems advise against a potential dystopia. Yet elsewhere, tackling disco, hip-hop and balladic styles with aplomb, this unique and endlessly inventive outfit - newly reinvigorated - have rarely sounded so alive.

Review: The reliably unclassifiable Glaswegian four-piece here drift even further from the post-rock scene that birthed them into a very personal headspace, with beguiling results. 'Lease Of Life' blends a love for the electronic music of the '80s with a resonant emotional core and a questing spirit to produce an album just as rich in melodic thrills as it is haunting atmosphere. With its retro tinges never spilling over into parody or irony, this fourth album joins the dots between New Order and the 21st century innovations of The Knife, yet with a yearning melancholy that's all its own.