Back catalogue: All genres

Review: This red hot double sided 7" 'It's Time For Love' / 'The Arabian Sound Of Reggae' is a classic joint from 1975. Japan's Dub Store has licensed a reissue here that makes it affordable again to all. Bobby Ellis & Val Bennett Mazuies join forces first up on 'The Arabian Sound Of Reggae' make for a nice roots roller with hypnotic melodies layered up over the earthy drums. On the flip is Owen Grey's 'It's Time For Love' which is another gem. Both tunes were produced by Bunny Lee and bring that timeless roots sound.

Review: Yet another 12" rarity from the annals of UK funk & boogie history - this time the 1985 cut 'Sexy Lady' from VeiraKrew. Carribean-born and British-raised pianist Elvis Veira moved to England alongside his pianist and music teacher mother at the age of two, quickly becoming proficient on piano, guitar and bass by his early teens. His love for playing music and singing in choirs propelled him on this musical journey, and his late teens to 20s saw him supporting acts such Heatwave, Wham, Katrina and the Waves and more. In 1983 he started working under the alias VeiraKrew, and a couple of years later in 1985 laid down this 12", backed up with the title track's killer instrumental version and the B-side 'Welcome to a Dream'. It was self-released by Veira, quickly becoming a collector's item with clean copies changing hands for up to 150 a piece. The instrumentals are fresh and filled with life, and 'Welcome to a Dream' is an incredible mid-tempo bopper. Well worthy of a repress, and is sure to be in demand - so don't delay!

Review: The ever wonderful Politics Of Dancing come with four remixes of label stalwart Tommy Vicari Jnr jumping, pumping house stormer 'Look I Your Eyes', each carefully crafted to cover slightly different areas of the dancefloor. The Silverlining Night dub remix takes pride of placer on the A-side, a mix of two halves for sure - it starts of all full pelt, adds a subtle layer of disco-style strings and then drops to a dramatic breakdown before re-building brick by brick. Josh Baker's version has a slightly 80s feel with its mechanised handclaps and swooping synths wrapped in echoey vocals, the Lowris mix is arguably the most no nonsense, straight ahead thumper and then we're left to luxuriate in the sumptuous ooze of Cosenza's dub house re-reub, taking us all the way back to the days of Guerrilla at their height. Capital!

Review: Although he's been releasing music since the tail end of the noughties, it's a while since vinyl lovers got the chance to hear fresh material from Trevor Vichas. This surprise 12" for the fast-rising Purveyor Underground Ltd label is therefore a welcome surprise. On title track 'Miss Nice' Vichas wraps jazzy guitar, keys and vocal samples around a chunky, loopy, filter-sporting deep house groove. Demarkus Lewis successfully takes the track up a notch or two on his accompanying remix, before Vichas doffs a cap to the jazz-fired Chicago boompty sounds of Greens Keepers and Mike Dixon on 'Monday Jazz'. The Come Connect mix of that track, which rounds off the EP, is a pleasingly bumpy, bass-heavy and energetic revision that's crying out for peak-time plays.

Review: Comes courtesy of producer and edit maestro Alkalino. The Germany based selector dug deep into his vaults of hard and electro to deliver some of the best sleeper and classic gems.The highlight of side one is easily Breakin' Wind, with other notable bangers such as Bang on it, Stardance and Fly with the wind. One thing about Adeen Records and the Make-Up series is they deliver every time.

Review: Compiled by Jason Boardman (Before I Die Records), this new release on CTR delves into the rich, untapped world of early 1980s post-punk DIY innovation. Boardman, a celebrated Manchester DJ, club-night founder, and record label owner, curates a collection of obscure and rarely heard tracks from the era. These bedroom and small studio creations capture the spirit of independent music from that time, showcasing the efforts of artists who sidestepped major labels to forge their own paths. The compilation features everything from Coventry's 2-Tone-related Skeet to Surface Mutants' Cabaret Voltaire-inspired dub, highlighting a diverse range of post-punk experimentation. Even tracks sampled by DJ Shadow make an appearance, offering a glimpse into the era's lasting influence. One particularly unique inclusion is a post-punk diss track, adding a playful yet edgy touch to the collection. This album shines a light on the overlooked and forgotten sounds of the period, focusing not on the hits but on the creative energy that defined the era. It's a tribute to the artists' perseverance and a celebration of their contributions to the music landscape. A must for fans of post-punk and DIY culture.

Review: DJ, curator and producer Dave Lee (fka. Joey Negro) continues to celebrate his 30-odd year long career in music with his second curatorital comp release. The 'Produced With Love' series charts all of Lee's original productions in soulful house and disco, and this second edition includes choices songs by the likes of Destiny II, Leroy Burgess and Andreya Triana. Always collaborative and with effortless attention to funking detail, Lee brings it once again.

Review: Theo Parrish is a world-renowned name in the global Detroit house and techno game, and he's thrown a fascinating curveball as the latest entrant for the acclaimed DJ-Kicks series. Mr. Parrish has gone above and beyond the duties of most invitees - rather than just licensing tracks from his favourite artists and big-name-friends, he's asked his own community from Detroit to each produce their own mixable tracks, exclusively for the comp. What's more, these are hardly established names - they're organic connections to Parrish, not occupying the top layer of attention and recognition. Bits from H-Fusion, Jon Dixon, Donald Lee Roland II, Ian Fink and Raybone Jones all dominate this anarchic new deconstruction of the otherwise exclusivist mix series.

Review: The 1990s was arguably the first 'golden age' of ambient - a time when the inherently atmospheric and laidback style not only exploded in popularity, but also became the post-club soundtrack of choice for a whole generation. This personal survey of the 90s ambient scene from journalist and author Jon Savage does a good job in gathering together a representative selection of genuine gems and overlooked classics, drifting between the bubbly, deep space brilliance of Richard H Kirk's Sandoz project ('Limbo'), bleeping ambient house ('Calm' by 2 Cabbages on a Drip), early progressive house (React 2 Rhythm), electronic psychedelia (the tabla rhythms and swirly noises of Rapoon), ambient blues (Underworld), IDM (U-ziq), and glacial, slow-motion bliss (Biosphere).

Review: Jon Savage's second delve into the diverse sounds of the post-punk era offers another enlightening listen, and this is a limited CD with 12 page digisleeve booklet. Do You Have The Force Volume 2: Jon Savage's Alternative History Of Electronica 1978-82 traverses the worlds of electronic music, disco, experimental, and proto-techno and looks for the similarities and differences between those niche sounds with music from the likes of John Foxx, Soft Machine, Cabaret Voltaire, I Signori Della Galassia and many more. The meticulous curation is a testament to Savage who is deservingly celebrated as a renowned cultural commentator, writer and filmmaker.

Review: After an extended hiatus of nigh-on five years, Vampire Weekend has finally got around to recording a new album. Only their third studio set in total, Only God Was Above Us sees the trio muse on the weight of history - their own as much as anything else - while fretting about what lies ahead for the human race. Musically, much of what's on offer is densely layered and impressively loud, with loads of intricate musical detail (check the jazz horns and mad stereo panning of 'Classical' and the string-laden, White Album-era Beatles nostalgia of 'Capricorn') working in unison with their attractive, harmonic, saucer-eyed vocals. It's a bit of a triumph all told and one that proves that there's plenty of life yet in Vampire Weekend.

Review: For the latest volume in their essential Spiritual Jazz compilation series - the eleventh overall - Jazzman has decided to take a trawl through the archives of Danish imprint SteepleChase, focusing specifically on "esoteric modal" and "progressive jazz" originally released between 1974 and '84. It's an impressively bright, breezy and crystal-clear affair - you can hear every cymbal hit, saxophone solo, piano note, snare and rim-shot in glorious clarity - with highlights appearing thick and fast throughout. Our current favourites include the haunting flutes, glistening guitar solos and skipping grooves of Rene McLean's "Aida", the hard-to-pigeonhole inventiveness and cross-cultural fusion of Jim McNeely's "Tipe Tizwe" and the vibraphone-laden up-tempo hustle of Khan Jamal's "Dark Warrior". That said, every track is superb, making this a must-have for spiritual jazz enthusiasts everywhere.

Review: The latest in Heavenly's colossal milking of the late Andrew Weatherall's extensive remix career comes in the form of a CD bundle of the first two collectible vinyl compilations, the Weatherall Remixes Volumes 1 and 2. The man occasionally known as Lord Sabre provided plenty of reworks for the London-based imprint over a 30-year period, and you'll find most of his greatest here, including the legendary two-part dub of St Etienne's 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart', his peerless, 15-minute peak-time 1992 take on Flowered Up's 'Weekender', a delightfully dubbed-out, Asphodells-style rework of Gwenno from 2015, and a stunningly spaced-out dancefloor dub of Mark Lanegan's Band.

Review: Chicago's soul scene in the early 60s thrived on a dynamic blend of raw emotion and polished craft, and this collection is a testament to that unique balance. The arrangements burst with tight, syncopated rhythms, uplifting brass, and smooth vocal harmonies, capturing the essence of a city reshaping soul music. There's a raw edge to the production that keeps the energy unfiltered, while the melodies radiate warmth and storytelling depth. Each track contributes to an atmosphere of heartfelt resilience, showcasing Chicago's role as a powerhouse of innovation during this pivotal era.

Review: Despite the style's influence and enduring legacy, shoegaze has not been celebrated with a raft of compilations and retrospectives. Waves of Distortion attempts to set the record straight via two discs of classic (and occasionally overlooked) shoegaze gems recorded and released at different points between 1990 and 2022. It offers a neat overview of the sound and some its greatest practitioners, flitting between the glistening, reverb-laden dream pop of Slowdive, the bowl cut-sporting loved-up swagger of Ride, the densely layered country-shoegaze haziness of Telescope, the jaunty jangly-ness of AR Kane and Spirea X, the psychedelic heaviness of Ringo Deathstarr, the tactile bliss of Beach House and the slow-burn, post-rock majesty of Mogwai.

Review: By now, we should all know what to expect from the popular Too Slow To Disco series, namely glassy-eyed, pitched-down disco, boogie, yacht rock, blue-eyed soul and AOR with a distinctive soft-focus flex. Naturally, there's plenty to savour on the series fourth edition, much of it either obscure or previously overlooked. Our picks of a predictably strong collection include the horn-totin', much-sampled Pleasure classic 'Nothin' To It', the lusciously loved-up cosmic soul of Prime Time Band's 'Fall in Love in Outer Space', the eyes-closed, Rhodes-sporting AOR soul of 'Stay The Night' by the Farragher Brothers, the slow release swell of Alan Price's 'Groovy Times' and the sun-splashed jauntiness of Max Leake's 'Tell Me The Reasons'.