New releases this week: All genres

Review: After a decade of swirling deep house and understated jazz flourishes, London duo Chaos In The CBD finally drop their debut full-length, A Deeper Life, via their own In Dust We Trust imprint. The 14-tracker stretches their signature dee,p cocktail party effected house palette into new terrain: live instrumentation, vocal guests, and a mellow, tactile depth, now owing as much to 90s Balearic as it does to smoky London basements. Lead single 'Love Language', with Nathan Haines on sax, strikes an effortless tone: wistful, warm, and unhurried. Guests include Josh Milan, Lee Pearson Jr., Novelist and Stephanie Cooke, but the LP is less about marquee names than a slow, wide glow: sun-kissed nostalgia cut with club heft. It no less channels their New Zealand roots (idyllic beaches, waterfalls, quiet mornings) into a drifting house sound, playful and dour in equal parts.

Review: German pair Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth rightly got plenty of acclaim for their 2023 ambient album Overlay and now it gets revisited with a top selection of remixes that breathe new life into the original compositions. Prominent ambient and experimental artists such as Hollie Kenniff, Rafael Anton Irisarri and Pole all show their class while newer names like Abul Mogard smears synths into a misty wonder on 'Scope', Galan/Vogt layer in angelic vocal tones to 'Valenz' and Leandro Fresco brings a lightness of touch that fills with optimism on opener 'Apastron. Guentner and Spieth themselves provide two alternate versions of their originals that bring new emotional and sonic depth.

Review: Fifty years after its original release, and over 20 since its first reissue, the quiet Beatle's landmark solo record All Things Must Pass has been punctiliously expanded once more, offering a complete sonic and archival overhaul. Spearheaded by Dhani Harrison and Grammy winner engineer Paul Hicks, the collection is a deluxe format-multiple, with one Uber Deluxe Box Set coming housed in a bespoke wooden crate and featuring 70 tracks. Alas, this CD edition is but a mere optical truncation, offering the humble and prudent listener a much sublimer curated experience: rooted in George Harrison's growing frustrations within the Beatles and a desire for artistic autonomy, 'Isn't It A Pity', 'Let It Down' and 'I'd Have You Anytime' still lie among the most enduring songs of Harrison's Tibetan Buddhist era, and with none other than compression master Phil Spector at the mix controls, you can be certain of a well-smoothened sonic experience from front to back.

Review: Hailing from Norway, Hedvig Mollestad is renowned for her ability to bridge the worlds of jazz and heavy rock with a fierce, improvisational spirit. The trio, which has been at the heart of her sound since its inception, is back with their latest offering after a four-year hiatus, following the release of Ding Dong. This time, there's a palpable sense of urgency and creative freedom. Tracks like 'Bees In The Bonnet' and 'Under The Velvet Sky' highlight their complex interplay, weaving intricate structures with fiery, riff-heavy moments. The trio's chemistry, cultivated over years of touring and writing together, has only deepened, with an infectious energy that resonates throughout the release. Mollestad's sharp, commanding guitar work remains a focal point, as she effortlessly fuses influences from jazz legends to the weighty riffs of metal pioneers.

Review: Les Rallizes Denudes' live recording from Yaneura, September 1980, brings their raw, avant-garde sound into sharp focus. The CD format captures every detail of the distorted guitars, hypnotic basslines, and feedback-soaked atmospheres that defined their performances. Tracks such as 'Enter the Mirror' stretch into lengthy, chaotic soundscapes, blending haunting vocals with relentless, repetitive rhythms. The balance of noise and melody is uncompromising, creating a listening experience that feels as challenging as it is immersive. A rare opportunity to delve into the intensity of the band's live presence.

Review: Loscil (Scott Morgan) returns to Kranky with Lake Fire, an ambient fugue born of destruction and reinvention. Initially conceived as an all electronic-ensemble suite, most of the original compositions here were abandoned, except for the James Meager double bass collaboration 'Ash Clouds'. From the remnants of this ambitious but failed aim, Morgan reshaped and rebuilt the music, creating something entirely new from its soots. Impressions of a mountain road trip seep into the album's textures, marking personal milestones set against the eerie backdrop of wildfire smoke. The record takes its name from the strange irony that fires are often named after lakes, evoking a sense of ancient myth. The cover photos capture this moment of contemplation, taken from a rowboat near Revelstoke, BC, Canada.

Review: Lazaro Pla AKA Manteca is undoubtedly a Cuban musical legend - even if the bongo maestro only recorded a handful of albums as featured artist and bandleader. 1978's Rito Y Sabor, a percussive masterpiece made up almost entirely of drums, timbales and bass, is the most celebrated of these - and in general, one of the hardest to find. Created by Pla and a handful of musicians, it delivers an enticing mix of infectious Afro-Cuban grooves, sweat-soaked percussion solos, bold basslines and occasional (and often mixed-down) piano motifs. Highlights include Latin jazz dancefloor bombs 'Casas De Manteca' and 'Afro Funky', and the Incredible Bongo Band style brilliance of 'Abacua'.

Review: Jamaican singer Clive Matthews has enjoyed a stop-start career, with relatively brief periods of activity in the 70s, 80s and early 2000s followed by a late blossoming over the last decade - a career bump provided by the backing of Spanish roots reggae outfit A-Lone Productions. They're at the controls again on Matthews' second album, Going Home, which marks the Trenchtown-born artist's first full length for seven years. Rooted in his love of roots reggae albums of the 1970s, but with occasional updated instrumentation, it's a classic-sounding set that provides a perfect platform for Matthews' conscious lyrics and honeyed, effortlessly soulful voice. The results are undeniably impressive, with our current favourites including 'Yes I Do', 'Ancient Lion', dancefloor-ready title track 'Going Home' and the pleasingly jaunty 'Reggae Music'.

Review: Since Radiohead went on hiatus a few years back, Thom Yorke has thrown himself into all sorts of solo and collaborative projects. His latest sees him join forces with Sydney-based British electronic music stalwart Mark Pritchard for an album that expands on their previous collaboration (the superb 'Beautiful People' from Pritchard's 2018 album Under The Sun). It's a breathtakingly brilliant concoction all told, with the pair conjuring ethereal, oddball and immersive songs in which Yorke's distinctive vocals - sometimes delivered as you'd expect, other times layered-up, mutilated or utilised as textures - rise above backing tracks made with unusual synths and drum machines, and variously indebted to ambient, IDM, ghostly electronica, lo-fi beat-scapes and the gripping intensity of horror soundtracks. A modern electronic classic in the making.

Review: A cross-hemispheric exchange gave rise to Nocturna, the first collaboration between New Zealand composer Andrew Thomas and German sound artist Joachim Spieth - the former's first for Affin after long-held stints Kompakt. Beginning with Thomas's piano sketches, composed during a Southern Hemisphere summer, the material was passed to Spieth just as light returned to the North. A subtle transformation ensued; Spieth preserved the piano's fragile warmth as its edges came sculpted across ambient textures and restrained sound design. A peek-a-boo of presence and absence is scripted, where each decision to withhold a note feels as resonant as those included. Clipped reverb gargantuans contrast to crystal clear piano scales on our favourites, 'Lumina' and 'Amethyst'.

Review: Originally formed in 1977 in Belfast at the height of The Troubles, Stiff Little Fingers should require little to no introduction for any self-proclaimed punk aficionado, with the band credited as the first punk outfit to ever record and release output in Northern Ireland. The aptly titled The Singles 1978-1983 offers a double CD compilation collating all of their A and B-sides issued during their initial tenure, including the hit singles 'Straw Dogs', 'At The Edge', 'Nobody's Hero', and the haunting 'Bits Of Kids', as well as a bevvy of deeper, overlooked cuts. Complete with a booklet containing detailed liner notes on each single plus illustrations of all relevant sleeves, the collection serves as both a crash course for beginners and a triumphant nostalgia trip for lifer-listeners.

Review: Since appearing on Gorillaz fifth album, Humanz, in 2017, Kali Uchis has been on an upward trajectory. Now a major international star with a quartet of major label backed solo albums to her name, the Colombian American rapper and singer arrives at album number five, Sincerely, at the peak of her powers. Inspired in part by an unexplained "life-altering event", the set's lyrics explore "the complexities of life" and her desire to "find joy in life despite of the world". In truth, it's more joy than pain, with Uchis gravitating towards head-nodding, string-laden grooves, r&b-influenced pop, guitar-laden trip-hop torch songs, and immersive, dream-like soundscapes.

Review: There are basically two types of anniversary compilations: the humble retrospective, packed with classics and significant musical moments from the past, and collections of all-new music that showcase where an imprint is at right now. Predictably, Planet My founder Mike Paradinas AKA U-Ziq has chosen the latter option to mark the occasion of his legendary experimental label's 30th birthday. There's naturally plenty to get the blood pumping and the synapses snapping across the 25 tracks on show, from the skittish IDM of Jlin ('B12'), mutant future-boogie of Venetian Snares ('Drums') and hard-to-pigeonhole excellence of Falty DL ('Usually I'm Cautious'), to the chopped-and-screwed r&b of Bae Bae ('Living In The Memory'), Nik Colk Void's industrial gunk ('A Tough Design (demo)'), the glassy-eyed D&B/ambient techno of Xylitol ('Nevada') and the sample-rich instrumental hip-hop hedonism of Luke Vibert ('Bullet Drop').

Review: Scarred by a high-profile breakdown, Abel Tesfaye aka The Weekend has spent much of the last three years rebuilding his mental health - a process reflected in the introspective and surprisingly open lyrics at the heart of Hurry Up Tomorrow, his sixth studio album. Said to be the final part of a semi-autobiographical trilogy, the two-disc set is a dizzyingly varied and star-packed affair that confidently strides between squelchy synth-pop (Justice collaboration 'Wake Me Up'), thrillingly bass-heavy Baille funk (Anitta hook-up 'Sao Paolo'), attack-on-the-senses EDM-pop ('Until we're Skin & Bones'), heavily orchestrated slow jams (' Reflections Laughing' with Travis Scott and Florence and the Machine), head-nodding R&B ('Enjoy The Show' with Future), 80s pop revivalism ('Take Me Back To LA'), and shimmering analogue synthscapes (Giorgio Moroder collaboration 'Big Sleep').

Review: The influential German band Xmal Deutschland are overhead rafters in the great mead hall of goth. Their propulsive successes throughout the 1980s meant the genre likely couldn't've done without them. A large band come music collective, made up of at least eight members at any given time, Xmal's formation in Hamburg and would presell audiences on a stalwart performance rep, thanks to an early tour and gig residency in support of dream pop preeminents Cocteau Twins. Rallied to fame by their goth classics 'Incubus Succubus' and 'Qual', this 2xCD review conjoins two of the earliest and most pivotal albums on which both of said singles were housed - Fetisch and Tocsin - along with tracks from other key releases, such as Incubus Succubus II. Helping blacken an otherwise dreamy time, these LPs highlight the gloomier soils of a superficially bright 1980s soundfield, which otherwise roseated by shoegaze. Photography by Kevin Cummins, Paul Slattery, Sheila Rock and more all capture the spirit.