Rock / Indie / Folk / Metal / Punk / 50s / 60s Recommendations April 2016

Review: Walking a curious path that takes in both off-kilter analogue synth experimentation and candid post-punk songcraft, Rexy's 1981 debut has slowly assumed cult status with a lineage of eccentric artists such as Connan Mockasin and Ariel Pink, yet has remained near impossible to track down until now. The work of a fashion student and a former Eurythmics sideman who had met at the infamous Blitz nightclub, 'Running Out Of Time', despite being audibly a work of the early '80s, is more than a mere period piece, displaying no small measure of lo-fi charm whilst somehow evoking both the guileless minimalism of Young Marble Giants and the kitchen sink elan of Squeeze. An essential curio.

Review: Now approaching a half-century of artistic life as the closest we have to a living personification of rock 'n' roll, Iggy Pop nonetheless also continues to carry himself with more class and style than most any lifer that springs to mind. Yet it has to be said that few were expecting the cadaverous king to make his greatest album for thirty of those years, and this is what 'Post Pop Depression' his collaboration with a dream team involving luminaries such as Josh Homme, Dean Fertita and The Arctic Monkeys' Matt Helders is exactly that - a wry, restrained and ice-cool meditation on carnality and mortality without cliche or rehash, this album is all primal satisfaction and righteous revelation.

Review: The result of a chance meeting between renowned producer and vinyl connoisseur David Holmes, composer Keefus Ciancia and chanteuse Jade Vincent, Unloved sees an obsession with Hollywood glamour being made manifest in sumptuous and exotic style. Taking Holmes' long-established flair for both beat-driven groove and cinematic flair and marrying it to Vincent's femme fatale demeanour, the trio throw such disparate influences as '60s girl-group tempestuousness, Morricone-esque grandeur and radiophonic strangeness into their mental melting pot to create an overwhelming and somewhat Lynchian sweep of sound, equal parts savagery and luxury.

Review: The mercurial and magical Jeff Buckley departed this realm leaving a severe shortage of actual material, thus this collection of early demos - recorded in 1993 in advance of his debut album proper 'Grace' - marks a cherished opportunity to experience his soulful intensity and otherworldly powers as an interpreter of song. The majority of 'You And I' consists of covers, traversing all the way from Sly & The Family Stone to The Smiths, yet all imbued with his uniquely raw, intuitive and captivating approach. The world will never see the like of Jeff Buckley again, which makes 'You And I' a document worth savouring.

Review: This collaborative effort matches up a band known for their free-flowing and repetitive instrumentation with a singer with an extremely distinctive voice and metier, yet it's testimony to a both certain magnanimous spirit in Bonnie Prince Billy, and to the invention and ideas of Chicago's Bitchin' Bajas that he doesn't dominate the proceedings on this euphonious and adventurous effort. Matching his rich tones to a free-spirited and warm atmosphere replete with deliriously strange drones and loops, out-folk shapes and a tangible communal atmosphere, these two maverick forces have conspired to create something unique and uplifting.

Review: Twelve albums in, the Seattle-based troubadour maintains that elusive spark of inspiration that separates him from a legion of other wistful artists striding the highways and byways of folk and indie-rock, yet this time he's had the good grace to travel still further out into the psychic wilderness. A sprawling 17-track opus, ''Visions Of Us On The Land' shows his virtuosity with not only West-Coast-tinged dreaminess but edgier psychedelic experimentation, yet all anchored by his mellifluous voice and elegant melodic sensibility. A soul-searching record lyrically and a risk-taking boundary-pusher sonically, this is the sound of Jurado taking risks, and he's never sounded better.

Review: London-dwelling singer-songwriter Emma-Lee Moss originally made her name in the spaces between indie-pop and folk, yet in the five years that have passed since her last album proper 'Virtue', her candid, droll songwriting has blossomed into something still more charming and unique. A distinctly more experimental and electronic approach suits her style well, even whilst paradoxically meditating on the intersections between romance and technology as on 'Hyperlink' and 'Alogrithms'. Spare and inventive yet intimate and affecting, 'Second Love' heralds the return of an artist whose delicate charms have never found a better medium.

Review: The back catalogue of this mystical and mercurial German collective, numbering Messrs Moebius and Roedelius from Cluster as well as Neu's Michael Rother in their ranks. has always been frustrating only in its brevity, and with that in mind this live material from their heyday is as manna to krautrock enthusiasts - these at once meditative and exploratory voyages through inner space bear all the hallmarks that made their two studio efforts such evergreen portals to a fertile age of experimentation and inspiration, and an inspration to Eno and Bowie amongst a legion of others - Sehr kosmisch, indeed.

Review: Another offering in the uniformly excellent Soul Jazz Records compilation series, this collection of 22 all-killer punk gems chronicles an era in which disaffected youth and energetic misfits alike railed against the sun-drenched blandness of the Californian city they inhabited. Running the gamut from the proto-punk mayhem of Iggy & The Stooges to the early hardcore of Circle Jerks and from the jokey outsider art of Black Randy & The Metrosquad to the comparatively sophisticated X, all bases are covered here in a thrilling document of middle-finger intensity and rulebook-ripping iconoclasm.