BMG Vinyl & CDs

Review: It's been three whole years since we last encountered a new album from the man like Richard Ashcroft. The guy who once told us how the drugs no longer worked, only to then explain how lucky he was. In many ways, Acoustic Hymns Vol.1 is an extension of all that, a record that has come along at a time when he's clearly ready to reflect on the heady days of the Britpop and UK indie explosion detonated in the 1990s.

Whether you'd call this album a covers collection or original, new work is definitely down to opinion. Ashcroft has opted to turn his hand back to tracks released with his seminal band The Verve, and a few of his own solo bits, only reimagined and reappropriated. The latter word is the most accurate, though. Here genuinely new life is breathed back into the likes of 'Bittersweet Symphony', which, considering the scale of that particular hit, is no mean feat.

Review: Melbourne funk and soul talents The Bamboos have now been blazing their own trail for almost a quarter of a century. This Is How You Do It makes their 11th studio album and shows the nine piece collective still has plenty to say for itself. Although at times this hints at a new direction, the album also bares all the hallmarks fans have come to love and expect from the group with Lance Ferguson's soulful production and effortless groove paired with the potent vocals of Kylie Auldist. Guest MCs from the US (Ozay Moore and Ohmega Watts) feature as do some boogie and disco tinged singles like 'Ex-Files'.

Review: It's been 17 years since Danger Mouse's last hip-hop album - the epic collaboration with the late great MF Doom. For the first time since 2005, we have a new one, Cheat Codes, to get stuck into following collabs with Daniele Lupi and Karen O and some production work with Gnarls Barkley and Gorillaz. It is a triumph, too, with tough beats uplifting while the rapper lays down endless bars that are free for choruses. It is a mix of the new school and the old school that is utterly, typically, intoxicating.

Review: American rock band Garbage have done well to stand the test of time. Their seventh studio album has been influenced by numerology and things such as the seven virtues, the seven sorrows, and the seven deadly sins. It is a ferocious record that chews up and spits out issues of capitalism, love, loss and grief, and is, says frontwoman Shirley Manson, "our way of trying to make sense of how fucking nuts the world is and the astounding chaos we find ourselves in." Bold, confrontational and powerful, this is one of the band's most socially and politically aware albums.

Review: Much loved indie pop pair Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory served up their iconic debut album on Mute in 2000. It has sold over a quarter of a million records since and was nominated in the Mercury Awards that year. It comes alongside the rescheduled Felt Mountain Live Tour and is often said to be the band's most crucial and influential record. As such it comes on a fitting gold vinyl with a gatefold sleeve included new and insightful sleeve notes from Lior Phillips in an 8pp 12" x 12" Booklet.

Review: English duo Groove Armada is a towering presence over British and world dance music. They have served up countless global hits as well as more underground sounds, and recently their vast back catalogue is back in the spotlight as Late Night Tales have reissued three of their most superb compilations. Off the back of that, now comes this greatest hits album which is billed as GA25: All The Hits & More to mark their quarter of a century in the game. Some of the tunes on it have had a touch-up edit to bring them bang up to date and many of these are still much loved from party starters like 'Superstylin' to more downtempo delights like 'At The River.'

Review: Originally released in 2005, and considered to be the second solo full-length from nine-fingered metal guitar pioneer Tony Iommi, Fused celebrates its 20th anniversary just a tad early with these revitalised remasters pressed to wax for the first time ever. Written in collaboration with vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (former Black Sabbath frontman during the mid-80s who would assume vocal duties on 1986's Seventh Star; released under the band moniker but long perceived as Iommi's first solitary creative endeavour), and legendary session drummer Kenny Aronoff (The Smashing Pumpkins, Bob Seger, Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, Bon Jovi etc), this limited translucent cobalt blue vinyl 2xLP pressing comes complete with three sporadically dispersed bonus cuts finally locked down onto own complete home.

Review: Set for release on 28th October, the deluxe edition of Lady Blackbird's debut album 'Black Acid Soul' comes with a staggering 11 additional songs, encompassing brand new material such as stunning single 'Feel It Comin' and remixes commissioned by the likes of electronic, jazz, funk luminaries Emma-Jean Thackray, Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy and Greg Foat.

Review: In 1984, Gary Numan launched Numa Records and started a new phase in his career with the release of Berserker. This album introduced a harder-edged digital sound into his canon while maintaining the analogue textures of his earlier work. It's a testament to the fact that Numan's creative evolution never stopped and blends both personal and fictional narratives into haunting tracks like 'My Dying Machine,' 'This Is New Love' and 'Berserker.' The remastered double vinyl edition includes the original album with bonus tracks that add extra perspective to this pivotal period in his career.

Review: Pitura Freska's Na Bruta Banda album is 30 years old in 2021 so it gets a limited edition pressing on hand-numbered, super limited vinyl to mark the occasion. It's a wild record that collides ska, world, folk, dub, reggae and prog rock, as unlikely as that may sound, into a full flavour album packed with heat. This most unlikely of Italian collectives was from Venice, formed by "Sir" Oliver Skardy and released 10 albums between 1978 and 2002. All the lyrics are delivered in a Venetian dialect of Italian making it surely one for he only reggae records in the world to be in that language.

Review: Ras Jammy from Suns of Dub has curated a special release for Trojan Records that celebrates the deep cultural and historical ties between dub music and cannabis, all rooted in Jamaican music and Rastafarianism. This album, which arrives just in time for the stoners' best day of the year, 420, features iconic tracks from pioneering dub dons King Tubby, Scientist, Dennis Bovell and Roots Radics. These are the legends that helped shape the genre and this compilation highlights how they did it and what influence they had on the development of dub music. So, when the day comes, light up a fat one and turn this one up loud.

Review: If you hadn't heard this one back in '92, where were you? Probably not even born yet, but that's just us showing our age. Undoubtedly one of techno's first forays into the mainstream, Snap! represented a wave of artists alongside the likes of 2 Unlimited, Technotronic, The Shaman and The Grid who provided many an anthem which now a true zeitgeist of this golden era. BMG presents this much welcome vinyl reissue of the German Eurodance outfit's now legendary sophomore effort The Madman's Return; a Michael Munzing & Luca Anzilotti production featuring vocalists Penny Ford, Turbo B and Thea Austin and the hits 'Rhythm Is A Dancer', 'Exterminate' and 'Colour Of Love'.

Review: Autofiction is certainly a triumphant return for the mighty Suede, one of the most iconic of all UK indie bands who helped nurture the Britpop movement out of nappies and into big boy pants, and big boy record deals, during the early-1990s. Whether this is exactly the rebirth into a punk outfit some corners of the press would have you believe is another question.

Ultimately, LP number nine definitely feels like a change of tact, with Brett Anderson's voice taking on a new, grizzlier sound (albeit at times still erupting into the siren-esque tones we fell head over heels for first time round). On the whole, it would be far more accurate simply to label this outing as tougher, rawer and much less affected than the stuff we've had in the past.

Review: Alan Vega & Marty Rev's career as Suicide spanned an incredible four decades. During those years, they rarely if ever got much credit for their work but as is often the way, once time passed they started to get deserving plaudits and an ever growing status amongst fans and critics. Now said to be one of the most inspirational outfits of the 70s, they influenced everyone from Depeche Mode to Soft Cell. This brand new, remastered collection takes in tunes from all across the band's career and has plenty of big, raw, energetic and eclectic sounds with track from their first album in 1977 and most recent in 2002.