Cherry Red Vinyl & CDs

Review: It's not that we get hold of a new Dinosaur Jr. album and feel disappointed. In fact, far from it - the band are among the chosen few alternative rock outfits to have managed to maintain their creative prowess and sense of adventure over the course of four decades. Nevertheless, this live outing represents them during peak years, established enough to have proven why they should command reverence, but still boasting the kind of freshness that represented youth culture at the time.

Recorded at the height of the grunge movement, something Jr were tied to but predated and never really bowed to in terms of demands for non-conformist conformity, this is loud, heavy, raucous rock 'n' roll music for Generation X, but which transcends eras and ages to speak to disaffected and affected in one fell swoop. Never before released, embrace it while you can.

Review: Felt may not have made the longest lasting impact on the common conscious, but nevertheless the UK indie set struck a real chord, and are still widely seen as cult icons among those who know. As part of the deserved celebrations for equally revered label Cherry Red's 45th anniversary, we can now dive into one of the band's finest moments, with this double-A 45" single. Opening on 'Primitive Painters' it doesn't take long to realise where we are on the sonic scale. Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser in a duet with frontman Lawrence, it's rightly considered one of the great British singles of the 1980s and one of the decade's most powerful collaborations, saturated in shoegaze and dream pop while still being resolutely part of a New Wave. Meanwhile, 'Penelope Tree' on the flip opts for a janglier but no less epic feeling.

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Review: NME's mail-order 'C86' compilation, released way back in 1986, has become something of a cherished time capsule: an acclaimed, on-point collection that summed up indie and alternative rock in the mid 1980s. This three-disc compilation is touted by Cherry Red as a "prequel" to that legendary comp. It naturally features some of the same artists - usually in the form of earlier tracks or obscurities - as well as the rest of the cream of the crop of indie in 1985. There are pre-fame recordings from James, the Stone Roses and Primal Scream, jangly guitars aplenty, and killer cuts from bands that briefly flickered brightly but time has generally forgotten.