Domino Vinyl & CDs

Review: Whoever wrote the release notes to Matthew E White's long-awaited return to the release schedule, take a bow. "Retro-futurist magic tricks," they say about his music. While the wording is abstract enough to border on nonsense, we're struggling to think of a better way to describe K Bay. It's constantly switching things up on you, producing one white rabbit from a black hat after another. Even expecting the unexpected can't save you from being consistently (and pleasantly) surprised.

Throughout the course of the record you'll find epic string balladry, 1980s pop, disco, funk, dad rock, acoustic guitar work, and marching band oddities. It's a varied celebration that truly summarises the musical era we are living in - best described simply as post modern. An age when the rules no longer apply because the charts are no longer relevant, leaving artists free to explore their creative ideas to the nth degree.

Review: Given that Isle of White twosome Wet Leg (AKA late twenty-somethings Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers) broke through with an insanely infectious chunk of monosyllabic rap-sporting post-punk pop, the stupidly catchy 'Chaise Longue', it seems fitting that the song lands early on their self-titled debut album - track two, to be precise. While the set features little else quite as upbeat, energetic and unashamedly joyous, it's still a boisterous and at times brilliant debut full of tongue-in-cheek lyrics, low-slung post-punk intent, raucous references to vintage '80s and '90s indie, weighty guitar riffs and ear-catching melodic motifs. It's the kind of set capable of pushing them towards super-stardom and will undoubtedly be warmly received by critics.

Review: Hailing from the Isle of Wight and steadily building in momentum via a run of stunning singles, Wet Leg are making their much anticipated breakthrough with their debut album on Domino. The duo hit a note between the brooding post punk and new wave romanticism and a spikier pop streak which should find them winning hearts and minds all over festival season. 'Chaise Longue', 'Wet Dream' and 'Too Late Now' have been doing the rounds since the girls signed to Domino in 2021, and it only takes one listen to know they're going to be huge. Razor sharp hooks, singalong choruses and a droll sense of humour are all conspiring to make Wet Leg your new favourite band.

Review: Ten years after she made her debut on Greco-Roman, singer-songwriter Tirzah drops her third studio album, a collection of imaginative and sugar-free love songs crafted with the help of frequent collaborator Mica Levi. Trip9Love, which was recorded over the course of a year at their homes and "various studios around South-East London and Kent", is relatively minimalistic in terms of the musical elements employed - think looped piano motifs, beats that sit somewhere between lo-fi hip-hop and hyper-pop, and Tirzah's now familiar voice - but still sounds surprisingly "big". It's a great example of a simple idea, executed brilliantly, with standout cuts including the infectious 'You All The Time', the ambient pop style 'Their Love', the gritty and crunchy 'Stars', and the flash-fried '2 D I C U V', where Polly Jean Harvey-esque guitars catch the ear.

Review: Some 33 years after it first hit record stores, My Bloody Valentine's debut album still sounds undeniably fresh. Isn't Anything, which appeared on the back of two similarly ground-breaking EPs, genuinely moved guitar-based music forwards, in part by combining Kevin Shields and company's more traditional alternative rock inspirations - think Dinosaur Junior, Sonic Youth and the jangling sixties psychedelia of the Byrds - with then cutting-edge production techniques, subtle nods towards hip-hop and an impressive dedication to achieving layered, immersive sound. Sometimes loud, gnarled and intense and at other times becalmed, dreamy and otherworldly, the album remains breathlessly inspiring all these years on.

Review: My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields has talked a lot about the stress of making Loveless, the band's now iconic 1991 sophomore album. It took over two years (and trips to 20 recording studios) to make, such was Shields sharply focused desire to capture a very specific sound. As this reissue proves, his attention to detail genuinely resulted in what many critics cite as their best album - a wonderfully immersive, wide-eyed and enveloping set that fuses their fuzzy alt-rock guitars with gaseous musical textures, dreamy aural colours and painstakingly layered musical soundscapes that sound as gloriously intense and druggy as they did way back in 1991. It's an album that everyone should own - or at least all those who doubt the sonic potential of primarily guitar-based music.

Review: While it would be fair to say that My Bloody Valentine's most celebrated works are by and large albums, their EPs - and particularly the four released between 1988 and '91 - are every bit as alluring and ground-breaking. For proof, check this fine collection, which not only gathers them together but also adds rare tracks and deep cuts that have long been fan favourites (see the full, 10-minute version of 'Glider', a cacophonous but strangely addictive psychedelic soundscape, and the baggy-but-ghostly 'Instrumental No. 2'). Over the course of the two discs, it's possible to chart the pioneering band's sonic development over a three-year period in which they went from visionary alt-rockers to a band that not only defied categorization, but also played by different rules to their contemporaries.

Review: First arriving in 1988, the debut album from My Bloody Valentine really is deserving of re-appraisal and reissue, albeit most musos out there won't have exactly forgotten it existed in the first place. Still, there are a whole lot of ears out there that were born too late and may not have discovered its wonders yet simply because they have far too much back catalogue greatness to unearth, and so this is a great opportunity to get stuck in, for want of better words.

The Irish dream pop and shoegaze pioneers do get pretty loud at times, but overall this is noise being used in a very different way to the vast majority of guitar styles before or since. Hence the record stunning critics of the day, with the sorely-missed Q magazine perhaps publishing the most apt description, from the mind of one Stuart Maconie: "The first full-length expression of this remarkable new sound: gossamer vocals and insinuating melodies glimpsed through sheets of blurred, opaque noise."

Review: There are a whole host of My Bloody Valentine reissues landing at the moment after the band was signed by Domino. It all came digitally last year and now the physical release get some tidy sonic treatment and pressed to heavyweight vinyl. If you're reading this, you will already known that the band which is made up of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Deb Googe and Colm o Ciosoig are quote possibly one of the most influential groups of the last four decades. Their second album Loveless came in 1991 and took big leaps forward from their debut in 1988. It's an album that still overwhelms your sense even today.

Review: The Kills' classic album No Wow is now 15 years old and so gets a reissue treatment courtesy of Domino. It comes on rather fancy gold wax with a four page booklet that looks back to the record that established the band's aesthetic ahead of a long career. Eventually they took it as far as they could and then beyond. This album showcases their unique and definite blues and post-punk influences. This version has all the original tunes included and all have had a fresh new mix by the multiple Grammy Award-winning Tchad Blake.

Review: A warm welcome back to perennial genre-benders Hot Chip, who return to stores after three long years with their eighth album, some 21 years after making their debut. Freakout/Release is no dramatic change in direction, but instead a further distillation of what has always made the band so appealing - a trademark fusion of synth-pop, loved-up house sounds, lilting and sometimes melancholic lead vocals, loose-limbed organic drums, nods to Prince and an ability to craft killer hooks. There are highlights aplenty, from the gravelly live hip-hop funk of 'The Evil That Men Do' (where rapper Cadence Weapon delivers a star turn) and the subtly post-punk influenced, saucer-eyed brilliance of 'Hard To Be Funky' (featuring Lou Hayter), to the classic Hot Chip sing-along flex of 'Time' and the krautrock-tinged 'Out of My Depth'.

Review: Much has been made of Jon Hopkins' intentions with his new album Music For Psychedelic Therapy, but whether you're a devoted tripper or a sober psychonaut his new album has plenty to offer. Of course Hopkins has more than proved himself over the years as a phenomenal producer and composer, but here he's replaced his brooding cinematic techscapes for blissful ambience draped in rich overtones and gently drifting patterns of melody and rhythm. It's wholly invigorating and relaxing, clearly designed to soothe the listener in stark contrast to the shock and awe he normally inspires amongst his considerable fan base.

Review: Julia Holter herself describes this new album as "the cacophony of the mind in a melting world," and it provides the American singer, songwriter with her first studio album since 2015's Have You In My Wilderness. Aviary is an intrigue to say the least and it's hard not to feel as if a horror-thematic runs throughout its 11 tracks, with moments of temporary insanity and distress intertwining with hair-raising spots a ghostly allure, and it's as if any lightness in the album has had to pass its way through a thicket of darkness first. There's much dissonance to be heard here too but in a pleasantly unsettling way akin to listening to an orchestra tune itself, and with all the deep and meaningful aspects behind Holter's inspirations, it's a hell of a ride.

Review: Julia Holter's sixth album Something in the Room She Moves might just be the Los Angeles songwriter's best work. In the past she has often explored memory and dreamlike futures but on this new outing she is very much more in the moment throughout. She explains herself hat "There's a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our bodies." Musically the album mixes fretless electric bass pitches with her unique vocal melodies. The recognisable sounds of the Yamaha CS-60 interweave with more organic wind instruments and add up to a fluid, watery sound that flows smooth and carries you along with it amongst the gorgeous harmonies.

Review: Julia Holter has subtly shifted focus on new album (her sixth in total) Something In The Room She Moves, moving away from exploring memory and dream-like states to instead focus on (in her words) "the complexity and transformability of our bodies". To create this rather distinctive (and rather good sound world), she added her own ethereal vocals to self-created backing tracks rich in electric fretless bass, warming wind and reed instruments, and distinctive synth sounds plucked from a Yamaha CS060. The results are predictably immersive and soul-enriching, with highlights including stunning opener 'Sun Girl', the percussively inventive 'Spinning', and the pastoral, dreamy 'Evening Mood'.

Review: Well, this many years into their tenure, Franz Ferdinand are certainly not short of hits, and it's a fine treat to have their best moments gathered into one release (not least with their razor sharp eye for graphic design wrapping things up very nicely indeed). From early singalong hits 'Take Me Out' and 'Darts Of Pleasure' weighing up against more recent fare, it's the perfect testament to one of the best bands to come out of Scotland in the 21st century, pressed up on red wax and with a 16-page booklet charting the band's story from back then to right now.

Review: Franz Ferdinand round up 20 of their greatest ever hits on Hits To The Head, presented on gold vinyl and with a 16 page booklet featuring liner notes by JD Beauvallet plus lyrics and new and exclusive photos. 18 of the tunes you will be well familiar with , but two of them are brand new cuts just for this project. They are 'Billy Goodbye' and 'Curious' which has been co-produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price. Elsewhere the big riffing, festival pleasing joys of 'Do You Want To' and 'Take Me Out' still hit the right spot.

Review: Released back in 2003, Rounds was the third LP from Kieran Hebden as Four Tet and perhaps the first long player that widely established him as a pioneering voice within electronic music. Though it doesn't feel like a decade since it was released, Domino celebrate the album's tenth anniversary in requisite fashion here, reissuing it in double LP format and slipping in a CD of Four Tet performing live in Copenhagen in 2004. Listening back now, it's easy to understand why Rounds is viewed as an early classic in the Four Tet canon, transferring his love for free jazz records to a beat template that's more palatable on the ear (Fact pickers might want to know that Hebden recently revealed to Pitchfork the LP was made entirely from samples) "She Moves She" still sounds absolutely haunting too!

Review: Peaky Blinders is a saga that will live on in British cultural folklore long after people stop streaming the show itself. And the legacy of arguably the coolest show to come out of the UK in several years is as much to do with the contemporary stylisation of what's essentially a period piece as it is the attitude it exudes. An atmosphere that's distinctly British, to say the least. A key aspect of the overall impact is the soundtrack, and who better to craft the score to this dark, violent, socially-imbalanced, politically-volatile period in English gangster history than Anna Calvi. The high priestess of alternative, brooding, tense rock & roll plucked straight from the depths of surrealism, every pluck and chord seems to intensify the overall feeling, seducing us with a combination of breathy spoken word, operatic contralto, and tense virtuoso guitar playing.

Review: .If the aim of any commissioned soundtrack score is to provide music that enhances and emphasises the on-screen action, then Anna Calvi's work on BBC smash Peaky Blinders is up there with the best of them. While Calvi only provided soundtracks to two seasons - five and six, both of which are presented on this limited double-disc release - the distinctive sound worlds she created suited series' dark and stylish visual tone. All low-slung basslines, dystopian effects, snarling riffs and squally, stretched-out guitar solos, the collected instrumentals stand on their own two feet while naturally conjuring up mental glimpses of key scenes for those who watched and loved the award-winning series.

Review: Animal Collective return with album number eight, their first for Domino. "Strawberry Jam" was recorded by Scott Colburn in Tucson, Arizona. It's an amazing record, which should finally mark some sort of crossover for them. It bears all of their unique and charming hallmarks but with vocals and melody much more to the foreground.