Domino Vinyl & CDs

Review: Defeat is a 22-minute new mega-single by Animal Collective, who by now should need no introduction (but for the rookies, we'll indulge one anyway) as the paradigm-breaking experimental pop band and formed in 1999. 'Defeat' is divided into two parts. The first is a beatless, coming-of-age pop seance, spanning surreal harmonia, whirling organelles and beatless spirallings, lyrically centring on the theme of overcoming adolescence. Part two is far darker, concerning the implicit alienation of a mother restlessly searching for her daughter in a lost dystopia, while horrific, tremolo'ing cellos play out in bad-trip horror flick fashion. Recorded with producer Russell Elevado, violinist Samara Lubelski, cellist Leila Bordreuil, and saxophonist Ben Chapoteau-Katz, it's certain to sate fans of the Collective, who remain committed to an ever-chameleonic bravado.

Review: Ryder-Jones is something of a Liverpudlian legend, a troubadour who originally made his name with The Coral, yet one whose charismatic talents have extended beyond the '60s-worship of his origins to a very personal place on this, his third solo album to date. Recorded in the bedroom of his childhood home, 'West Kirkby County Primary' is a work of heartache, loneliness and melancholia that finds its metier somewhere between the work of Michael Head and Springsteen's 'Nebraska' - Ryder-Jones' mood may be desolate, soul-searching and reflective, yet his songwriting flair lurks behind every corner.