Other People Vinyl & CDs

Review: Combine Sculpture's Membrane Pop album With Eric Holm's Andoya LP and you're close to knowing what Ancient Astronaut's debut opus on Nicolas Jaar's Other People label sounds like. It's weird and wonderful on "A1" and "A2", while there's calmer, oceanic moments on "B2". Things become more industrialised and dubby on "B3", all of which are held together by two 'when you hear the chime turn the page'-type interludes that top and tail the B-side.

Review: The best kept secret in shoegaze? Probably depends on how many other secrets you know about and what they are. Either way, Gleemer are the almost-stadium sized band half the crowd are blown away by because they've never heard of before, and the other half are absolutely obsessed with and have been since they first encountered the group. End of the Nail is quintessential Gleemer business, and wholly indicative of why people love them so much. Combining elements of grunge and garage, skate and 'adult emo' into this gnarly, taught and rhythmic guitar soup, it's as much about looking upwards into the great beyond with contemplative chords and choruses as it is staring down at the pavement and wondering where from there. Dreamy and muscular at the same time.

Review: Guitarist and composer Patrick Higgins moves out of his comfort zone for a high concept record that pushes boundaries in many directions. As emotionally charged as it is expansive, the title track itself premiered at Monom Studios, Berlin, on a 75 surround speaker setup, giving some idea as to how bold and high spec the ideas are behind the collection as a whole. Versus has plenty of fingers on live instrumentation, but it's also concerned with totems of electronic production - the seamless interweaving of musical textures and layers, free improvisation and an appreciation for bridging styles within and between tracks themselves. Avant garde, ambient, experimental, and installation-worthy stuff from a true great, these are less tracks and more sonic moments contributing to a wider, singular work that's good enough to fully immerse you.

Review: Back in 2016, Jah Wobble offered up a two-disc trawl through the more dub-fired corners of his vast back catalogue, In Dub. While that set included dub tracks and self-made reworks that spanned the whole of his then 40-year career, this belated sequel concentrates on material made since 1990. As you'd expect given Wobble's track record, there's little straight-up dub reggae present, but rather a ton of hazy, delay-laden musical fusions that mix and match elements of ambient, electronica, post-punk, no-wave, traditional Indian music, trip-hop, psychedelia, jazz and even dense, tribal style drum tracks - all laden with the sometime Public Image Ltd member's trademark weighty bass. Throw in some never-before-heard mixes and previously vinyl-only versions, and you have another fine collection of heady, dub-wise fusions.

Review: In 2020, Nicolas Jaar composed Piedras for a concert at the Museum of Memory & Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, which honoured the many victims of Pinochet's dictatorship. The project evolved into Archivos de Radio Piedras, a radio play shared via Telegram between 2022 and 2023. In 2024, it became a 24-channel installation at MUAC in Mexico City. The music, partly attributed to the fictional Salinas Hasbun, explores themes of memory and identity. The play unfolds in a future with an internet blackout, where characters use DIY radio to mourn Hasbun's disappearance, with the unstable radio frequencies symbolising shifting truths. Now served up on vinyl, the album is a blend of ambient, found sounds, experimental rhythms and eerie synth design.

Review: Surface Access is a newly emerging French duo that craft rich dub techno and this is their debut to prove it. Each tune is given a whole side to play out, like all dub techno should. 'Drainage Overflow' rides on supple drums that you can feel more than hear while grainy textures and wispy melodies add the detail. 'Basic User Charge' is even more dee and cavernous - a masterful explore of diet yet profound artistry with wide open spaces extending all around you as the dusty hi-hats keep time. A duo to watch for sure.