Post Rock / Experimental

Review: It's either the most timely re-issue of 2020 or the most inappropriate. Cast your mind back to when everyone's (or at least most people's) favourite Icelandic woodland sprite power-chill-pop oddities released Takk... Back in 2005 it was a symphony of celebratory, life-affirming walls of sound, the ideal score to an Attenborough documentary. Now it feels a little a painfully poignant and emotionally charged sonic memory of a lost world. Fear not, though, like this album, the good days will return again.

In the meantime kick back and remind yourself how good this record is. Not quite on a par with the preceding LP, ( ), which took this unique troupe from obscurity to global stardom by way of soft yet subtly gargantuan harmonious arrangements, here the songwriting and craft is more traditional, and certainly better suited to platforms like radio. Nevertheless, the tracks are no less beguiling, bewitching or intoxicating.

Review: Have you heard many more commanding album intros than 'New Mind'? Probably the absolute definition of a metal stomper, complete with militant chorus chant and religious iconography in those insidious lyrics, it's Swans at their most aggressive and intimidating best. An epic masterpiece of heavy guitar moods, only rivalled here by 'Beautiful Child' and perhaps the title song for sex dungeon-cum-bloody altar vibes.

Swans have always been about the other bits, though, despite how well they do doomy rabid riffs. In this instance there's so much else it's difficult to know where to start. 'Trust Me''s journeyman, Badlands acoustica-meets Rammstein. 'In My Garden' and its dangerously entrancing siren-like qualities. The mournful and broken anti-pop of 'You're Not Real, Girl'. All these might be good places to start, but none really convey how accomplished the whole thing is.

Review: Here's hoping you've got your super-weird hat on. As the title of this latest Soul Jazz compilation suggests, the tracks on here are anything but by numbers and cross so many genre lines it often becomes impossible to differentiate between the rock and electronic bits, simultaneously teaching us all something about the connectivity of everything, and how real creativity has never been siloed by style.

Of course the likes of 'Guten Abend, Leute' by Deutsche Wertarbeit are firmly in the synth end of things, a building track that uses phaser noises and accordions to create something that could definitely work on today's dancefloors. And next on the list, 'Wolf City' by Amon Duul II, is a strange rock brew of post punk and jazz. But elsewhere work such as 'Pink Sails' by Klauss Weiss, 'Ballet Statique' from Conrad Schnitzler and the heartbreakingly beautiful pianos of Roedelius' 'Halmharfe' make differences harder to identify.