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Review: Bringing bruising good time Oi-punk to the new generation, Chubby & The Gang have made quick work over the course of their two exceptional full-lengths. Now, less than a year removed from the life affirming scrappy anthems of 'The Mutt's Nuts', the gang (no pun intended) return with a literal 'Labour Of Love.' The single features three new cuts, all love songs, delivered with the manic, crusty, anthemic beauty one could ever desire from new school hardcore-by-way-of-Oi! punk revivalists.

Review: Authentic soul business from Bloomington newbies The Indications brought to you by the good people at Colemine Records. Teaming up with Durand Jones for the A-side, "Smile" is a powerful preachy cut that digs deep into the classic funk mentality while sitting neatly upside the grills of Aloe Blacc or Gnarls Barkley. "Tuck N Roll", meanwhile, is a Meters-level slice of smouldering instrumental funk with big cymbal splashes and a blissful balance of Rhodes and guitar. Spotless.

Review: The Goa Express are bright young hopefuls in the arena of bombastic British indie pop. Following in the footsteps of Coldplay, Keane et al, these lads from Manchester have a sound which is made for radio play and massive stages - they're destined to be huge. Following up their Second Time single for Ra-Ra-Rok Records, they're back with this new song which plays out like a rallying call for unity in a distinctly un-united world. 'Everybody In The UK' has soaring choruses and a bright, hopeful sound which will surely send the band further down the road to stardom.

Review: Legendary jazz label Blue Note has tapped up the super hot nine-piece Afro-jazz outfit Nubiyan Twist for their own new version of Donald Byrd's song 'Through The Noise.' It features on the 16-track Blue Note Re:imagined II collection that is due soon, but first also gets its own pressing here. Heavy swing, garage and 2-step all colour their version with broken-beat, afrobeat and bebop also colouring the fresh sounding grooves. The lyrics build the reimagined concept and make for a stunning new piece. On the flip is another gem in the form of Swindle's 'Miss Kane.'

Review: We haven't heard any new music from super soul group The Ironsides since back in 2020. Boy, how the world has changed dance then, Anyway, their sound has not and is just as life-enriching as ever across these two new tunes. First up is the glorious 'The Changing Light' with its lush sounds and catchy melodies and then on the flip is 'Sommer' which is just as able to melt your heart. The good news is they also have a new album coming on the label either next year or the year after so keep those eyes and ears peeled.

Review: Hip-hop heads love nothing more than classic Blue Note material getting a modern fix up. And that's what we have here as Kay Young and Venna and Marco Bernardis join forces to work their magic on Marlena Shaw's 'Feel Like Making Love' and Donald Byrd's 'Where Are We Going?' This limited 7" is a taster from the 16-track compilation Blue Note: Reimagined II. It's packed with the neo-soul, r&B and hip hop scenes finest contemporary talents adding new magic to the still standout original source material. Like volume one, it's an absolute must-have, as is this 45rpm.

Review: Victor Axelrod aka Ticklah is the venerated producer beyond this new toast from Jamaican reggae and dancehall singer Mikey General. The pair came together during the pandemic and found plenty of common musical ground as they throw it back to the early 1980s analog rub-a-dub style. The backing track has been used in years gone by but Mikey adds his own spin to it here. He has been a mainstay in the scene since the 1980s and has fans in New York, London and Jamaica. On the flip of this one is an instrumental and dub mix, 'Prattle,' which features keysman Earl Maxton on clavinet.

Review: During the various lockdowns of 2020 and '21, Crazy P delved deep into their vaults to see what unfinished songs were lurking in the dustier corners of the archive. These were then used as inspiration for new, finished and polished versions. This seven-inch contains two fine examples of this repurposing process. A-side 'If Life Could Be This Way' is suitably strong - a heart-aching, bittersweet chunk of laidback melancholia that sits somewhere between blue-eyed soul, Balearica and hazy West Coast jazz-rock. It's sure to be a fan favourite in years to come. 'How Could I Know' meanwhile is similarly horizontal, with tear-jerking (electronic) string sounds and a fine lead vocal from Danielle Moore clustering around a clicking, lo-fi drum machine beat

Review: We first cottoned on to Chew My Cheeks when Prima Queen unveiled their simple but wonderfully well shot, London-showcasing video. Produced by The Big Moon, we watched as the two faces behind this musical project guided us round a UK capital via dance, delivery of lines to camera, and cutaway shots of high rise buildings and the Emirates Sky Line - arguably the world's greatest transport network folly.

But what's the music itself like? Well, there's a real sense of effortless cool pervading the whole affair (how very Big Smoke), sparse, twanging guitar and shuffling rhythm conjuring images of warm afternoons in warm months, days when soft indie rock like this make sense. Flip it to find the larger, far more expansive sounding 'Invisible Hand', a song that takes emotional resonance to about 11 with its pared back verses and larger choruses.

Review: Pressure Makes Diamonds casts us back to the 80's on this red hot bit of boogie disco. It is the fine work of an iconic jazz drummer and educator from Houston, Texas, by the name of Bubbha Thomas . e played on plenty of pivotal releases in the fields of R&B, gospel, blues and soul and led his spiritual ensemble 'The Lightmen' to five Grammy nominations, as well as writing a couple of books. With 'Boogie Down' the outfit moved away from jazz and into a rich world of disco and mid-tempo funk. Big fat claps, backing vocals that are buttery and wide open drum breaks all make it irresistible.

Review: Daptone recently released a killer collection of archival cover versions by in-house band the Dap-Kings and their sadly departed lead singer Sharon Jones. One of the headline attractions on that set, the band's righteous, call-to-arms soul version of Woody Guthrie's folk anthem 'This Land Is Our Land', is also featured on this must-have reissue of a "45" that first dropped in 2004. It's superb, but even better is A-side 'What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes?', a floor-friendly conscious soul/funk crossover written and recorded at the height of the second Gulf War with Iraq. As usual, Jones' impeccable lead vocal is supported brilliantly by the band's fiery instrumentation and Bosco Mann's fuzzy, sixties-style production.

Review: Christopher Sprains and The Strange Band recorded a whole heap of material in a hazy, drug-fuelled 19178, but their - surprisingly - never gained enough traction with the NYC disco crowd. Perhaps this work was too ahead of its time and, while it does share some qualities with the music of Rick James, it contains something dark, sexy, a little bit twisted and, of course, strange. The lead track "You" is a synth-heavy, electrifying boogie cut with a rugged percussion swing and an air of post-punk to its mix down, not to mention those utterly freaky vocals; our favourite, though, is actually "Space V", an insanely nutty electro cut that would have undoubtedly been on The Electrifying Mojo's playlist should it have landed on his lap. Totally recommended...

Review: Colemine step up with another sure shot of impeccable modern soul, this time coming from Australian outfit Dojo Cuts. 'Here We Are' is a slow jam with sadness in its heart, but it hits hard. That's in no small part down to the impassioned vocal turn from Carlton Jumel Smith, who gets his message across with conviction on this classically styled ballad. One for rainy days and poignant moments, with the instrumental on the flip when you want the music to carry you away.

Review: Colemine step up with another sure shot of impeccable modern soul, this time coming from Australian outfit Dojo Cuts. 'Here We Are' is a slow jam with sadness in its heart, but it hits hard. That's in no small part down to the impassioned vocal turn from Carlton Jumel Smith, who gets his message across with conviction on this classically styled ballad. One for rainy days and poignant moments, with the instrumental on the flip when you want the music to carry you away.

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Review: The uber powerful voice of Jamaican reggae singer songwriter John Holt appeared on countless seminal singles and albums - our favourite being 1974's superbly entitled 10000 Volts of Holt. It was a year earlier that he dropped this single on Clocktower. 'My Happiness' is a steady ska sound with natty acoustic guitar riffs and neat little motifs under a freeform trumpet that rises from the mix. His trademark gravelly vocals are all present and correct, too, of course, with a version on the flip that stops them away and leaves the drums to roll.

Review: If you don't know William Dorey already then chances are you're about to realise you've been missing out on quite the artist. Working as Skinshape, he's managed to garner a quiet cult following for his relatively quiet music, designed to unwind to, allow worries of the day to unwind, and dissipate into a concoction of psychedelic pop, downtempo electronica and dubby grooves.
Turn Away, a two-track single featuring titular piece and 'Dreams of Panama' is the latest case in point. Sublime melodies and deceptively advanced acoustic guitar work set to lackadaisical rhythms and beat patterns, soothing brass and synthesised strings helping capture a real mood. Which, specifically, is all about slowing down, and taking time to appreciate the moment. Designed to transport you to far away places, real and imagined, it sounds reductive to say these are bonafide travelling tunes but they are. The real joy is they also sound incredible when standing still.

Review: Budapest based label Blunt Shelter Records serves up this gorgeous new 7" from the collaborative duo of BluntOne and Baen Mow. This pair really come correct with their next-level jazz and lofi hip hop sounds, with dreamy and heady and stoned ambient pads. First up is 'How I Feel (feat Georgia Anne Muldrow)', a late night and hazy joint for smoking to, 'Babylon Rots' is another wispy, emotive and barely-there joint that makes an indelible mark and instrumentals of each are also included. Hopefully we will hear lots more from this outfit in future.

Review: Happenstance can be a fortuitous element. A union-funded single discovered in a dusty store, a long disbanded band found, leads to unreleased post punk dubs in a box of unreleased demos.

Formed during the mid-80s in the downbeat town of Walsall, their music is a blend of disparate influences from 50's crooners, blues and reggae to Killing Joke and The Bunnymen; Ron's Neighbours were out of step with the perfect pop of the C86 indie generation.

Their only single - "To The Fight" - a split 7" was supported by the Trade Union Resource Centre, while many gigs were benefits for striking miners, leading to a loyal local following.

Engineered by Ozzy Osbourne's brother Tony, tracks were recorded at an 8 track bedroom / home studio, while a terraced house served as rehearsal space. Here Ron Next Door was born. When a tape recorder was left running it captured the long-suffering neighbour for posterity. His outburst gave the band and song, its name.

Experimenting with drum machines, the resultant jam track, here in its "Alternative Mix", languished unheard until now. Ron's 'Black Country' tones lead to driving bass / percussion against crashing Stratocasters and repeating, refrained vox - a post punk dub turned symphony.

The B side, Sitting On Top of the World, is an indie anthem, becoming their theme, a blend of grandiose and banal that characterised their songs.

Review: Emotional Rescue returns to early 1980s Manchester with the previously unreleased music of Michael James Pollard and his beautiful distillation of indie pop in Too Confusing and bedsit cover version of Ashford and Simpson's Surrender.

While studying photography at Manchester Polytechnic, (MJ) Pollard lived and played in a band in a ramshackle house in Walley Range. In the cellar studio he would write and record his own songs using their guitars, fretless bass and keys, as well as his own Casio VL-Tone VL-1 and Simmons Clap Trap to augment his drums onto a 4 track TEAC.

By 1983, and now solo, he was recording out of Dislocation Dance's studio (ERC111), had secured a Peel Session and via Factory Records' Lindsay Reade, was discussing with Fundacao Atlantica about releasing an album.

Working with singer Sioux Goddard as a duo, they put down 8 songs in 2 weeks in summer '84. However, Fundacao Atlantica's financial difficulties and soon closure meant the songs were lost until now.

Recovered off the original tapes and lovingly restored, Too Confusing captures the optimism of the sessions, a summer love melody of forlorn youth. Surrender accompanies, recorded back in that cellar in '81, with friend Stephanie Danziger on vocals, its lo-fi simplicity is a perfect take on an all-time classic, making this a newly prized gem of British indie pop history.

Review: Hillside & Matulah is a Helsinki based instrumental duo composed of Risto Kumpulainen (keys) and Janne Mathlin (drums & percussion) who mix various genres with their own unique style. Here they present their block rockin' jam titled 'Fo Yo Mind' featuring the lyrics of rapper Tykopaatti, who is part of the Finnish hip-hop collective Joku Roti Mafia. Over on the flip, they go for a completely different tempo on the psych-rock/acid jazz crossover of 'Knock Out'. As well as their usual project, Kumpulainen & Mathlin are known for collaborating with several homegrown blues, rock and soul artists.

Review: Excavated from vaults of the Weiss Brothers' longstanding NYC imprint Old Time Records, Beverly McKay's gutsy tales have massaged soul floors for those lucky to have a 200 pound 45. "Say It With Feeling" hits with big backing vocal harmonies before breaking into a classic midtempo bluesy arrangement while "Conscience" strikes with a little more eastern allure, staccato strings and a cat-prowling narrative. Timeless soul.

Review: Following the excellent excavation of the Miami band's unreleased album Best Kept Secret, AOTN's Fryer treats us to his two favourite cuts on a 500-only never-to-be-repressed 45. Seeped in powerful vocal harmonies, "Let Go" is rare groove gold with smooth sax and a dynamic that keeps on surprising while "Will You Be There" is an end of night soul shakedown with a tenderness that's tangible in every element. Don't sleep on this... Or the album. One of AOTN's most exciting releases this year.

Review: Paul Murphy's Jazz Room Records serve up two underground dance floor hits from the London circuit here. Latin supergroup Wild And Infectious's 'Caliente' takes care of the a-side and has banging piano riffs and heavy bass laid down by Descarga originator Cachao, all run through with some superb driving vibes from Tany Gil with a big percussion meltdown from Walfredo De Los Reyes added for good measure. ON the reverse, The Vienna Art Orchestra serve up a great new version of a Bud Powell classic.

Review: Over the last couple of years, Matasuna Records has developed a tried-and-tested formula. It revolves around finding and licensing killer cuts - think funk, Afrobeat, tropical flavours and Latin beats - and then pairing them with a fresh, floor-friendly re-edit. Their latest find is something of an overlooked gem: a gorgeously sunny 1983 number from Ghanaian musician Mawuli Decker that's piled high with infectious, EWE-language vocals, Highlife guitars, spacey Moog sounds and cute electric piano solos. The accompanying Renegades of Jazz re-edit is pleasingly faithful to its source material, deftly showcasing Decker's brilliant music while beefing up the bass, subtly tightening up the drums and layering on some complimentary hand percussion.

Review: Philadelphia band Stereo League (which is comprised of childhood friends Alex Savoth and Dan King) always looks to discover new genres whether working alone or with like-minded collaborators. This latest 7" is another on the synth and soul label Eraserhood Sound and features two more timeless sounds. The opener 'Operator, Please' a delightfully seductive and reminiscent of 70s soul and funk, while on the back, 'Seasons of Trouble' layers in the Philly soul, with fancy funk sounds and classic yet compelling grooves.

Review: We cannot get enough of Washington, DC-based label Peoples Potential Unlimited. It deals in a particular brand of lo-fi funk and disco with a hit of the leftfield about it. This time out they unearth some lost recordings from Landyhill (Timex Social Club) Bay Area funk. It has the rude girl vocals of Jamie Vallo over crunchy beats, squeaking synth motifs and raw drum work. Word on the street is more demos have been found from the same era and are to be unveiled soon, but this previously unreleased jam is a great starter.