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Review: There are seemingly no limits to the music Emotional Rescue will put out. This time they look back to the post punk scene of Bristol in the early 80s. Mouth was a short-lived outfit that put out just a couple of releases, but each one blazed a trail though leftfield percussive sounds, wave, weird jazz and electronics. Andy Guy and Rob Merrill were the main members with the likes of Nellie Hooper also in the band's orbit. This record is packed with tribal drumming and floating horns, broken dubs and avant-jazz but all with a proudly DIY attitude. It's packed with heady moments and wild steppers that havent aged a bit and still sound future.

Review: Independent radio institution NTS has a lot to answer for. Not least introducing its legions of loyal listeners across the world to the mighty (or, perhaps more appropriately, curious Staalfagel). The result of some serious crate digging, as per usual for the platform, the Swedish post punk and New Wave outfit - Erik Fritjofsson, Petter Brundell and Micke Kjell - reflect how broad the digital station's music policy can be, and how important it is for things to be rediscovered and saved from obscurity.
Forming in 1980, the three piece only released two full length records in their time, alongside a handful of singles and EPs. Utan Rymddrakt Pa Uranus is among the most enigmatic and delightful, here presented in two parts with an edit by Gary The Tall. As early adopters of synths and drum machines, the cosmic dance-pop sound here might be rudimentary today, but also has this real sense of adventure and breaking new ground about it.

Review: Mr Bongo serves up the new collaboration here from Mandaworld (bereft known as Amanda Hicks) and partner Matthew Tavares, who is Matty of the much loved jazz outfit BADBADNOTGOOD. The pair have a magical musical synergy that really shines through here as they interweave and uplift one another. 'Warm You' is a real classic that fits in the canon of timeless ballads. It is a dreamy pop song doused in oodles of reverberating guitars and mellow shoegaze vibes that evokes a world of nostalgic feelings. 'Spoonfeed' is just as warm and lush but a little more subdued.

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: For the first time since their Four Against Fate album, Nightingales have recorded new music. 'Ten Bob Each Way' / 'Use Your Loaf' is a limited 7" single. The A-side is a beguiling bit of lo-fi post-punk energy, and the b-side features Stewart Lee and Nick Pynn serving up a cover that was originally intended for a Nightingales tribute album. This release kick starts what is said to be a lengthy campaign of reissues by Robert Lloyd's band The Nightingales after they've been returned to the spotlight thanks to the Stewart Lee-written film King Rocker. It told the fascinating tale of the unique band over a four decade career and was recently shown on Sky Arts.

Review: Beautify Junkyards and Ghost Box label co-head Jim Jupp is Belbury Poly here as he serves up a cover of The Incredible String Band song 'Painting Box.' It was original by written by Mike Heron and is a beautiful piece of acoustic guitar work with tender vocals and sweeping string sounds that come over like an adult lullaby, all soothing sounds and enchanting moods. The flipside is an original by Beautify Junkyards, 'Ritual in Transfigured Time,' which was produced by Joao Branco Kyron and is another perfectly lilting groove for lazy days.

Review: Since first emerging in 2011 via the globally renowned Bella Union stable, Swedish indie rock duo I Break Horses have certainly set out their stall. The pair, better known as Maria Linden and Fredrik Balck, have - among other things - hit the road to support both M83 and Sigur Ros in the years between then and now. Indicative of their incredibly textured and subtly all-consuming approach to soundscapes, while this release comprises two remixes it still feels every bit a Horses outing.

There's just so much timbre to get to grips with. 'Death Engine' belongs in a twisted math rock dream, as grungy and rough as it is epic and emotional, if you look beneath the immediate discordance and distortion. Mythologen's take on 'Turn' is a cleaner second act, taking the pace down a notch and removing chaos, leaving only calm and serene harmonies of real beauty behind.

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: Emotional Rescue return to the music of cult British group Furniture, shining a light on this unique band's extended 12" mixes and alternate takes. In the 80s tradition, these versions shrug off commercial concerns for something more exciting - long run times and space to tease FX and processes that a radio-friendly single wouldn't allow. "I Can't Crack (Broken Mix)" is an epic crescendo, while the instrumental mix of "Throw Away The Script" locks into a scratchy percussive workout anchored by a moody bassline. The sprightly piano lines and cascading sax on "Dancing The Hard Bargain" are a delight to lose yourself in, while "Bullet" strikes a somber but stirring tone to close the EP out.

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: 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: This Record Store Day 2019 exclusive finds Mumford and Sons at work in the famous Electric Lady Studios in New York. It was there that they decided to serve up four carefully reimagined versions of tracks from their acclaimed Delta album. Each one shows a different, incredibly tender side. 'Woman' is first with its gentle piano keys and closely mic-ed vocals soothing the soul, while 'Guiding Light' has more upbeat but still lo-fi guitar riffs and 'Wild Heart' is another showcase of the beautifully raw and emotive vocals of lead singer Marcus Oliver Johnston Mumford. 'If I Say' is a rousing, heart swelling closer.