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Review: Given her length of service (her first appearance as a guest vocalist was way back in 1992), it seems extraordinary that The Love Invention is officially Alison Goldfrapp's debut solo album. It's a typically sparkling, colourful and entertaining affair, taking the synth-pop sound that marked out her long collaboration with Will Gregory as Goldfrapp, and injecting it with a big dose of dance-pop energy. It's hardly a radical recalibration of her sound, though the influence of some of her collaborators - most notably co-producer Richard X (who was involved in some of the album's strongest moments) - is certainly evident. Goldfrapp naturally stars throughout, channelling her inner Roisin Murphy, with highlights including the sub-heavy, house-influenced synth-pop strut of 'So Hard So Hot', the vibrant 'The Love Injection' and catchy opener 'Never Stop'.

Review: Rita Ora recently described her hotly anticipated third album, You & I, as "like my diary of the last few years". Masterminded in collaboration with executive producer Oak Felder and featuring Ora as a credited co-writer throughout, the album has been trailed as loosely chronological musical wander through the highs and lows of relationships and falling in love. Ora is in fine form throughout, singing confidently (and sometimes passionately) atop backing tracks that offer a 21st century synth-pop take on dance music culture - as has been the fashion for a number of years. It also contains a genuine club anthem in the shape of 'Praising You', an inventive, hands-aloft, festival-friendly banger that makes extensive use of Fatboy Slim big beat classic 'Praise You' (for which he gets a 'featured' credit).

Review: Josh Dahlberg is The Valley and the Mountain aka TVTM and is an artist who has made a big move recently from the deep westside of Detroit all the way across to the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest. He he arrives on Central Scientific for its inaugural release with Detroit-based producer and Akka & BeepBeep founder, Jo Rad Silver, taking care of the flip. Next to an array of hardware, there is plenty of improvisation with guitars in this EP - 'Experiment Obscura' is a widescreen and dramatic ambient cut with a meditative feel and 'Immersion Theatre III' is another empty but inviting piece with curlicues, wispy pads, distant guitar echoes and moodiness to spare.

Review: Reggae mainstay Delroy Wilson dropped this easy soul skanker back in the mid-70s. Now the original Clocktower label reissues it again on a limited 7" as the OG has become hard to find and much coveted. It's a brilliantly laidback tune and warming organ chords at its core, lazy drum hits and fat bottom kick down below, all finished with the laissez vocal coolness of Delroy. Flip it over for an even more slowed down and sensuous rhythm version, but the a-side with its sweet vocal takes some beating if you ask us.

Review: Originally released in the mid 80's on UK cassette label Bite Back!, this nearly lost gem finds new life 30 years later on Cocktail D'Amore Music. Steve has cobbled together a superbly melancholic electronic concept album. Wistful melodies often evoke sentiments of a lost childhood and hazy English mornings. Each song within remains untitled allowing full perceptive freedom as to what they all communicate, a language for the feelings that have no name. Untitled A1 - A6 leads one along intimate soundscapes of pattering drums and tinkering piano, a sense of closeness and trust develops with the introduction of each new idea much like the beginning of a bed time story. Untitled B1 - B3 then begin to breathe more openly awash in angelic colours before abruptly turning downward on B4, a wall of booming drums and atmospheres from the furthest reaches of the galaxy before the last trio of songs settles gently back on Earth.

Review: Lurka ended the year on a high with a kick-ass new EP on his own new label Make Your Own Meaning. He is now set to start 2023 in an equally strong fashion with four more futuristic bass fusions. 'Wire' is a minimal stepper with bursts of bass and flitting percussive lines. 'Molten Drum' is another twitchy mix of malfunctioning computer sounds, refracted vocals and fizzing synths that keep you on edge then 'Machine' picks ups the pace with jumpy rhythms and militant snare work. 'Zone (Packet)' rounds out with a double-speed workout and juke patterns that head out on a cosmic journey.

Review: German artist Stephan Bodzin has done a fine job of keeping himself at the forefront of the melodic techno world, not least with his always boundary-pushing live shows. He takes that energy into the studio when cooking up his scintillating club tracks, too, and always has. This reissue on his own Herzblut label revisits one of his many stand cuts. 'Valentine' is a wonky one with creepy bass and mysterious melodies over crunchy tech beats. 'Papillon' takes flight like its butterfly namesake, with elegant leads and rubbery bass all doused in glorious melodic rain that has a sci-fi edge.

Review: On his first album for the admirable Lontano Series label, Spanish ambient producer David Cordedo offers up alluring, immersive soundscapes inspired by his love of wandering through woods and forests. It's easy to imagine the sun peeping through a canopy of leaves and branches on sunrise-ready opener 'The Great Sadness', while the sustained chords, drowsy sound design and reverb-laden organ notes of 'Orma' evoke mental images of becalmed woodland clearings at nightfall. While the concept may be loose, the music - and especially the sublime, slowly unfurling 'All Your Silences' and the bubbling, Pete Namlook-esque 'Los Alcornocales' - is magical enough to both follow the brief and work as an enveloping, life-affirming ambient masterpiece. In a word: picturesque!

Review: Buoyed by the international success of the band's unique blend of psychedelic Latin rock and jazz fusion, Santana landed in the UK in 1976 for a series of concerts. One of these, at London's Hammersmith Odeon, was captured on tape for broadcast on British radio. It's this incendiary and freewheeling set - or at least a big portion of it - that's presented on this fantastic live album. Starting with a rendition of their heavy, funked-up, Latin-tinged take on Fleetwood Mac's 'Black Magic Woman', Carlos Santana - whose expressive, stretched-out guitar solos take centre stage throughout - and his band-mates laid down exceptional, extended and partly improvised versions of such classics as 'Gypsy Queen', 'Revelations' and - most explosively - 'Soul Sacrifice'.

Review: It's five up for the Palmetto Street label and this one finds them turning to Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production who manage to again find new ground in this great EP. The lead single from the 7" is a soft and melancholic sad song with none other than Brian Jackson (who collaborated with Gil Scott Heron) playing the flute parts. He cuts through the smokey mood with daring harmonies while on the flip things get even more forceful with 'Something So Precious'. Pirani goes it alone on the vocals for this one while a strong quartert adds the sumptuous melodies.

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.

Review: We have long had a soft spot for the sounds that come out of DC label People's Potential Unlimited, which is affectionately known as PPU. It's always lo-fi but hi-class whether in original or reissue form. It's the latter here with leftfield Estonian artist Uku Kuut's 'Funky' 7" reappearing on wax. The opener is all singing synth lines and jumbled analogue drum funk with an oddball vocal and generally stuffy arrangement making it all the more lovable. On the flip is 'What's Happening Today', another unusual mix of sounds - synth, disco, funk and goofy vocals that will have the floor in a spin.

Review: Jordan GCZ is having a hell of a year. He's already delivered two sublime albums (his debut solo set and one created in collaboration with Detroit legend Terrence Dixon) and here drops another must-check EP, his first for Rawax. 'Making Me Dizzy' sees the Amsterdam-based producer add gorgeously ambient lead lines, lilting TB-303 motifs and funky bass to a classic Motor City techno groove, with the accompanying 'Dub Mix providing a heavier, sweatier and more intoxicating alternative version. 'Tongue Twister' is jazzier and even more intergalactic, sitting somewhere between blissed-out Move D deep house and melodious techno. The dub that accompanies it is pleasingly deep, out there and effects-laden, escorting us even further into deep space. Tip!

Review: As the title makes clear, this three-disc, unmixed collection has one simple aim: to soundtrack kitchen discos, living room dances and long car journeys with a jam-packed selection of disco hits and disco-tinged pop favourites. It does a good job at that, even if some of the selections tend towards the lesser-known end of the commercial disco spectrum, with all three discs showcasing such disco must-haves and part-starting sing-alongs as Dan Hartman's soaring 'Relight My Fire' (famously covered by Take That in the 90s), Diana Ross's 'I'm Coming Out', Chaka Khan's inspired 'Young Hearts Run Free', Grace Jones' punk-funk Roxy Music cover 'Love Is The Drug', McFadden & Whitehead's epic 'Ain't No Stopping Us Now' and Cheryl Lynn's peerless 'Got To Be Real'.

Review: Stretched across three discs, this deliberately classics-heavy compilation does a decent job in joining the dots between r&b in the modern sense of the term (I.E smooth and soulful vocal workouts underpinned by hip-hop style beats) with the original American definition (music of black origin). In practice, that means hits by Fugees, Usher, Toni Braxton, Brandi & Monica and En Vogue sitting side by side with Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, the formative house brilliance of Ten City, the UKG-adjacent exploits of Craig David and Blazin' Squad, the pop-tastic songs of Pussycat Dolls, Cleopatra and Britney Spears, the street soul of Soul II Soul, and the tear-jerking reggae brilliance of Dawn Penn.

Review: Jackie Edwards' 'His 'Do You Love Me' is a pure good vibes only roots reggae roller, with laid back drums and bass that sit in one another perfectly. Plenty of rousing organ chords ring out with great self delight as soothing melodies take off to the stars. Flip it over for a head melting, knob twirling remix that makes use of a vast mixing desk to bring out the dub goodness.