Reissue CDs Weekly: Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978

HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS - TAPE ARCHIVE ESSENCE 1973-1978 Essential home recordings from the German musical auteur

Essential home recordings from the German musical auteur

Even though nothing on Tape Archive Essence 1973–1978 was released at the time it was recorded, every track evokes material which was issued. Any fan of the German legends Cluster and Harmonia needs this album gathering extracts from tapes key member Hans-Joachim Roedelius recorded on his own during the period when both outfits were active.

Album: Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes - What Kinda Music

★★★★ TOM MISCH & YUSSEF DAYES - WHAT KINDA MUSIC Feel-good hormones on Blue Note

South-east Londoners provide the feel-good hormones on Blue Note collab

We can all do with a dopamine hit right now, given the current lockdown, and those feel-good hormones kick in the instant you hear Yussef Dayes’ tight backbeat on the opening title track of What Kinda Music. A collaboration between drummer and producer Dayes and fellow south-east London-based producer and singer-songwriter Tom Misch – whose "Disco Yes" was one of Barack Obama’s favourite tracks of 2018 – the album is released today via the iconic Blue Note Records.

The Thread, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage review - Greek folk and contemporary unite

★★★★ THE THREAD, SADLER'S WELLS DIGITAL STAGE Greek folk and contemporary unite

Russell Maliphant breathes fresh life into Hellenic tradition

The latest Sadler’s Wells digital offering is 2019’s The Thread, a luminous collaboration between choreographer Russell Maliphant and Oscar-winning composer Vangelis (Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner) for the Athens-based production company Lavris.

Album: Hodge - Shadows in Blue

★★★★ HODGE - SHADOWS IN BLUE Bristol techno-dub mainstay releases overdue first album

Bristol techno-dub mainstay releases his first album a full decade into his career

For underground music producers, there almost always comes a phase in life when they accept they're no longer young guns and embrace either massively complicated synthesisers, floaty new age music, or both. For Bristol-based Jake Martin aka Hodge it's the latter. This, his debut album after a decade releasing a couple of dozen EPs on connoisseurs' favourite labels and DJing around the world, has all the signifiers.

theartsdesk on Vinyl Lockdown Special 1: Napalm Death, Brazilian jazz-pop, 1980s indie and more

THEARTSDESK ON VINYL LOCKDOWN SPECIAL 1 Stay-at-home music for stay-at-home times

Stay-at-home music for stay-at-home times: the first of our twice-weekly vinyl specials

For the duration of this C19 Lockdown, rather than the usual sprawling monthly epic, theartsdesk on Vinyl will be presented regularly in bite-sized editions, roving across the pile of releases we have already, since those incoming have been whittled down a trickle. Welcome, then, to a cross edition of plastic ranging from the beautiful to the bizarre. Dive in!

Napalm Death Logic Ravaged by Brute Force/White Kross (Century Media)

Album: The Weeknd - After Hours

★★★★ THE WEEKND - AFTER HOURS R&B superstar's fourth album soon impresses

Fourth album from R&B superstar impresses after a slow start

Let’s talk about “Blinding Lights”. What a sleek single, like an escapee from the acclaimed soundtrack to the film Drive, a polished riff on mid-Eighties synth-pop, ripe for 21st century dancefloors, one of the songs of the year so far, all topped off with the crystal falsetto of Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd.

Album: Baxter Dury - The Night Chancers

★★★★ BAXTER DURY - THE NIGHT CHANCERS Skilfully drawn vignettes

The singer turns storyteller with a collection of skilfully drawn vignettes

“I’m not your fucking friend,” intones Baxter Dury as recent single “I’m Not Your Dog” begins. As opening salvos go, it’s right up there with the best of them, full of sneering hostility and fiery intent. As an introduction, it’s a writer’s hook – pushing us away while drawing us in.

Album: Moby - All Visible Objects

★★ MOBY - ALL VISIBLE OBJECTS Too many clouds

US electronic dance perennial takes a rare stumble with his bombastic latest

Moby is perhaps better known these days for his two ultra-candid biographies, Porcelain and Then It Fell Apart, than he is for his massive album successes of two decades ago. His memoirs are compulsive, unique windows into the screwed up life of an intellectually inquisitive, punk rock-spirited, rave nerd who accidentally, briefly experienced superstardom.

CD: Caribou - Suddenly

The Canadian psyche-pop genre fuser further hones his craft

Around the turn of the millennium, when Dan Snaith started releasing music – initially as Manitoba, then Caribou, and latterly also Daphni – he tended to get lumped in with the folktronica movement. In fact, the closest he came to actual folk was a heavy influence from the more delicate side of late 60s psychedelia.