Album: 137 - Strangeness Oscillations

★★★★ 137 - STRANGENESS OSCILLATIONS Brilliant collective impro from a jazz supergroup

Brilliant collective impro from a British jazz supergroup

Something of a jazz supergroup this one: with drum virtuoso, the ubiquitous Seb Rochford, Jim Bar of Get the Blessing, Adrian Utley – formerly of Portishead, a prolific collaborator and producer, but with a heart rooted in jazz, and sax and flute-player Larry Stabbins, among other credits a  co-founder of Working Week, recently returned from 10 years’ sailing around the world.

Album: The Very Things GXL - Mr Arc-Eye (Under a Cellophane Sky)

★★★★ THE VERY THINGS GXL MR ARC-EYE (UNDER A CELLOPHANE SKY) Dadaist post punks resurrected after a long break

Dadaist post punks resurrected after a long break

Back in the mid-80s, a group of lads from Worcestershire, who’d previously been known as the Cravats, were putting an exceedingly strange spin on the post-punk sounds of the time.

“The Bushes Scream While My Daddy Prunes” and “Mummy You’re a Wreck” may not have earned the Very Things great riches, but they certainly created more than a few ripples among the listeners of John Peel’s radio show and further afield – even encouraging Channel 4 to commission a very peculiar film for The Tube.

Album: Kevin Fowley - À Feu Doux

★★★★ KEVIN FOWLEY - A FEU DOUX Stunning reinterpretation of French nursery rhymes

Ireland-based polyglot's stunning reinterpretation of French nursery rhymes

“Ne pleure pas, Jeannette” is a version of the 15th-century French song "La pernette se lève." It tells the story of Jeannette, whose parents want her to marry into the gentry or royalty. She, however, is in love with Pierre. He is in prison. She vows to be hanged at the same time he is. In France, “Ne pleure pas, Jeannette” is a nursery rhyme. Versions have been recorded by Les Compagnons De La Chanson and French children’s TV favourite Dorothée.

Album: Deep Purple - =1

★★★ DEEP PURPLE =1 Good-humoured chunky set of feisty rockin' from the old war-horses

Good-humoured chunky set of feisty rockin' from the old war-horses

Ever since their 2013 album Now What?! hard rock veterans Deep Purple have been on a roll, both creatively and commercially. They’ve seemed a revitalised force. An album of covers aside, their output since has also sold/streamed multitudes. Not bad for a unit that’s been going for 56 years, with a stable line-up for well over 30. Their latest album is more enjoyable and feistier than cynics might imagine. It’s business as usual, of course, but Deep Purple wear their heritage with aplomb.

Album: Slowly Moving Camera - Silver Shadow

Trip-hop jazz trio release a sonic cinematic spirit

With a title track that sounds like the theme tune of the best TV series of your life – only it doesn’t exist yet – and some star guest jazz players joining the core trio of Dave Stapleton, Deri Roberts, and Elliot Bennett, Slowly Rolling Camera mark their 10th year with a luxuriously immersive sixth studio release on Edition Records.

Album: Lava La Rue - Starface

Cosmic pop star harks back to a time when eclecticism came easily

Two of the biggest trends in 21st century pop culture today have been “poptimism” – broadly, the idea that pop as such is as serious and worthy of analysis as any other artform – and a kind of everything-everywhere-all-at-once telescoping of past influences into a grab bag of total availability. The former tendency has rather clotted into received wisdom (fuelled by click addiction) that bigger is better and Taylor Swift therefore deserves more critical attention than anyone else.

Album: Orange Goblin - Science Not Fiction

★★★★ ORANGE GOBLIN - SCIENCE NOT FICTION Biker rock from London’s metal veterans

Spirited biker rock from London’s metal veterans

Orange Goblin have been flying the flag for exuberant biker rock for the best part of a generation. Yet, somewhat incredibly, their latest and 10th album, Science Not Fiction may come to be viewed as a career high for these hard rock lifers.

Album: Catherine Russell and Sean Mason - My Ideal

★★★★ CATHERINE RUSSELL AND SEAN MASON - MY IDEAL New life for old songs

New life for old songs from superb singer and pianist

Voice and piano. The combination can have a simplicity, a conversational freedom, a rightness about it, as it does here. “My Ideal” (Dot Time), with its eleven songs from the early days of jazz up to the 1950s, is already being placed alongside classic duo albums by Ella Fitzgerald with Ellis Larkins, or the great pairing of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, and it is indeed a very fine and uplifting album.