Album: AJ Lee & Blue Summit - City of Glass

★★★ AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT - CITY OF GLASS Bluegrass-Americana from California

Tight, light, airy and persuasive bluegrass-Americana from California

In the world of popular music, tangential connections to success are profile-raising. They offer an immediate connection to an artist. It is beholden on me, then, despite not knowing it when I first enjoyed this album, to mention that rising Grammy Award-winning Americana star Molly Tuttle appears. She is guitarist-vocalist Sullivan Tuttle’s sister.

Blu-ray: Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta)

★★★★★ BLU-RAY: MERRY-GO-ROUND Iconic, multi-layered Hungarian love story returns

Iconic, multi-layered Hungarian love story returns

There’s a lot to unpick in Zoltán Fabri’s 1956 film Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta). Take leading man Imre Soós’s disarming resemblance to a young Peter O’Toole, and a central love story which plays out like a Hungarian take on Romeo and Juliet with some post-war agrarian politics thrown in for good measure.

Album: Joe Goddard - Harmonics

★★★ JOE GODDARD - HARMONICS The Hot Chip mainstay serves up a feast - but are there too many cuisines at once?

The Hot Chip mainstay serves up a feast - but are there too many cuisines at once?

Joe Goddard’s torrent of creativity rarely fails to amaze. As well as eight albums as a crucial part of Hot Chip, he has made two in the 2 Bears duo with Raf Rundell, one as Hard Feelings with Amy Douglas, and there’s been various other collaborations besides (A Pulse Train, Extra Credit, Greco-Roman Soundsystem, Lightbox Of Magic Unknowledge), not to mention dozens of remixes and a none too shabby DJ career too.

Album: Kiiōtō - As Dust we Rise

★ KIIOTO - AS DUST WE RISE Jazz-tinged union of the former lynchpins of Lamb and Urban Cookie Collective

Jazz-tinged union of the former lynchpins of Lamb and Urban Cookie Collective

As Dust we Rise ends with “Quilt,” a percussion-driven lamentation bringing to mind the New Orleans stylings of Dr. John. The album begins with “Hem,” where stabbing piano and strings interweave with a pulsing, wordless chorale. After a while, a muted trumpet and pattering wood blocks fill it out.

Album: Kokoko! - Butu

★★★★ KOKOKO! - BUTU Music to raise the spirits of the forest

Music to raise the spirits of the forest

Kokoko! hail from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formely Zaire), and specifically from Kinshasa, a source over the years of a great deal of irresistible dance music. On their second album, more electronic than the last (Fongola -2019), traces of bouncing soukous music, mixed with the old-style house delights of Milwaukee-based DJ and producer Thomas Xavier, make for a heady brew.

Album: Kasabian - Happenings

★★ KASABIAN - HAPPENINGS Eighth album from Leicester electro-rockers lacks heft

Eighth album from Leicester electro-rockers lacks heft

Great bands’ output can, famously, be predicated by the intense interaction between members, often between a central creative pairing. This can be a harmonious mutuality but, more often, music is built from tension, from difference, from the frisson between two individuals.

DVD/Blu-Ray: Back to Black

★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: BACK TO BLACK Sam Taylor-Johnson's enjoyable but soft-focused take on the Amy Winehouse story

Sam Taylor-Johnson's enjoyable but soft-focused take on the Amy Winehouse story

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic Back to Black, written by Matt Greenhalgh and starring Marisa Abela (Industry) as Amy Winehouse, has been criticised for its soft-focused approach.

And its sympathetic portrayals of Blake Fielder-Civil (a punchy Jack O’Connell) and Amy’s dad Mitch (Eddie Marsan) are very different from those in Asif Kapadia’s damning 2015 documentary Amy. The possibility of the famously protective Mitch having any editorial control is denied by Taylor-Johnson, but one wonders.

Album: Jeff Mills - The Eyewitness

40+ albums in and the Detroit luminary is still creating bamboozling mesmerism

Jeff Mills has always been a musical sophisticate. Even in the early 90s when he was best known for derangedly pummelling techno DJ sets in the most insalubrious of sweat-pits, and even though his minimalist production style back then was used as a blueprint by the most mindless of producers, the artistry to what he did was always mind-boggling.