Album: Helado Negro - PHASOR

★★★★ HELADO NEGRO - PHASOR Pastoral dreaminess from the alt-pop journeyman

Pastoral dreaminess from the alt-pop journeyman

Floridian-born, longtime Brooklyn resident, now Asheville, North Carolina based Roberto Carlos Lange doesn’t rush things, but he gets them done. This is his ninth album in 15 years, during which time he’s built a substantial body of audiovisual / computer art / installation work too. And as with all this creative endeavour, it’s not showy, it doesn’t demand your attention, but it spreads out its ideas and emotions very much at its own pace.

Album: The Telescopes - Growing Eyes Become String

★★★ THE TELESCOPES - GROWING EYES BECOME STRING Stephen Lawrie’s space cadets resurrect a long-lost album from a decade ago

Stephen Lawrie’s space cadets resurrect a long-lost album from a decade ago

Back in 2013, fuzz-heavy space cadets the Telescopes headed off to Berlin and then back to Leeds to record an album of intoxicating tunes that were written as they were recorded while relying on “the heightened instinct of being entirely in the now”. However, things came to a grinding halt due to a crashed hard-drive and the project was unfortunately abandoned.

Album: J Mascis - What Do We Do Now

Tapping into the endless elemental flow of an alt-rock mainstay

It seems like time flows differently for J Mascis. He’s now not far off 60, it’s 40 years since he founded Dinosaur Jr, and he’s been involved in untold musical project from the most rarefied of abstract psychedelia to guesting with Lemonheads and Nirvana, but within his own core output he is tapped into exactly the same wellspring as he was all those years ago.

Album: Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free

Dreamy, low key agit prop from the enduringly exploratory Super Furry Animal

Halfway through this album, “They Sold My Home to Build a Skyscraper” unlocks it. On first listen I’d been nodding along with the first few songs, enjoying how they find glimmers of more or less forlorn hope in amongst sadness and middle-aged domestic stress.

Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - Space Ritual

HAWKWIND - SPACE RITUAL 50th-anniversary box set makes the great live album even greater

Fiftieth-anniversary box set makes the great live album even more great

As Britain headed towards the end of 1972, pop fans had fair cause to scratch their heads about a single which first charted in July. In mid-August, Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine” peaked at number three behind Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs skiffle-esque “Seaside Shuffle” and, in the top spot, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” Donny Osmond’s oleaginous “Puppy Love” was number four. At 11, David Bowie’s “Starman.”

Music Reissues Weekly: High Tide - The Complete Liberty Recordings

HIGH TIDE - THE COMPLETE LIBERTY RECORDINGS Heavy, dark and relentless

Heavy, dark and relentless music from the London underground of 1969 and 1970

High Tide were one of many late Sixties and early Seventies British bands unearthed in the early Eighties by record collectors digging into what came after psychedelia. The bands didn’t have similar musical styles but were united by their obscurity and having sold barely any copies of their albums. All were largely forgotten until their rediscovery. Ben, Gracious!, Pussy, Red Dirt, T2, more. Who were these bands? Who were High Tide?

Album: Lucidvox - That's What Remained

Russian quartet’s instantly captivating second album

That's What Remained is the aural equivalent of being pulled into a maelstrom and then surrendering to this powerful natural force. Initially, it does not seem safe. But it soon becomes apparent that submission isn’t a problem. It will be fine. Emerging from this experience is accompanied by a shakiness. But that’s OK too.

Music Reissues Weekly: When the Alarm Clock Rings - A Compendium of British Psychedelia 1966-1969

WHEN THE ALARM CLOCK RINGS A Compendium of British Psychedelia 1966-1969

Fine double-album entry point into the world of fiendish noises and freak-outs

“How psychedelic is your pop? This is the demanding question posed to many groups today, struggling for acceptance. It's no longer any good to say: ‘Well, mate, we can play Wilson Pickett, James Brown and all that gear,’ to anybody contemplating booking a band. One has to explain whether one is likely to set fire to the auditorium, or batter the audience’s senses with flame, light and fiendish noises.”

Young Fathers, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - powerful set from a band who keep pushing boundaries

★★★★★ YOUNG FATHERS, USHER HALL Powerful set from a band who keep pushing boundaries

Electric energy from one of the UK's most exciting current bands

Fresh from winning this year’s Scottish Album of the Year Award – for the third time no less! – Young Fathers gave a spectacular performance on Tuesday night on their home turf, at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall. Sure, it seems odd that a competition that’s only been running ten years has been won three times by a band who’ve released four albums.