Music Reissues Weekly: The Mirage - The World Goes On Around You

THE MIRAGE - THE WORLD GOES ON AROUND YOU Exhaustive excavation into Hertfordshire’s ill-served Sixties psychedelic pop band

Exhaustive excavation into Hertfordshire’s ill-served Sixties psychedelic pop band

Each new Beatles album offered a chance for other acts to record their own versions of songs which didn’t make it onto singles. What was on the long-player could pick up attention if it was covered. Revolver was no exception. Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers’s version of “Got to Get You Into my Life” was in the charts the August 1966 week Revolver was issued.

Music Reissues Weekly: Goin' Round In My Mind - The Merrell Fankhauser Anthology

GOIN' ROUND IN MY MIND - THE MERRELL FANHAUSER ANTHOLOGY Tenacious US cult hero

Persuasive box set dedicated to the tenacious US cult hero

Merrell Fankhauser's first outing on record was with Californian instrumental surf band The Impacts, who issued their sole album in 1963. Thereafter, he was the prime mover in an unbroken succession of pop, psychedelic and freak-rock bands. His first solo album arrived in 1976.

Native Rebel showcase, EartH review - jazz community, psychedelia and iffy acoustics

★★★★ NATIVE REBEL SHOWCASE, EARTH Jazz community, psychedelia and iffy acoustics

Shabaka Hutchings's label demonstrates its extraordinary range and fantastic immediacy

Quite how Shabaka Hutchings manages to be Shabaka Hutchings is one of the great mysteries of modern culture, and one that could probably teach us all a lot of value to society if we ever worked it out. From the devastating energy of The Comet Is Coming and Sons Of Kemet to the gentlest of shakuhachi experiments posted near daily on his social media, he consistently pushes the boundaries of style and genre. He’s played with everyone from Courtney Pine to the Sun Ra Arkestra, Mulatu Astatke to the Ligeti String Quartet, and he’s still only in his thirties.

Album: Craig Fortnam - Luna One - A-Sides - Full Moon Releases October 2021 - September 2022

★★★★★ CRAIG FORTNAM - LUNA ONE Extraordinary outpouring of chamber psyche-pop

An extraordinary outpouring from a wellspring of chamber psyche-pop

There can be few currently operating musicians who have a sound as distinctive as Craig Fortnam’s. Whether solo or with his erstwhile band The North Sea Radio Orchestra, his writing has a kind of zig-zagging melody that’s part Robert Wyatt, part early Kate Bush, part medieval, part super modern, but all Fortnam.

The Bevis Frond, The Lexington review - stunning psychedelic rock

★★★★★ THE BEVIS FROND, THE LEXINGTON Musical landmark with Nick Saloman & his team 

A landmark musical event with Nick Saloman and his trusted team

Very little points to anything specific. Parts of “Superseded” nod towards the 1968 Pretty Things’s track “Eagle’s Son”. Elsewhere in the set, a circular bass guitar figure is reminiscent of a motif from Spirit’s “1984”. But for a band so explicitly looking to rock’s psychedelic lineage, the influences are effortlessly subsumed into the whole to become mostly invisible foundations rather than noticeable elements of the superstructure.

Oslo World review - a dizzying selection of high-tech, grassroots global brilliance

★★★★★ OSLO WORLD A dizzying selection of high-tech, grassroots global brilliance

A microcosm of a weird, wired world in the clubs, bars and churches of Norway

The Oslo World organisers are at pains to point out that, despite the name, they are not a “world music” festival. And with good reason, really. There may have been a few familiar WOMAD veterans headlining over the week-long event – Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour, Malie's Fatoumata Diawara, the queen of Cuba Omara Portuondo – but the emphasis was emphatically not on any kind of beads-and-bongoes authenticity.

Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - Revolver

THE BEATLES - REVOLVER Perception-shifting box set of the Fabs' momentous 1966 album

Perception-shifting box set of the Fabs' momentous 1966 album

John Lennon does not appear on “Love You Too” and “For No One”. With “Taxman”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Here, There and Everywhere”, “Good Day Sunshine” and “I Want to Tell You”, his contributions are limited to backing vocals and, on odd occasions, some percussion too. He appears semi-detached from seven of Revolver’s 14 tracks.

Music Reissues Weekly: Living Daylights - Let's Live For Today

Essex psychedelic pop band’s album emerges after 55 years on the shelf

In the third week of April 1967, Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid” topped the UK’s single’s chart. Sandie Shaw’s “Puppet on a String” was number two, and The Monkees’ “A Little Bit me a Little Bit You” snapped at her heels. Englebert Humperdinck’s recent number one “Release me” was at number five. All very pop, very mainstream.

Album: Broken Bells - Into the Blue

BROKEN BELLS - INTO THE BLUE Danger Mouse & The Shins' James Mercer plunder past

Danger Mouse and The Shins' James Mercer plunder the past with panache

Not content with having released one of the best hip-hop albums in recent memory (Cheat Codes, alongside Black Thought), producer Brian Burton has rekindled his partnership with The Shins’ James Mercer for the first Broken Bells album in almost a decade.

Into the Blue is described as “an ode to the pair’s shared musical influences”, a phrase that can, let’s be honest, raise eyebrows and alarm bells. However, far from being a lengthy synonym for painful pastiche, the pair manage to plunder the past with remarkable panache.