Paper Chase
Young Bodies Heal Quickly You Know
Uneasy, abrasive, but spectacular debut offering from the much acclaimed Paper Chase, released originally in 2000, but now available in Europe for the first time
Pastel Vespa
L'anarchie
Camp cover versions of hits by the likes of the Sex Pistols, Thin Lizzy, Chumbawamba, and Alanis Morrissette all done in sunny pop style by girl chanteuse, Pastel Vespa
Suicide
American Supreme
Unnerving first album in ten years from New York's pioneers of electro punk, Suicide
Xinlisupreme
Murder License
Vicious, violent electronica on new mini album from Ohia group signed to the Fat Cat label
Dalek
From Filthy Tongues
"Hip hop from the edge" from Dalek, who initially "cut their teeth on collaborations with the likes of Techno Animal and Kid606
Coph Nia
Holy War
Oddly "pretty" new EP from Sweden's latest Death Metal export
Fiver
Here It Comes
"Wired" slow-burning guitar pop from American sextet, Fiver, which has been produced by Jason Lytle from Grandaddy
Faust
Freispiel
"Shiny" and "new", but not totally convincing remixing of legendary Kraut rockers Faust's last album 'Ravvivando' by electronica boffins including Surgeon, Gel and the Residents
Cerberus Shoal
Mr Boy Dog
Decidely scary "Eastern European Yiddish folk jazz" on two discs on the Temporary Residence label
Printed Circuit
Reprints
"Skilled", but unfortunately poorly recorded album of bedroom electronica remixes from London based solo artist
Abaddon Incarnate
Nadir
Unpleasant Black Metal from tasteless Swedish group
90 Degrees South
Plans For Travel
"Gorgeous bedroom electronica" in incredible packaging and with an emphasis on travel and escape from acclaimed Cheltenham-based post-rock group, 90 Degrees South
Big Eyes
Love Is Going Mad
Dark third album by Leeds/Sheffield ensemble who sound like "an Eastern European Dirty Three"
Salvatore
Fresh
Third album from increasingly respected "spacey instrumental drone rock" Norwegian group Salvatore, whose next album will be produced by John McEntire from Tortoise
Scarve
Luminferous
Silly, but entertaining second album from French Death metal band, Scarve
Fuxa
The Modified Mechanics Of This
Patchy offfering from Detroit spacerock group, Fuxa, which features appearances on some tarcks by ex Spacemen 3 member, Sonic Boom
Necks
Hanging Gardens
"Slightly creepy, very Australian, melange of underwater atmospherics and brain-scrambling time signatures" from Sydney based trio.
Cornelius
Point
Contradictory and colourful new album from increasingly acclaimed Japanese solo artist who sounds like he is catching "the first and fastest bullet train out of neo-Tokyo."
Bugs Eat Books
At Sixes and Sevens
New EP of "gorgeous pop songs with jagged edges" from "unassuming" group from Athens, Georgia
Sybarite
Placement Issues
"Fairly pointless muso meanderings into TV soundtrack territory" from Xian Hawkin aka Sybarite who has since its recording signed to the 4AD label.
Carpet Musics
Weekday
Minimal and experimental "semi-organic sprawl" from the perfectly named Carpet Music.
Techno Animal
The Brotherhood Of The Bomb
Impressive second offering from paranoiac, but powerful hip-hop metal act.
Portrait Of David
These Days Are Hard
Debut album from Norwegian act whose "music is so ‘still’ we can practically hear it crystallizing" and who have created "a serene if somewhat unsettling musical landscape."
Lush
Ciao! - The Best of Lush
The band that Britpop forgot. It’s taken nearly five years for 4AD to drive the accustomed ‘best of’ tombstone into the grave of Lush. Conceived amidst the late eighties confusion (somewhere between J
Pixies
The Complete B Sides
Despite the lure and intrigue of collections such as this to throw light on previously obscured quirks of character, hidden insights and missing connections enlightening the listener to The Genius Pro
Luna
Luna Live
Luna Live. Luna: Live. Never let it be said Dean Wareham and his post-Galaxie 500 cohorts are guilty of false advertising. This is definitely Luna, definitely live. At least we gather that’s what the
Whistler
Happiness
The two worst records ever made: Angelica – ‘Teenage Girl Crush’, Whistler – ‘If I Give You A Smile’. Not necessarily in that order. Whistler are the band that Black Box Recorder were put on this Eart
Brassy
Got It Made
After a string of self-detonating low key singles somewhere at the back end of Britpop’s fallout years not only are Brassy back, but they’ve bolstered up on every conceivable power-up-Jet pac, rocket
Leila
Courtesy Of Choice
Occassional Bjork collaborator and Aphex Twin protégé follows the acclaimed (and aptly-titled) ‘Like Weather’ with the album Thom Yorke was too hung up to write.
Pulp
We Love Life
At various points titled ‘Pulp Love Life’, ‘Pulp Heart Life’ and the more sober, resigned ‘Pulp’, Jarvis Cocker and co. finally opted for the declarative, optimistic 'We Love Life' tag on their latest
Tuesday Weld
When Cupid Meets Psyche
A big soppy cuddle of a record. A big kissy hug with sloppy tongues and rubbing noses and eskimo kisses of a record.
Tuesday Weld is a particularly randy mare on the Dreamy records stud farm. 'When
Avalanches
Since I Left You
It starts like this; a snap of the fingers, a spotlight picking out the silhouette of a lone figure on the dancefloor of an abandoned discotheque and from out of nowhere ‘Since I Left You’ crashes in
Tindersticks
Can Our Love
You’d think the flirtations with tasty faux-soul on 1999’s ‘Simple Pleasures’ would have lent Tindersticks some of the resilience of ‘What’s Going On?’ or ‘Let’s Stay Together’. But as their fifth LP
Gypsophile
De Loin, Les Choses
To start, I should point out that I’ve never been to France. Indeed, I’ve never even left the country, and beyond "Je te voudrais dans mon lit" and the few snippets I’ve gleaned from Tots TV, I certa
Various
The Stations of Abandoned Days
Of course, for this kind of thing you really need to be listening to a series of 7” singles, played in the bedroom of an untidy basement flat on an old dansette, whilst staring wistfully at the ankles
Various
Zann
“He was trying to make a noise; to ward something off or drown something out; what, I could not imagine…”
So wrote H.P. Lovecraft in The Music of Erich Zann, the work from which the concept for th