On her latest effort, Villain Era, India Ramey digs deep into the past for influences and lands on an inspired mix of Wanda Jackson and Johnny Cash. To be fair, you’d be hard-pressed to find a cooler mix than the Queen of Rockabilly and the Man in Black for inspiration.
The album opener, “We Ride at Dawn,” starts things off strong with a clarion call for women to take action and is a song cloaked in a story about seeking revenge on bandits who came to town. Between the lines, however, it’s a song about women justifiably enraged and seeking revenge against men who strip them of their bodily autonomy. And it segues perfectly into the title track, with Ramey embracing her “villain era,” and opting out of being the perpetual…
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Telecaster twang-master Bill Kirchen’s life template was stamped early when as a key member in the original Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen outfit. For nearly a decade starting in 1967, Kirchen, Cody and an expansive, wildly talented lineup brought deep country, rockabilly, Western swing, and trucking songs, along with retro rock and roll to the young masses who might never have experienced this frantic music live. An early titled Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers Favorites, describes their sound with typically wry humor.
The San Francisco-based group opened for many huge acts of the day including the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead, exposing their audiences to good time, bar band, retro-spirited rocking. “Hot Rod Lincoln,” their…
Just over a year after The Alarm’s Mike Peters lost his three-decade-long battle with cancer, his final album was released, and judging from the dozen songs on Transformation, he didn’t go quietly.
Far from being a somber affair, the songs off this last effort are loud, defiant, and anything but a man quietly settling into his fate. They started recording the album in the fall of 2024, pausing briefly for several treatments for his aggressive form of lymphoma. It was completed on January 15, 2025, the night before he began a new form of cell therapy that was meant to save his life.
You can hear both uncertainty and his determination to survive woven throughout the record. The optimism is obvious from the opening track, “New Life,” where he sings…
In a rather alarming development, electronic duo Digitalism – Hamburg-based Jens Moelle and İsmail Tüfekçi – are into their third decade as a musical concern. How did that happen?!
For clues, look no further than Optimism, their first album of the 2020s. In news that will come as no surprise, it delivers exactly what the title promises. On one hand it harks back to the mid-2000s, when we were saturated with the filtered electro / rock hybrid that labels like Kitsuné threw at us like an invigorating drink. Standout Digitalism tracks of the time were ‘Pogo’, ‘Zdarlight’ and ‘2 Hearts’ – and now they can be joined by the likes of ‘Starburst’, which still offer these highs as Digitalism bring the party to yours. The assertion is that although our world and quality of life might not…
For music fans of a certain vintage, the name Hue and Cry will immediately send them back to the late 1980s. Pat Kane and his brother Gregory seemed to be the epitome of the sharp-suited, smooth pop-jazz-soul that was so popular back in those days. Yet there was more to them than a snazzy image – their biggest hit ‘Looking for Linda’ sounded like a swooning ballad but was actually about domestic abuse, while their signature track, ‘Labour of Love’, was an infectious, politically-charged critique of capitalism.
Although the brothers haven’t particularly troubled the charts since 1991’s Stars Crash Down album, they’ve very much remained a going concern, releasing a number of albums since they reformed after an appearance on ITV’s…
Filtering one of Borges’ short stories through the theory that our world is just a computer simulation, JJ Weihl uses ambient synthscapes to frame head-spinning ideas about knowledge and chaos.
“You who read me-are you certain you understand my language?” asks the narrator of Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel.” The Argentine writer’s short story, first published in 1941, imagines an infinite archive of books in which the alphabet has been configured into every possible combination, resulting in a limitless array of texts meaning everything and nothing. In creating Library Copy Do Not Remove, her third solo album as Discovery Zone, JJ Weihl connected Borges’s logical puzzle to the simulation hypothesis, the popular theory that, since at some point…
The soulful Philly jazz spirit resonates through all of the Visitors’ fourth and final album, 1976’s Motherland. Led by brothers Earl Grubbs (soprano and tenor saxophone) and Carl Grubbs (alto saxophone), the Visitors emerged in their native Philadelphia in the late ’60s, drawing inspiration from John Coltrane, whom they met while he was married to their cousin Juanita “Naima” Grubbs. Signed to Muse, they released four albums that showcased their vibrant saxophone interplay and featured other luminaries, including at various times, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, Albert “Tootie” Heath, and Stanley Clarke. Produced by Michael Cuscuna, Motherland finds them leading a group with pianist Joe Bonner, bassist John Lee, and drummer Victor Lewis.
Some have described Gypsy Blue Revue as a gypsy jazz record. Don’t be fooled; although one track nods to Django Reinhardt, there is a potpourri of blues and other genres here as well. JP Soars is among the very best and most versatile blues guitarists. Violinist Anne Harris should be familiar through her decade-long stint with Otis Taylor. Both Soars and Harris are songwriters and vocalists, making this an ideal pairing. Their partnership began in 2019 after they crossed paths on the festival circuit and joined forces at the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas. Their sound is a mix of Southern soul, roadhouse blues, Latin grooves, country, folk music, and, as displayed here, hints of gypsy jazz.
As Soars explains, “This is a music lover’s record.
Since releasing 1994’s Ofrenda, singer/songwriter Lila Downs has been making records. That said, Cambias mi Mundo, her first since 2023’s La Sanchez, is also her very first consisting of all-original compositions. Her last offering was made during difficult times as husband and musical partner Paul Cohen’s long illness ended in death. This album, however, reflects new possibilities including romance. She co-wrote and recorded with a number of close companions and enlisted Alex Cuba as co-producer. The stunning album cover was created by Zapotec artist Alex José, who used the tarot card “the world” as an inspiration.
The set’s title track is also its opener and first single with bilingual rapper and guest collaborator Snow Tha Product. “Cambias mi Mundo”…
Leeroy Stagger, born and raised in rural Vancouver Island before moving to southern Alberta, is a prolific artist. Pilgrimage is his thirteenth studio album, having started with Beautiful South in 2005. It is a departure from his previous work, which could be broadly described as electric guitar-based pop, although, of course, this doesn’t fully do it justice. Many of his earlier songs feature Beatles-style melodies, but slide and steel guitar are also heard at times, and there is enough of a twang to firmly place it in the americana camp. However, Stagger’s first bands played punk, with him citing The Clash as an influence, and you also hear rough-edged rock’n’roll on some tracks.
2024’s 3 AM Revelations reminds you strongly of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Stagger…
The onetime solo project of Columbus, Ohio singer/songwriter Mark Allen Scott, villagerrr officially became a band with the project’s fifth album, 2024’s Tear Your Heart Out. That record’s five-piece lineup — which includes three guitarists — allowed Scott to expand villagerrr’s reflective mix of ambling alternative country-rock and atmospheric shoegaze into something at once more open and organic and more texturally layered. The album landed the group on Winspear (Slow Pulp, Wishy, Barrie), which reissued Tear Your Heart Out before presenting villagerrr’s proper debut for the label. The subsequent long-player Carousel is an even more collaborative record, whose development involved Scott sharing newly penned songs with some of his musician friends,…
Fall of 2023, Andy Hull & Robert McDowell took up residency at Union Chapel in London for 3 nights of unprecedented, intimate duo performances spanning the history of Manchester Orchestra. Andy’s voice paired with Robert’s meticulously plucked strings, eerie instrumentation, & understated harmonizing echoed against the gothic walls & stained glass windows of the chapel. A liturgical experience of introspection & sound community, transforming their most beloved songs into an iconic piece of music.
Recorded live during the band’s sold-out three night residency at London’s historic Union Chapel during the fall of 2023, the sweeping 21-track collection is a raw, vocally-centered liturgical experience of introspection…
There’s no doubt that London during the mid-’60s was one of the swingingest, downright hippest eras in the history of the world. From the fit of the clothes to the look of films, the nifty turns of phrase to the sound of the dazzling records being made, there’s a wealth of brilliance to discover. Numerous compilations have done their best to bring the era to life and this is easily one of the best. What’s It All About? Film & TV Music from Swinging London does what it says on the package and does it with the prerequisite style. It jumbles together TV and movie themes, songs from films, tracks by top bands and underground faves that appeared on both, and the occasional ringer to give a clear picture of just how much fun everyone was having.
Producer and composer Hannah Peel first worked with percussionist Beibei Wang on Manchester Collective’s 2023 album Neon, which included compositions by Peel as well as Lyra Pramuk and Steve Reich. The two artists then performed a fully improvised concert together as part of Peel’s artist residency in London. Afterwards, they spent five days improvising and recording at Real World Studios. The result is The Endless Dance, a playful, exploratory record inspired by the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism. The music takes several forms, from atmospheric soundscapes to galloping techno workouts. Wang’s spirited percussion and guest musician Hyelim Kim’s colorful playing of the daegeum (a large bamboo flute from Korea) bridge Asian traditions and contemporary…
Featuring 67 tracks, the release brings together early demos, songwriting diaries, rough mixes and vocal rehearsals from the album’s recording sessions, offering a complete behind-the-scenes look at Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons’ creative process during the album’s recording sessions.
Pyramid (Sessions) is an extraordinary, deep-dive sonic excavation into one of progressive rock’s most atmospheric concept albums. While the original 1978 release was a pristine masterpiece of production, the Sessions material strips away the final gloss to reveal the raw, brilliant architectural bones of the music. It features fascinating studio outtakes, early rough mixes, instrumental backing tracks, and Eric Woolfson’s intimate songwriting diaries recorded on solo piano.
Back in 2024, La Grande Accumulation, the acclaimed first collaboration between Turkish sound artist and photographer Anadol (Gözen Atila) and French composer, musician and singer Marie Klock was compared with everything from folk to French chansons and even Krautrock, but what everyone agreed on was its eccentricity. On Manivelles that eccentricity persists, but the album feels less of a complete statement and more like a bunch of oddities and fragments, a collection of pebbles gathered on the seashore for their strange and evocative shapes. That difference might be ascribed to the very different ways the two albums came together. La Grande Accumulation was the fruition of a thrilling first encounter, an unexpected meeting of minds and talents.
…includes 20 previously unreleased tracks.
Allen Toussaint experienced a late-career revival sparked, ironically enough, by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He had to leave his hometown New Orleans after the hurricane, relocating to New York City where he started to play regular gigs at Joe’s Pub and, soon enough, he cut The River in Reverse with Elvis Costello. That 2006 album propelled Toussaint toward a greater audience, leading to more headlining concerts, two of which are chronicled on Rounder’s 2013 release Songbook. Recorded in 2009 at Joe’s Pub, Songbook features nothing more than Toussaint alone at a piano running through songs he’s written over the decades. He sprinkles in a New Orleans standard here and there — there’s…
Headphone Dust is pleased to present a new edition of Hawkwind’s landmark 1975 album Warrior on the Edge of Time, featuring new 2026 Steven Wilson mixes created from the original multi-track master tapes. This release includes new 2026 stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos mixes, alongside an exclusive binaural Headphone Dust mix optimised for headphone listening. Please note that Spiral Galaxy 28948 (track 7) and Kings of Speed (track 10) exist without complete multitrack recordings; the 5.1 and Atmos presentations of these tracks are upmixes rather than discrete mixes from original source material.
Also included are a selection of 2026 remasters of some of the bonus tracks originally presented on the Atomhenge expanded edition.
On its own, much of the music on Be Sweet to Me absolutely rips, a satisfying hit of ’90s-coded nostalgia for listeners missing their days from that decade or, in the case of Violet Grohl herself, for those who weren’t even alive to experience it in real time. With a wide range of influences, honed in part by her father, she cited the Breeders and PJ Harvey as touchstones for the project. One could also add Pixies, Cocteau Twins, L7, Soundgarden, and, of course, Nirvana and Hole to that mix. So as a document of personal influences and artistic inspiration, this debut does its job well, delivering a blissfully tight attack that mimics those peak alternative sounds so well that Be Sweet to Me‘s higher calling might be to serve as an entry point for younger generations to discover…
L.A. band Dogstar (guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose, drummer Robert Mailhouse and bassist Keanu Reeves) return with their fourth album All In Now, produced by Nick Launay (IDLES, Amyl And The Sniffers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds).
“The album really sets up the energy at the heart of this album and the fun that we’ve always had playing together,” Mailhouse shares. “We couldn’t fucking wait,” Reeves says about Dogstar’s collective desire to get right back to the studio. “Personally, I loved it all. For me, the attitude was like, ‘let’s work hard and let’s GO.’ ” “It felt like our last album was our ticket into a party,” says Bret Domrose. “And now we’ve shown up to the party – the three of us.”