Londoner Dave Burn is best known as co-founder of americana “supergroup” Orphan Colours and Ahab, but when solo, his creativity really shines. As the title of his second solo album indicates, he is not completely alone; he has brought a few musician friends along. The rest of the title contains not just his nickname but an altogether more serious notion. Some time ago, Burn found himself working with two other Daves, one bigger and one smaller, but the sense of being in the middle occurred to him in another context. Seeing how just about anything these days is so polarised at two extremes, Burn thought, what about just being somewhere in the middle ground? He posits that wisdom gained with age often takes the edge off previously held views that…
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1. Big Thief – No Fear
2. Patterson Hood – The Van Pelt Parties
3. Edwyn Collins – Knowledge
4. Pulp – Farmers Market
5. Robert Plant – As I Roved Out (feat. Suzi Dian)
6. Stereolab – Melodie Is a Wound
7. Baxter Dury – Allbarone
8. Suede – June Rain
9. Horsegirl – Rock City
10. Annie & The Caldwells – Wrong
11. Jeff Tweedy – Out in the Dark
12. Perfume Genius – It’s a Mirror
13. Bon Iver – Day One
14. William Tyler – Concern
15. Margo Price – Love Me Like You Used to Do (feat. Tyler Childers)
As we’ve come to expect from Ace’s much-admired series of Jon Savage-curated two-CD collections, this new – and sadly final – volume is a multi-genre delight, taking the listener from house to baggy via post-punk, proto-grunge, minimalist avant-garde, the advent of sampling and more.
Among the many highlights are ‘Mystery of Love’ by Mr Fingers, a track that turned Savage’s head during a trip to New York in early 1986; Hüsker Dü’s ‘Could You Be the One?’ from 1987, a perfect example of their melodic abilities; the action-packed ‘It Takes Two’ by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, which could be heard blasting out of boomboxes all over New York in spring 1988; Paul Oakenfold’s 1989 remix of Happy Mondays’ ‘Wrote for Luck’ into the early baggy classic…
Karl Bartos, renowned as an essential member and songwriter of Kraftwerk during their most innovative years, is reissuing his solo album Communication on Hamburg’s Bureau B. First released in 2003, 13 years after leaving the legendary electronic group, the re-release arrives at a moment when its central theme, the transformation of culture through electronic media, feels more relevant than ever.
When Bartos departed Kraftwerk in 1990, he left behind a catalogue that had redefined electronic music: “The Model”, “The Robots”, “Numbers”, “Pocket Calculator” and many more bear his imprint as co-writer and melody-maker. 2021 Kraftwerk’s classic line-up was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for their innovative work…
After more than a decade away from European stages, legendary Australian rock outfit The New Christs are finally returning. To celebrate this long-awaited comeback, Wild Honey Records and FOLC present The Burning of Rome: Selected Works, a career-spanning double vinyl compilation personally curated by frontman Rob Younger.
Rob Younger, best known as the voice of Radio Birdman and a defining figure of the Australian underground, formed The New Christs in the early 1980s as an outlet for his darker, more intense musical visions. Over the years, the band has become an essential part of the global rock’n’roll landscape, blending raw garage energy with post-punk menace, sophisticated songwriting and a ferocious live presence.
Marianne Faithfull didn’t have to open her mouth to receive a recording contract. As the story goes, so vividly recounted in the liner notes to the new box set Cast Your Fate to the Wind: The U.K. Decca Recordings, the young woman was so striking in beauty and presence that impresario Andrew Loog Oldham didn’t hesitate to sign her on sight. (Even her name was made for stardom!) But it was just as clear that she was no ordinary pop starlet chasing dreams in Swingin’ London. Faithfull was remarkably clear-eyed, quipping to NME, “In the pop business, talent doesn’t count.” Thankfully, she had it…in abundance.
Cast Your Fate to the Wind: The Complete U.K. Decca Recordings 1964-1969 brings together all four of the late artist’s original U.K. releases…
It was a difficult time for me when I started working on this album. I had just uprooted myself from the city apartment building where I’d been living for twenty years to a house in a more rural town two hours away where I knew no one when one of my best friends died (“Ashes”), and then my dog died (“Constant Companion”), then my mother was diagnosed with esophagus cancer (“Scratchers”). I was pretty depressed for a solid year (“Long Slow Nervous Breakdown”) and lost and very lonely (“Harmonizing With Myself”). I was thinking about fate and circumstance and about how I’d ended up where I was (“Where Are You Now”).
However much or hard I try, it seems, I’ve never had much control over much in my life. I should say here that my mother’s younger brother was…
From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. Featuring powerful performances from Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, the film has already earned widespread acclaim, taking home the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Discussing his work on the Hamnet soundtrack, Richter explained: “In composing the score, I used the basic elements of Elizabethan music—period instrumentation, grammar, and sensibility—but applied them in ways that emerge directly from the story’s psychology. Having read the script before shooting, I sketched ideas reflecting themes of familial love and loss, our place…
If there’s one constant for the UK’s Wisdom Teeth label, it’s evolution. Perhaps that’s fitting, given that its name implies growth and maturation. Since it was founded, just a little over a decade ago, Wisdom Teeth has traversed a gamut of styles, moving as steadily as the progress bar crawling across the waveform of a DJ mix. Early experiments in dubstep gave way to unorthodox bass music and leftfield techno; successive compilations have been dedicated to narrowly bounded experiments in the wiggly terrain around 100 BPM or the quick-stepping possibilities of the 150-170 zone.
Wisdom Teeth cofounder K-LONE, on the other hand, is a model of consistency. On both his albums so far, 2020’s Cape Cira and 2023’s Swells, the producer (aka Josiah Gladwell)…
Originally issued in 1998, Jon Jenkins‘ FLOW returns in a freshly remastered form to lend its soundscapes even greater resonance and depth. The seventy-four-minute album’s even more immersive than the ambient norm, but the commitment it asks of the listener is rewarded with deeply textured productions that show Jenkins to be an exceptionally meticulous sculptor of sound. Enhancing the music’s impact are electric guitar contributions from Jeff Pearce, David Helpling, and Howard Givens. A strong argument could be made that FLOW is the quintessential ambient album, given the many genre-defining boxes it checks. There’s atmosphere in abundance, melody too, and, need it be said, seamless flow.
While Jenkins’ soundscapes stand credibly…
Narcomancer covers a lot of ground. The album’s opening tracks are reminiscent of acousmatic music in the GRM sense, loose structures built from overlapping fragments of sound. Undergirding these complex textures are brooding and dark layers of synth that move slowly with a muted sense of dread. However, they are punctuated by abrupt bursts of shimmering tones, falling musical figures, didgeridoo, weird vocalizations, and soft beats. The album employs ambient, techno, and electroacoustic techniques without falling clearly into any of these genres.
This is the second release from Primal Era Worship (Bertrand Lachambre), both in 2025 and both on Cryo Chamber. Lachambre seems to be a new voice, as his discography (under this…
Fabiano Do Nascimento is not simply sticking to his Brazilian roots. After all, he currently has a split residence between Los Angeles and Japan, trying to include all his experience and form them into a specific whole on his latest album offering Cavejaz. Primarily a guitarist, he uses various multi-string and multi-tuning (nylon string) guitars, stretching the sound of his instrument as far as it goes and in any direction it takes him, while at the same time trying to firmly root his sounds into his Brazilian heritage. For Cavejaz, Do Nascimento organised three separate sessions – one as studio sessions with renowned UAKTI member Paulo Santos and Jennifer Souza back in Brazil, while the second was recorded live during a Tokyo concert with with veteran Japanese musician…
For his 25th studio album, Window, cornetist Kirk Knuffke — known for his expressive range and fearless commitment — dives into jazz minimalism, aiming straight for the listener’s heart through the beauty of his melodies. Here, he reveals another side of his artistry, singing on three tunes while engaging in inventive, telepathic interplay with his trio mates: the highly explorative bassist Stomu Takeishi, drawn to peculiar pulses and throbs, and veteran drummer Bill Goodwin, whose refined drive and tasteful touch elevate every track. Both musicians previously appeared on Knuffke’s quartet album Lamplighter (2015).
“Choose” is designed with a catchy drum shuffle, well-timed fills, a velvety plain melody, and a crunchy, funkified bass groove…
Not Holding Back! is harmonica ace Kyle Rowland’s first major musical statement, but he’s no fresh-faced newcomer. The Sacramento, CA-based, Georgia-born musician, and his cleverly named Rowland & Tumblin’ outfit has been banging the rootsy, blues-infused rocking for decades.
Rowland was a child prodigy on harmonica, starting at age 10. That’s when he visited harmonica legend Rick Estrin’s home for lessons, immediately impressing one of the finest contemporary blues harp players with his natural aptitude. He couldn’t have found a better teacher than Estrin whose frontman status in Little Charlie and the Nightcats made him one of the instrument’s most respected practitioners.
Rowland’s career eventually progressed to…
Colter Wall puts his mission statement (with a touch of irony) right there in his opening track. New album Memories and Empties begins with “1800 Miles,” noting the distance between Wall’s Saskatchewan home and Nashville. The singer’s about as country as it gets, but he often seems relatively untouched by Music Row. With Memories and Empties, he looks into a more traditional and radio-friendly sound, but only in his own way, still eschewing most of this century’s country music even as he moves himself off the plains.
With “1800 Miles,” Wall offers an honest self-appraisal of his artistry. There’s no flash; there’s nothing commercial. There are no “rhinestone clothes” or any adherence to subculture roles. That’s been true throughout his…
You might not recognize the name, but Joel Cusumano has been in a long list of Bay Area power pop bands, including Sob Stories, R.E. Seraphin and Body Double. This is his very first solo album, after an extended career as a sideman, and it’s a good one, brash and self-revealing, rocking out with windmill chords and pinch squalls, but beckoning with melody.
“Two Arrows,” for instance, dives headfirst into the maelstrom, on rocketing drums (that’s Phillip Lantz from Neutrals) and careening guitars. It’s a look askance at romantic love, a recognition that those arrows will likely hurt when they hit, or as Cusumano observes, “The gods will slice the membrane, just for their entertainment.”
Interviews suggest that Cusumano wrote…
The songs on Stars form a literal journey from morning into night into morning again, and a metaphoric journey from pain and nostalgia to acceptance. Songs, even when they dwell on darker emotions, contain a sprinkling of hope. This is reflected in the music, which has an early Elton John feel and often has an anthemic, defiant sound.
The album begins with ‘Rising with the Sun’ – a song that starts in the morning but has a weariness that suggests it is sung by someone who has been up all night. It is a song about endurance, renewal and the quiet determination to keep moving. “I’ve been walking, I’ve been waiting far too long/For the tide to start to turn, for the spring to come along”, sings Jones, clearly longing for change and rebirth. And musically, the song…
Jimmy Barnes’ seminal album For the Working Class Man reissued to celebrate its 40th Anniversary on limited edition Tour Souvenir Edition with bonus disc of live classics. Completely remastered under the supervision of mastering engineer Bob Ludwig and sounding better than ever!
Bonus disc features the ultimate live versions of FTWCM tracks from across the 40 years, plus a new ballad version of ‘Working Class Man’.
First released in 1985, For The Working Class Man is full of undeniable classics, including Jimmy’s first Top 10 solo single ‘I’d Die To Be With You Tonight’, the Top 40 smash ‘Ride The Night Away’, and the beautiful ballad that he wrote for his wife Jane, ‘Without Your Love’. The album’s title track ‘Working Class Man’ has taken on a life of its…
By the end of the ’60s, pop had undergone several all-consuming metamorphoses. Rock music and youth culture at large were changing by the minute, and there were more landmark albums that represented universal shifts in the way music was composed, produced, conceptualized, and consumed. For every Pet Sounds, Revolver, Forever Changes, or Axis: Bold as Love, there were less visible ripples throughout all of music, as psychedelic thinking and a softly adventurous spirit overtook bands and artists who were stuck in their by-the-numbers garage rock ways before this enlightenment. Safe in My Garden: American Pop in the Shadows 1967-1972 takes a look at some of the best, strangest, and most interesting examples of lesser-known purveyors of…
The Gold Rush: The Songs of Neil Young features 15 of Young‘s classics and deep cuts reinterpreted exclusively for Uncut in tribute to Shakey’s 80th birthday.
There’s some ragged, glorious rock from Kurt Vile & The Sadies, J Mascis, Alan Sparhawk‘s Tired Eyes and MJ Lenderman & The Wind; there are tender ballads from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Joan Shelley & Nathan Salzburg, Drive By Truckers‘ Mike Cooley, and Sharon Van Otten & The Attachment Theory; and there are wilder, more experimental versions from Orcutt Shelley Miller and Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection.
Plus it all kicks off with a stunning 8-and-a-half-minute “Ambulance Blues” from Phosphorescent.