Albums
BENIN CITY ***
Last Night (Moshi Moshi)
Benin City’s third album is a treatise and threnody on London’s nightlife. The closure of places like Plastic People and, briefly, Fabric is reflected in a melancholy album that veers between the soapbox and the night bus. While Last Night feels like a grower, it’s entering a crowded indie-dance market. So it doesn’t help that Joshua Idehen’s delivery pitches exactly between Maxi Jazz and Ghostpoet. The bumping Reluctant and the woozy horns of This Is LDN III are the highlights. SAM EASTERBROOK
CALYPSO ROSE ***
So Calypso! (Because)
I am tired of hearing include people moan that no-one’s making political music like the punks did. Short-sighted and untrue, Tobago-born Calypso Rose is a perfect case in point – doing big things as a musician and activist since 1963, on this latest album she pays tribute to artists that have inspired her. The calypsos are exuberant and infectious but the lyrics are key; I’m posting my review copy of this album to Theresa May and will ask her to buy a copy for Amber Rudd. GRACE TODD
A CERTAIN RATIO *****
Good Together/ACR-MCR/Up In Downsville (Mute)
By the end of the 1980s, the highly influential A Certain Ratio developed a sound that was more acid-drenched P-funk than dark and moody punk-funk. After leaving Factory Records, Good Together was ACR’s first album for A&M and a euphoric trip it is, with both Bernard Sumner and Shaun Ryder both featuring on the title track. ACR-MCR saw the band expand further on their electro-funk sound, bringing on board singer Denise Johnson, who would later feature on Primal Scream’s Screamadelica. With Up In Downsville, ACR really hit their stride with their infectious groove. All three albums are bloody marvellous. DAVID NOBAKHT
CHAOUCHE ***
Safe (Night Time Stories)
Aisha Chaouche’s debut single only came out in 2017, but a cursory Google highlights her first late-00s stirrings as a Swansea folk-pop teen – so Safe has been percolating for a while, although she moved to Bristol some years back. Her mode is now low-lit, minimal, electro-acoustic torch song soul built around piano and rarely rising above a snail’s pace. Chaouche’s own production is a major asset, conscious of the need for breathing space while linking up classic and modern tropes. NOEL GARDNER
EMANATIVE ***
Earth (Jazzman)
Cosmic jazz. A label readily thrown at improvised jam sessions that encourage musical freedom and often total more than 10 minutes each. A one-sided summation, granted, but it’s certainly a struggle to get involved in such affairs when the music seems as though it would be more enjoyable for the musicians as opposed to the listener. I don’t hate this album – there is a lot on offer, particularly if you are feeling metaphysical – but if you were hoping for a tune you might look elsewhere. CHARLIE PIERCEY
FATOUMATA DIAWARA****
Fenfo (Wagram)
Fatoumata has not been idle since her 2011 debut, acting, travelling aboard Albarn’s Africa Express and more, and she pours seven years of experience into a beautiful travelogue on Fenfo – from the lilting titular track and its snaking Malian rhythms which evaporate into a hazy strum, to the cello and kora purity of Mama. Single Nterini, a song about heartbreak, and Kanou Dan Yen, with its throbbing drumbeat emboldened by some lovely kora playing are also fine demonstrations of her rare talent. CHRIS SEAL
GHOST *****
Prequelle (Spinefarm/Loma Vista)
Ghost’s fourth album feels like the band’s mid-noughties Slipknot moment. Dave Grohl’s favourite Swedish metal band may not have the sense of mystery from their first couple of albums, but Prequelle is an album of genuine creative and commercial breakthrough. Not a single harpsichord, organ or even saxophone note feels out of place on an album that comes across like a contemporary spin on Alice Cooper’s best moments; dark and occult-themed, but enough pop hooks to do the country that brought us Abba proud. ALEC EVANS
HILARY WOODS ****
Colt (Sacred Bones)
Nowhere in the press release accompanying Hilary Woods’ debut LP is it mentioned that she was the bassist in Irish indie alsorans JJ72. Embarrassment? Perhaps – but, more likely, that her musical past bears no resemblance to her musical present. Colt’s elegantly orchestral dronescapes find Woods neatly aligning herself with Sacred Bones labelmates Jenny Hval and Marissa Nadler, though the occasional lightness of touch and tinkling piano balance out the sombre overtones and make Julia Holter an even closer cousin. BEN WOOLHEAD
HOWLIN RAIN***
The Alligator Bride (Silver Current)
This is the fifth album from the rock‘n’roll pranksters led by Ethan Miller and man, the joke is stretching a little thin. Either Miller has too many side projects, or they’ve deliberately set out to be a chickenwire-stage version of Bon Jovi, but I swear that at one point I thought I was listening to Blaze Of Glory. Howlin Rain are better when balls-out, though, so stick with Rainbow Trout, Missouri, and The Wild Boys and you’ll have a good ol’ time. CHRIS SEAL
JORJA SMITH ****
Lost & Found (FAMM)
Current BRIT Critics’ Choice winner Smith amazes with this debut: a range reminiscent of Amy Winehouse and Minnie Riperton, and style ranging from hip-hop to soul, jazz and pop. The classically-trained, 20-year-old songwriter sings about black youth, street violence and the police (Blue Lights), love gone wrong, too-fast love (Teenage Fantasy), says goodbye to a departed friend and learns to stand on her own two feet in this voyage of self-discovery from adolescence to young adulthood. Gorgeous arrangements and beats. She’ll only get even better with time. RHONDA LEE REALI
LICE ***
It All Worked Out Great Vol. 1 & 2 (Balley)
Suddenly in a position of influence, Idles are making the most of the opportunity to champion the likes of Lice, taking their fellow Bristolians out on tour and putting out this double EP. Very much like cult outfit Country Teasers, Lice are demented, seedy, bitterly cynical provocateurs inspired by the vision of Mark E Smith violently deconstructing country and rockabilly for spilling his pint. My promo copy came with a free nit comb, which could well come in handy for a record that might leave your skin crawling. BEN WOOLHEAD
LUMP ****
LUMP (Dead Oceans)
Laura Marling has teamed up with Tunng founder Mike Lindsay to produce this startlingly beautiful folktronica collaboration. Still only 28, Marling has been on the UK music scene for a decade now and has grown into an ambitious, intelligent songwriter; here, the duo fuse Marling’s ear for melody and storytelling lyricism with a nocturnal, organic sound based around synth arpeggios and reverb-drenched guitar. Reminds one of Fever Ray’s self-titled debut with more of an English-woodland sensibility. Wonderful. FEDOR TOT
M.A.N.D.Y. ****
Double Fantasy (The Club Versions) (Get Physical)
One half of M.A.N.D.Y. and Get Physical label boss Patrick Bodmer joins forces with Bristol’s mighty talented Dubspeeka in reworking M.A.N.D.Y.’s album Double Fantasy, originally released in 2016. Artists involved in the project include Booka Shade, Francesco Tristano and Jimmy Vallance of Canadian duo Bob Moses, and all nine tracks are reworked with the club in mind. With sharp percussion throughout and a nod to the darker side of the dancefloor, the album does not disappoint. EMMA JAYNE
MELODY’S ECHO CHAMBER *****
Bon Voyage (Domino)
Melody’s Echo Chamber return after a lengthy hiatus with their deliriously inventive second album. Where their debut offered succinct and tasteful psych-pop chanson, this time you’ll find a bit of that along with, it seems, every other genre ever invented. Kitchen sink assistance comes this time from Swedish band Dungen and the sheer joy of creating music is palpable in every second of this record. It may be too much for some listeners but adventurous ears will find much to love here. ADAM JONES
THE MYSTERY OF THE BULGARIAN VOICES *****
BooCheeMish (Prophecy)
Guest vocalist/composer, Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard, lends her otherworldly tones to this unique female choir’s first recording in over two decades of multi-part folk arrangements. The women use open-throated singing that‘s created in the larynx and resonates in the chest; upbeat and sometimes haunting but always mesmerizing and spiritual, revel in tales including unrequited love, bad/good omens, dancing, and a mournful orphaned lamb: a match made in heaven echoing through the Bulgarian hills. RHONDA LEE REALI
ORANGE GOBLIN *****
The Wolf Bites Back (Candlelight)
Orange Goblin are best enjoyed live, and with a relentless tour schedule it’s astounding they find time to record. Produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano, whose credits include Ghost and Cathedral, The Wolf Bites Back is a darker, doomier version of the London quartet we know and love. The album covers all bases, from classic Goblin stoner-shaped rock to garage punk and blues. After more than 20 years they’re still packing a punch, breaking the mould of their own making. ALICE PATTILLO
PARADISE LOST ***
Believe In Nothing (Nuclear Blast)
Not satisfied with the production and overall presentation of the album on its initial release in 2000, Halifax doom lords Paradise Lost have remixed and remastered the tracks and now present them in the form that was originally intended. Representing a more gothic rock side to the band, this record owes as much to Sisters Of Mercy as it does to Saint Vitus. A brave move, they took the band in a new direction and it worked wonderfully. CHRIS ANDREWS
SPOCK’S BEARD *****
Noise Floor (InsideOut)
It’s obvious that the influence of this Californian five-piece is seventies progressive rock. Musically and vocally you can’t fault their new material – the tracks, which were all written by individual members, slot together seamlessly and give Noise Floor the feel of a concept album. But this is Genesis revisited – organs, synths and rousing beats, albeit Ted Leonard’s vocals are slightly more mellow than Gabriel’s – and it’s this familiar sound that makes the album instantly likeable. LYNDA NASH
VIRGINIA WING ****
Ecstatic Arrow (Fire)
The joy of Ecstatic Arrow, the fourth album in quick succession from this Manchester band, is in the constantly shifting musical backdrop to Alice Merida Richards’s vocals – little microclimates of naive, almost shonky sounds swirling around intoned words that variously recall Trish Keenan of Broadcast, Cate Le Bon or (swoon) Laurie Anderson. The lopsided haze of synth, sax and weird percussive loops occasionally coalesce into hypnotic bangers, much like London’s great Bamboo, which is praise enough in these grey days. WILL STEEN
WITCHSKULL **
Coven’s Will (Rise Above)
A niche riddle: how can a band name be previously unused by anybody, according to available data, but also deeply generic and unoriginal? By the band being called Witchskull and playing pat Sabbathian proto-doom fodder with a bouncy desert rock underlay. This Australian trio’s second album is energetic enough, with a nice bass tone, but brings nothing new or personable to the party. Song titles – Lord Of The Void, Priestess – further suggest a group working with fridge magnets in place of a dictionary. NOEL GARDNER