It is easy to imagine that after nearly 30 studio albums, not to mention countless side projects, Richard Thompson might feel the need to approach the business of making a new album in a different way. With Dream Attic, he took the bold step of recording 13 freshly-written songs in front of a live audience during a short run of full-band shows earlier this year. Fiery and infused with some of Thompson’s most powerful solos in many a year, the result is almost universally glorious, with ‘Demons in Her Dancing Shoes’ and ‘A Brother Slips Away’ among his finest-ever moments (2xCD version including equally fine acoustic demo's).
David Davies

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Great month for us oldies that still love some packaging around our music (see Kristin Hersh’s Crooked – Ed), this one boasting a lovely card sleeve housing a map outlining a South Downs walk to follow whilst listening to the music. All moot if the music is crap mind but fortunately the cardboard sleeve also houses nine slices of wonkily orchestrated, occasionally rather lovely, glitch-folk peppered with spoken word samples and an overwhelmingly English mid 20th century ambience. Needless to say we did the walk (we do live down here after all) but sadly we didn’t manage to find the hidden object near Balsdean, why not have a go yourself?
Drew Bass

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Those of you that recall the exquisite joy of finally getting hold of a long awaited 12” vinyl album – there was no pre-release date Pirate Bay download action back in the day – and then rushing home to pore over the lyrics, pictures and info whilst listening to your latest acquisition will understand the joy to be had lingering over Kristin Hersh’s latest album which comes in the form of a beautifully designed book and contains the download key to ten tracks of music, from full on coruscating to heartbreakingly bleak, that leave you wondering how the hell it‘s possible for her to remain so buried in the margins. Brilliant idea, brilliantly realised and a fucking tremendous album to boot.
Ruby Palmer

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Better known to their mums as audio engineer producer and live drummer Robert ‘Macc’ Macciochi and producer John ‘dgoHn’ Cunnane, Some Shit Saaink (nope we have no idea what it means either), will doubtless find itself wedged into the drum n bass section in your local dance music emporium, and whilst that is certainly the driving force here SSS is also positively soaked in dubsteppy atmosphere and exhibits jazz chops aplenty – a cross between Squarepusher and Spring Heel Jack is a fair kicking off point – in fact this clatters along in a very fine old style indeed. Not hard to see why Richard D James likes ‘em.
Drew Bass

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Those of you that love Daniel Johnston’s extremely lo-fi approach of recording (some songs even sung down a telephone line), may feel that re-recording some of his greatest hits with an 11-piece Dutch orchestra might just destroy the fragile charm of his material entirely, a fear this reviewer shared. Well panic ye not, the orchestral accompaniment is entirely in keeping (more Jaga Jazzist than James Last), and Johnston seems to relish the challenge gamely reaching for notes he’s never going to reach and, in the case of the heartbreaking ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’, actually bettering the original.
The Oracle

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Let me just say up front here that this reviewer felt The Qemists previous album Join The Q was one of the best of last year, so Spirit In The System had a lot to live up to. That it doesn’t quite do that has more to do with the guest vocalists on offer (Rob Hawkins or Mike Patton? Hmm…). That’s not to say it doesn’t kick off, the tracks featuring Jenna G and Invasion’s Chantal are wonderful blunderbuss breakbeat racket, it’s just not quite the ‘all killer no filler’ of their previous effort, but there’s more than enough cool stuff here to keep us all keen to hear their next effort, and the Pendulum comparisons? Nah, the Brighton boys are far better.
Drew Bass

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His old man may have gifted him with one of the most ludicrous names this side of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence, but he also passed on one of the finest sets of musical genes you could lay claim to, and anyone who thinks Dweezil is simply trading on dad Franks name just needs to lend a shell-like to the extended guitar solo in ‘Pygmy Twylyte’ to hear that Zappa Jr. has a fine set of his own chops, and the band he has assembled do some serious justice to convoluted classics like ‘Inca Roads’ and ‘King Kong’. As FZ’s no longer with us who else is going to keep this magnificent music alive?
Ray Harper

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Although founder member Andy Latimer can still regularly be found riding this particular Camel (which, let's be honest, can’t be said for most prog leaning bands to hail from the early '70s), this box set neatly encapsulates the band (when indeed they still were a band rather than Latimer and Co.) at the height of their powers, the first three discs in particular showcasing just how good a band Camel were, the high watermark being around the time of the second line-up with ex-Caravan vocalist and bass player Richard Sinclair replacing Doug Ferguson, and ex-King Crimson sax man Mel Collins adding to the very English prog-rock of Andy Latimer, Andy Ward and Pete Bardens.
Ray Harper

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If you have even a passing interest in reggae, and roots reggae in particular, then Marcus Garvey by Burning Spear is without question one of the albums which should be in your collection, the plaintive testifying of Winston Rodney's voice is a still genuinely moving to all but the dullest of ears, and the deeply-rolling, mantric bass heavy rhythms are just killer (check out the wonderful second set of dub cuts Garvey’s Ghost). Remastered from the analogue tapes to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its original release if you don’t already own this then now is definitely the time to remedy that oversight.
Drew Bass

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Go, be honest, how many of you got their first album because it was the first ever picture disc (must dig that out sometime), only to find it was actually a rather good mix of prog rock and folk? Famed, at the time at least, not only for their hot, rock-chick vocalist Sonia Kristina (that ‘naked all but for a pair of knickers, a small fur jacket and long kinky boots’ poster adorned many an adolescent wall), but also their electric violin player Darryl Way - later Eddie Jobson, and for their first three albums at least they looked like real contenders, and pretty much every reason why can be found on this double disc set.
Ray Harper

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Legendary prog rockers Colosseum can boast some of the biggest names in UK music history. Vocalist Chris Farlowe, guitarist Clem Clempson, keyboard player Dave Greenslade and drummer Jon Hiseman to name but four. This two disc live album, recorded in Germany and Austria in 2005 gives a good introduction to the band with prog rock classics such as 'Tomorrows Blues' and 'Lost Angeles' along with blues classic, 'Stormy Monday Blues' and the Pete Brown/Jack Bruce penned 'Rope Ladder To The Moon'. Consummate musicians, drum, guitar and organ solos and out of the world song titles, well what do you expect, it is prog rock after all.
David Blue

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It’s true to say that many of the ‘deluxe re-issues’ being released are pretty duff cash in efforts with ‘never before released’ extras included that should have remained just that. This however, the only ‘proper’ album by Propaganda is an absolute joy, the efforts of Claudia Brücken, Susanne Freytag, Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper still sounding amazingly current, even given the ‘80s palette of Fairlight synth sounds they largely worked with, and for once the second disc of ‘rarities’ is just that with a 20-minute cassette only mix of ‘Duel’ entitled ‘Do Well’ just one of the gleaming little nuggets to be found herein.
Ruby Palmer

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