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Fans of Kieran Hebden’s recent improvisational link up with free jazz drum legend Steve Reid will probably already know of the existence of this release – if you like jazz tinged experimental music then you generally develop a radar for new stuff. Three years in the making this collaboration between Khroustaliov (Sam Britton from the electronic duo Icarus), and bass clarinet player Ohlmeier is much sparser sounding than fans of either man might expect, as glitchy electronica underpin meandering clarinet lines – although things do get decidedly hairy on ‘After Sunrise’. Of course it’s not easy listening, but then it’s not supposed to be.
Paul Riley

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William Orbit (or William Mark Wainwright or Billy Bubbles depending on when you first met the man) is probably best known for his work on Madonna's Grammy snaffling, multi million selling, Ray of Light, and his production work on 13 by Blur, but actually he has a decent sized back catalogue of his own, this being the second in his Strange Cargo series (Strange Cargo, Strange Cargo II, Strange Cargo III. and Strange Cargo Hinterland) and is filled with exactly the sort of beat driven, ambient, world-music-tinged sounds you would have heard in Ibizan chill out joints when it was first released back in 1990, and it still works well today.
Drew Bass

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Reunited once again with Youth (the pairing that gave us ambient house classics like ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld’ and the sublime ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’) Dr. Alex Paterson has reigned in some of the more wilful dicking about that marred several later Orb releases, rediscovered the dubwise vibe, stoner humour and inspired sampling that made their first two albums such essential listening – even going so far as to dip back into UFOrb’s ‘Blue Room’ on ‘The Truth Is...’ - and in consequence The Dream is the best thing the Orb have released since the early nineties.
Drew Bass

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Compared elsewhere to the Verve and Doves, Oceansize actually have more in common with post-rockers like Mogwai, their penchant for convoluted and twisted rhythms recalling prog alchemists like Tool or the Mars Volta, and with none of the eight tracks here clocking in at under six minutes this is avowedly radio-unfriendly territory. Less accessible than previous outing Everyone Into Position perhaps, but more fully realised then debut Effloresce, Frames is a rollercoaster of twists and turns and sounds like a band who have finally found their stride, let’s hope they’re given the opportunity to continue this fascinating journey.


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The fourth instalment in this, increasingly excellent, mix series which, given Alex Paterson’s notoriously eclectic taste (and sense of humour), was always going to be as challenging as it was chilled. So we have David Bowie and Brian Eno rubbing shoulders with the Penguin Café Orchestra and the Mad Professor, Steve Hillage (the man behind the previous Art Of Chill outing) bumping up against The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra/Crouch End Festival Chorus and the results are gloriously off-kilter but chilled in a way that most ‘ambient’ collections completely fail to fathom. Music to immerse yourself in, not nod off to.


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Expect many a ‘Yoko makes good album shock!’ type reviews around this collaboration/remix album, at which Yoko will doubtless nod sagely, she is after all the arty witch who ruined the Beatles right? Condescending bollocks aside these re-sculpted Yoko Ono vocal performances prove, if nothing else, that the source material is not all atonal banshee howling - ‘Cambridge 1969’, given a wonderfully demented going over here by the Flaming Lips, accepted. Beat-based reinventions abound but the likes of Jason Pierce, Cat Power and The Polyphonic Spree ensure the vocal performances are given plenty of varied backdrops to shine against.


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Free-jazz, avant-noise alert! Free-jazz, avant-noise alert! If you are the sort of person who reaches for the paracetemol (or indeed a length of rope) at the mention of Albert Ayler or the Boredoms then pass right along, there’s nothing for you here. This is music for people who can no longer find what they are after in the high street, or indeed on the radio, this is music that challenges your notion of what ‘music’ is, this is music that wilts house plants and prompts neighbours to move, this is Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke, Nordic noise-miesters Thing and pals improvising two, long, ear-boggling tracks. Nice.


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Cobbling reggae, ambient, house and spoken word samples – Dr. Alex Paterson and pals were very taken with Byrne and Eno’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts – together into, what was at the time, an astonishing melange, when the Orb first landed they were genuinely like nothing else around and their debut outing still sounds incredibly fresh today. Now extended to three CD’s, including a cracking Peel session and several hard to find mixes, The Orb would go on to make some great music (follow up UFOrb being a case in point), but this remains their masterpiece and as such deserves a place in every record collection.


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Stylistically far more genre mashing than their previous outing Bari Ojos de Brujo are ostensibly a flamenco outfit, but that is a bit like saying Eno only does ambient, as jazz, reggae, hip hop (raps courtesy of Faada Freddy, from Senegal's Daara J.), Eastern vibes and even the odd blast of rock weave their way into this heady stew of Latin tinged gumbo. Apparently nothing beats seeing this lot doing their thing live but, unless you are heading out to Madrid in the very near future (or were lucky enough to catch ‘em at the La Linea Festival ’06 in London) then this is a pretty damn good second option.


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Another export from the musical breeding grounds of Manchester, this particular five piece hailing from the big noise camp. No, that’s an understatement, this is immense noise, sky-scraping, goose-bump inducing, momentous noise, the sort of noise you only get when three people hammer hell out of their guitars at once. Naturally enough there’s some quiet bits dotted around (all the better to make the big stuff more prodigiously colossal), and enough twiddly bits to qualify for inclusion in the new prog movement, but the most important thing is all this mayhem is controlled, barely in places, but controlled nonetheless, and we love it

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Oasis
Don’t Believe The Truth (Big Brother)

Chances are, if you are a big Oasis fan you will already have this, and if you are one of the legion of naysayers who believe the band peaked around the release of their second album, you won’t. The undecided's amongst you however may be interested to learn that Don’t Believe The Truth is actually something of a return to form, not least because Gallagher senior has finally relinquished control a little, allowing the other three to pitch in their best ideas, and to pretty good effect. Once again it’s great fun playing spot the influence, and the lyrics veer from catchy to laughable, but on this evidence Oasis are far from a spent force


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