Includes 4 tracks - Headache, Men In Black, At The End Of The World, and Oddball. CD

A record that seems to take Dead Can Dance even farther back into the past than ever before – not to the sound of their earliest years, but to a world of ancient musical elements that come together beautifully in their hands! The set is probably the most carefully-recorded the group ever gave us – and one of the most sensitive too – with spacious qualities that can let individual vocal or instrumental passages really resonate, while wider washes of sound come in to tie the whole thing together, but in a way that's greatly matured since the earlier years of 4AD. Lisa Gerrard's vocals are amazing – and titles include "The Carnival Is Over", "Ariadne", "Towards The Within", "Spirit", "Bird", and "How Fortunate The Man With None". CD

A stunner from the legendary living ghost that is Scott Walker – possibly the most archly dramatic, unique and strangely alluring work he's ever done! Since Scott Walker albums have become once per decade events, a lot more is at stake with each one, and it's nothing short of amazing that he manages to get more and more exciting with each effort. The Drift finds Scott tackling obscure historical drama, his pop-operatic vibrato as chilling as ever – backed up by his long-relied upon backdrop of string arrangements, guitars, drums and keys – along with (way) off-kilter percussion. But the sounds made with those tried-and-true materials are often unprecedented, from Scott or anyone else on the planet. The voice wails with authority, the backing is often quiet and subtle until the ever-approaching gail swoops in and carries you away. We could probably write a book about this album (and someone undoubtably will) – so we'll leave you to pick it up and experience it for yourself! Tracks include "Cossacks Are", "Clara", "Jesse", "Jolson And Jones", "Cue", "Hand Me Ups", "Buzzers", "Psoriatic", "The Escape" and "A Lover Loves". CD

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Mindblowing music from the legendary Scott Walker – a set that's even darker and more powerful than Drift – but which also shows a new sort of sensitivity as well! Walker's musical journey has been amazing – from teen idol to crooning poet to country singer, new wave experimentalist, and the incredibly artistic and reclusive talent of recent decades. Yet Bish Bosch is something completely new entirely – a record that bursts out with noise one minute, then shifts to sparely expressive passages the next – all in ways that kind of recapture the poetic charm of the initial Walker solo records, while wrapping it up with all the fiercely artistic energy of the later ones. There's a very abstract vibe to the record at points – not rock, never pop, and not even anything close to the vocalizations you'd hear from anyone except the most experimental or avant artists – yet somehow still in that amazingly deep tone that Walker could craft when singing for a mainstream audience. These contradictions, and many others, are what really make the record sparkle – and tracks include "See You Don't Bump His Head", "Corps De Blah", "Phrasing", "The Day The Conducator Died", "Tar", "Dimple", and "Epizootics". CD

Incredible work from Scott Walker – maybe the best album so far in his revival stretch of the last few decades – and a set that has even more depth and power than the previous albums! The album's a collaboration with Sunn0))) – who provide these dark textures and sonic patterns that are extremely low-end – which leaves Walker's vocals plenty of space up top to unfurl with this lyrical power we haven't heard in years – and a range of expression that's almost operatic in nature – easily some of the boldest vocalizations we've ever heard from Scott – and that's saying a lot, given his incredible legacy since the 60s. The whole thing almost feels like one of the most perfectly-realized moment of Walker's darker later period – and although the group performs the music, it was all still written by Scott. Titles include "Brando", "Bull", "Herod 2014", "Fetish", and "Lullaby". CD

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The stunning first full length album from The Pixies – produced with a completely sublime touch by the great Steve Albini! There's a brilliance here that's kept this record playing strongly for decades (maybe too strongly, if you ask the roommates of some folks out there) – and although the sound here has spawned countless imitations, it's never as great as here in the hands of the originators! Titles include "Bone Machine", "Break My Body", "I'm Amazed", "Vamos", "Cactus", "Where Is My Mind", "Gigantic", "Something Against You", and "Broken Face". CD

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Maybe the most haunting project to date from Ruth Goller – an important collaborator on the contemporary London scene, but one who's got a style that's much more than jazz – one that's definitely pushed to the limits here! The set features Goller on electric and acoustic bass, with overdubbed vocals that are often layered in very cool ways – and augmented track to track by guest work on drums, electronics, vibes, and sanza – instruments that are often used in ways that bring a slight touch of organic acoustic energy to the more layered proceedings. The textures of the vocals are very evocative – almost a blend of an older 4AD aesthetic with improvised music – and titles include "Next Time I Keep My Hands Down", "Below My Skin", "How To Be Free From It", "Don't Follow Me", "She Was My Own She Was Myself", and "All The Light I Have I Hand To You". CD

There's a 4AD-styled image on the cover – and the set looks at a moment in late 80s music when things were nicely swirling together – when production was getting a bit more layered and sophisticated from a few years before – yet not in a way that was overly polished or commercial! Instead, the style represented a new level of sonic sophistication – ways of taking core sounds and spinning them out with greater depth – which made for some really wonderful textures and shapes in the music – pushing things forward in ways that helped the vocals a lot too! The title references a few styles of the time, but there's plenty more going on within – a huge array of work on a special book-style, 4CD package that comes complete with loads of detailed notes on the music. Dozens of tracks in all – work by Ultra Vivid Scene, This Mortal Coil, Shelleyan Orphan, The Chameleons, Louis Philippe, Cranes, Breathless, Kitchens Of Distinction, The Wake, Lush, His Name Is Alive, Lycia, The Sweetest Ache, Smashing Orange, Sweet Jesus, Cranberries, Telescopes, Innocence Mission, Mazzy Star, St Etienne, Low, Dubstar, Pale Saints, and many others. CD

Maybe one of the warmest recordings we've ever heard from pianist Vijay Iyer – but that's maybe no surprise, as the session is graced with these sublime vocals from singer Arooj Aftab – and delivered in a style that's much more than standard jazz! Iyer plays Fender Rhodes and piano, and adds in a bit of electronics – while Shahzad Ismaily uses moog and a vintage Fender bass – all flowing effortlessly, while Aftab brings in these vocal moments that feel both ancient and yet have a sense of new global horizons too – recorded with just a touch of echo that might evoke vintage 4AD. Titles include "Sharabi", "Eyes Of The Endless", "Shadow Forces", "To Remain/To Return", and "Haseen Thi". CD

Psychedelia meets British pop – in a really special musical moment that's forever come to be known as shoegaze! The work here comes from a time when the UK scene was really moving past punk rock, and starting to let its guitarists open up in the kind of longer, fuzzy solos that were big in the late 60s – along with all the sort of heady production modes that made such music sound even better, but always with the kind of leaner, more focused lessons learned from the post-punk years! The result is a special sort of sound that can trip out as needed, but never get too overindulgent to lose the tune – the balance that first came to play on the early singles of Creation or 4AD, then found flower in so many other UK groups as the years went on. These glorious years are presented here in a big 5CD set – one that comes in a book-styled package with loads of notes on the music – alongside 87 tracks by artists who include Blow Up, The Honey Buzzards, Submarine, Bailter Space, The Curtain Society, Mercury Rev, An April March, Spacemen 3, The Hinnies, Spiritualized, Moose, Spitfire, Moonshake, Bark Psychosis, AR Kane, Jesus & Mary Chain, Lush, Ride, The Darkside, Velocity Girl, Bleach, Catehrine Wheel, See See Rider, Cranes, Chapterhouse, Telescopes, Sun Dial, Medicine, Sweet Jesus, Luna, Astrobrite, and many more! CD

One of those amazing obscure records that seems to come out of nowhere – sounding nothing like most of the mainstream work of the time, with a power that might have shaped the world of music for years to come – if the album hadn't been issued in a tiny pressing of only 60 copies! There's a darkness here that's mindblowing – not just in the vocals, and the weird echoey way they've been recorded – but also in the overall instrumentation and pacing of the record – kind of a melancholy, slow progression that almost prefaces 80s styles on 4AD, but with a much rougher feel overall! Any psyche impulses are broken down into much sparer, earthier sounds – and there seems to be a bit of electronics in the mix – or is it just noise from the guitar? Yet lyrical themes are up-close and personal too – almost chance-taking in their earnestness, without the somberness of the instrumentation. All of this makes for a sublime mix – and a record that's as captivating as it is rare. Titles include "Lonely Again", "I Want To Love You", "Goodbye Sunshine", "Candleman", and "Seagulls" – and 2CD set features a whopping 23 bonus tracks – a huge amount of unreleased material, and a few other singles by the group. CD

The early works of this legendary German post-punk quintet – an all-female group who started out in punk, but soon hit much more interesting territory – as you'll hear on these early singles recorded both for the Zick Zack and 4AD labels! Later Xmal work was maybe a bit more goth, but these tracks have a stark and experimental approach that's right up there with the best of the German new wave of the time – sounds that both echo some of the UK experiments in the post-punk years, and also refine some of the earlier excesses of Krautrock and take them to nicely focused territory. Titles include "Die Wolken", "Schwarze Welt", "Incubus Succubus", "Blut Is Liebe", "Zu Jung Zu Alt", "Kalbermarsch", and "Grosstandindianer". CD

The Cocteau Twins have definitely tightened up their sound a bit here since their early days on 4AD – but the group have also held onto everything that's great about their music, and, at some level, use the album as an answer to all of the other groups at the time who were messing about in the "swirl of sound" style they invented a decade before! Long before psych production was revived, fuzzy guitars were cool again, and even analogue elements found new love from the kids – The Cocteau Twins were breaking ground that was fresher than anyone else, and still sounds wonderful here all these many years later. There's definitely a sweetness here that the group never had a few records before – but that's also something that gives the record its really lasting appeal – on songs that include "Theft & Wandering Around Lost", "Oil Of Angels", "Evangeline", "Know Who You Are At Every Age", "Essence", and "Summerhead". CD

Revelatory sounds from Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – an Ethiopian nun, but one who had a secret side life as a pianist and composer – stepping out here on a selection of solo tracks that have a wonderfully captivating vibe! Gebru's music first got wider exposure in the Ethiopiques series, but the sounds within are hardly the better-known grooves from that nation in the 70s – and instead, the tracks are beautifully intimate, and almost have a pastoral sort of quality – minimal piano lines sometimes touched with spiritual vocals – but with a spirituality that's much more universal and secular than you might guess from Gebru's work in the church – almost 4AD at times, but in a lo-fi way. The music is very hard to describe in words, but has a stunning presence that will grab your ears right away – on titles that include "Aurora", "Quand La Mer Furieuse", "Have You Seen Assayehegn", "Farewell Eve", "The Pilgrim Song", "Famine Disaster 1974", and "The Home Of Beethoven". CD

A huge collection of work from Steve Tibbetts – a guitarist who really helped open up the sound of ECM Records in the 70s, then kept on exploring music that was always at the fringes of jazz and other styles too! The package is put together by Steve himself, and features key moments from ECM and other labels, plus what might be some newer recordings too – although it's a bit hard to tell from the notes. What we can say, though, is that the 3CD set has a huge amount of music 49 tracks in all – divided up into three different modes! CD1 features Acoustibbetts – sounds from those early years, when Steve's first instrument was the acoustic guitar, mixed with other elements on kalimba and piano, inflected with a larger sense of space on percussion and a bit of bass. CD2 features Elektrobitts – from a time when Steve was using some electronic instrumentation with the same open ear he brought to acoustic guitar – and mixing things with just the right organic elements on percussion, bass, and a bit of voice from Claudia Schmidt. CD3 moves into farther global territory as Exotibbetts – evoking both ECM and 4AD styles of space and sound, mixing instrumental passages with some more exotic elements – but always with that understated sonic quality that Steve brings to his music. CD

A set that definitely lives up to the intrigue promised in the title – an alternative look at British music in the 80s, served up with some more experimental, unusual tracks that go way past the pop hits of the time! There's still some names here you might know, but there's also work from plenty of the hipper indie labels who kept things interesting – especially in the territory of companies like Factory, Rough Trade, and 4AD – who each get some space within! As with other sets done by Steven Wilson, there's some detailed notes that make the overall package a delight throughout – a cool book-styled cover with 80 pages of notes within – and a total of 58 tracks in all, work by Dif Juz, Cardiacs, A Certain Ratio, Perennial Divide, Cocteau Twins, Twelfth Night, This Heat, Ultravox, Durutti Column, Punishment Of Luxury, The Stranglers, Magazine, Bill Nelson's Red Noise, No Man, Slab, In Camera, Swell Maps, Gary Numan, The Sound, Crispy Ambulance, Dali's Car, Scott Walker, David Sylvian, The Shamen, This Mortal Coil, Associates, Section 25, Gang Of Four, PIL, Robert Fripp & The League Of Gentlemen, and Dead Can Dance. CD