By linking up with Steve Albini, Dave Gedge is deliberately linking his modern incarnation of The Wedding Present with the ferocious four piece that released Seamonsters back in the 1990s.

Kono Michi is a front for concert violinist Michi Wiancko (her debut album features works by Ravel, Debussy and Beethoven). On The Living Disappearance she takes on glacial hip-hop beats, minimalist percussion and a late-night ambience to re-invent herself as a left-field pop artist.

The Captain’s Rest is a cellar - the sound bounces off the walls, the heat cannot rise and there is a spot, about five feet in front of the stage where the sound quality is perfect: anywhere else, it is best to assume that the overwhelming bass echo or mismatched piano are not supposed to [...]

Nice as it is to have Edwyn back in the recording studio, this lazy croon doesn’t really do justice to the man’s great legacy. Gentle rather than engaging, it sees Collins fall back on a jumble of cliches, strumming his way through a self-consciously dated pop amble. The acoustic guitar, the slightly iffy vocals- aiming [...]

Fair play to Drive By Argument: in an overcrowded alternative rock market-place, they have tried to add a dance-floor swagger to their jittery new wave. Announcing themselves on ‘The Sega Method’ with a intense caffeinated rush, they avoid settling into a groove for the whole album, skittering instead between angst-ridden anthems and more techno-influenced rockers.