Pop Jazz / Nu-Jazz

Artist: Mickey Katz & His Orchestra Label: Jasmine Music

Artist: Diana Krall Label: Justin Time Records

Composer: Michala/Poppen, Christoph/Odense SO Petri Label: Our Recordings (Naxos Deutschland Musik & Video Vertriebs-)

re-issue of the debut album from Liverpool's Clinic is here. Twisting and twining through paths that pass through seldom visited regions of dub and 60s garage, Internal Wrangler keep it arty and groovy in equal measures. Prepare for a new standard for pop to come. Record Label: Domino Records Style: Alternative

Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue

An ardent moulder of sound, John Lemke began carving out a very unique music blend on his debut album 'People Do' (2013) and its follow up EP 'Walizka' (2014). Informed by his work as a sound designer & composer for documentary films and his natural inclination towards fusing rhythm with rich textures and emotive melodies, he set out on a musical path that had been long in the making and is ever evolving. The quest for unusual, inspiring sound sources has always been at the heart of John's process, however the genesis of his second album 'Nomad Frequencies' was rooted in much more inadvertent circumstances. In the summer of 2014, forced to indefinitely evacuate his Glasgow flat and studio due to structural damage from one hour to the next, with nothing more than a laptop and a bag of clothes, John embarked on a six month odyssey of soul searching, couch surfing and spending an extended period of time in his old hometown of Berlin for the first time in years - it was to be an odyssey that would help ferment and distill the ideas of his second album on which work had just begun. A year of particular global turmoil and upheaval, combined with John's personal, albeit very minor, 'displacement', caused a lot of questioning, frustration and anger, which somehow found its way onto the new material: a more confrontational, at times aggressive sound, paired on the other hand with a yearning for harmony, balance and space. Other influences came less from the world of music, but rather in visual form, through the densely textural art of Anselm Kiefer and the political, yet poetic musings of film maker Adam Curtis. Intent on refining his sound toward a more minimal, bolder style, John set out to limit his sonic palate to a handful of carefully chosen elements. At the centre of this new direction remains the muted piano already introduced on his debut, but in a much more purified and raw form. This organic base is adorned by the warm fuzzing and wavering of analogue synthesisers, tape echoes, meditative tuning forks, field recordings from John's 'exile' period and percussion based on his rigid approach to sampling, which started developing on 'Walizka'. The guiding principle of his orthodox style of recording and sampling is to only use home-made sounds by utilising his own field recordings, applying contact microphones or hydrophones to objects and instruments, running them through different kinds of speakers and re-recording the sounds to arrive at a 'lived in' quality, often misunderstood as plainly 'lo-fi'. Touches of viola and woodwinds parts (Kim Moore of WOLF and Andrew Baker respectively) provide melody fragments and subtle details throughout the journey. With John's healthy disregard for genre boundaries, the array of influences on 'Nomad Frequencies' is vast, but never over-powering. From the meditative tuning fork that starts proceedings on 'Of Elsewhere', the dub echoes to the hints of minimalism, free jazz explosions to the Lynchian atmospherics, all elements serve nothing more than the album's narrative journey between friction and harmony, best appreciated in its entirety. A rhythmic backbone collides with rich ambience and melody, often infectious and jarring at the same time, forging a soulful whole which most likely only reveals its true self after multiple spin Record Label: Denovali Style: Electronic

Formed in 2001 by childhood friends Matty Mckinney, Benny Early, and Dan Colley, The Hollowpoints combine elements of punk and rock and roll reminiscent of apparent influences The Clash, Cocksparrer, and Swingin Utters. They have pushed their hook based sing-alongs both domestically and abroad through constant touring, racking up releases with the "Annihilation EP" on Dirtnap Records (2003) and "The Black Spot" on Duane Peters' Disaster Records (2005). Finding guitarist Will McCarthy Broad in 2007, they followed with "Old Haunts On The Horizon" on current label Sailor's Grave Records (2010). A punknews.org Editor's pick for Album Of The Year, "Old Haunts on the Horizon" was also released on German label Concrete Jungle Records.Their forthcoming album, "Rocket To Rainier" combines textbook Hollowpoints songwriting with the driving pace of "The Black Spot" and a more personal feel and subject matter, bringing you right back to the pop hooks of "Old Haunts On The Horizon." With bassist Benny Early taking on some lead vocal duties, the classic call and response Hollowpoints sound has taken on a brand new depth and dimension. Recorded by Ryan Maxwell in Seattle and produced by The Hollowpoints, this new offering was mixed and mastered by heavyweight engineer Jamie McMann (NOFX, Good Riddance, Home Street Home). Due for release in late 2015, "Rocket To Rainier" is a somber manifesto. Despite its catchy and upbeat sound, the record chronicles lives lost, some nearly destroyed, and the long road back. It is without a doubt the band's most personal and convicted release, and a gut check to the human condition from a weary yet eternally hopeful band of brothers. With new team member and long time friend Katie Perry of The Bucket City Agency handling US booking, The Hollowpoints will be on the road in support of "Rocket To Rainier." Listen: http://www.punknews.org/bands/thehollowpoints Record Label: Sailor's Grave Recs Style: Punk / Hardcore

Wilco are one of the most respected bands on the planet — paragons of good taste, masters of genre-bridging craftsmanship and chill independence. Considering that heavy rep, it's strange to think that when Jeff Tweedy put together Wilco's first lineup 20 years ago, their loose bar-band vibe was a defiant response to the weighty myth he'd shouldered as a member of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. Wilco's first album in four years recalls their early "hey, what the hell" freedom, in spirit if not in sound. It's their most concise, catchy, naturally songful album in at least a decade — the sound of a band reconnecting with the fun of rocking out together in a room. Wilco's two most recent studio LPs — 2011's The Whole Love and 2009's Wilco (The Album) — were musically lavish, but also a touch staid, with their rough edges burnished to a too-smooth finish. Everything about Star Wars betrays ease and immediacy: They released it online for free with no warning. The jokey title references one of the most universally held pleasures in the history of human culture. The music is built on some pretty essential influences as well — from the Abbey Road majesty of "More. . ." and the roughnecked T. Rex shoogity-oogity of "Random Name Generator" to the basement-glam punk attack of "Pickled Ginger" and the sad-ballad sweetness of "Magnetized." Wilco have gotten back in touch with their own strengths, too — especially the ability to match instantly familiar melodies with beautifully jarring noise, which made 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and 1996's Being There into watersheds. "The Joke Explained" is a cute folk-rock ditty made full-on awesome by peals of searing Sonic Youth-style drone poetry. And then there's "You Satellite," the incandescent jam that serves as the album's elusive centerpiece. It's a seething yet warm meditation on clinging to faint light in dark times, with what sounds like a battalion of guitars roiling against drummer Glenn Kotche's avant-jazz tumble. Only Wilco could make something this eruptive feel so comfy, like a steel-wool security blanket. The music's urgent, live-in-the-studio feel pairs well with Tweedy's lyrics, which seem more direct and compact than they have in a while. He's working his usual themes — doubt, devotion, everyday fears and resigned hopes — without any of the literary obscurity that sometimes creeps into his writing. "I was only after a friend to follow through," he sings on the lovely "Taste the Ceiling," sounding like John Lennon in a moment of hard-fought grace. You can't help wonder if Sukierae, the deeply personal side project he recorded last year with his teenage son Spencer on drums, might have helped revive Tweedy's feel for music's elemental joy. In the album's most carefree moments, of which there are many, he sounds at home in himself — never an easy move for one of rock's top chroniclers of midlife man-malaise. "I belong to the stars in the sky," he sings on "Random Name Generator," making a blues boast out of spacey poesy and totally pulling it off. Give it up for the man. He's got the Force by the spaceballs. Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/wilco-star-wars-20150724#ixzz3hHnwv1jZ Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook Record Label: Anti Style: Alternative Rock

Artist: Sun Ra Label: Strut

Artist: John Southworth Label: Tin Angel

Composer: Jazzkantine/NDR Bigband Label: Rap Nation (Indigo)

Artist: Lovin Spoonful Label: Kama Sutra / Buddah

Artist: Misantropic; Artist: Eaten Raw Label: Halvfabrikat Records

Artist: Kat Mandu Label: Unidisc

Artist: Elliott Sharp; Artist: Terraplane Label: Enja Yellowbird

Artist: Thelonious / Beck; Artist: Rufus Monk Label: Bhm (ZYX)

Artist: Chet / Beck; Artist: Rufus Baker Label: Bhm (ZYX)

Artist: Stefano Bollani Label: Pid

Composer: Phillip Lambro Label: Perseverance/Music Video Distr

Artist: TOK TOK TOK Label: zyx/bhm