Stunning new cassette from the duo of Stuart Crutchfield and Kevin McCarvel that pretty much cements their reputation as the best ‘rock’ band in the UK right now, with six tracks of devolved drums/guitar/vocals/electronics that come over like the early Royal Trux cassette that Xpressway never released. McCarvel’s vocals exist on the very limits of subliminal sound with the feel of a more beatific Michael Morley hovering over raggedy guitar kinetics that stagger in and out of clipped melodies w/a martial aspect that is totally exhilarating. Throw in the collapsing universe feel of your favourite South Island satellite and the kind of epic fuzz/ reverb excursions that could easily be Japanese and you got alla the ingredients for the cassette release of the year thus far. And, sure, they may feature a baldy, but there ain’t no laptops in sight. This is bloodied freeform rock at some kind of deformed tactile apex and easily their most accomplished release to date. Edition of only 50 copies, already sold out at source, highly recommended!

Unbelievable two-fer from the best band in Scotland, Glasgow’s phenomenal Smoke Jaguar, following up their recent cassette on Sonic Oyster with two live recordings, one from Glasgow’s Halt Bar in June 2010 and one from their appearance at VT’s own Subcurrent fest in August of 2010. The Halt show is totally explosive with twin guitars set to stun, Crutchfield’s just dissolving in walls of pure electricity while McCarvel picks out elegiac single notes with all of the anti-gravity appeal of your favourite Japanese head. The Subcurrent set, where they played on the same bill as Richard Youngs, Heather Leigh, Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides and MV/EE/Flower, is a little more hi-fi with epic peaks of feedback shot to ribbons with sky-scraping lead guitar. Hard to believe there’s a band this good outside of Tokyo never mind active in Glasgow right now. Hand-numbered edition of 77 copies.