Imagine you're combing the racks of your favourite cool record store, one of those sub-High Fidelity dives with a coupla snooty geeks behind the counter and some Sun Ra covers on the wall. You're flipping through the '80s Hardcore section, looking for an ancient Millions Of Dead Cops LP, swimming in Raymond Pettibon graphics, when all of a sudden... What's this? The Finger's We Are Fuck You/Punk's Dead Let's Fuck? Who? What? Musta come from some boondock town in one of the "vowel states"—Ohio or Iowa.

Second time around for intense Oxfordshire post-rock quartet

Petite sex-rocker rings changes for fourth album

Veteran Louisiana-born country-soulster runs the gamut of musical styles and moods on her daring and dazzling follow-up to 2001's critically lauded Essence

Kentucky legend's Decca years in a bite-sized chunk

Long-overdue two-disc, 37-track compilation of Glasgow's missing link between David Bowie and Nick Cave

The cult of Mackenzie continues, with sessions either side of Alan Rankine's exit

Fall faves, and compelling collaborations with Badly Drawn Boy, Elastica et al

'70s/'80s best-of from Canadian progressive rockers

Dutch death disco from early '80s