Gavin Greeneway

Like many emo/post-hardcore acts, Californian quintet Dance Gavin Dance—which formed in 2005—is inherently an acquired taste due to its drastic fusions of alarmingly hostile centers with invitingly emotive choruses and soaring instrumentation. Few other genres blend such polarized extremes, yet there's always something alluring and admirable about the sheer skill the band shows in balancing these personas. Thankfully, that remains true on Artificial Selection, the group's eighth studio album. While it can be a bit too abrasive and repetitive sometimes, there's still a lot to like and commend about the collection's catchy hooks, refreshing aggression, and subtle yet significant stylistic amalgamations.

Gavin Harrison, Porcupine Tree’s drummer, has taken time out from working with King Crimson to record a contemporary jazz album, based on his love of brass arranging; using as its source material his favourite Porcupine Tree songs, melodies and leitmotifs. The result is astonishing; a kind of heavy rock Lalo Schifrin, and Gavin explains the influences behind the project in an exclusive interview here. Plus you'll hear some of the pieces on ‘Cheating the Polygraph’.

After the Requiem continued Gavin Bryars' journey away from the more experimental work that made his reputation early in his career toward pieces possessing a more melancholic and romantic quality. In two of the works herein, "The Old Tower of Lobenicht" and "Allegrasco," one can hear echoes of his brilliant composing on the Hommages album. But where the romantic elements were stricter and more crystalline on the prior effort, here there is an expansiveness that sometimes succeeds and at other times verges on kitsch.