Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

The 2017 passing of LINKIN PARK singer Chester Bennington had an understandably profound effect on the band's cofounder, Mike Shinoda. Part mourning, part venting, Post Traumatic is a raw representation of loss—a day-to-day work in progress that addresses the idea that healing may never come. “I did my best to capture it in the moment,” Shinoda told Beats 1 anchor Zane Lowe. “I can hear in the tone of my voice and the way that I did it, that I knew where I was on that day.” The songs on the album reflect many moods—from tender (“Place to Start,” “Brooding”) to aggressive (“Lift Off,” “I.O.U.”)—all armed with Shinoda’s hybrid of hip-hop, electronic, and rock. And there’s no censor here, especially on “Over Again,” when Shinoda tackles the stresses of Bennington's tribute concert, even confronting well-wishers asking what he’s going to do next: “You think it’ll be a challenge?/Only my life’s work hanging in the f**king balance,” he shoots back.

An audio biography of Grace Jones, produced by Trevor Horn, it's a sonic treat along the lines of Yes's 90125 or Frankie Goes to Hollywood's first album (both produced by Horn). The music ranges from slick R&B runaway grooves to striking audio montages, interrupted occasionally by conversation about Jones's life. Serious ear candy.

Strut present 'Metal Dance', a new compilation from one of the UK's most respected DJ / producers, the man behind Playgroup and original founder of the legendary label Output Recordings, Trevor Jackson.

Original Album Series contains the first five albums from the mighty Dayton funk band Slave: Slave (1977), The Hardness of the World (1977), The Concept (1978), Just a Touch of Love (1979), and Stone Jam (1980). Each disc is in a thin cardboard pouch with reproductions of the original front and back sleeve designs. Since the series limits itself to five discs, the band's phenomenal sixth album – Show Time (1981) – couldn't fit, but this is a convenient way to snap up the majority of the output from one of the planet's best funk bands. Not even the two-disc The Definitive Groove Collection covers all the great singles and album cuts featured within this small box.

The Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble is – as the name implies – based in Stockholm, and consists of five of the city's leading musicians. Project-based and often inviting guest performers, the SSE is known for its imaginative programmes built around a particular event or concept and bringing together music from various genres and eras. For its first album on BIS the ensemble has taken Brett Dean’s Voices of Angels as their point of departure, a work scored for the same forces as Schubert’s ‘Trout quintet’ and inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s first two Duino Elegies: ‘Angels (it’s said) are often unable to tell whether they move amongst the living or the dead.’

Marking 40 years since Joy Division's epic final album, Closer, and Ian Curtis’ tragic suicide, Joy Division’s surviving members revisit their 1980, while MOJO’s covermount CD, Atmospheres, traces the band’s fertile milieu and legacy through Wire and A Certain Ratio to Idles, Jehnny Beth and Black Country, New Road.