Paul Weller ★★★★

Fly On The Wall (B Sides & Rarities)

UNIVERSAL. CD/DL/LP

B-sides, sessions, remixes and covers from the first decade of Weller’s third act.

A lazy (yet recurring) summation of Weller’s solo career is that, having laid the foundations for Dadrock in the 1990s, complacency engulfed him until his reputation was saved by the experiments on 2008’s 22 Dreams. It’s rubbish, of course. Released in 2003, but hard to find ever since, Fly On The Wall’s 29 tracks demonstrate that there was an adventurous streak running through the music right from the off. Though the jazz-funk of That Spiritual Feeling harked back to The Style Council, it’s hard to believe the guitarist shredding on Neil Young’s Ohio could also pen Here’s A New Thing’s samba swing or Helioscentric’s tip of the hat to the Stones’ Satanic Majesties. Other highlights include the Lynch Mob remixes of Cosmos and Science, Portishead remoulding Wild Wood, and – it takes a brave man to tackle a definitive Cher performance – Bang-Bang.

David Hutcheon

Charles Gayle/ Milford Graves/ William Parker ★★★★

WEBO

BLACK EDITIONS. DL/LP

American avant-garde jazz pioneers’ 1991 two-night stand at short-lived NYC venue, captured on triple LP box set.

A self-promoted, largely word-of-mouth show from three heavyweights of New York’s free jazz scene, WEBO has been talked about in hushed tones for years. Finally restored from Milford Graves’ private tape library, the performances don’t disappoint as the snare-free drum stylist plays keep-up with Gayle’s often upper register tenor exhortations. Careful to track his compatriots’ capacity to go from zero to full-pelt in the blink of an eye, Parker plays the surefooted fulcrum, plumbing the abstract’s outer reaches with lithe expertise. With several long-form jams breathlessly hitting the 20-minute mark, it seems extraordinary that this often-brutal behemoth of sound – a compelling hybrid of Ayler and Coleman – was conjured by just three musicians, albeit mavericks at the peak of their powers.

Andy Cowan

Sandy Bull ★★★★

Still Valentine’s Day 1969

NO QUARTER. DL/LP

Guitar radical trips out in the psychedelic heartland.

The avant-folk guitarists John Fahey and Sandy Bull are now seen as such significant figures, it can be hard to remember how obscure they were for most of their careers. A case in point: did the pair play together at San Francisco’s Matrix on February 14, 1969? Even assiduous scholars seem uncertain: John Fahey’s The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick live album may derive from that night, along with the first half of this weird, intimate, lo-fi Bull set. First released on CD in 2006, it isn’t for Bull neophytes: the looping, destabilising drones, the capricious relationship Bull has with a new amp and some degraded backing tapes, a couple of scratchy oud improvisations, and the raw sound quality can all be forbidding. If you love his 1969 solo masterpiece E Pluribus Unum, however, this one’s a keeper too, documenting his attempts to electrify and synthesise American folk, free jazz, Middle-Eastern music and Chuck Berry’s Memphis, TN into a single deep practice. Fahey sounds almost straightforward in comparison.

John Mulvey

Steve Hackett ★★★★

Momentum

INSIDEOUT. CD/DL/LP

Remastered album described by Hackett as “the opposite of rock’n’roll”.

For a guitar virtuoso, there was always something a bit unassuming about Steve Hackett. With Genesis, his acoustic playing was generally woven into their music and although he basically invented the tapping style for rock guitar in the early ’70s, he did so to create a fluid blend with Tony Banks’ keyboards rather than grandstanding like, say, Eddie Van Halen. Bay Of Kings (1983) was his first solo music on nylon and steel string acoustic but Momentum (1988) is the pick of the two reissues. It’s a more vivid recording and full of dazzling highlights. Cavalcanti has a melancholic song-like quality, expanding into lavish flamenco stylings, and concludes with Hackett’s brother John joining in on flute. There’s a beautifully articulated reading of Bach’s Bourée in E Minor, and the nine-minute suite An Open Window incorporates thrilling quicksilver runs punctuated by drumming on the guitar’s body.