Jah Wobble & Tian Qiyi - Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles' Psychedelic Songbook (Cherry Red)

Driving home the other day to the sound of Echo and the Bunnymen's remastered Ocean Rain, the mood was somewhat spoilt by the inclusion of the band's version of All You Need is Love among the additional tracks. Covering The Beatles, it struck me not for the first time, is generally not a good idea.

There are exceptions, though. I'd name The Breeders' version of Happiness is a Warm Gun as my favourite Beatles cover version. Still, it didn't prevent me from approaching this album with some apprehension. Jah Wobble's sons - who record collectively as Tian Qiyi - produced one of last year's best albums with their Songs For Workers, so it seemed only right to give this release, where they team up with dad to take on some of the fabs' more psychedelically-inclined outpourings - a chance. 

I'm glad I did. For me, there are few better examples of recorded music that Strawberry Fields

Forever, where of course Lennon ignored George Martin's scepticism to take the two arrangements they'd tried and put them together, producing one of the greatest moments of the sixties in the process. To my surprise and delight, Jah Wobble and Tian Qiyi manage to pull off a cover of said track brilliantly and without, you suspect, any of the original's studio sorcery, and it's this you can hear in my Dandelion Radio show this month (here).

Where the rest of the album works best is often in the more under-the-radar Beatles tunes (if there can be said to be such a thing). The treatment of Blue Jay Way is a particular delight, as is the instrumental Flying, both of course originally from the Magical Mystery Tour EP. My mumbled 'careful, boys' at the attempt at the EP's most notable track - I Am The Walrus - is thankfully ignored: this version is wonderfully understated. Much as I'm tempted to stick on a recording of King Lear while playing it, for posterity's sake, I'm happy to report that the recording works perfectly well without it.

Mystic Liverpool is out today: get it from Cherry Red here.

The Ale Trail: The Little Taproom on Aigburth Road, Liverpool

Another micropub to celebrate in the Liverpool area, The Little Taproom has four handpulls and, if nothing there takes your fancy, there are some more on keg and a fridge filled with interesting cans. Dogs aren't just allowed but positively welcomed and last night was quiz night: we decided to enter and, despite occupying first place at half-time, messed up badly in the late stages to finish a disappointing fifth.

But it didn't matter. The quality of the ale is matched by the quality of the service: bar staff go above and beyond to be friendly, bringing water for the dog and touring the various tables to enquire about further orders. The rest of the pub was clearly filled with regulars but you're immediately welcomed as one of them and the dog was treated to an especially warm greeting.

Best pint for me was the Present coffee mild, another from the consistently excellent Thornbridge stable of ales, but it was run a closer second by the local Black Lodge brewery's Raisin' The Sail, in which the raisins add some punch to a solid bitter but never overwhelm. We'd popped into a couple of other places before this in search of something to eat (a better option might have been the Little Taproom's invitation to bring in your own food) and both had stocked almost exclusively lighter ales, which is fair enough given the time of year and this excessively hot British summer. But for those of us who prefer the dark side whatever the season, it's always great to find places that provide the option.

Armagideon Time: When Punk Met Dub (1978-1984) (Cherry Red)

It's hard to understand how a box set thus titled could fail and, predictably, it doesn't. The great thing about the best of these Cherry Red box sets is how they manage to combine what you know and already love with stuff you may missed out on first time around, or else has been lost among the fading memories of an ageing brain.

This 3CD set gleefully sets up punk/dub crossovers by the usual punk suspects - The Slits, The Clash, The Ruts - with the usual dub suspects - Dillinger, Linto Kwesi Johnson, Mad Professor - but, even more gleefully, doesn't stop there. Dub delights I've either forgotten or hitherto overlooked come from the like of Boomtown Rats, XTC and Sir Horatio. Other oddities are much-underestimated scouse outfit Cook Da Books and, gak, Thompson Twins. Back to the reassuringly predictable, we get a couple of 2-Tone cuts and another chance to hear The Pop Group's She Is Beyond Good & Evil, if you needed it - and who doesn't?

I'm playing one track from each of the three CDs in my FSK show this month. See it as a taster for an album whose magnificence is entirely precitable while the variety of what's on offer still manages to surprise and delight in roughly equal measures.

Zoom Unit - Sine Cosine Tangent

New releases from this Mansfield duo are always welcome so it's great we never have to wait too long between them. It's been less than a year since Astrocone Copperneck and Cyclops and we've had three excellent singles to keep us warm since then. This new album includes those three singles, a Leonard Cohen cover and a bunch of previously unheard tracks that do more that mould any expectations built up over that time into a form that exceeds them. The result is arguably their best album to date.

But Zoom Unit - who comprise Andy Whitehurst and Andy Pidluznyi - have been delivering for so long now any kind of misstep now feels unthinkable. I'm playing In a Lucid Dream in my FSK show this month (hear the show on-demand here) a track that combines dense electronic backing with the kind of out-of-control guitar thing some bands do which I just never get tired of. It's like taking some kind of sonic sledgehammer to something much-cherished and somehow managing to make it even better.

If other tracks are less frantic, and perhaps more representative of the anticipated Zoom Unit sound, they're no less pleasing for it (the breathy The Stars At Night is a particular favourite) and there's an unexpected delight at the end of the collection when the cover of Cohen's Tower of Song metamorphoses into something so immediately recognisable as Zoom Unit you'd swear they'd resurrected the bard of Montreal as an unofficial third member. Overstating it a bit, perhaps, but I'm prone to that when something excites me as much as this album does.

You can get the album as a CD or NYP download here. 

Daniel Jumpertz - City Frames Our Broken Dreams Again/Shadows (Feral Media)

Daniel Jumpertz's run of recent singles has been so impressive I reserve a provisional slot in my shows every time I hear of a forthcoming release. It's therefore not surprising that his latest release is (a) utterly great and (b) features in both of my shows this month. You can hear City Frames Our Broken Dreams Again in my Dandelion Radio show - available on-demand here - and the instrumental Shadows in my FSK show here.

Jumpertz is the owner of the excellent Feral Media label, based in Melbourne and responsible for releases in recent years by the likes of Brad Stafford, Clairaudience and The Artificial Limb, all of which are worth checking out at the label's bandcamp. Dig back further and you'll find the likes of Plankton, Underlapper and Comatone, all of whom are worth your attention. In fact, it's worth setting a side a day just to look through their back catalogue: what's in there is always interesting and at times breathtaking.

But it's Daniel's own releases that have provided many of the recent highlights. This single follows last's autumn's Everything Is Lost and spring's I Would Never Do That To You, both of which were great favourites. I'm going to stick my neck out and say this is the best of the three, though. City Frames in particular is magnificent, cinematic in scope with a driving riff that feels like you're being propelled through those city streets and its panorama of images that are somehow both familiar and bewildering. 

Get the single here.

Stand High Patrol - Skanking & Jacking (Stand High)

I'm in danger of repeating myself here, but there's so much good reggae around at the moment: every month seems to throw up another roots/dub masterpiece. The frighteningly hot British weather this summer has been the ideal setting in which to enjoy it and the amount of great new stuff this year has meant I haven't been able to treat the neighbours to their normal summer diet of Culture and Steel Pulse. 

This French release brings in house music influences to add textural variety to what, you suspect, would be an extraordinary listening experience even without it. As it is, 'bringing together the the pulse of house music and the vibrant groove of reggae', as the sleeve notes put it, results in one hell of an intoxicating mix.

Skanking & Jacking draws on a variety of international contributors too, with guest vocalists and producers from Jamaica, England, Switzerland and Italy. Just when you think its nine tracks have covered just about everything you'd want it to cover, there are remixes from Jeanville, Mad Professor and Androo to stir the put some more.

I couldn't make my mind up which tracks to feature in my Dandelion and FSK shows this month (click on the links to hear them on-demand) so I just went for the first two: the rich contours of Walk Walk Walk and the seductive Too Much Noise, which features a vocal contribution from Joe Yorke.

British Birds - Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas (Skep Wax)

With this joyous slice of indie pop, British Birds present one of the records of the year, no question. I opened my FSK show with it yesterday and you can now hear it on-demand here. 

The single will feature on the Murmurate, Oscillate album in October and we can only hope the rest of the selection is as good as this, where dual boy/girl vocals offer a commentary on the helpless consumer as unwilling victim as capitalism does what it does, wrecking everything it touches. The song sacrifices nothing of its message when dressed in infectious pop hooks, behind which hooks lie humour, rhythmic innovation, sub-garage guitars: you're left stunned that something so simple and immediate can reveal so many layers the more you listen to it. If you wondered if the three-minute single had lost its ability to do all this, here is your answer.

And I find myself wanting to listen to it...again and again. 

You can get the single as a cassette which also contains the track Christian (well worth a listen in itself) or as a download here. 

The band are playing a short series of shows starting in October with an acoustic gig at London's Rough Trade West on 17 October. On 24 October, they play Bootleg Social in Blackpool before returning to London at the Lexington on 11 December. A full headline tour of the UK will follow in 2027. Can't wait.