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Very much in the swings of things again as gig season returns once more, these are our best albums of October. A celebration of works coming across seas from Ireland to Austrailia – and everything in between.

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A dissonant murmur echoes throughout the record, stirring from its slumber only when required. In a way, it mirrors a country swamped in grief and obedience. It’s emotionally heavy, impactful and truly devastating to a country’s history that is dark enough already. For most, this is tasteful songwriting. For those in Basht., however, its common practice.

Read the full review here.

South Facade here, their debut album, unpacks the bands’ methods, dresses them down and weaves them back together in an intricate lacing of folk mastery. From purely improvised jams to locked-in riff loops, Ugly’s debut comes from a place of looking inward and finding the key. For the six of Samuel Goater, Harrison Jones, Tom Lane, Harry Shapiro, Jasmine Miller-Sauchella and Theo Guttenplan here, it was essentially starting from scratch. On Marina, Jasmine notes “In the dark everything becomes clear” – perhaps words they lived by during their time before giving it a permanent place on the record.

Read the full review here.

A delightful whimsy, Everyone Says Hi is everyone should get to address. Bordering on both ’70s soft rock and vintage funk tropes, Funny Cause It’s True is this supergroups’ second since coming together last year. Made up by former drummer of Kaiser Chiefs Nick Hodgson, Pete Denton (former bassist of The Kooks), Ben Gordon (former keyboardist of The Dead 60s), Glenn Moule (drummer of Howling Bells), this indie-pop supergroup revert back to basics with a pleasing work that hits all the right spots. While it features folks you wouldn’t pick out of a line-up, the bands’ main talking points work. The primary songwriting blends in well delivering a well lived-in record with plenty of stories to tell.

A seemless sampling masterclass by the Aussie electronic group, No Bad Memories brings them back to the fray. There was good reason why their debut of ‘Since I Left You’ was a global trendsetter in the world of electronic sampling. It turned the very idea of building music out of audio fragments from existing records from an avant-garde novelty – into a celebrated art form. This massive joy of sampling and seemless flow has seemingly never left them.

Now, this year, after a six year break, sees them return with No Bad Memories. A homage to old-school technology, the thirty-one track extravaganza leaves not one bad taste in the mouth. It’s a highly playful, pleasing record that’s not confounded to its own grounded subject but plays into it. A multiple DNA layering of disco, ’60s pop, hip-hop, funk and spoken word, the groups’ fourth here reminds us why we’ve loved them so over the years. No bad memories with these lot.

Simply put, this is an absolute marvel to listen to. A nine-piece answering the call of folk revivalists in the British Isles, Shovel Dance Collective take a divisive approach to an otherwise traditional romp of folk inflections. And it’s beautiful. A record unique for their beauty, force and political charge, it’s a communal activity being a voice to those who remain silent. An unearthing of musical quandary, it sends all the right questions out into the ether, fuelled by this angry bafflement. It can be said that only a few wisps will return as the random passerby or citizen will not have to these answers to these questions. These questions are posed to those shacked up in the ivory towers. And they’re too far away to listen.

But it’s these type of records that really project the importance of music to us as a whole. To the community, the village, the city, the country, the world. Maybe if we play it loud enough on every street, the cornerstones of this musique march will finally be heard by those who need to hear it.