Best laid plans: This week at South Records

A strong week led by SUNN O)))’s latest, their first full-length for Sub Pop, a massive, atmospheric record shaped around crackling low-end guitar rumble, glacial crunch and unexpectedly delicate textures, tracked at Bear Creek Studios with big windows looking out onto the woods, the duo returning to the primal territory of just the two of them, pushing their sense of time, space, light and dark into new forms. The Bevis Frond’s Horrorful Heights marks another chapter in Nick Saloman’s long-running catalogue, moving between jangling psych-pop, heavy guitar workouts and pastoral comedowns, a wide-ranging but focused set that feels both instinctive and fully formed.

There’s a deep dive into Black Jazz Records, bringing together key tracks from the label’s short but hugely influential run, blending spiritual jazz, funk and soul jazz, alongside a focused Doug Carn set, full of emotive intensity, uplifting lyricism and beautiful melodies, with Jean Carn’s unmistakable vocals throughout. Beak's Billy Fuller steps out with Fragments, gathering years of home recordings into something moody and immersive, kosmiche pulses, motorik grooves and hazy electronics threaded together like a cassette compilation, while The Brian Jonestown Massacre compilations, volume 1 and volume 2, pulls together key tracks, live recordings and unreleased material spanning 1995–2004, a snapshot of a band central to the modern garage and psych scene.

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The Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo remains a turning point, blending rock, folk, country, gospel and blues into something that helped define country-rock and Americana.

This 50th anniversary edition revisits that moment in full, expanding the original album with additional material that deepens the picture - demos, outtakes and alternate versions that show just how radical the shift was, and how fully realised it already sounded. A landmark record that still feels warm, effortless and quietly transportive. Pick it up here.