Test Dept are pioneers of hardcore, ear-battering industrial music who first got together in the early 1980s. They may have originally called it quits in 1997, but for the last ten years they’ve been back in the saddle and working to their original template of fierce beats and strident resistance to political oppression at a volume that is rarely heard in live concert venues these days. In short, Test Dept are a tonic in an age of hyper-commercialisation where artists tie themselves up in knots so as not to offend anyone – especially their sponsors.

The excitement surrounding Man/Woman/Chainsaw is such that their current jaunt around the country has been superseded, with another tour of larger venues already announced for next year. Given that the cramped confines of King Tut’s was packed out a step up in size is unsurprising, and there was a genuine buzz when the London six-piece emerged onstage, 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” ringing out as accompaniment.

VINYL OF THE MONTH

Mykki Blanco Café Paradiso (Transgressive)

On Monday evening I headed to the Wigmore Hall, the Mecca of classical chamber music, for something out of their – and my – usual lane. Australian-American jazz bassist Linda May Han Oh and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana presented a pared-down set of duets of standards, mainly taken from their recent album Beneath Lifted Skies, which showed the virtues of working on a small canvas and gave more ammunition to the “less is more” cause.

Like Absolute Grey – looked at by Music Reissues Weekly early last month – The Jet Black Berries were from Rochester, New York, a city in the north of New York State on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Kim Gordon was born there, as was Lydia Lunch – both of whom made waves on New York City’s arts and music scenes. But the first band to be widely recognised as Rochester's as such were Sixties-indebted Chesterfield Kings, whose first single came out in 1981.

When Matt Baty, Pigsx7’s vocalist and frontman, introduced the rest of the band from the stage of Birmingham’s Hare and Hounds on Friday evening, it was something of a shock to discover that in addition to himself, we were apparently being entertained by Rick Astley on drums, Peter Andre on bass, and Scatman John and Ricky Martin on guitars. But entertained we most certainly were and joining the North East’s foremost hard rocking crew must have provided a serious shot in the arm for them all.

If This Bed Was Made For Me had been issued in 1971 or 1973, it would have snugly fit into an artistic landscape where David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name or Judee Sill’s pair of albums demarcated a glass-like, vaporous take on how a singer-songwriter framed their compositions. In more recent times, some of what Fleet Foxes have done is also along these lines.

At his first ever concert in Bradford-on-Avon (at the Wiltshire Music Centre) last Sunday, Richard Thompson drew an enthusiastic full house: they cheered and joined in vigorously: you could feel the way in which their warm-hearted appreciation nourished the veteran folk rocker - co-founder of Fairport Convention, trenchant songwriter and uncontested guitar wizard.

This useful five-CD clamshell box set collects the soundtrack music from the Tarkovsky films Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrei Roublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979). The first two featured scores by Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov. Eduard Artemyev created the music and what can only be called soundscapes for the latter three. The set's title, Tarkovsky, does not give away what it includes.

Bloc Party have been a staple of any 2000s indie rock playlist since the release of their landmark 2005 album Silent Alarm. While their discography has had its ups and downs over the years, the band’s musicianship and ability to create an atmosphere have remained a constant. Unfortunately, Anatomy of a Brief Romance does little to recapture the energy of their best work.