New album: Beautifully smooth guitar picking and a warm, mellow voice mark out this glowingly lovely latest LP by the folk artist from Columbus, Georgia, in a collection of traditionals and originals with a theme of loss and renewal
Read moreBen McElroy: How I Learnt to Disengage from the Pack
Ben McElroy: How I Learnt to Disengage from the Pack
New album: Sparse, haunting, lo-fi and truly beautiful and transcendent new LP by the Wirral-born Nottingham-based folk musician, featuring bright beautiful guitars, strange drones, field recordings and gorgeous fiddle playing
Read moreFavourite albums of 2021 - Part 2
Favourite selection part 2.
Favourite albums of 2021 – Part 2: Welcome the second instalment, following Part 1, which can be found here. A huge number of excellent releases, of which again this is just a selection many of which were written during, and about lockdown, but also saw many outstanding voices emerge as well as innovative sounds developed
Read moreFavourite albums of 2021 - Part 1
Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
Read moreHoueida Hedfi: Fleuves De L’Âme
Houeida Hedfi’s debut album Fleuves De L’Âme
New album: A gorgeous, entrancing debut by the Tunisian percussionist joined by fellow violin player Radhi Chaouali and Palestinian bouzouk player Jalal Nader in a brilliant fusion of North African, Middle Eastern and western styles to evoke the voices of rivers
Read moreRobert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raise The Roof
Raise the Roof continues the elevation of Plant and Krauss 2007 album Raising Sand
New album: Fourteen years after their award-winning album Raising Sand, the pair reunite with another very fine covers album, ably produced by T Bone Burnett, of blues, country, soul, but also now infusing English folk
Read moreThe Witching Tale: The Witching Tale
New album: Perfect for long, dark, wintry nights, a beguilingly beautiful mix of medieval, folk, ghostly tales and fables mixed with the modern by Katharine Blake of Mediaeval Baebes and Miranda Sex Garden, collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Michael J York
Read morePokey LaFarge: In The Blossom of Their Shade
Pokey LaFarge
New album: After 2020’s mischievously dark Rock Bottom Rhapsody, Illinois-born Andrew Heissler returns with his cherry-picking persona of Americana styles with a bright, clever and upbeat assortment of 1930s jazz, country, Hawaiian, calypso, folk and New Orleans R&B shuffle
Read moreThe Specials: Protest Songs 1924-2012
The Specials perform a wide variety of well-chosen covers
New album: Uplifting, cleverly chosen and beautifully performed, the great Coventry band return with an album of timeless covers from folk to blues and ska, recorded during lockdown and perfectly reflecting the urgency of the times without being dogmatic
Read moreJosé González: Local Valley
Local Valley
New album: This fourth solo album by the Swedish-Argentinian indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist is filled with beautiful stillness, gentle intimacy and acoustic playing, birdsong, a wonder of nature, and sense of how tiny we are in a vast universe
Read moreBallaké Sissoko: A Touma
A Touma, the new gorgeous solo album by the kora master
New album: The Malian kora master returns with a new album of exquisite acoustic solo beauty with a title that translates as “now is the moment”
Read moreLingua Ignota: Sinner Get Ready
Kristin Hayter aka Lingua Ignota
New album: An astonishingly intense, beautiful but at times disturbing journey into the heart of extreme Christian faith by Kristin Hayter who explores puritanism via relocation to rural Pennsylvania, expressed through the prism of piano, organ, Appalachian strings, drone, and above all, her extraordinary voice
Read moreÌxtahuele: Eden Ahbez's Dharmaland
Ìxtahuele: Eden Ahbez's Dharmaland
Album review: Serene, strange, magical a wonderful collection performed by the Swedish experimental band of newly discovered sheet music of instrumentals and songs by the composer best known for Nature Boy, written for Nat King Cole
Read moreAngrusori: Live at Tou
Angrusori: Live at Tou
Album review: An extraordinary album of traditional Romany songs and tragic ballads of migration by the Slovakian-Norwegian orchestra, performed with Bulgarian-style voices, strings and percussion with Hindustani to Yiddish echoes
Read moreMatt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Superwolves
Superwolves by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Album review: Gorgeously sensitive and emotional collaborative album between old friends, guitarist and singer-songwriter of folk, Nashville country, Appalachian and some Malian in the mix with guest players
Read morePolly Paulusma: Invisible Music - Folk Songs That Influenced Angela Carter
Invisible Music
Album review: A novel album in many ways, full of charm, narrative and a fresh perspective, this eighth album by the Cambridge singer-songwriter explores the folk interest of the writer with readings and songs exactly that are just as she describes the stories - “bizarre, grotesque and beautiful”
Read moreRhiannon Giddens: They're Calling Me Home (with Francesco Turrisi)
Album review: From traditional folk to original songs spanning continents and centuries, this outstandingly beautiful and emotive album by the American and Italian music and life partners was recorded in lockdown in their adopted Ireland home
Read moreWitch Camp (Ghana): I've Forgotten Now Who I Used To Be
Many stories to tell: Witch Camp (Ghana)
Album review: A unique collection of field recordings of extraordinarily moving and evocative songs performed by women accused of witchcraft, taken from where they have escaped to special safe-haven settlements
Read moreAltin Gün: Yol
Yol, meaning road, is Altin Gün’s third album
Album review: Wonderful third album by the Amsterdam-based Turkish, Dutch, Indonesian and British band who infuse traditional Turkish songbook material with elecro-pop, funk and disco sounds in a way that feels authentic and uplifting
Read moreMadlib: Sound Ancestors – album review
Madlib, aka Otis Jackson Jr
Album review: A majestic journey into sampled and recreated classic sounds with his own original, eccentric twists, Madlib, aka American rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist Otis Jackson Jr's newest LP is in turn produced by Four Tet
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