folk albums
EP REVIEW: Devendra Banhart – ‘Vast Ovoid’: bursting with ideas
DEVENDRA BANHART was one of the main beneficiaries of the American acid-folk explosion just after the turn of the century. He came in as part of that movement with bands like Vetiver and Espers and became almost the George Best of the movement: piratically handsome with that dusky hair and huge hoop earrings, a brace …
EP: Coma Wall – Ursa Minor
With little else to do beyond staring at a wall and quietly losing the plot during a global pandemic, Undersmile has done what many of us have done to keep sane – they’ve indulged in a little nostalgia, headed up to the attic and had a dig through their archives. Presumably, somewhere in the dark …
Album Review: Erland Cooper – Hether Blether
I’ve never been to the Orkney Islands. In fact my only reference before this has been the other two of Erland Coopers albums about, and based on, the Islands where he lives. After an album about the birds that inhabit the island with Solan Goose, and the sea which surrounds the islands in Skule Skerry, …
Album Review: Modern Studies – The Weight Of the Sun
With new album The Weight Of the Sun, Modern Studies haven’t actually changed the blueprint of their previous two albums, more adapted it. With the two main protagonists living apart, Emily Scott in Lancashire, while Rob St John is in Scotland, social distancing hasn’t made the slightest difference to the band, but thats not stopped …
Album Review: Lavinia Blackwall – Muggington Lane End
Moving on from a treasured band when you were pivotal to their sound is a difficult manoeuvre in music. Nearly two years after leaving the pioneering psych-folk explorers Trembling Bells, multi-instrumentalist and singer, Lavinia Blackwall has taken that very step and made it look easy. Her debut solo album ‘Muggington Lane End ‘(released on 1st …
Album Review: Lisa Hannigan and Stargaze – Live In Dublin
The amount I love music is sometimes overwhelming. I want it pretty much everywhere, all the time. Given that, I have a pretty weird relationship with seeing and hearing it live. I’ve never been to a festival, I can’t reel off an impressive list of all the acts I’ve seen or all the iconic venues …
Album Review: Larkin Poe – Venom & Faith
Larkin Poe have brought the music of their roots bang up to date on progressive third album ‘Venom & Faith’. Larkin Poe, aka Atlanta-born sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, have spent the last eight years releasing music that continues to surpass all expectations. From their ‘Band For All Seasons’ series of four EPs (one for …
Album Review: Jethro Tull – 50 for 50
50 for 50 is the new 3CD career-spanning collection released to celebrate 50 years of Jethro Tull, and I just so happen to be a big Jethro Tull fan. But I just don’t ‘get’ it. Tull’s 20th anniversary in 1988 was marked by a tour, a TV documentary, and a lavishly packaged 3CD box set …
Album Review: Thievery Corporation ‘Treasures from the Temple’
Thievery Corporation Treasures from the Temple (ESL Recordings) released on April 20, 2018 Rating: 7.5 Washington DC based electronic duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton known as Thievery Corporation’s latest release of Treasures from the Temple is a companion to their chart-topping 2017 Temple of I & I album release. The 12-track compendium includes a trove of original recordings …
Album Review: The Hanging Stars – Songs for somewhere else
Since their first album London’s The Hanging Stars have changed band members and opened their eyes a little beyond the charming indie/americana of their first full length. For their second full length – Songs for Somewhere Else, Recorded in Bark Studios, Walthamstow – hardly Laurel Canyon I grant you, but it can get sunny there …