There’s something honest about Roo Panes’ music – he manages romanticism without melodrama, sincerity without sentimentality. Indeed Land of the Living’s opener, ‘Glory Days’, where a ukulele is strummed alongside bowed strings, serves as perfect image of what Panes has…
Marika Hackman first burst on to the scene back in early 2012 with her sweet song ‘Here I Lie’, recorded for a Burberry campaign. The comparisons to Laura Marling, Joanna Newsom and Nico quickly rolled in, and it was clear…
Adrian Crowley and James Yorkston are no strangers to the scene. The former’s album Season of the Sparks won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year in 2009, while Yorkston’s relentless touring and recording has seen him…
It’s hard to doubt that a 10th Anniversary release of The Magnolia Electric Co. would see the light of day, even if it’s auteur, Jason Molina, had not passed away earlier this year. But it’s impossible to deny that his death…
With a name as playful as David Harbottle & The Friendly Cats, one of the strongest elements I initially expected from their record was quite simply, fun. Happily, the seven-piece outfit’s third EP, Dawn Breaks, doesn’t disappoint in that sense…
Nashville country-rock band Night Beds will be returning to the UK next month to play six dates across the country as part of a European tour. Night Beds’ debut album Country Sleep was released earlier this year to critical acclaim,…
It would be easy to criticise Bird for missing the unique experimental opportunity that an intermediary EP release can provide. Right from its opening; the plucked, strummed, looped violin of ‘Ethio Invention No.1’; I Want To See Pulaski At Night…
Piers Faccini’s Between Dogs and Wolves is a beautiful album, for three simple reasons. His eclectic and unassuming vocal style is gently balanced on the music, falling somewhere between Nick Drake and Kings of Convenience. The instruments are deployed with…
The self-titled album of Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, a San Francisco-based six-piece, rolls in with the positive relaxed swagger of a group confident in its abilities. Opener ‘Little Too Late’ is chewing gum fresh, like they’ve just turned up,…
The latest offering from Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon, Mug Museum, is strangely timeless: it has clear retro, sixties influences, as if it’s playing on vinyl, but is full of fresh touches too. The guitar parts remind me of Dirty…