Category: uncategorised

Single Review: King Creosote – Coast On By

King Creosote is the stage name used by Kenny Anderson for his solo material. The brilliant single Coast on By is a particularly likeable song from new album Flick the Vs. It begins with a bizarre, almost house like, electro drum beat, before leaping into a compelling chorus.

Album Review: Scott Matthews – Elsewhere

It was always going to be tough following ‘Passing Stranger,’ Scott Matthews’ debut album. It was an album packed with ethereal beauty showing off his Buckley-esque voice and brought him an Ivor Novello for ‘Elusive.’ Second album ‘Elsewhere’ signifies a definite change of mood, in other words he’s “done a LaMontagne.”

Single Review: The Dø – At Last

The Dø (pronounced ‘dough’) are a kooky French/Finnish duo. Having topped the charts in France they are setting out to conquer the rest of the world. They’ve been described in France as “PJ Harvey on the moon” which paints a slightly weird, but accurate, picture.

Album Review: The Boy Least Likely To – Law of the Playground

The Buckinghamshire-based country disco band finally returns after four years of absence due to record label woes. When the first track kicks in, those years suddenly seem so short, and this LP feels seamlessly intertwined with their debut. Although the thirteen snappy tracks which populate the two-piece’s album offer innocent melancholy, you get the sneaking suspicion that they had as much fun making the record as you will listening to it.

Album Review: Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

Camera Obscura don’t have it as easy as you think people who make beautiful folk pop music might. Firstly, there’s the problem of a second band named Camera Obscura. Granted the other lot are a load of rubbish, but there must be a limit to how many times they can tolerate saying “no, we are the other Camera Obscura” when someone asks why everyone speaks in such high terms about something that sounds like a cheese grater running against your brain. Then there is trying to step out of the shadow of fellow Scots and occasional producer of tracks Belle and Sebastian. The comparison is both a compliment and entirely warranted in their early work. But both have diverted away from that twee Scotpop sound of the late 1990s and have embraced different influences.

Album Review: Bonnie Prince Billy – Beware

He has an interesting head, does Will Oldham, aka the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Both outside – a bulging bald crown surrounded by burgeoning red hairs that stream down around his chin and probably beyond – and inside. Yes, he has a tricky mind. Elusive even.

Album Review: Sons of Noel and Adrian

A lot of artists make it onto this website. Despite its obvious folk leanings, indie, electro, a bit of soft rock, shoe gaze and progressive have all featured, championing For Folk’s Sake as a warm welcoming bosom onto which all genres, assuming they’re suitably relaxed and earthy, may lay their head. But make no mistake, Sons of Noel and Adrian is folk to the core.

Album Review: The Leisure Society – Sleeper

It’s about the journey. Travel, of course, has long been the subject of folk songs, with their widescreen tales of the open road and longing for places miles distant. But, as much as the lyrics are about movement, so is the music itself, changing and shifting from place to place and time to time. The widescreen scope of Americana may be an ocean apart from the wilds of Brighton, then, but its wistful heart can still be felt on Sleeper, The Leisure Society’s debut album. The relocation has added something, too: there’s a peculiarly British undertow at work, beneath the pedal steel and pastoral orchestration.

Broadcast 2000

Broadcast 2000 is the stage name of Joe Steer, a Devon-born London-based classical music graduate with a unique take on folk using computer-generated looping of acoustic instruments. His music has appeared on adverts including E.ON in the UK and apple…

Left With Pictures

Left With Pictures are a London-based trio specialising in delightfully crafted, sweet folk pop with influences including Belle & Sebastian and Sufjan Stevens. They Say: “They’ll have you nodding your head, tapping your toes and humming along contentedly until they…